Tag: Paganism

A Midsummer’s Celebration

 by Mike Nichols

The young maid stole through the cottage door, And blushed as she sought the Plant of pow’r; — “Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light, I must gather the mystic St. John’s wort tonight, The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide If the coming year shall make me a bride.”

In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year, there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the two equinoxes. In folklore, these are referred to as the four “quarter days” of the year, and modern Witches call them the four “Lesser Sabbats”, or the four “Low Holidays”. The summer solstice is one of them.

Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to the calendar creep of the leap-year cycle, the date may vary by a few days depending on the year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, and we experience the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun enters the sign of Cancer.

However, since most European peasants were not accomplished at reading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain to trot over to Stonehenge and sight down its main avenue, they celebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24. The slight forward displacement of the traditional date is the result of multitudinous calendrical changes down through the ages. It is analogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomically on or about December 21, but is celebrated on the traditional date of December 25, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.

Again, it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their days from sundown to sundown, so the June 24 festivities actually begin on the previous sundown (our June 23). This was the date of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Which brings up another point: our modern calendars are quite misguided in suggesting that ‘summer begins’ on the solstice.  According to the old folk calendar, summer begins on May Day and ends on Lammas (August 1), with the summer solstice, midway between the two, marking midsummer. This makes more logical sense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun’s power begins to wane and the days grow shorter.

Although our Pagan ancestors probably preferred June 24 (and indeed most European folk festivals today use this date), the sensibility of modern Witches seems to prefer the actual solstice point, beginning the celebration on its eve, or the sunset immediately preceding the solstice point. Again, it gives modern Pagans a range of dates to choose from with, hopefully, a weekend embedded in it.

Just as the Pagan Midwinter celebration of Yule was adopted by Christians as “Christmas” (December 25), so too the Pagan Midsummer celebration was adopted by them as the Feast of John the Baptist (June 24). Occurring 180 degrees apart on the wheel of the year, the Midwinter celebration commemorates the birth of Jesus, while the Midsummer celebration commemorates the birth of John, the prophet who was born six months before Jesus in order to announce his arrival.

Although modern Witches often refer to the holiday by the rather generic name of “Midsummer’s Eve”, it is more probable that our Pagan ancestors of a few hundred years ago actually used the Christian name for the holiday, “St. John’s Eve”. This is evident from the wealth of folklore that surrounds the summer solstice (i.e., that it is a night especially sacred to the faerie folk), but which is inevitably ascribed to “St. John’s Eve”, with no mention of the sun’s position. It could also be argued that a coven’s claim to antiquity might be judged by what name it gives the holidays. (Incidentally, the name ‘Litha’ for the holiday is a modern usage, possibly based on a Saxon word that means the opposite of Yule. Still, there is little historical justification for its use in this context.) But weren’t our Pagan ancestors offended by the use of the name of a Christian saint for a pre-Christian holiday?

Well, to begin with, their theological sensibilities may not have been as finely honed as our own. But secondly and more  mportantly, St. John himself was often seen as a rather Pagan figure.  He was, after all, called “the Oak King”. His connection to the wilderness (from whence “the voice cried out”) was often emphasized by the rustic nature of his shrines. Many statues show him as a horned figure (as is also the case with Moses).  Christian iconographers mumble embarrassed explanations about “horns of light”, while modern Pagans giggle and happily refer to such statues as “Pan the Baptist”. And to clench matters, many depictions of John actually show him with the lower torso of a satyr, cloven hooves and all! Obviously, this kind of John the Baptist is more properly a Jack in the Green! Also obvious is that behind the medieval conception of St. John lies a distant, shadowy Pagan Deity, perhaps the archetypal Wild Man of the wood, whose face stares down at us through the foliate masks that adorn so much church architecture. Thus, medieval Pagans may have had fewer problems adapting than we might suppose.

In England, it was the ancient custom on St. John’s Eve to light large bonfires after sundown, which served the double purpose of providing light to the revelers and warding off evil spirits.  This was known as “setting the watch”. People often jumped through the fires for good luck. In addition to these fires, the streets were lined with lanterns, and people carried cressets (pivoted lanterns atop poles) as they wandered from one bonfire to another. These wandering, garland-bedecked bands were called a “marching watch”. Often they were attended by morris dancers, and traditional players dressed as a unicorn, a dragon, and six hobbyhorse riders. Just as May Day was a time to renew the boundary of one’s own property, so Midsummer’s Eve was a time to ward the boundary of the city.

Customs surrounding St. John’s Eve are many and varied.  At the very least, most young folk plan to stay up throughout the whole of this shortest night. Certain courageous souls might spend the night keeping watch in the center of a circle of standing stones. To do so would certainly result in either death, madness, or (hopefully) the power of inspiration to become a great poet or bard. (This is, by the way, identical to certain incidents in the first branch of The Mabinogion.) This was also the night when the serpents of the island would roll themselves into a hissing, writhing ball in order to engender the “glain”, also called the “serpent’s egg”, “snake stone”, or “Druid’s egg”. Anyone in possession of this hard glass bubble would wield incredible magical powers. Even Merlyn himself (accompanied by his black dog) went in search of it, according to one ancient Welsh story.

Snakes were not the only creatures active on Midsummer’s Eve. According to British faery lore, this night was second only to Halloween for its importance to the Wee Folk, who especially enjoyed a ridling on such a fine summer’s night. In order to see them, you had only to gather fern seed at the stroke of midnight and rub it onto your eyelids. But be sure to carry a little bit of rue in your pocket, or you might well be “pixie-led”. Or, failing the rue, you might simply turn your jacket inside out, which should keep you from harm’s way. But if even this fails, you must seek out one of the “ley lines”, the old straight tracks, and stay upon it to your destination. This will keep you safe from any malevolent power, as will crossing a stream of “living” (running) water.

Other customs included decking the house (especially over the front door) with birch, fennel, St. John’s wort, orpin, and white lilies. Five plants were thought to have special magical properties on this night: rue, roses, St. John’s wort, vervain, and trefoil. Indeed, Midsummer’s Eve in Spain is called the “Night of the Verbena (Vervain)”. St. John’s wort was especially honored by young maidens who picked it in the hopes of divining a future lover.

And the glow-worm came With its silvery flame, And sparkled and shone Through the night of St. John, And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied.

There are also many mythical associations with the summer solstice, not the least of which concerns the seasonal life of the God of the sun. Inasmuch as I believe that I have recently discovered certain associations and correspondences not hitherto realized, I have elected to treat this subject in some depth in my ‘Death of Llew’ essay.  Suffice it to say here, that I disagree with the generally accepted idea that the Sun God meets his death at the summer solstice. I believe there is good reason to see the Sun God at his zenith—his peak of power—on this day, and that his death at the hands of his rival would not occur for another quarter of a year. Material drawn from the Welsh mythos seems to support this thesis. In Irish mythology, midsummer is the occasion of the first battle between the Fir Bolgs and the Tuatha De Danaan.

Altogether, Midsummer is a favorite holiday for many Witches in that it is so hospitable to outdoor celebrations.  The warm summer night seems to invite it. And if the celebrants are not, in fact, skyclad, then you may be fairly certain that the long ritual robes of winter have yielded place to short, tunic-style apparel. As with the longer gowns, tradition dictates that one should wear nothing underneath—the next best thing to skyclad, to be sure. (Incidentally, now you know the real answer to the old Scottish joke, “What is worn beneath the kilt?”)

The two chief icons of the holiday are the spear (symbol of the Sun God in his glory) and the summer cauldron (symbol of the Goddess in her bounty). The precise meaning of these two symbols, which I believe I have recently discovered, will be explored in the essay on the death of Llew. But it is interesting to note here that modern Witches often use these same symbols in their Midsummer rituals. And one occasionally hears the alternative consecration formula, “As the spear is to the male, so the cauldron is to the female.” With these mythic associations, it is no wonder that Midsummer is such a joyous and magical occasion!

Document Copyright © 1983 – 2009 by Mike Nichols. Text editing courtesy of Acorn Guild Press. Website redesign by Bengalhome Internet Services, © 2009

Lighten Up – You might be a Redneck Pagan if….

You might be a Redneck Pagan if…

  • If you think “widdershins” refers to the calves of the bereaved lady next door….
  • If you think fetch deer is a command you give yer dawg….
  • If you think a goblet is a young turkey….
  • If you think Drawing Down the Moon means demolishing the outhouse….
  • If you call your coven mates “Bud” and “Sis”….
  • If you think a Great Rite is turning onto County Road 13….
  • If your Quarter candles smell like kerosene….
  • If you pronounce “Athame” as “Athaym” and “Samhain” as “Sammon” or “Sam-hayn”….
  • If you think a “Sidhe” is a girl….
  • If your idea of the “Goddess” is the Coors Swedish Bikini Ski Team….
  • If your Bard plays the banjo….
  • If your ‘Long Lost Friend really IS….
  • If your lawn is decorated with at least one, preferably two or more, plastic pink flamingos, whom you regard as your familiars….
  • If your Wand of Power is a cattle prod….
  • If your ceremonial belt has your name on the back and a belt buckle bigger than your head….
  • If you call the Quarters by invoking “Billy, Joe, Jim and Bob”….
  • If you call the Gods by hollerin’ “Hey y’all, watch me!”….
  • If your favorite robe has the logo of a manufacturer of major farm equipment on the back….
  • If you’ve ever harvested ritual herbs with a weed wacker….
  • If your ritual staff is a double barrel shotgun….
  • If your ritual garments include any one of the following: plaid flannels, long johns, a pistol belt, or cowboy boots….
  • If you’ve ever blessed chewing tobacco or snuff….
  • If your ritual wine is Maddog 20/20, Night Train or White Lady 21….
  • If the instructions to get to your Covenstead include the words “After you turn off the paved road”….
  • If your altar-cloth is a rebel flag….
  • If you use junk cars to mark the four corners of your circle….
  • If your Eternal Flame just happens to be under a still….
  • If you use an engine block for an altar….
  • If your High Priestess is your cousin – as well as your wife….
  • If, when drawing down the moon, you say, “Ya’ll come on down, ya hear?”….
  • If your pickup truck has an Athame rack….
  • If your crystal ball is made of polystyrene (i.e., a bowling ball)….
  • If your High Priestess has a spittoon on her altar….

You might be a Redneck Pagan!

author unknown

In The End, We’re All Solitary


Author: Chi

I’m not bashing coven practice here – It’s a wonderful spiritual path and way of learning and it works for lots of people. Those people have my blessings and all my best wishes. There are plenty of teens that someday want to be part of a coven, and there are dozens of adults who warn against teen groups (and even several of articles on Witchvox about it) . But if solitary practice is so wonderful, I have to ask myself why no one advocates it, at least not until asked or provoked. That’s what I will attempt to do, to go over some of the things that solitaries have the opportunity for, and even solitary fundamentals that anyone can use.

After all, you are an individual. In the end, you are solitary. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the most glorious way possible. At the end of the day, the Divinity shines down on YOU and recognizes YOU for what YOU are, and takes you into their arms as their child with your own uniqueness and respects you for every ounce of it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. There are many people who consider themselves to be solitary Wiccans or solitary Witches. I almost want to say there is a majority – but I don’t have the statistics on hand to back that up, just my observation.

Most practitioners consider it a long-term goal to be able to get into a coven or other pagan group. Even though there are sometimes degree systems in place for covens, being a solitary is usually considered being “at the bottom of the food chain”, so to speak.

Some people are solitary because they choose to be, they know it is the best for their learning and they know it is better to study alone then with people that have the potential to delay your spiritual definition. Others are solitary simply because they have to be, there are no covens around, they are too young to join a ‘real’ coven, they do not have enough experience, or what have you.

I personally am some blend of the two. I began really studying and dedicating myself to “this path” a few years ago. I knew that I needed to study; I believed I had to have every rule memorized if I was ever to reach the glorious rank of a coven member.

However, since that time I have come to realize many things. First, I am not only a Wiccan. I am also Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Shinto, and a multitude of other things…so joining a group of strict Wiccans would probably drive several of us mad!

Second, I know how I learn. That’s not to say I do everything right, but being a solitary has taught me a lot of things about how to self teach, how to remember, and how to adapt that I don’t think I would get if I was being taught by another sole person (or group of teachers) .

Third, I don’t fit into a category that any degree system or standardized test can put me into. I consider myself to be very well-rounded in many types of practice; I meditate at least once a day, I am very accomplished in divination, plus some alternative and spiritual healing…but at the same time, I had forgotten what a “boline” was a few weeks ago and had to Google search it. You might find some of these apply to you and you may find they do not.

My point here is that self-exploration is essential to your learning. I have been self-exploring and self-coaching myself for long enough that I think if I were to join a coven, it would have to be very flexible at the least. And that’s fine with me.

However, most solitaries, including myself…no matter how much we love our individual practice, we want some sort of structure, some group or support system. This is not a bad thing, if anything it shows us that we are realistic. I myself have daydreamed about starting a teen Pagan study group (notice I did not say ‘teen coven’) before…leading group meditations and having workshops to carve our own wands and such…sounds glorious doesn’t it? But I know that in the end that is not what a group is for.

I have joined many Pagan forums and websites…some of which are like my own online Grimoire. I say almost nothing to members but comb through hundreds of information pages and topics, completely in awe. On others, I have a group of elders or mentors that I ask for help quite often, whether it’s “Can I use this pretty dish my mom gave me instead of a chalice?” or “Who can tell me in detail the exact workings of the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram?” (And to be fair…some of the websites out there are total B.S.) . Many casual groups have the potential to help you.

