Tag: Wicca

Life As The Witch – Spell-Writing Basics

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Spell-Writing Basics

Don’t worry if you are not the world’s greatest writer. Spells don’t have to be long and complicated in order to work, and the Gods don’t care if you can spell correctly! The most common complaint I get is from people who can’t get their spells to rhyme. But that’s okay—-they don’t have to.

Rhyming is nice for some spells. Traditionally, rhyming is used to give the spells a little more power through the rhythms of the words and to make them easier to memorize. But it certainly isn’t necessary. I’ll give you an example of a prosperity spell done both ways, just make it clear.

Prosperity Spell 1 – Rhyming

God and Goddess hear my plea

Rain prosperity down on me

Bring in monies large and small

To pay my bills one and all

Money earned and gifts for free

As I Will, So Mote It Be.

(Originally published in Circle, Coven & Grove: A Year of Magickal Practice, Llewellyn, 2007.)

Prosperity Spell 2 – Not Rhyming

Money I need and money I want

So let it come to me

In positive ways, at perfect times

As I need it, as I want it

As I Will It, So It Is.

As you can see, both spells ask for the same thing–they just do it in a slightly different way. The second spell is simpler; it doesn’t rhyme, it is shorter, and it doesn’t get as specific–but there’s no reason it couldn’t work. You could write a spell like that even if writing isn’t your thing.

So the first thing to know about writing spells is that it is fine to do so in whatever style or manner you are comfortable with.

Excerpts from:

“Writing and Casting Spells for the Best Results”
By Deborah Blake
Llewellyn’s 2013 Magical Almanac for Everyday Living

HEKATE THOU MOTHER OF MIGHT

Goddess Comments & Graphics
HEKATE THOU MOTHER OF MIGHT
by Jeanne Riegler

“Hecate, thou mother of might
Goddess of magick, of storms, of night.
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Dispensing justice from they lofty throne

Watching now with piercing eye
As thy moon palace doth glide the sky
All of life on the planet Earth
Selecting, weighing and measuring it’s worth

Grant us of thy wisdom sublime
Reveal to us the secrets of time
Help us winnow truth from lies
Harken now, please hear out cries

Hekate, thou mother of might
Goddess of crossroads, bearer of light
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Descend unto us from they lofty throne

Walk amongst us and reveal now
The mysteries of thy shining brow
Past, present and future merge
Let us feel thy power surge

Bestow healing upon this planet
Release the songs of thy stones of granite
Help us, strengthen us, in our resolve
To banish all hate, let it dissolve

Hekate, thou mother of might
Goddess of love, giver of sight
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Ensconced upon thy lofty throne
Acknowledge us, who by our own choice
Have chosen to listen to thy voice
Help us spread wisdom, truth, love and light
To save Earth from her desperate plight

We bide the Wiccan Reed to fulfill
“And ye harm none, do what thou will…”
Help us grow in serving thee
As we will, so mote it be.

Hekate, thou mother of might
Robed in splendor, beauteous, bright
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Shine upon us from thy lofty throne.”

Asking Questions

ASKING QUESTIONS

 

One of the most important skills you will ever learn in your life is learning which questions to ask and when to ask them.

You will never learn how to do much of anything in your life if you do not learn how to ask questions, and not only that, but to question the answers you get in return.

For instance, “I want to learn about wicca,” is not a question. It is a statement.

“Teach me about wicca,” is also not a question. It is a command, even if you add the word please.

Think about what you really want to ask. “Can you teach me about wicca?”

Ok, you’re getting closer to the question you really want answered. “Will you teach me about wicca?”

Even closer, but the topic at hand is a large one.

Look for where you actually want to start learning.

Good questions to start working with are “What makes wicca different from other paths?” or perhaps, “What is the first thing I should learn to start my journey of learning about wicca?” These last two questions are good questions because they are specific and and give the person you are talking with an idea of what you are actually interested in learning.

Here’s another example.

I want to learn how to bake bread.

First of all I find someone that knows how (the right person).

Then I wait until they have the time to help me and a place ready to show me how to bake bread.

I try to read up a little ahead of time if I can and show up well rested and ready to learn hopefully without any preconceptions (the right time).

Now I could ask them what the chemical structure of bread is, or why it browns when it bakes or what type of butter to use on it, but none of these are very good questions to help me towards my goal of learning how to bake bread.

True it might be useful information, but I can always learn the answers to those questions later once I have learned the basics.

So my first questions are, “What are the ingredients we use?” and “How do we start?,” two specific and useful questions.

A good question asked at the right time to the right person helps the person answering it almost as much as it helps the person asking it.

If the person you are asking questions to has no idea of your level of knowledge of the subject or your specific area of interest at the moment they cannot help you nearly as well as they could if they knew these things.

Good questions are one way of helping a person understand what you want to know and what level of difficulty you want it explained at.

Good Saturday Morning My Dear Friends & Family! Let’s Make It A Great One!

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TO BE A WITCH

To be a witch is to love and be loved.
To be a witch is to know everything, and nothing at all.
To be a witch is to move amongst the stars while staying on earth.
To be a witch is to change the world around you, and yourself.
To be a witch is to share and give, while receiving all the while.
To be a witch is to dance and sing, and hold hands with the universe.
To be a witch is to honor the gods, and yourself.
To be a witch is to be magick, not just perform it.
To be a witch is to be honorable, or nothing at all.
To be a witch is to accept others who are not.
To be a witch is to know what you feel is right and good.
To be a witch is to harm none.
To be a witch is to know the ways of old.
To be a witch is to see beyond the barriers.
To be a witch is to follow the moon.
To be a witch is to be one with the gods.
To be a witch is to study and to learn.
To be a witch is to be the teacher and the student.
To be a witch is to acknowledge the truth.
To be a witch is to live with the earth, not just on it.
To be a witch is to be truly free!