This is the first rule of being a solitary. Solitary does not equate to being alone. I like knowing that I can plan my own rituals, or re-schedule a Sabbat, and that I can adapt coven rituals to my practice. But I also know that there are always people I can turn to. I might talk to my non-Wiccan parents about finding spirituality in ‘everyday’, or ‘mundane’ life (as I found out in recent months, my sort-of-ex-hippie Dad and New-Age-Spiritual Mum are great for those kinds of things) . I might go on the Internet if I want to construct my own ritual. I might ask some online Elders for their book recommendations or good websites.

The thing about being a solitary is, instead of having a coven Priest or Priestess as your teacher, the whole world is your teacher. You usually have to ask several people about one question and go through each answer until you can combine the facts you need and get your own. You may find spiritual answers in simple social contacts or in the workings of nature.

Not to say that coven members “miss out” on this, but it is often unrecognized. I suspect that since Covens are a quick resource, that problem solving may not be emphasized as much, especially with limited resources.

One of my mottos that I have come to revisit often is this: everyone has something to teach, everyone has something to learn, and everyone is sacred. So even if you’re in a coven, a solitary might be a good person to ask about making up your own rituals. Maybe that seemingly fluffy teenager over there really does have some good books to lend you. If you have no one teacher, you have to branch out to anyone that has the potential to give you knowledge – that means you have to find that potential in everyone.

There are pros and cons to every kind of practice. If you’re in a coven, you still need to be willing to branch out and seek information from people who don’t have the label of a third degree high priestess. Maybe those with less experience do have things to offer you. If you’re solitary, don’t assume that you’re 100% on your own, there are Pagan festivals and new age shops everywhere that are likely to have people willing to teach you a thing or two, and there are plenty of online communities or websites that list meet ups and moots in your area.

In the end, we all have to do our own self-teaching of a few things. No matter what path we’re on it’s always nice to have some sort of mentor to turn to, but keep in mind in the end it is you who decides what is best for your learning, and you are responsible for comparing and gathering information, and adapting to your learning needs.

A good example is taking a hike in a mountain forest. You can take an experienced Guide, or you can go in with your supplies and a map. If you take a guide, you’ll probably get where you want to be without wasting time, and you’ll learn a lot – maybe you’ll be able to become a guide for someone else someday if it’s really your shtick. However… You might go through the path with your backpack, flashlight, and map. This is riskier, because you have less experience. You have tools at your disposal and you need to know how to use them. You might get turned around. You might take longer than the tour group. But there is a potential for you to learn a lot of things that the tour guide will overlook.

Okay, so you might not get the mountain path right off, and that’s okay. But maybe you can learn a lot more about forests in general. You’ll learn the skills in how to find your way through the thick forests, and you might discover wildlife the guides will walk right past. Maybe you don’t know the mountain path so well, even by the time you’re done with your hike. But, by the end of it, you probably know a lot about finding your way when your lost, telling directions without a compass, using your resources, marking your paths, and you’ll even know your own strengths and weaknesses better.

Not to say that the tour group missed out, I mean hey, they had their fun too, and they get to do all kinds of stuff in groups that you simply don’t have the energy/time/resources for. But ultimately, it depends on what’s best for you.

In keeping with the metaphor, forests can be dangerous. Some more than others. Some places you simply shouldn’t tread without a guide, at least for a while. And never go in alone without supplies in the dark, when no one knows where you are to a place you’ve never been. You can ask a guide every now and then even if you aren’t in a tour group. And there is no reason members of that tour group can’t go on their own hikes.

Back to spiritual paths, that translates to this: go at it alone, if it suits your fancy. You will learn a ton, I guarantee you. You might not learn as much about traditional paths, but you will learn a lot about what your spirituality means. You will have the chance to dissect it, analyze each piece and synthesize it along with the paths of others. But be wary of where you go, and always be safe. You will need to learn to self evaluate, and other life skills.

Coven members may have these skills and they might be better at it than you, but you still have the chance to grow and explore your own self-definition.

I admit whole-heartedly that I have no coven experience to back this up. I have let several coven members read this and give me their thoughts, and I have spoken to many about coven practice. I am not bashing anyone who is in a coven – it is a wonderful way to learn, and I hope to have a similar experience someday. But I feel the need to stress that somewhere along the line we all need to self teach and self-explore. And if you make that self-teaching and solitary practice part of your everyday life, it gives you a lot of potential in the long run. You can learn things in unlikely places, and I think solitaries know that lesson quite well.

Remember:

Everyone has something to learn, everyone has something to teach, and everyone is sacred.

Blessings.

Pagan’s Point of Interest – Pagans and the Pledge of Allegiance

Pagans and the Pledge of Allegiance

By , About.com Guide

Recently, during a conversation about schools and the Pledge of Allegiance, someone casually said to me, “Oh, you don’t say it, though, right? Because you’re not a Christian?” It wasn’t said in a confrontational way at all, but I was kind of surprised by the logic behind the statement. On thinking about it, I suspect it may not be an uncommon attitude among people who don’t know anything about Paganism.

Let’s face it, the Pledge of Allegiance can be a pretty hot-button issue for some folks. After all, there’s that whole separation of church and state bit, and here we are asking our children to recite an oath to the United State which includes a reference to what is clearly the Christian deity. But — much like other controversial issues in today’s society — there’s no big rulebook that says “Pagans can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance!”

The Pledge of Allegiance is actually based upon a poem written by a Baptist minister in 1892. Originally, it read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That was it. No mention of God, or even the United States itself. The reference to the “flag of the United States of America” was added in the early 1920s. During the Communist uproar of the 1950s, the words “under God” were added by Congress, turning the simple pledge into what some people see as public prayer.

So — do Pagans say the Pledge of Allegiance? I spoke to a few Pagans from around the country to see how they would respond to this issue, and the answers might surprise you.

Morgaine S., a Wiccan from Summerville, South Carolina, said, “I’m a Navy veteran and so is my husband, and I do love my country. I wouldn’t feel right about not saying the Pledge when asked to. I say the Pledge, but when I do I say “under my gods,” rather than the “under God” that everyone else says.”

A ceremonial magician who asked to be identified only as Lucius has just the opposite perspective. He said, “I don’t say the Pledge at all, because if you have to tell someone to pledge their allegiance, it’s meaningless. An oath of allegiance, whether it involves a god or not, should be voluntary and not something I’m compelled to do.”

Finally, Justyn Raine is a Pagan from California who says it doesn’t matter what god is referred to in the Pledge. “I say “under God,” because in my heart I know I’m referring to my god, not someone else’s. If you believe in any god at all, you can say the Pledge of Allegiance as it’s written.”

So, what does this mean to people who are wondering if they should say the Pledge? Political opinions aside, it’s a matter that’s a personal one — if you feel comfortable with saying the Pledge as it is currently written, go ahead. If you’d like to substitute your own deity’s name — or the phrase “under gods” instead — then do so. Likewise, if you don’t believe you should say the Pledge at all — for whatever reason — then don’t do it. The choice is yours — after all, in the United States we have the freedom to speak (or not speak) as our conscience guides us.

Is Wicca Dead?

Author: Helio

It seems like an odd thing to me, and I’m sure to many others, that some would claim that Wicca is dead or dying. But I have heard this from at least a few members of the Craft. Strange to think of Wicca, the fastest growing of the rapidly growing Neopagan religions, as being doomed to die in the near future. I have received different opinions for ‘why Wicca is dying’ and ‘what the fate of Wicca will be’.

More than a few Wiccan elders who have expressed this sentiment to me are just simply disheartened by what they view as a lack of progress made in and for Wicca over the past few decades. These elders, I think, believed that there would be a great unity in the Craft and that Wicca and Neopaganism would make great social progress. Many of these Wiccan elders have also seen the rise and fall of covens and friendships between witches. And so if asked the fate of Wicca, they would respond that there would be no future for Wicca. Neopaganism in general will fail as a religious movement.

I have heard from other Wiccans that Wicca is dying do to a lack of central authority. And this I have heard from Witches who are not members of any tradition! I’ve found that some of those I’ve heard this from have backgrounds in Catholicism, so perhaps they are used to the idea of the papacy as a central authority. But the whole reason why many come to the Craft is I>because of the lack of central authority. The Craft teaches self-reliance. I think some of my fellow Crafters have forgotten this.

I have also heard that Wicca has become too public. ‘No one wants to stay in the broom closet anymore like a good witch should’. Oh My! I think those who hold this sentiment may still be holding on to past life feelings of persecution. But if this is an age of religious tolerance, and Judeo-Christian beliefs are no longer supposed to operate in the secular domain, then we have no reason to hide or fear being burned at the stake. Wicca needs to be open if we are to show the world that we are not dangerous.

There are also those who see the rapid rise of solitary witchcraft and the collapse of covens as evidence of Wicca’s impending doom. I have never felt that it ‘takes a Witch to make a Witch’ but certainly there are some who could use a bit more experience before they declare themselves a Witch. I know there are plenty of solitaries who don’t really know the Craft as much as they should and that they may sometimes suffer from hubris, but it is the right of every Wiccan to explore the Craft personally and without a coven. I think covens are great, but for some people a coven just doesn’t work, and I feel there are some who use the coven structure to make themselves feel more important and powerful. We all know there is no place for tyrants in a coven structure.

Now unlike the belief that Wicca will die and cease to exist, I have found those who believe Wicca is dying but that it will develop into a new religion, or religions. I somewhat share this sentiment, but I don’t think Wiccan witchcraft will just cease to be. And if Wicca is to become something else then it is not dying, it is evolving. All religious movements evolve. There are many who would point out that modern Wicca is ‘not the Wicca of sixty years ago’, and this is because of a natural evolution in the religion.

I feel that part of the reason for this whole ‘Wicca is dead’ thing seems to be that Wicca and Neopaganism have failed in the last sixty years to supersede western society’s Judeo-Christian dominance. I know that there are many screaming at me after reading that last line. ‘The point of Wicca isn’t to supersede Christianity! All faiths lead to the same source!’ But I have not yet met the Crafter who didn’t hold some level of anti-Christian sentiment. I’ve found that much of the ‘Wicca has failed’ belief comes from those Wiccans who experienced the great social and spiritual revolutions of the late sixties and seventies. At the time it must have seemed like Neopaganism would become a powerful social force by the turn of the millennium. Its failure to become so has soured the movement for some.

It may not seem like it for many, but Wicca’s ability to suddenly go from a few dozen followers to thousands (or millions) of followers in only half a century is an amazing achievement. It is a direct parallel of early Christianity’s rise from a few dozen believers in 30 C.E. to hundreds or thousands by 150 C.E. Wicca has perhaps grown twice as fast in half the time thanks to television, the Internet, and especially, modern printing and publishing. Most new religious movements do not rise out of the underground in their first hundred years.

Is Wicca dead? Has Wicca failed in some way?

No one ever said being a Witch is easy. Some of my elders may find me youthfully naïve, but in the six years that I have been in the Craft, I have found a vast, vibrant, though mostly underground, community that is ever growing and evolving to meet the needs of its followers.

I can definitely say Wicca is very far from taking its last breaths.

What Does It Mean To Be A Pagan In Today’s World?

Author: Brid’s Closet 

What does it mean to be a Pagan in today’s world?

I was sitting by my desk, thinking about topics for classes at my store. Many topics come to mind, but nothing seemed to “jump” out at me. I brought up this subject to a good friend of mine (who is not pagan), and she brought up this topic.

What does it mean to be Pagan? A “card carrying” PAGAN?

Many people are still very quiet about their choices in life, even to how they practice their religion or their form of spirituality. Many friends of mine are still in the “closet” about being a Pagan or being Wiccan. That is their choice, but not mine. I have the wonderful opportunity to be open about whatever it is that I do because I own my own business.

My sons also have choice as far as to what they believe. My oldest was degreed by me, because that was his choice, and I am proud of him because of that. My middle son considers himself to be agnostic (like his dad), but still is always looking. My youngest is still not sure as of yet. He takes in a lot, asks a lot of questions and is processing what he receives. They are fine young men, all of whom I am fiercely protective and proud of.

Some keywords that come into my mind are “love, strength, happiness, comfort, inner confidence empowerment, and honor”. Being a Pagan has helped to see that I have the ability to make a change in my own life, whether it is on a magical level or a mundane one.

A lot of people come into my store asking very similar questions, but what I do most of the time is to explain what I am not:

I am not a Satanist (the term “Satan” doesn’t exist in the pagan world.)
I don’t work or believe in the devil.

I don’t walk around in black clothes all the time (though it is fun sometimes!)

I don’t sacrifice animals…or use them in any rituals (my dog does like to run in and out of circle sometimes!)

I don’t bash other Pagan traditions.

I am not evil, nor is my spirituality evil.

I don’t run round naked, except in the privacy of my own room (maybe!)

I don’t have sex with others in ritual.

I don’t insult or blast other religions. People have done that for far too long in history to Pagans. I won’t do that to others!

Nope…don’t do the orgy thingy either!

What I do….hmmm…

I do honor Mother Earth. I see the earth as a living and breathing organism.

I do believe that all animals have a soul, and should be treated and loved as we expect to be loved ourselves.

I do try to live as “chemical free” as possible. This means that no chemicals or bug killers are applied to my lawn. 2 of my animals eat the grass on my lawn if the weather permits. No bleached flour, raw sugar, recycled paper. A friend of mine raises organically raised chickens, so I have organic eggs!

I keep as many trees as possible on the land that I am blessed to live on. Trees block the sun and keep your home cooler!

I do honor other people’s religions and their chosen paths.

I go love the Goddess and the God, as I would honor my own parents.
I try to use cosmetic products that are cruelty free.

I do try to grow my own herbs and vegetables when possible.

I recycle my paper, bottles, plastic and cans.

I do a full moon ritual once a month and celebrate the 8 holidays in the wheel of the year.

I guess I could just go on and on!

Once, a person came in and asked me why I was insulting myself by using the words “HEATHEN”, “PAGAN”, and “WITCH” to describe myself! In his teachings, he was taught that these words were an insult. He was shocked that I was proud of these terms!

The word “PAGAN” actually means “country dweller” or “civilian” or “peasant”.
1: Definition: Refers to any of the pre-Christian, (usually) polytheistic religions, or those who practice them. Wicca is one Pagan religion, as is Asatru, Santeria, Voodoo, or Shamanism.

The term “HEATHEN” is old English for Germanic paganism.
2: Definition: Among non-Pagans, the term ‘heathen’ just means anyone who is non-Christian. But Pagans use the term to refer specifically to those who follow a Norse or Germanic path.

A WITCH was known as a “wise” person, an herbalist, a midwife or a medicine person. (I’m an Alexandrian Witch!)
3: Definition: A witch is someone who practices witchcraft (either male or female), regardless of their religious standing. Not necessarily the same thing as a Wiccan (someone who follows the religion of Wicca)

These are words that I have come to embrace and be proud of. These words open up conversation and dialog, so that others will learn, understand and appreciate. Sometimes people appreciate the information that is given, other times, they don’t.

As a Pagan, I’ve raised 3 fantastic sons, have a “metaphysical” store that I share with my best friend, counsel people, rehabilitate birds, rescued a dog, a chinchilla and a bunny (who think they own my home!), teach classes, train special needs people (personal training) and in love with the most remarkable man.

What does it mean to be a “PAGAN”?

It means being a mom, a lover, a caregiver, councilor, herbalist, a cook, storeowner, and a woman dealing with today’s modern world who practices a very old way of worship.

Bernadette Montana is a very eclectic 3rd degree Alexandrian Priestess, a pipe carrier in the Sun Bear Native American Tribe, professional Tarot reader, a mom to 3 sons, one dog, 2 parrots, a bunny and a chinchilla and owns a metaphysical store named Brid’s Closet in Orange County, New York. Bernadette@bridscloset.com

Thanks to Terri Paajanen who posted the definitions of Pagan, Heathen, and Witch on the About website!

Footnotes:
Terri Paajanen who posted the definitions of PAGAN, HEATHEN, and WITCH on the About website!

What’s In A Name?

Author: Life is a Dance Regardless

Recently, someone spoke with me about some problems surrounding the word “Pagan”. This person told to be careful about who I speak to when claiming that I am one, even other people claiming to be Pagan. It is hard for me to agree with her. I can’t wrap my head around it actually. Truly, I understand exactly where she is coming from, but I disagree with her entirely.

What she is saying is that people may tell me that I am going about being Pagan in the wrong way. Other pagans may be angry with me for the way that I practice my faith. People may advise me on what I should do differently, whom I should speak to, and which people to avoid. What books should I read? Where should I go? What should I do? How should I practice my faith? How, in fact, should I practice my life?

Admittedly, I am new to it, and perhaps I need guidance but I have realized something important. There are people in every faith who think that their way is the Truth. There are people in Life in general who think their way is the Truth. This is something we all have to deal with throughout our entire lives because people have different opinions.

For the most part, I have not respected religion in the past because of its inability to recognize that everyone needs something different in his or her life. Some people do not need faith, and most religions fail to allow room for that view. I explained to my friend that being a “good Pagan” was like declaring oneself a “good Christian”. The term is likely to mean something different from one person to the next.

For one Christian, being good may be hating people in other religions, and another, it may be loving and accepting no matter what. The Bible can be interpreted differently, though some people think otherwise. As such, different people can interpret Paganism differently.

It is not, in fact, a problem with religion, which is why I respect religion so much at this point. It is, has always been, and will always be a problem with individuals. No way is the right way. No way is the wrong way. Religion is not math or science, where one false move can completely screw up your equation, or burn your eyebrows off. Religion is something to be taken seriously, but it is not rocket science. It is for the pure and sole purpose of finding yourself. What do you, as an individual think is right or wrong?

I am 18, graduated high school last spring and am now looking for a job. For me personally, I believe going into college using someone else’s money is wrong. It is my preference to earn enough money to enter a trade school of my choice without needing debt solutions. My aunt suggests I get a loan from my grandpa, but even then, I have debt. There are certain things I do not want to deal with at this point in my life. I would rather have the means to rely on myself. I believe that I should enjoy the little things. There are more important things than brushing my hair in the morning. Sometimes, it may be drinking coffee, watching the sunrise, or simply dressing and running to wish my neighbors good luck on the first of a new month. I water my plants every day. I enjoy what I have. I take time to enjoy my connection with Mother Earth.

I realize to some people that this may be the wrong way to go about my faith. However, I also told my friend that calling myself Pagan, to me, would be like calling myself Christian. There are many different facets to each religion. If I were a Christian, I could go more in depth and say I belonged to the Baptists, or that I was Episcopalian. I am not, as it happens. I claim to be Pagan because I am not yet sure of my choice of where to go on my spiritual path. I am also unsure of what I want to do in life.

I believe there are simple principles imbedded in the Pagan practice that I have tried to honor for my entire life. We must love, honor, and respect others regardless of what their belief is. It is best to live naturally. We must not harm others, regardless of our feelings toward them. If others discriminate, we should not sink to their level. We are better than that. We share a love of all things in nature and we worship that which enables to live and prosper.

I honor my Mother. I honor my Father. Both biological and spiritual. I love my neighbors. I love myself. I honor my Elders, but I also believe you have to earn my respect and attention to get it. I try to live in the best way I can. I try to love even those who do me wrong, because they show me exactly what I do not want to be.

I wrote a poem for one of my friend’s birthday. I put in what I thought she could use in her future, things I myself wish to live by.

Never regret the mistakes you have made
But never forget, or you’ll trip on your blade
Always know, you are never alone
Even when you’re lost, you always have home
Good people with good hearts are far between few
Always aim sharp, always aim true
Whether or not you can witness the fight
Fight for what you believe with all your might
Know that a moment comes only one time
Soak in the moment before the clock strikes and bells chime
Try to live each moment in grace
Those you hate, you should try to embrace
For they show you who you ought not to be
And that is a gift, to the highest degree
Do not get mad if a beggar can’t help you
They may be more in need, so bid him adieu
If possible, speak in whispers, and listen when you can
An inadvertent learning is most precious and most grand
And finally, never stumble on a grain of sand
But hold the world in the palm of your hand
You are a Goddess, and if you try, you’ll always win
The courage of a Goddess always comes from within

Forgive me if I am wrong, but for me, I am not.

One Pagan Steps Out of the Broom Closet

One Pagan Steps Out of the Broom Closet

by L. Lisa Harris

In days past, stepping out of the broom closet meant sitting at the dinner table and blurting out, “Mom, I’m a witch,” then waiting for her to accept the fact and ask you questions, or faint dead away. She might tell you it was a phase you were going though or refuse to talk to you for a period of time. As a general rule, if it wasn’t accepted, it never left the dinner table. It just wouldn’t do to air the family’s dirty laundry to the neighbors (what would they think?).

Today, it could still be as simple as telling a trusted co-worker that you go to circle, instead of church, or explaining to a potential significant other why there is 7-inch dagger on a small table next to your bed. You might even be lucky enough to be outed by your 9-year-old child, who in an argument with a neighborhood kid yells, “Yeah, well, my mom’s a witch, and I’m going to go get her right now.”

However, with the advent of the Internet, one’s “witchiness” (along with anything else of interest) can be world news in a matter of seconds, as I quickly learned. The speed at which such information can travel and how far it can get can be quite surprising, even for one who is “out of the broom closet.” You can give in an interview to the local paper, and the next thing you know, you’re getting e-mail from Australia.

My adventure in pagan PR and world news began early last winter when I received a phone call from Steve Maynard of the Tacoma News Tribune advising me that he was planning to do a feature story on the Earth Centered Spirituality Group at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church in Tacoma, which I have facilitated for the past two and a half years. Steve covers religion for the paper and was slowly but surely making progress with his editor in getting earth-centered events covered on the religion page. We both knew he had a long way to go before he would be permitted to treat our group as the paper did other religious groups when, last Easter season, his editor would not allow him to use the word “pagan” when he was describing a UU church service in which elders read children stories of how four traditions (pagan, Hebrew, Christian and Unitarian) celebrated the Easter season.

I was expecting his feature story to be on the religion page, as we were just beginning to get calendar space in the Saturday edition in that section. Imagine my surprise when he told me that it was going to be the cover for the “Sound Life” magazine section and that there was also going to be a photo layout. He was even going to use the words “pagan” and “witch.” For a moment, I couldn’t believe it. All the months of pestering him and sending press releases and information had paid off. We were going to be taken seriously. We were going to have a chance to let Western Washington know what we were and what we weren’t. I was elated.

But on the drive home from work, I asked myself, “What was I thinking?” A nice little column on the religion page was one thing, but to be on the magazine cover of a Sunday edition was another matter. I have been “out” with my family and friends for 13 years and even wear a triple moon pentacle at work, where I have no problem educating those who would malign others’ religion out of ignorance. But when I thought about the conservative Christian parents of the girls I coach in softball and volleyball on the South Hill of Puyallup reading in the Sunday paper about their coach being a witch, something in my stomach did a double back-flip with a twist. I had visions of girls being pulled from the team by parents who didn’t want them corrupted by that “tool of Satan,” other kids not being allowed to play with my daughter and picketers throwing rocks in front of the church. Steve and I had been working towards this for almost a year and a half, so it was no small matter that I found myself reconsidering the wisdom of the situation.

Most witches I know would meditate or cast a circle and ask the Goddess for guidance when dealing with an important situation like this. My goddess never waits for me to do that. I’ve learned to deal with it. She likes to slip into the passenger seat of my car when I’m trying to drive home at the end of a busy day or corner me when I’m in the bathroom and can’t get up and leave because my pants are around my ankles. This time she chose the car, and she really let me have it. “You’re the one that wanted to be a warrior. Now you’re given a chance to battle ignorance and you’re afraid? Don’t be a wimp! Get out there and act like a priestess, not a weenie!” I don’t recommend dedicating yourself to the Morrigane unless you’re the type of person who can stand up to a drill sergeant without flinching. Of course, as I remember it, I didn’t have a lot of say in the matter. She chose me.

About the time I was feeling completely unworthy, my cell phone rang. It was my daughter letting me know that she was home from school. “Honey, how would you feel if the next article about me was in a bigger paper than the last one?” I asked.

“Um, okay, why?” she replied, her mouth overly full of partially chewed banana. I explained that it would be a front page spread and my picture was likely to be in it. More chewing, and another “Um, okay” followed the sound of the fridge being rummaged through. I asked her what her friends would think if they saw the article, and she assured me that her friends don’t read anything other than the horoscopes, music reviews and comics.

“How would you feel if one of your friends wouldn’t hang out with you anymore because your mom’s a witch?”

“I don’t think that would happen,” she said.

“But what if it did?” I pushed.

She swallowed the rest of her banana, which I’m sure was not properly chewed, and in her best exasperated-adolescent voice said, “Well, that wouldn’t make them very good friends, now, would it? Can I go over to Morgan’s?” So much for the girl being traumatized by it. That was one excuse gone. I reminded her to chew with her mouth closed and take smaller bites, then hung up the phone.

The next call came in right on schedule, from Hubby, who was on his break at work. “Hi, honey, how would you feel if all the guys in the break room at work read in the paper that I’m a witch?” I asked, thinking that there was no point in beating around the bush since he only had 10 minutes to talk.

His response was immediate and enthusiastic, “Cool!” he said. “When will it come out? I’d love for some of those dumb, right-wing conservative jerks I argue politics with to see it, so that I can yank their chain.” When he found out it would be in the Sunday edition, he was extremely disappointed he wouldn’t be there at work to watch the looks on his co-workers’ faces when they read it. It would have been amusing, since I used to work in the same place and know all of them. Great, Hubby wasn’t going to be an excuse either. I was going to have to go through with it.

The next step was to set up interviews and photo opportunities. The interviews weren’t going to be a problem. I’d been talking to Steve for over a year and a half and had sent him volumes of information. How much was there that he could possibly ask? I found out that there was plenty. It seemed that the more information I gave him, the more questions he had. He found that the more people he talked to and the more research he did, the more disagreement on basic issues he found. After a month of spending my lunch hours, breaks and time after work talking to Steve, I still couldn’t come up with answers to some questions other than, “Well, if you ask 30 people that question, you’ll likely get 30 different answers.”

I could hear him shaking his head on the other end of the phone line, but he kept with it. He interviewed Ph.D.s, ministers, theologians, authors and other high priestesses in the local community. He attended Tarot classes and rune workshops that we put on in order to get a better understanding of what our group does and interviewed several people at those classes to get a feel for the local community.

The photo editor wanted to photograph a ritual. “We don’t allow photographers at our rituals,” I explained. When I offered to set something up with people who didn’t mind being photographed, he told me that at the paper they “don’t like things that are staged.” “Great!” I muttered to myself. I already had a Brigid ritual to write, a class on the runes to put together and lines to memorize for a Candlemas ritual that another group was putting on. I knew that the only way the layout was going to work would be to put on a real working with participants who didn’t mind being photographed. I made the offer of a special ritual, with a real working, and once he was convinced it wouldn’t be “staged” and I had his agreement the photographer would not disrupt the flow of the ritual, the date was set. I put out a call to the local pagan e-mail lists for volunteers who didn’t mind being photographed.

Getting the volunteers was much easier than I had imagined, and I was rather pleased with how things were working out. The difficult part, I discovered, was going to be finding a ritual that wouldn’t expose material that many in the pagan community would consider “inappropriate” for public use or that would offend or exclude anyone. I soon discovered that what some considered “outer court” material, suitable for any public occasion, others considered “oath-bound.” I was also faced with the fact that just because something is published and sitting on a shelf at Borders doesn’t mean that it isn’t considered oath-bound by one tradition or another. I suddenly had to worry about being pagan politically correct.

Then there were the personal preferences of those who were going to be in the circle. My Wiccan friends didn’t want a Wiccan ritual “performed” for the media. Some of the pagans didn’t want to be confused with witches, the neo-pagans didn’t want to be confused with “New Agers,” my Brit-trad friends didn’t want to be mistakenly identified as Unitarians, and some of the Unitarians didn’t want to be labeled at all. I had 17 ritualists with 17 different ideas of what would and wouldn’t be appropriate.

As I sat at my computer, staring out the window at the woods out back, I thought to myself, “If my close friends and those who trust me to present paganism to the media are this fired up, what about all the pagans who are going to read this in the paper and had no say in the matter? What are they going to think?” Suddenly I went from feeling like a champion of those who suffer religious oppression to feeling like someone not worthy of the task. I had lost count of the number of people who thought that no reporter could be trusted and that I was making a huge mistake. But I had been talking to Steve for a long time. I knew him. I knew what he wanted to accomplish and trusted him to do right by us. I thought I was doing a good thing, and it seemed that it just ticked everyone off. Visions of angry pagans wanting my hide were added to the already scary ones of crosses burning on my lawn or windows being broken at the church by those who fear us. More doubt filled my mind. I tried to brush it away as quickly as I could. I really wasn’t up for a bathroom visit from a ticked-off goddess. I was starting to get a headache.

Two glasses of wine later, I had decided that we would use only published material, to which I would make some changes so that no tradition’s sacred material would be exposed to the media. The ritual would be a working for community understanding, which seemed fitting for a media event. I scanned my bookshelves, literally sagging under the weight of what my hubby considers my “excessive” book collection, hoping that something would present itself.

I noticed my old dog-eared copy of The Spiral Dance sticking out a bit farther than the other books on the shelf. “Starhawk! She knows how to deal with the public and fight for the cause. I don’t really think she’d mind if I borrowed a few things,” I told myself. I found a ritual written by Alan Acacia titled “A Circle for Healing During Struggle,” which fit in perfectly with what we were planning. I modified it to be less priestess-centered and to have the quarters read their parts themselves. I picked out some nice invocations to the God and Goddess, and soon I had a basic ritual ready to go.

The ritual was beautiful, so beautiful in fact that I forgave my friend Dana without even giving her a hard time for calling me a “circle Nazi” in rehearsal. Everyone showed up in festive clothing and colorful robes. People who came to sit and watch but didn’t want to risk being “outed” by being in the circle were drawn in; they just couldn’t stay out. The quarter callers performed their parts perfectly, the candles all stayed lit, and our sound and lighting person hit every musical cue. We passed a small cauldron, which was later lit, around the room, so that each person in turn could hold it and speak aloud what they hoped to accomplish with the ritual. Everyone was so eloquent and sincere and came up with such wonderful, positive wishes that the reporter was frantic trying to copy them all down. We danced a spiral to raise energy, and everyone in that room could feel a strong, palpable force, even the photographer. We had been asked prior to the ritual to send healing energy to a critically ill girl who was on a respirator in a children’s hospital, so we added that to our ritual working and sent it all flying out of the circle in a powerful stream of golden light. Afterwards, everyone in the circle had a look on his or her face as if they had just had amazing sex. I’d call that good energy.

At 4 a.m. on February 8, after weeks of worries and what ifs, I drove down the hill to the mini-mart to get a copy of the paper. I took a deep breath, readying myself in case it wasn’t really there or my trust in the reporter had been misplaced. On the cover of the “Sound Life” section was a full color picture of the ritualists with their outstretched arms, adorned with rings, bracelets and colorful robes, sending healing energy to the ill girl, and the headline “Pagans at Peace.” The light bouncing off of the sanctuary wall in the background looked just like a ball of gold light being tossed out to the universe. There were pictures of the rune workshop and flaming cauldrons. I must say it was possibly the best article I have ever seen on paganism in the mainstream press. Steve had even quoted Christian clergy to explain what attracts seekers to witchcraft and paganism. Yes, there were some things left out, and a couple of people didn’t think that the press should have made it sound like all pagans share a common set of beliefs. All I could do was say, “Well done, Steve. Thank you.”

There were no picketers in front of the UU church that morning. No threatening messages had been left on the answering machine there or at home. Everyone in the church was excited about the article, and some new people even showed up because of it. A friend who works in a local hospital arrived at work to find the article pinned to the bulletin board and a request for pagan clergy posted. The hospital staff had taken notice of the article section that spoke of pagan hospital patients not having access to clergy services. Now there is a group in Pierce County putting together a program to get pagan clergy registered with local hospitals.

The article made it around the globe in a few hours, thanks to the Internet mailings lists and bulletin boards. It made at least two appearances in the “Wren’s Nest” section of The Witches Voice Web site, and I received congratulations from Circle Sanctuary. Soon I started receiving e-mail messages from all over the world. One told me how the article came at a perfect time to show to a judge in a child custody battle in which the mother’s Wiccan religion was being used against her. Another letter told of a case where a young girl was missing and the local media had blamed it on the fact that she had visited a Web site on Wicca. The story went out on the Howard-Scripps News Service and was reprinted in several other newspapers, sparking a whole new batch of letters, all with similar stories and gratitude to Steve for portraying us in a positive light, not just as a media curiosity at Halloween, as many newspapers do.

When it was apparent that nothing bad was going to happen because of the article, I was almost disappointed. I wasn’t going to have to do battle against ignorance or have an exciting and dangerous story to tell in Widdershins. I came to realize, though, that I did have a story to tell. It isn’t about confrontation or hate. It is about battling my own fear and self-doubt. It is a story of a group of people who came together, regardless of personal risk, to accomplish a goal for the greater community. It is the story of a little girl who got off of a respirator and is back home with her family, who incidentally are not pagan.

How Do You Like Your Pagan? Straight Up or Blended?

How Do You Like Your Pagan? Straight Up or Blended?
image
Author: Avren

I was recently the butt of a joke. I know this happens to lots of folks, no matter what their theology. What ticked me off though was the fact that my theology was what the jerks were pointing fun at. Some pagans enjoy being a spectacle, and still more are just damned proud (and not afraid to let you know it) of their faith. I too am proud of who I am, and what I believe. I take my faith seriously, and DO NOT like to have it blown off or laughed at. So I blend.

I’m sure lots of us blend, and blend well. Blending in is what saved your neck, and flesh in the not so distant past. These days there are hate crimes; no doubt man seems to never run out of reasons to hate each other. What you find more and more though, is discrimination, and/or the assumption that you are a flaky, feather brained hippy.

Now I know it could be worse. I could be tortured and/or burned at the stake a few lifetimes ago, but it’s still annoying! I don’t like the silly superstitions people have or the down right misinformation. When cornered by simpletons who think their path is the “one true path to god” I love to put them in their place with a simple history lesson. Or one of my personal favorites: quoting the Bible to thwart them. In the end though, I am too busy to debate the universe day in and day out. Talk about exhausting!

This particular person only found out about my spiritual preferences because he is a friend of my love’s. He came over for dinner and saw some books I have sitting on the bottom shelf of my coffee table. Every time I see him he has a new snide or smart-a** comment. I thought I’d be smart-a** too.

After one of his comments one day I asked if he worshipped Buddha. He just shook his head and I said that it certainly looked that way. (He is pushing 400 lbs and 5’10) Unfortunately, that didn’t work, and I felt guilty for acting just like him instead.

I don’t wear a pentagram; instead I wear a triquetra that is two inches high. I just love it, and it gets compliments from everyone I meet. I love when they ask if it has a special meaning. I always answer yes! I wear regular make up in natural tones.

I work 8-5 Monday through Friday. My home is warm and welcoming. There isn’t a noticeable altar anywhere. There is a 12-inch tall star hanging in my kitchen, and a moon as well. I have a gold and silver candle on each side of my kitchen sink.

No one knows the 4-foot high metal sculpture of a willow that hangs in my kitchen is a sign of the Mother. Nor do they see the candles and celestial design in my kitchen as my altar, and sign of love to the Lord and Lady. (Can you see the Kitchen Witchery here? LOL!)

When one of the dearest friends I have was going through a tough time, she happened to mention she was interested in stones and their symbolism. She also mentioned having strong feelings for Shamanism. So I asked if she would like some of the leopard skin jasper I had, and a couple other stones I thought she might like. She was thrilled! I was too; I have known her 25 out of 27 years of my life. Now was the first time I could talk about my spiritual side with her. She had lots of questions, and carries the stones everyday!

So you get the idea of how well I blend in? I made an agreement with my beloved when we first started dating. I would keep my books and obvious craft stuff out of sight of his two young children. I agreed readily because I was in my late teens before I could grasp that this is not a satanic path.

I figure that subtly dropping hints and blending it in slowly is best anyhow. Heck, I didn’t even realize I was learning the Old Ways from my grandmothers and mother until I was already well used to it. The kids request ‘Wytches Chant 98′ all the time, without knowing that is the name. They only know that they love it. As a matter of fact we listen to that band often. They love it, and I think that it opens their minds a little.

My beloved is not Pagan, though he has picked up some of my “witchy ways” as he calls it. He even had some runes tattooed on his inner arm. They are like armor to him he says. They make him feel protected, and mark the important points on his journey. The other arm is going to be health and spiritual runes. He has told me that I am a good “Ambassador” for Pagans. He says he would never have taken me seriously, or be willing to venture down his spiritual path this far if I had been as “Loud and Proud.”

So, back to the frustration. I am not ashamed of who I am. I don’t like probing questions either. (Picture sneering face here.) I am open to those who are REAL. I feel like I do more good this way anyhow. When I explain the possible meanings of the Trinity Knot to someone who asks, I feel they take away a positive experience. I’d rather that any day, to the’ stare and giggle’ by the general public.

So here is the question for you dear reader. Are you straight up or blended? Have you asked yourself lately?

After I heard about that jerk cracking jokes on me, I started to ask myself that same question. I know negativity lives among us. Perhaps I’m too serious. I don’t know. I do know this however. I WILL NOT change my way of practicing.

I’m too happy for that! (Unlike him.) Thanks Karma!

The Power of Chanting


Christopher Penczak


Sound, tone, voice, and music are powerful forms of magick and celebration.
Before I became a witch, the part of traditional religious services I loved
the most was the music; using song as celebration. When I got involved in
Wicca, the traditions I first learned were very stoic and formal. There was
no real song or chant involved in our Moon and Sun celebrations. I missed it
a lot, but felt there was no place for music in my new practice. At the time
I was a professional musician, completing my degree in music, but our
training in music history only delved into the sacred music of the Christian
era. Not much time was devoted to ancient civilizations or tribal lore. I
knew music was a part of the pagan world, but was not exposed to it.When I explored other traditions of witchcraft – as well as mystical
traditions in yoga and Eastern religions – I found mystics using sound,
chant, and rhythm to do magick and create ritual. The more shamanic, primal
traditions would use chant and simple dance to raise energy and connect with
the spirit of the ritual. Simple repeated rhythms and melodies could induce
altered states and focus the will. I was so excited to find a religous
outlet for my musical _expression.Later in my practice, I found myself the celebrant (or officiating high
priest) for a public pagan group that celebrated at Unicorn Books in
Arlington, Massachusetts. I had originally replaced a priestess who was no
longer able to commit to the group, and due to this shift, the group only
included around five participants at any time. Soon we formed an identity
and theme together, and the group began to grow. The rituals went from
intimate groups of five to ten people to larger and larger gatherings. Soon
we filled the room’s forty person capacity. Everyone was great, but coming
from different backgrounds they lacked a cohesive sense of tradition or
ceremony. We loved being eclectic, but needed to have some focus to bring
our group together. I needed to find a way to let everyone contribute to the
ritual and create a sacred space. After many fumbled attempts with a variety
of ritual techniques and tools, I relied on music as a common denominator.
Chant became the key!

As part of each of the eight Wheel of the Year celebrations in our little
loft space, I wrote a short chant with a simple melody, which we used to
raise energy. Those chants became the basis of the chants recorded on The
Outer Temple of Witchcraft CD Companion. We sang about the gods and
goddesses relating to each of the holidays. The chants focused our attention
raised energy, and helped get us into the moment as we passed the chalice
or anointing oil. The songs also helped teach newcomers the basic meaning of
the holiday, quickly relaying powerful themes and key words with the melody.

The use of music in our rituals totally transformed them, and is one of the
most popular parts of our celebrations. Because of my experience, I started
to encourage the use of more and more music in my smaller celebrations and
private coven rituals. I even use chants when I am doing rituals and spells
all alone. I highly suggest adding some music to your own rituals, no matter
the size.

Here are some tips in using music in your own circles:

* Find traditional chants and more recently composed ones that you can use.
Metaphysical stores often have a section of pagan music, song and chants.

* If you visit larger pagan festivals, you may be taught some of the
traditional chants if you don’t know them and can’t find a recording. Many
are passed along through the oral tradition of pagan gatherings. Take notes
and write down lyrics so you won’t forget.

* Use simple melodies with a limited vocal range so everybody can sing them
without straining their voices.

* Try setting pagan poetry to familiar melodies, such as well-known holiday
songs. Sometimes they sound silly, but they can be a great way to focus
everybody on a melody they already know sung with different words.

* Use simple beats and rhythms to keep the group focused – or use a drum to
help induce an altered state. Beats that fall on even numbers (based on
groups of two or four beats) are more direct and dynamic. Some consider them
more masculine. Beats based in 3, like the familiar waltz pattern, are
considered more feminine and have a connection to the triple goddess.

* Feel the music as you perform it. Let the vibration fill your body, heart,
and mind. Let it move you. When you are open to sound, you can make the
experience very healing or energizing.

* Don’t be afraid to be loud or to make a mistake. Sing with feeling and
worry about the technicalities later. If everyone is into the chant, that’s
more important than sounding perfect. Don’t make anyone feel bad if they
don’t have a perfect voice. Remember the circle is about Perfect Love,
Perfect Trust, and celebration. Keep the spirit alive when you chant and
when you pass the cakes. Each is an opportunity for love, compassion, and
transformation.

What the Heck is a Hedgewitch Anyways?


Author: Juniper

Hedgewitchery is a combination of Traditional Witchcraft (NOT Wicca) and Shamanism, with herbalism, healing, and a deep love for nature added to the mix.

Hedgewitchery is loosely based on the old wise woman (and man) Tradition. The wise woman Tradition is, quite possibly, the oldest eclectic magickal tradition. If you think “wise woman” and picture the strange old lady who sold herbs and magickal charms, acted as midwife and healer in the ancient times, you are not far off.

This tradition never truly died out, and in recent years, more and more people are turning to it and adapting it to modern times.

The word “Hedgewitch” may come from the Saxon word for Witch, haegtessa, which translates to “hedge-rider”. The Old Norse lay Havamal refers to “hedge-riders, witching aloft”.

Some may spell it with a capitol H, and some do not. Others will use a spelling such as “hedgewytch”. A few other names attached to this Craft: Hedge-Rider, Night Travelers, Myrk-Riders, Gandreidh (wand-rider), and Walkers on the Wind.

In the past, towns, villages and farmsteads had fences and hedgerows marking the boundary of the town, keeping the wilderness out. Crossing the hedge meant walking into the wild, where predatory animals, and all manner of fae creatures lived.

Back in the old times, many people never traveled more than a few miles from where they were born, and even then, they stuck to the roads and well-known paths of traders and huntsmen.

For the Hedgewitch, the hedge is a metaphor for the line drawn between this world and the next, between reality and dream, between the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds.

In the old days, the wise woman or Hedgewitch lived on the edges of the community, often on the other side of the town’s boundary hedge. They scratched out a living through herbalism, understanding nature, prophecy and divination as well as magick and healing.

The Hedgewitch served her community in many ways including but not only; midwifery, healing, protection spells, house blessings, crop and livestock blessings, through the selling of magickal charms and even curses. A Hedgewitch might sell one member of her community a small curse or ill-wish one day, and then charge its victim a fee to break the curse the next. The Hedgewitch was respected, and likely a little feared, because of these abilities, and because they had such a close relationship with nature and the magickal world.

Hedgewitches use herbs and shamanic techniques, such as drumming and meditation, to induce altered states of consciousness. They work with familiar spirits, their ancestral dead, plant and animal Totems to assist in their Otherworld work.

Hedgewitches often refer to shamanic journeys as “walking the hedge” or “crossing the hedge”. They also have a tendency to spend much of their lives with one foot on either side of the hedge, which makes them eccentric to say the least.

A Hedgewitch walks freely into caol ait (Gaelic), the “thin places” between one world and another. More experienced Hedgewitches learn not only to find such places, but how to use them effectively and how to open them even when the Veil is at its thickest between the sabbats.

For the Hedgewitch there is no separation between normal life and their magickal one, for their normal life is magickal.

In modern times, a Hedgewitch is usually found outside the city, perhaps on an acreage or farm, often practicing by her self or perhaps within the family. They work much as the old wise women of old, helping neighbors, friends and family with ailments, shamanic healing and even blessing the odd field.

Hedgewitches will work a lot in cultivated fields, gardens and farmsteads, but often prefer time spent in the woods and other wild areas. A Gardenwitch, Greenwitch or Kitchenwitch may work mostly in her cultivated garden; a Hedgewitch will likely spend more of her time gathering her herbs and such from the wild places. Although the practices have changed quite a lot, you will find most Hedgewitches practice as close to traditionally as possible in these modern times.

Hedgewitches are very adaptable. You may find a Hedgewitch casting an old-fashioned prosperity or fertility spell on a modern tractor as a favor to a neighbor, for example.

The main distinction between Hedgewitchery and other forms of Witchcraft is that Hedgewitches have less interest in the religious/ceremonial aspects of Coven or group Witchcraft, having an individual and often unique way of relating to life, spirituality and Creation.

A Hedgewitch is less likely to perform formal magickal workings, preferring simpler folk, or low, magic. The only tradition Hedgewitches typically follow is a reverence for Nature, though some may come from a more formal Pagan path originally.

Most Hedgewitches do what ever comes natural to them; they follow their instincts, and their heart. Most use few made man objects in their spells and rituals. Their tools are typically very practical, such as a walking stick or pruning shears, and their tools are hand made by them as much as possible. They avoid complicated formulated magick, practicing an earthy and simple form of ritual and magick. Some Hedgewitches do not cast Circles when practicing outdoors, for they feel it cuts them off from nature.

Hedgewitches usually study herbalism with gusto, as well as seeking knowledge and understanding of the ways of Nature, the cycle of the seasons and the wildlife and plant-life in their area.

Hedgewitches will not only know how to grow herbs in a garden, but also where and how they grow in the wild and how to gather them. They usually have a great deal of lore on trees and plane life, animals and the wilderness in general. Healing, divination, the use of trance inducing herbs and all manner of fertility rites are also a part of this Tradition.

Hedgewitches tailor their Tradition to suit themselves. Some may focus on herbalism, others study midwifery; some may practice reiki, and others may be well versed in healing with crystals. Some Hedgewitches may choose to be a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none.

Sadly, there are few men called to this Path, and this may or may not change over time.
While Hedgewitchery is typically a solitary path, this is not always so. Even the most hermit-like Hedgewitch can still be found at local Pagan events. Also, some of their practices, especially the shamanic ones, require a trusted friend to watch over their body while their soul is elsewhere.

Hedgewitches are unlikely to become involved with Witch wars within the community, and depending on the individual’s personality, are more likely to prefer maintaining friendly relations with the majority of the Pagan community. Some may have friends or domestic partners who follow another Pagan or Heathen path, and they will often happily join in any ritual or activity if invited.

Spirituality in Hedgewitches varies and depends on the individual; usually they look to their own heritage and ancestry. Most commonly, Hedgewitches practice some form of NeoPaganism. The daily spiritual practice of a Hedgewitch will be adapted to her individual abilities, interests and life style.

One Hedgewitch may start her mornings offering up prayers of thanksgiving to her gods as she collects eggs from the chicken coop. Another Hedgewitch may spend her mornings in quiet meditation on her patio; sipping tea and watching the deer graze in her lawn. A third Hedgewitch may say a quick prayer at the household shrine before racing off to work.

So what the heck IS a Hedgewitch anyways?

Some people may prefer rural and/or wild settings and be a little wild themselves. They may be looking for a Shamanic Witchcraft Tradition that leans heavily on natural magic, understanding the wilderness and the practice of healing lore. They may have little interest in organized religion. They may wish to blaze their own Path, like the wise women of old.

They may just be ‘Hedgewitches’.

Footnotes:
Source:
Wikipedia

An Introduction to Traditional Wicca

An Introduction to Traditional Wicca

© 1987, Keepers of the Ancient Mysteries ( .K.A.M. )

Often Traditional Wiccans are asked to describe our religion and beliefs for interested people, who may or may not have confused us with other Pagan religions, with inversions of Christian/Islamic religions like Satanism, or with purely magical traditions with no religious base. There is a lot of flexibility in the ways that we describe ourselves, and one characteristic of Wicca is a large degree of personal liberty to practice as we please. Still, there is an outline that can be described in general terms. Many traditions will depart from one particular or another, but groups departing from all or most of these features are probably non-Wiccan Traditions attempting to stretch or distort the Wiccan name to cover what they want to do.

Mysteries and Initiation

Wicca is an Initiatory religion descended from the Ancient Mystery Religions. A mystery religion is not like Catholicism where a Priest is the contact point between the worshiper and the Deity, nor like Protestantism where a sacred Book provides the contact and guidelines for being with the divine. Rather a Mystery Religion is a religion of personal experience and responsibility, in which each worshiper is encouraged, taught and expected to develop an ongoing and positive direct relationship with the Gods. The religion is called a “Mystery” because such experiences are very hard to communicate in words, and are usually distorted in the telling. You have to have been there in person to appreciate what is meant. Near and far-Eastern religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto are probably Mystery traditions, but Wicca is very western in cultural flavor and quite different than eastern religions in many ways.

A Blend of Pagan Roots

Most Wiccan Traditions, .K.A.M. included, have particular roots in the British Mystery Traditions. This includes traditions of the Picts who lived before the rise of Celtic consciousness, the early Celts, and some selected aspects of Celtic Druidism. American Wicca is directly descended from British Wicca, brought in the late 1950’s by English and American Initiates of Gardnerian, Alexandrian and Celtic Wicca. These traditions are a little like the denominations in Christianity, but hopefully far more harmonious.

While British Traditions are very strong in Wicca, or the Craft as it is sometimes called, other Western Mystery traditions feature prominently, including the ancient Greek Mysteries of Eleusis, Italian Mysteries of Rome, Etruria and the general countryside, Mysteries of Egypt and Persia before Islam, and various Babylonian, Assyrian and other mid-eastern Mysteries that flourished before the political rise of the advocates of “one god”.

What’s In a Name?

Wicca, Witchcraft, and “The Craft” are used interchangeably at times by many kinds of people. It is fair to say that all Wiccans are Witches, and many of us believe we are the only people entitled to the name. It is important to know that many people call themselves witches who are not in the least Wiccan, and that Masons also refer to themselves as “Craft”, with good historical precedent. Carefully question people on the particular things they do and believe as part of their religion rather than relying on labels. Any real Wiccan would welcome such honest inquiry.

Traditions and Flavor

There are specific Wiccan beliefs and traditions, including worship of an equal and mated Goddess and God who take many forms and have many Names. Groups who worship only a Goddess or only a God are not traditional Wicca however they may protest, although they may be perfectly good Pagans of another sort. The Wiccan Goddess and God are linked to nature, ordinary love and children — Wicca is very life affirming in flavor.

Because we have and love our own Gods, Wiccans have nothing to do with other people’s deities or devils, like the Christian God or Satan, the Muslim Allah or the Jewish Jehovah (reputedly not his real name). Christians often deny this fact because they think that their particular god is the only God, and everybody else in the whole world must be worshipping their devil. How arrogant. They’re wrong on both counts.

Traditional Wicca is a religion of personal responsibility and growth. Initiates take on a particular obligation to personal development throughout their lives, and work hard to achieve what we call our “True Will”, which is the best possibility that we can conceive for ourselves. Finding your Will isn’t easy, and requires a lot of honesty, courage and hard work. It is also very rewarding.

Wicca is generally a cheerful religion, and has many holidays and festivals. In fact, most of the more pleasant holidays now on our calendar are descended from the roots Wicca draws on, including Christmas, May Day, Easter and Summer Vacation. Wicca is definitely not always serious. Dancing, feasting and general merriment are a central part of the celebrations.

Wiccan Ethics

Wiccans have ethics which are different in nature than most “one-god” religions, which hand out a list of “do’s and don’ts”. We have a single extremely powerful ethical principal which Initiates are responsible for applying in specific situations according to their best judgment. That principle is called the Wiccan Rede (Old-English for rule) and reads:

    “An (if) it harm none, do as ye Will”

Based on the earlier mention of “True Will”, you will understand that the Rede is far more complex than it sounds, and is quite different than saying “Do whatever you want as long as nobody is hurt”. Finding out your Will is difficult sometimes, and figuring out what is harmful, rather than just painful or unpleasant is not much easier.

Initiation into Wicca

People become Wiccans only by Initiation, which is a process of contacting and forming a good relationship with the Gods and Goddesses of Wicca. Initiation is preceded by at least a year and a day of preparation and study, and must be performed by a qualified Wiccan Priestess and Priest. The central event of Initiation is between you and your Gods, but the Priestess is necessary to make the Initiation a Wiccan one, to pass some of her power onto you as a new-made Priestess or Priest and to connect you to the Tradition you’re joining.

Women hold the central place in Wicca. A Traditional Coven is always headed by a High Priestess, a Third Degree female Witch with at least three years and three days of specific training. A Priest is optional, but the Priestess is essential. Similarly, a Priest may not Initiate without a Priestess, but a Priestess alone is sufficient. Women are primary in Wicca for many reasons, one of which is that the Goddess is central to our religion.

One Religion at a Time

People often ask “Can I become a Wiccan and still remain a Christian, Muslim, practicing Jew, etc. The answer is no. The “one god” religions reject other paths besides their own, including each other’s. “One-god” religions also do not exalt the Female as does Wicca, and mixing two such different traditions would water them both down. Besides, you’d have to ask how serious a person who practiced two religions was about either one. Being Jewish is an exception, since it is a race and culture as well as a religion. There are many Wiccan Jews, but they practice Wicca, not Judaism.

Magick and Science

People interested in Wicca are usually curious about the magick that Wiccans can do. While magick (spelled with a “k” to distinguish from stage conjuring) is not a religion in itself, it is related to our religious beliefs. Wiccans believe that people have many more abilities than are generally realized, and that it is a good idea to develop them. Our magick is a way of using natural forces to change consciousness and material conditions as an expression of our “True Wills”. Part of becoming a Wiccan is training in our methods of psychic and magickal development.

Because we believe that everything a person does returns to them magnified, a Wiccan will not work a magick for harm, since they would pay too high a price. But a helpful magick is good for both the giver and receiver! Wicca is entirely compatible with the scientific method, and we believe all the Gods and forces we work with to be quite natural, not supernatural at all. We do not, however, hold with the kind of scientific dogma or pseudo religion that sees everything as dead matter and neglects its own method by trumpeting “facts” without honest examination of evidence.

Priestesses at Large?

Long ago the spiritual (and sometimes physical) ancestors of Wiccans were Priestesses and Priests to the Pagan culture as well as devotees of their Mystery. Now that a Pagan culture is rising again, some ask if today’s Wiccans could resume that role. This seems unlikely.

Today’s Pagan culture is very diverse and more interested in exploring and creating new forms than in building on existing traditions. A public role would either dilute our traditions or force them on an unwilling audience. The neo-Pagan community generally prefers “media figures” and rapid membership and growth. This is not compatible with our slow methods of training and Initiation, the insistence that livelihood come from work outside the Craft, or our needs for privacy. Our religion is not accepted in the American workplace or political system, and may never be. The most powerful Priestesses are often unknown to all but their Coveners. While all Wiccans are Pagans, all Pagans are not Wiccan, and it is best that it remain so.

Solitary Spirituality

Solitary Spirituality

Author: Jess

Being a solitary Witch does not mean that you have to do everything alone. I myself have been a member of a coven and practiced on my own as well, finding that not everyone is meant to perform rituals and works of magic with others. Sure, sometimes it is nice to be joined with others of your own faith. But being a part of a coven is not for everyone.

I found my path about ten years ago. A friend in high school introduced paganism to me. Mind you, this was also during a time when the movie “The Craft” had already gained cult status and being a witch became somewhat of a trend. My sister and a friend of ours also became interested and we dedicated ourselves as a coven before I knew it. For a few weeks the four of us were so close that we enjoyed practicing meditations, working with our energies, and celebrating midsummer nearly every day. Things seemed so great; I had finally found my calling and felt that the world was at peace with itself. Unfortunately that would not last long.

Our high priestess, my friend who introduced this faith to me, had her own agenda. That’s not to say that she meant any harm, and I will always be connected to her through the bonds of friendship. But the power this young high priestess felt over the rest of my coven mates and me seemed to overcome her better judgment. She began playing us against each other, praising me for my strength with the elements, only to use that as a way to make one of the other coven mates feel powerless. Then this same high priestess would turn around and favor my sister in a way that brought me down. It wasn’t long before the three of us realized what was happening. So instead of turning against each other, we started distancing ourselves from our leader.

The coven was eventually disbanded; we were young and had much to learn. It was a true experience, but since then I have not felt the need to join another coven. Nor do I think that I will ever want to again. Our high priestess has, to my knowledge, stopped practicing altogether, along with our other friend who has completely withdrawn from her beliefs. My sister and I witnessed quite a few people go through the fad of enjoying the ‘benefits’ of becoming a Witch, and when they realized that there is so much more to Paganism than just doing spell work and wearing the color black, they moved on. But Wicca was so much more to me, as it has been for many others. I became enamored with its teachings, and immersed myself in as many books, articles, and shops that I could find.

My sister has always been very encouraging and still holds her beliefs, but she is not as active in her faith as she used to be. We have sometimes celebrated the Sabbaths together, but I was often on my own. Luckily, the years have been kind to me. My connection to the Gods has only grown stronger as I have worked very hard to maintain a balance between living a healthy natural life and finding my place in society. A challenging task at times, but I always say that this is the best time to be a witch.

I am now married with a daughter of my own, and though I still consider myself a solitary witch, the wheel of the year is quite a beacon of light in our home. Celebrating the holidays reminds me that love is the main ingredient in any faith. And the Gods sure have graced my family with plenty of love. We highly enjoy our festivities with our shy lion head rabbit Penny, our scaly fish Einstein, our two fluffy cats, Smokey and Tortoro, as well as our sweet dog Willow. I feel more at ease performing ritual with my family, including these beautiful creatures, than I ever did in a coven.

Some days I enjoy my meditations and rituals alone, whereas there are others where my husband and daughter join in. We are linked through our beliefs like many people, but my husband is a Taoist so his participation is based more on ideals than ritual. Not being a part of a coven has had a very positive effect on me. I have the freedom to focus on my own journey, while not feeling too self-centered. I take my faith very seriously while trying to know how to loosen up and enjoy my beliefs. Finding many solitary guides has made this possible. There is a multitude of books, magazines, and online sources that give me the information I need as well as offering a sense a community.

Being lonely is not part of being a solitary witch because true Pagans are very personable. There is nothing more I love to do than speak with others about faith, as long as I am speaking with someone who is respectful. I live to enjoy life, knowing that the gods are always around me. If I do feel the need for a little Witchy interaction from time to time, there is always the “Pagan Picnic”, classes I can take at my New Age Shop and “the Witches Ball”. Our annual Renaissance Festival has quite a few Pagan elements included as well. Having the opportunity to attend these events allows me to be social enough with other people of my own faith without having to worry about the demands of being part of a coven.

Some Wiccans prefer those coven/group bonds, and that is understandable. Words cannot express the kind of link that one has to the other members of their coven. But many of us are perfectly happy to have the freedom of practicing our beliefs on our own. After all, everyone has their own path to take and being a solitary Witch is full of freedom, happiness, and adventure.

Magic: A Young Seeker’s Explanation for Fellow Seekers

Magic: A Young Seeker’s Explanation for Fellow Seekers

Author: Alexander Cheves

Magic was the hardest thing for me to come to terms with on my journey into Paganism and Wicca. I was a young teenage guy, I was logical, and I was brought up by medical professionals in a conservative Southern Baptist household in the wooded countryside of North Georgia. I was taught the value of ethics, education and spiritual discipline, and I were taught that God loves me.

I found Wicca, or Wicca had found me, in the same way that I imagine religion finds most people. We stumble through life searching for meaning, purpose, fulfillment and happiness, and sometimes along that journey we are lucky enough to have rare, beautiful experiences in which we feel truly alive. Sometimes we dismiss them as great feelings, but sometimes we see them as something more. When the latter happens, we feel perhaps like our eyes have opened up and we have arrived home into the warmth of a familiar-feeling idea or deity. We are taken to a place within ourselves in which we find truth, and even greater than truth, a breathtaking sense of purpose: we belong here.

I owe a lot to Christianity. Aside from being a rich and beautiful faith in which I grew in my journey with God, Christianity provided me the spiritual discipline and religious mindset that eventually led me from it. I understood prayer and I understood ritual, the symbolic breaking of bread, the power of music to direct one’s focus and consciousness at something higher. So as I began reading more and more books on the Pagan or Neo-Pagan faiths, primarily Wicca, I readily accepted the concepts of the polytheistic duality of deity, of the God and Goddess, and the pantheistic concept of the natural world being divine as the substance, manifestation and vessel of deity. These concepts, although unlike anything I had ever read before, felt familiar and beautiful and true, and they gave me purpose and made me feel alive. It felt like coming home. But magic (or “magick” as some Wiccans spell it, simply to distinguish it from parlor tricks and entertainment shows) continued to be a stumbling block for me.

Magic happens when I look up at the stars, when I hope, when I place my hand on someone’s shoulder as they cry. When I look up at the stars, I am reminded of my smallness and my uncertainty, and that first and familiar awe is rekindled in me, the awe that I feel when I face all that I don’t know and all that I have to trust. It gives me hope, humility, and a sense of worship – a sense that I am not alone, that I am guided through this. When I hope, I’m projecting my positive energies onto the world around me to make it better. When I place my hand on someone’s shoulder, I am connecting with him or her on the most basic level of human communication: Touch.

Touch is something that starts in the womb and infancy and sustains us throughout our lives. This powerful and simple action is comforting because it connects us to that place of infancy in which we all needed to be held and cared for, and it reminds us on a deep level that life and struggle are shared experiences. But on a surface level, as I touch my friend’s shoulder, all that is occurring is the transference of my warmth, my pulse, the vibration of my cells, the energies that constitute me as a human being, to another person: Magic.

Scott Cunningham in his famous, singular work Wicca: A Guide For the Solitary Practitioner, defines magic as “the projection of natural energies to produce needed effects.” As a Wiccan of five years, I am still learning and growing in my understanding of magic. I have had discussions with many different people and read several different perspectives on the subject of magic. I’ve realized that magic is often what draws people to Wicca. Ideas of personal power and sorcery, casting spells and curses and controlling others are probably very attractive and romantic ideas to those who don’t know what the Wiccan concept of magic really is. As can be seen in the examples above, magic is a natural occurrence. It happens every day.

Cunningham claimed that the energies employed to make magic come from three primary sources: the self, the earth, and deity. As I have studied, I have found these three to be the most common and accepted sources of energy in Wiccan thought. The energy that comes from the self is simply the life force that runs through all living things. We humans gain this energy through food, exercise, breathing, living, from the body’s natural processes and from the power of one’s will. The earth holds energies within its natural phenomena. This is why rocks are commonly used as ritual items in Wicca. Rocks often have molecular qualities that can be medically beneficial to human beings; they act as powerful symbols with which the subconscious mind communicates to our conscious selves; and most of all, rocks and crystals vibrate with the old, raw and natural energies of the earth. Lastly, deity – the divine energy, the God and Goddess, the Great Spirit, God, the All – whatever one may wish to call the forces that guide us – provide us with the greatest source of energy: divine energy.

In common Wiccan thought, the God and Goddess are twin energies that run through everything that exists, and we humans have cast them in our image in order to better understand them. I believe that we are also cast in their image, and are, out of all the living creatures on the planet, the closest to them, for we humans are given the greatest burden and responsibility: to care for the earth and for one another. Divine energy is the core substance of all the other energies, for the energies within ourselves are directed by higher forces, and the energies inherent in the earth are the presence of divinity in nature. In Wicca, there is no distinction between deity and creation. God is both the substance of all that is and also the energy that runs through it. This energy is divine energy.

In Wiccan thought, magic occurs when one takes these energies and uses them to meet practical, real-world needs, such as the need for comfort and money and faith and protection. I have used magic to help my suffering loved ones, to aid in my ability to concentrate and remember information for a test, to help me relax, to help me grieve, to give me faith, to keep me strong when I need to be brave, to give me direction, to help me make a decision, to help me financially, to get me through a hard day – the list goes on. How does one use these energies in order to produce magic?

Many Wiccans use tools and practices, such as ritual, meditation, prayer, and craft-making to create objects that help focus the applied energies, but at the heart of all these is the presence of faith. One must believe that the desired result will happen. Often faith is all it takes.

Finally, over all of this, one must believe that, if the magic doesn’t work, higher forces are guiding the world and are involved in the circumstances that one is trying to influence. If we were left totally in control of our lives, then we would never grow. That is perhaps the greatest religious struggle: trusting deity, and trusting oneself to know when to act and when to let go.

Although a major part of Wicca, the Wiccan understanding of magic is practical and practicable for anyone. Magic has certainly helped me get to where I am now: it guides me through my journey of faith and through my everyday life. Like prayer, it is something I cannot live without. Rather than practice specific, written-down, structured ritual to create magic, I have found that the spontaneous actions and experiences that I create for myself without any ritual tools (wand, stones, bell, salt, water, candles, an altar, etc.) often work the best for me. As my journey has progressed, my earliest teachings of God have been affirmed: education and ethics are essential to my sense of fulfillment, and God loves me.

Once, many years ago, I accidentally found a few books on Wicca when I visited my local Barnes and Nobel. I flipped through them lightly, rejected them all as garbage and left them on the shelf. I felt that surely my religious questioning and my searching was not taking me there. But later, on a cool night in Zambia, Africa, I slept beneath the stars. There was no smog or air pollution, no bright lights, and no cities. There were bush villages in that darkness, which at the most produced smoke columns from cooking fires. Nothing blotted out the sky, and the stars were so clear that they fell to the horizon line. I at last felt the sensation that we are on a large sphere hurtling through space. I was in the stars.

There, in that strange place, I held my breath: I was not alone. I had been brought up to see God, a male, Judeo-Christian deity that was loving and protective. But there in those sweet stars I saw a woman. She and the same wild god that I had known before in Christianity were standing beside each other as equals. She was mother, I was seeing her for the first time, and I was home.

Wherever your journey of life takes you, I wish you only the passion to seek, and to keep seeking. There is magic in these woods and these mountains and down the soft shoreline. There is beauty in all that we see if we just look for it. It is enough to simply see that beauty and not understand it. It is enough to stand before the earth and not know what purpose it serves or from whence it came and still kneel before it in awe.

Footnotes:
Cunningham, Scott. Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. St. Paul, Minn., U.S.A.: Llewellyn Publications, 1989. Print.

The People You Meet on the Pagan Path

The People You Meet on the Pagan Path

Author: MissElphie

There are always people who leave a mark along our path in our Pagan path. Those people who supported us and who taught us things that, probably, we wouldn’t have learned in any other way. These people are essential and must not be forgotten. After all, no matter how many books we write, how many thesis are made and researches done, there is always space to learn and embrace knowledge that we get through experience and by the teaching of others. That is what I’ll be talking about today.

The solitary path is a path that is often chosen, especially in today’s society in which most Pagan practitioners live in the big metropolis and cities, and where finding a coven is getting harder and harder. These good covens hide themselves more often than you think. And, if covens do ‘go public’, much of the time, they aren’t that big of a thing or there is a high chance that they are not what the practitioners are looking for. Good covens are hard to find. Not only due to their shortage but also because it’s complicated for a solitary to fit their eclectic costumes and already acquired traditions in a group that is as well defined as a coven. It ends up being complicated. Additionally, today’s individualism and our consumer and technological society oft results in isolation from the community around us (in favor of a virtual community) which may lead to a disconnection.

These factors plus the routine and daily busy life of the metropolis leads to shortage of time.
As you can see, there are numerous factors that may stop a solitary practitioner from joining a coven. There is, also, the possibility of the practitioner himself/herself not wanting to join a coven (like my case, for example) .

Don’t judge me wrong, I believe that life in a coven can be amazing and very enriching and, if possible, I recommend the experience if you are so inclined, since all paths teach us something. But, in this article, I’m focusing more on the solitary side of the Pagan practice.

For a solitary, magickal practice requires a routine by which the seeker learns things by himself/herself. We must alone search for authors, read books, research sources, etc. It ends up being our daily lives, so, after a couple of years, it becomes second nature. We know that author X is good and author Y is not that good. We prefer the works of X and not of Z. And so on.

However when we do meet someone who may be able to help us, such as someone with more experience, it’s always great. And, my advice is to take that opportunity. You can share what you know with that person and that person will share her knowledge with you. You can have arguments about a certain theory and, by debating it, reach a common and satisfactory answer. You can read books and discuss opinions on the subject or go to public events and find more people to talk to and learn from or teach.

With the help of others, our path only gets richer. It is still a solitary path and ours in the practical terms, since it is created and followed by us alone, but we always learn a lot interacting with others.

Throughout the years, I’ve met several people (not only online but also in person) who have taught me so much and helped me grow. I’m no longer that girl who thought that Wicca was all fairies and pink and that all other Pagan paths were a simple minority. Today, I have a clear notion of what Paganism is, of Wicca and of several different pagan paths, not only when talking about Neo-Paganism, but also pre-Christian beliefs.

I’m not saying that everyone whom you will meet will teach you something good for you to use in your daily path. But they will teach you something. They might, at least, teach you not to follow their path (if they are one of those crazy nut-heads that go around or a scammer) . Everyone has something to teach you and you must, along your path, learn everything you can from people, whether they are Pagan or not (Yes, even followers of other religions have a lot to teach you, especially when it comes to respecting other people’s beliefs) .

But of course, be careful. Don’t try everything people tell you to try. There are a lot of people who are amazing and who will teach you things that will last for a lifetime but there are also may be people with bad intentions who only want to harm you, scam you or worse. Trust me, I’ve seen people whose only interest in helping others was to gain money or fame or just use that “wanting to help” as a way of scamming them. Always be careful and always be very alert during any conversation. Think for yourself and, if necessary, ask for the opinion of someone older or with more knowledge than you, in whom you trust. .

Life has a lot to teach us and there are so many things to try and learn from. Don’t keep yourself entirely locked away from the world by not socializing, by not meeting other pagans. At first it can be hard to see so many points of views. Some you might even think “What is this?” but that will also teach you to respect others. There is so much you can learn by meeting and by talking to other pagans.

Find some events in your area or, if you are going on vacation to somewhere, search if there are any pagan gathering nearby and plan a visit. Or find an online forum and join up, meet some people and learn new things.

My simple conclusion: Socialize. Talk to people, enter social networks of Paganism, sign into forums and meet people. Learn with them and discover new worlds filled with knowledge. Who knows? You might even find a coven that will be your future family. You never know what plans the Gods have in store for us.

Live life to the fullest; know the world and live your religion.

Goddess Blessings,
MissElphie

Growing Up Wyrrd

Growing Up Wyrrd

Author: Liofrun

Most of us have at one point or another heard a story from a fellow Pagan about growing up in a Christian family, being disillusioned with the religion they were assigned to and later converting. These stories are one of the more popular personal narratives of NeoPaganism, but we are entering an era when many of the elders of the modern Pagan movement are old or dead and not only have children, but grandchildren who have been raised with their particular flavour of Paganism. I suspect the narrative of NeoPaganism is about to change when these people who grew up Pagan start to tell their stories; however, there is yet another narrative not talked about or told as much as the “I grew up Christian” narrative, and that is the “I just came home” narrative. The latter is mine.

Being a convert can be tough, no doubt about it, and it can be particularly straining on relationships with nonPagan family members, and equally as straining on the convertee, especially when it comes to worldview. Pagans have a distinctly different worldview (a fundamental cognitive orientation that includes one’s views of society, philosophies, ethics, normative postulates, etc.) than that of Christians, who represent the majority narrative on worldview in the world. Many do not know how to deal with it, and many blanket Pagan terms over top of old Christian views they have internalised from being subjected to it for many years.

There are some of us however, who have never internalised the majority narrative, despite being subjected to it. Some time ago, I had the pleasure of reading Robin Artisson’s Reclaiming the Pagan Worldview, which, I think, while it has its flaws (i.e., the rejection of science-I believe this discounts all our ancestors’ work toward Academia) , is an indispensible tome of wisdom for the modern Pagan when it comes to thinking like a Pagan and being Pagan. I believe he is right when he speaks of “some people think that being Pagan is a matter of […] making a blanket rejection of their original beliefs” and not much else. I think many Heathens know it when we see it, and know the importance of seeing the world in a Heathen way, especially the hard polytheists. It is a distinct way of perceptualising the world around you and your experiences and merely placing Pagan terminology over top of internalised perceptualisations can severely stunt your understanding of and experience of Heathenism and Paganism.

Heathenism is not compatible with the Abrahamic worldview, the worldview many of us have been taught since birth, and still more have had it ground into us, forced internalisation from everything from the basics of belief in the supernatural to our modern understanding of secularism and societal philosophies. I agree with Artisson that we need to reclaim that Pagan worldview if we are going to be Pagans. Our ancestors created rich cultures of Pagan philosophy, schooling, democracy and secularism from a distinctly Heathen point of view. Our contemporaries have spent years studying, collaborating and providing us with historical and archaeological references, texts and reconstructions of these rich cultures. Their worldviews have also changed how we see the days of the week, and even how we see time. A Pagan worldview encompasses everything from religious rites to our perception of language and how time passes. To not work toward reclaiming it is to do ourselves, our ancestors and especially our descendents are grievous disservice. This is where my narrative comes in.

I did indeed grow up in a typical “Christian household” but the beliefs were never consistent. No one seemed to be able to decide what, if anything, he or she actually believed. They had more internalised the worldview of their Christian society and feared letting it go, and stepping out of the cage. On the other hand, I grew up spending time at my best friend’s house, whose mother was an Indigenous Wiccan. From my earliest memories I saw nature as sacred and in my dimmest, furthest reaches of childhood memory; I was an animist.

When my friend’s stepmother told me about Paganism, at the age of eight, I felt I had “come home”. Of all the attempts to scar me with Christian worldview, not a single one had succeeded to embed itself in my mind. My friend’s stepmother’s own syncretic views of religion had a much deeper impact and while I didn’t end up Wiccan (I often saw Christian baggage being dragged in. Christians in Pagans’ clothing, as it were, and I rejected it in favour of Reconstructionist paths) , today I still see the world in the same manner, and more so.

In my teenage years when I was just discovering who I was, I began to fear the constant press of Christianity both in the forefront and in my periphery and began to work hard everyday to affect my Wyrd and prevent me from ever internalising Christianity. While I no longer fear Christianity, at the time, my young mind felt it was a severely pressing issue. I sucked up the lore incessantly and constantly looked for patterns of Wyrd and Orlog in my everyday life. Indeed, discovering Theodism and Sinnsreachd and Celtic Recon even changed my views of what Heathenry was, and that not every Reconstructionist shares the same worldview, philosophies or ethics, despite the majority narrative within Heathenry being Ásatrú.

Discovering the concept of Wyrd opened my eyes to a way of seeing and understanding the world I had only the faintest, labelless, wordless glimmer of before. I discovered it in my grade 11 English class, reading a Michael Alexander translation of Beowulf. Beowulf became one of my most treasured tomes of lore for its attempt at interweaving an archaic Heathen worldview with a Christian one, and I felt what must have been the same conflict as did the Christian teller of the tale who added his own elements to what was otherwise a deeply Heathen epic. Christianity, in my natural and carefully cultivated Heathen worldview, was morbid, self-serving and deeply confused about its own ethics. They were too focused on death and on purposeful suffering, and indeed I saw all the Christians in my life suffering in ways I could not empathise with because I had never internalised the shame and the obsession with death that forced them into their continual fear and gloom. And this is often what I see in contemporary Heathens who espouse a distinctly Christian flavour coming from being a convert, or even the children of converts. I see it less so with the “came home” narrative, those of us who had a way of perceiving our world and only later found names for it.

I would advise studying the lore, the history and especially the philosophies of not just our ancestors but the ancestors and elders of all Heathen paths and I would advise deeply connecting it to our everyday life on a daily basis. Heathenry isn’t a Sunday sacrifice, or merely posting on Ásatrú Lore once a week, it’s a way of life, it is how you see the sun when it rises, how you drive to work on a Monday, how you effect your Wyrd with every choice you make. Heathenry is who a Heathen is. No one ever said it was easy, but it’s certainly necessary.

Footnotes:
Sharples, R. W. “Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy [Paperback].” Amazon.com: Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy (9780415110358) : R.W. Sharples: Books. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. .

Artisson, Robin, “Reclaiming the Pagan Worldview.” Scribd. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. .

‘Pagan’ Safer Than ‘Wiccan’?

‘Pagan’ Safer Than ‘Wiccan’?

Author: Shadow

So I’m up at the student union at my campus, watching from the sidewalk as our local fundamentalist group is preaching in lieu of Mardi Gras. While I’m there, my friend from high school, Adam, comes up to me. We were never really tight, but still, we were pretty good friends. One thing that he didn’t know about me until that moment was that I was Wiccan (I wasn’t exactly out of the broom closet in high school).

Now on campus, I’m pretty much open about my Wiccan beliefs. Generally, nobody asks, even when they see me wearing my pentacle – it’s simply implied, and nobody cares. This time, however, Adam gave an exasperated sigh and asked what I was wearing. “Um, a pentacle.” I responded. He began to laugh. When he asked why, he said something to the effect of Wicca being a fad. Needless to say, that struck a chord in me.

What’d I say? “Actually, I Pagan.”

He didn’t know what being Pagan entailed, so I explained my beliefs a bit. I did say that my practices and beliefs were influenced by Wicca, but that I dealt more with the Egyptian deities, and I believed that all religions were right in their own way. He took this definition more seriously than Wicca, and moved on.

Unfortunately, now I felt bad, because I felt like I was denying something I felt so passionately about. I love the Wiccan religion, and am glad to be a part of it. Yet when Wicca is put in a bad light by someone I know, I’ve been finding myself reverting to saying I’m just Pagan, instead of defending my choice of faith.

In my experience, this doesn’t just happen with non-Pagans, although those who do find fault with Wicca tend to be more vicious or mean about it than Pagans who look poorly at Wicca. In part this is because of my age – teenagers like me who are serious about Wicca are nonetheless almost always perceived, especially at first impressions, as fluffy bunny, angst-driven teens using Wicca for attention.

But this can be compounded by non-Pagans who don’t think of Wicca as being a real religion. They see the vast number of people who follow this path (in their eyes, predominantly teenagers) as being part of a hippie fad. In most of their eyes, they see Wicca equated with Witchcraft, and since most of them don’t believe Witchcraft to be real, they seem to dismiss Wicca as being a fantasy in and of itself.

When it comes to these people, I do tend to be quieter about my beliefs. As with Adam, I just say I’m Pagan, explain a little bit about what that is, and go about my regular business. And for the most part they tend to accept my being Pagan more than my being Wiccan. Why? In my opinion, it’s because Paganism hasn’t received as much media hype as Wicca has. Wicca has been played up in our modern pop-culture, whereas Paganism is resigned to just being a real religion. Simply put, Paganism sounds more real than Wicca to those who think Wicca is a fad religion.

This problem isn’t resigned to just non-Pagans. I know some Pagans who feel that Wicca has indeed been far too hyped in our culture, having overshadowed other Pagan religions such as Asatru, Reconstructionist religions, Afro-Caribbean religions, etc. In this case, they see new Wiccans as being part of that hype. And the general attitude is that Wicca has indeed become a fad and as such needs to be ignored.

Then there are the elitist and fundamentalist Pagans – yes, such Pagans, and even Wiccans, exist. As with the above groups, I can’t speak accurately for everyone, but the general consensus of this group of Pagans is that most people who call themselves Wiccan are in fact fooling themselves, because most of them are not a part of the original Wiccan traditions, such as Gardnerian and Alexandrian. If not this, then it’s because they’re solitary practitioners, or because they’re eclectic in their practices, or, heaven forbid, they’re publicly open about their beliefs. Woe be to the Wiccan who fulfills these criteria, for in the eyes of the elitist, they are regarded with great contempt.

Truthfully, all these negative attitudes towards Wicca, at least in my experience, have been minimal. But when faced with such adversity, is it any wonder I wouldn’t want to say that I’m Wiccan? I know it sounds like a cop-out, but I’m not the kind of person who likes to make waves. I’m a pacifist at heart who looks for ways to avoid conflict. And it is my belief that if someone truly has a problem with my Wiccan beliefs, then it’s none of their business, and they’ll just have to live with what I tell them. In these cases, it’s a matter of peacemaking and protection as opposed to stirring up arguments and hurting feelings.

Still, no matter how much I justify my lying, it doesn’t erase what I feel inside – that I’m not being true to myself. Anybody who lives a life hiding a secret about themselves knows what I’m talking about, and I’m sure many of you in the broom closet know this feeling all too well.

And at times this conflict has made me question my commitment to Wicca. While I’m completely in love with the religion and the philosophy behind it, what does it say about me when I deny loving it? Is it a sign of shame? In the eyes of the above groups, yes, because let’s face it – Wicca holds a stigma about it that other Pagan religions don’t. Otherwise it’s just a matter of safety, in which case I’m not ashamed. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not in a place where I can be proudly open about being Wiccan with everyone.

But it is a growing problem when saying you’re Pagan is more appropriate than saying you’re Wiccan. It’s a sign that we’re willing to let ourselves be ignored, that we’re willing to hide ourselves under the umbrella of Paganism. In short, when we allow this, we’re turning into doormats, letting everyone walk all over us. I for one no longer wish to be a doormat. I’m working very hard to stand firm in my Wiccan beliefs, not just hiding behind being Pagan. I’m careful about who knows, obviously, but I am making a commitment to not be afraid of being Wiccan. After all, those who matter won’t care, and those that care won’t matter, right?

Reflecting on Witchcraft, Then and Now

Reflecting on Witchcraft, Then and Now

Author: Crick

These days I find myself in periods of reflection on my experiences in the Craft and the ways that is has affected my personal views on life. As part of this reflection, I often wonder in what direction the Craft is now undertaking.

My girlfriend of many years, who is a Druid, and who has spent hours engaged in discussions with the old guy, will occasionally tell me, “you just aren’t right” before flashing a huge grin. When she says this I feel honored because it confirms that I have walked through this life as an individual. And it is has been the experiences of being involved in traditional Witchcraft that has made such a life experience possible.

But now I find myself in a quandary as to my personal views of witchcraft.

When I was growing up on a farm in Tennessee in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and later in suburbia in MD, our family quietly practiced the Craft as we knew it by way of our Irish heritage and the Appalachia influence that we grew up around.

Outwardly we were like any other family at the time; just our beliefs were a bit different from some. And though we referred to folks outside of our personal family as “the others” we were never obvious about such beliefs and so folks around us in the community had no clue. In fact, only one outsider, a Mrs. Bowie, who was a retired minister of a mystical Christian church and close friend of my grandmother Ina and a family from Ohio that used to visit my grandparents when we lived in MD, were the only non-family members that were aware of our ways.

Were we special?

Absolutely not, we were just as dysfunctional in some ways as any other family from that era. However, we never believed in publicity as far as our particular beliefs in the Craft. This was not due to fear of any public backlash or what have you; it was just our way to be private about our family ways.

In those days, folks believed that went on behind closed doors stayed behind those same doors. When my mother branched off into a coven separate from our immediate family at the beginning of 1970, a coven whose focus was primarily on Astrology and its influences on life, the ways of silence were such that though I as a teenager was aware of the existence of that coven, I knew next to nothing beyond that tiny morsel of information.

Some of you may have met my mother at some point in time for during the 1970’s she performed astrological and Tarot readings for a cruise ship liner that traveled between the coast of Florida and the Bahamas.

At any rate, during the mid 1970’s I spent three years in Germany with the military and during that time I was associated with a coven that engaged the path of Hecate and thus would probably be seen as a “dark” coven by Neo pagans today. And yet, though we were very active, we did not seek and in fact went to great pains to avoid publicity.

And now I come to my reservations and thus conflicting emotions about the openness if you will of witchcraft in today’s times. During the years that I have mentioned above, privacy was something that was as a natural way of life at the time and was respected as such.

I am keenly aware that during these same times, that those of the Wicca were in fact moving in the opposite direction and actively seeking publicity at every opportunity. Beyond this observation I personally have no comment to share about the Wicca during those times, for I am speaking about witchcraft as I know it from my personal experiences and not about the fledgling religion of Wicca.

In today’s day and age, with the advent of the Internet where information is readily assessable and where there are now a plethora of Wicca and witchcraft 101 books, it is difficult to find folks who adhere to the tenets of privacy that witchcraft once knew. My personal concerns are that is such openness really a positive step forward in regards to witchcraft?

When I examine my personal views of witchcraft, I see a spiritual path that is wide open to “personal” discovery. Nor do I see any valid restrictions on what or how a practitioner of witchcraft may engage in order to arrive at such discoveries. If one sees the need to conjure up a spirit or other entity in an effort to experience such a discovery, then so be it. If one needs to resort to witchcraft to correct a wrong from another, then again, so be it.

As a witch, I believe that each of us is an individual and as such I do not believe in Karma, a concept that is foreign to the art of witchcraft. But I do believe in maintaining personal responsibility. As an old school witch, I feel that I know my personal goals and the experiences needed to achieve them far better than any group of folks such as those found within the many religions that make up our world. If I make a mistake than I am the one who has to pay for them.

I personally do not believe that a public forum has the right to outline boundaries that defines what steps I am allowed to take to arrive at my experiences in witchcraft. As an individual I do not believe that anyone outside of me has a say on how I personally pursue the path of witchcraft.

Again, I am the one that has to answer for any trial and errors that I engage in within the parameters of witchcraft. And yet this is exactly the perception that we are at in today’s Neo pagan community.

Witchcraft is now defined (erroneously to my mind) as a religion. And as a religion all of the tenets that were once diametrically opposed to the tenets of witchcraft are now accepted as being the norm.

Because of the instantaneous communication of the Internet, folks who engage in witchcraft are cast into a false image of being light and fluffy folks. I personally do not believe in Good and Evil, as these is primarily concepts that originated with the Abrahamic religions. I do believe that there are shades of light and dark, but only in the sense that we need such labels in order to put a sense of understanding on such concepts as they relate to the human experience.

And so I have to wonder, if we took the overwhelming desire for publicity that defines the art of witchcraft today, would witchcraft still be defined as it is by today’s standards. Or would the freedoms that were once a tenet of witchcraft, flourish yet once again?

And are such modern standards, which in effect are enhanced by way of the Internet, realistic as it pertains to the practice of witchcraft?

Massive publicity may bode well for a religion in the sense that it needs such attention in order to boost its membership. But is such publicity really a positive and useful approach to a mystical spiritual path that requires no such membership beyond that of the individual practitioner?

Is the personal responsibility that has always been an unavoidable tenet of witchcraft still possible or even a consideration in the concept of witchcraft as it is defined by today’s standards? Has such massive publicity made witchcraft into a completely unrealistic concept in order to be acceptable to today’s society? Has such publicity taken away from the base realities of witchcraft?

A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality

A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality

I am a Pagan and I dedicate Myself to channeling the Spiritual Energy of my Inner Self to help and to heal myself and others.

  • I know that I am a part of the Whole of Nature. May I grow in understanding of the Unity of all Nature. May I always walk in Balance.
  • May I always be mindful of the diversity of Nature as well as its Unity and may I always be tolerant of those whose race, appearance, sex, sexual preference, culture, and other ways differ from my own.
  • May I use the Force (psychic power) wisely and never use it for aggression nor for malevolent purposes. May I never direct it to curtail the free will of another.
  • May I always be mindful that I create my own reality and that I have the power within me to create positivity in my life.
  • May I always act in honorable ways: being honest with myself and others, keeping my word whenever I have given it, fulfilling all responsibilities and commitments I have taken on to the best of my ability.
  • May I always remember that whatever is sent out always returns magnified to the sender. May the Forces of Karma move swiftly to remind me of these spiritual commitments when I have begin to falter from them, and may I use this Karmic feedback to help myself grow and be more attuned to my Inner Pagan Spirit.
  • May I always remain strong and committed to my Spiritual ideals in the face of adversity and negativity. May the Force of my Inner Spirit ground out all malevolence directed my way and transform it into positivity. May my Inner Light shine so strongly that malevolent forces can not even approach my sphere of existence.
  • May I always grow in Inner Wisdom & Understanding. May I see every problem that I face as an opportunity to develop myself spiritually in solving it.
  • May I always act out of Love to all other beings on this Planet — to other humans, to plants, to animals, to minerals, to elementals, to spirits, and to other entities.
  • May I always be mindful that the Goddess and God in all their forms dwell within me and that this divinity is reflected through my own Inner Self, my Pagan Spirit.
  • May I always channel Love and Light from my being. May my Inner Spirit, rather than my ego self, guide all my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

So Mote It Be

 

Circle Casting

Circle Casting

Why do we cast a circle? We cast a circle for protection from what may be attracted to what we are doing. There are times when spirits that do not wish us to succeed will be drawn by the power that we raise during a circle. Sometimes it is beneficial to cast a circle to lay down a boundary between the ill will that pagans sometimes encounter as they walk on their path. The circle itself is a reminder that we are now in a different time and space, and that this space is special.

The circle is a container as well. It is used to hold the energy that is raised until it is time to release it to whatever end we are working towards. If it was not there, the energy that we raised would have to be directed into a container rather than letting it swirl around in the one that has already been created. It is far easier to tell if there has been enough energy raised when you are moving directly through it than it is to tell if there is enough in the container.

Finally, the circle exists as a link to the people that have cast circles and gathered together in the past, and a link to those that will cast them in the future. It is a continuation of a chain that has evolved over thousands of years, passing information on and down throughout the ages. While there are very few religions that can trace their roots back into antiquity, it is undeniable that there are traces of those religions left, and that there are rites and ideas that have been passed down from one person to another throughout those long years. The circle is our way of trying to connect to those times gone by and it is our legacy to our children and their children for years to come.

Whether your circle has a physical boundary, a boundary of thought, or whether it is simply a grove of trees that is circular, the ideas are still there. The circle is a construct of the mind, an idea that passes between groups. It is the idea of a scares space and sacred time.

Why do we do ritual? Ritual is a way of trying to connect to something that is greater than the self. It is a link to other people and other beings; a link to times past and future. When people come together to celebrate their idea of the sacred, it is a sharing of something that is intangible and profound. It is a way to experience the divine that surrounds us in nature and is a part of ourselves that is not always understood. Ritual is a time for joy to be expressed in the celebration of the seasons and a time for sorry to be shared in the cycles of life that take our friends and loved ones from us and a time for everything in between.

It seems almost innate for people to come together to share this idea of the sacred. While the idea of what sacred is varies from people to people, there are very few cultures that do not espouse some version of the ideas of the sacred being a time set apart from secular life. Many cultures choose to make the goals of the two similar, thus ensuring that both are successful. Religion, it would seem, is something that is almost an inborn need of humans, a way of processing the things that we do not understand and of being able to celebrate them.

Why do we place the elements of ritual in a particular order? The simple answer is that it makes it easy for more than one person to follow what is happening when there is a common order to what is being done. The not so simple answer is that there is a logical progression from start to end to rituals that allow people to perform their rites in the simplest and easiest manner possible, allowing more people to participate.

Paganism is a group of religions that tends to frown on a centralized religious structure, and so it is important that more people be able to perform these rituals. Simplicity and structure gives the ability of those who do not wish to spend years mastering the smallest component of a ritual to participate as well. Common sense also plays a part in the order of a ritual. For most people, it makes sense to cast a circle and cut it off from the world outside before inviting the gods and elements as it is somewhat rude to make them stand around and wait, or call them and then cut them off from the ritual as you cast your circle. Some, however, find that it makes more sense to cleanse and purify the area, bring everyone in, and then cast the circle and invite the gods. Still others call the gods first and then cast the circle. As with anything, each person must decide what works best for them and why.

Where do we place things in a ritual? When thinking about where to place an event in a ritual, it is necessary to examine that event to find out what the results might be, or the reason that it is being done. If you are going to Draw Down the Moon (Call a Goddess into a person), then you need to consider just how tiring this is going to be for that person. Will they want to run and jump around to raise energy after? Is the Goddess likely to want that sort of thing?

If a person were going to do a drawing down for a God and Goddess, doing that before the Great Rite would make sense as it is a rite that takes the opposites of male and female and uses that polarity to make the rite that much stronger. Ritual creation takes the ability to think about the small details such as this and form them into a larger, successful whole.

How do we know when it is right to do something and when it is not? Start to decide this by thinking of the outcome of the ritual. What is the purpose that you are getting together for? If you are doing a healing, it would be good to invite gods that have that particular aspect. If you are doing a binding or a deconsecration, choose gods that deal with endings. If you are celebrating Beltaine, a fertility holiday, don’t invoke a Crone goddess who is past her fertile years.

The yardstick that any witch must use in creating a ritual is “Does it make sense to do it this way?” If it does not make sense, then find a different way of doing the event that does. There is no limit to what can be done with ritual. There is no right or wrong way to do a ritual. If it does not make sense to call the quarters, then don’t. Because something has always been done need not mean that it should always be done. Similarly, don’t throw out tradition unless it makes sense to do so.