Raising Magickal Power

Raising Magickal Power

by Harley Hashman

Webster’s dictionary defines power as “…the ability to do or act…” or as “…strength or energy…”. Some might say that magick and power are synonymous; after all, magick without any power is nothing at all. I think Crowley’s definition of magick is perhaps the best of all (despite what you might think of the man himself) – magick is the ability to compel change to occur in conformity with the will. Therefore power is the level of this conformity which your magick achieves.

What are some of the means of raising and increasing magickal power? I have thought long and hard on this question. There are several principles which will aid the magician in the raising of energy. There is conservation, timing, visualization, emotion, will, the use of deities, and physical conditioning.

The first principle is simply conservation. If you expend energy that might be saved and employed in magickal workings, you won’t have much potency left. I myself have a terrible temper at times and might burn off a great deal of energy cursing at that chair that leapt across my path and made me stub my toe – or that ferret that just splattered chocolate pudding all over my book of shadows, after yanking all of the bristles from my witch’s broom and scattering them all over my living room rug. Some of us might waste energy in needless worrying.

Other emotions which may be destructive to magickal workings are jealousy, rancor, envy, self-pity, and depression. Emotions arise from thought, not perception – we process our perceptions of the world and then generate these feelings. Our internal dialogue reinforces our emotional responses to the world. If we practice clearing our heads of habitual thought patterns, we can minimize this source of waste. Should we find ourselves about to waste power in useless emotional habits, about to agitate ourselves needlessly, we can enter into a state of mental silence or try to divert the course of our mental dialogue.

Some habits may lead to the consumption of our energy, including smoking, alcoholism, arguing, oversleeping, judging others or excessive criticism, complaining or whining, and self-importance. I have met many witches, sorcerers, and magicians who practice such habits (self-importance being epidemic); that badly compromises not only their ability to focus power but how other practitioners view them. An important principle of all magickal practice is self-knowledge. It is much more difficult to raise significant amounts of power without this understanding, as we can then be trapped in mental patterns that deplete our resources without the tools to break free.

Timing of magickal workings is also important. The use of lunar cycles is commonplace. Typically constructive magick, which includes such workings as spells for love, wealth, health, and protection, are done during the waxing of the moon and destructive magick, which would include binding spells, are done during the waning phases.

Why? The moon is just a vast rock in space. It has to do in part with the effect the moon cycle has on biological rhythms; the menstrual cycle is just one such rhythm that naturally coincides with the 28-day lunar orbit. Called in some Wiccan circles the Blood of the Moon, the female cycle is a source of perceptual change for that sex. For many of the species on this planet, key biological rhythms are linked to the lunar cycles. It is widely believed that during a full moon, all the “crazies” come out and this is borne out by statistics generated by police records.

Another more important key to the value of lunar timing is simply that many witches include Lunar Goddesses such as Diana and Selena in their pantheons; therefore the moon is quite important to their practices.

Visualization is another component I believe to be vital to the focusing of magickal power. It is simply the ability to form mental images of people or objects. Visualization works with emotion to raise power in the first place through one’s emotional response to an image. If one were trying to bind an enemy, for example, it is important to construct a mental image of the despicable character to be bound. This acts as a lens to focus the energies on the desired target. If the image is weak or shaky the power of the spell may be also.

I have said that some emotions can restrict the flow and raising of power. Yet without emotion, the power itself cannot be stirred up. Magick works when emotion is combined with visualization and will to produce a noticeable effect. If one does not feel strongly about a working then it may be that little or no energy can be raised. I feel the key is to isolate the feeling that is best for the working at hand and not allow other emotions to divert or interrupt the spell. Magick usually requires the use of will, a single-minded determination or attitude, combined with the fury of an emotional maelstrom. A limp, half-assed attempt is a waste of time. As Yoda said, “…Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.” And he is just a muppet with Frank Oz’s hand up his arse!

The use of deities is critical to many magickal workings. In shamanism it is the use of spirit guides or allies that grants the sorcerer a gift of power. In ceremonial magic it is the evocation of preternatural entities like those listed in the Goetia. In Wicca it is the invocation or evocation of the Fey or elementals or various gods or goddesses. In each case a being whose power is much superior to any mortals donates some of that ability, if only temporarily, to a given working or quest for knowledge. Here again it is the visualization of the entities in question combined with emotion, will and timing, that makes the transference of energies possible.

Lastly, physical condition is important to magickal workings. If one is so ill that you cannot get out of bed or your legs have recently been broken by a rampant wildebeest then your energies will be largely diverted towards healing and it would be ill-advised for you to try any magickal workings. Many practitioners, myself included, are out of shape physically and this may rob us of our maximum potential. If you are panting and out of breath after small exertions then how can you be expected to have any energy in your magick?

To raise power for magick one should practice magick – a muscle gets stronger with use. Regular magickal exercise whether alone or in a group will increase your abilities tremendously. If you are an arm-chair witch you may have the knowledge of magick but not the power to make it go.

Laugh Of The Day: How To Know if Someone is New To Magick When they

You Know Someone Is New To Magick and Paganism When They Think That…

 

An ATHAME is the gas you use for your grill.

A CENSOR is a drink you mix with alcohol.

ASTRAL PROJECTION is a home-made movie viewer.

A SYMPATHITIC LINK is when you feel sorry because your chain broke.

WICCA is that part of the candle that burns.

APHRODITE is a prehistoric bird.

ARCHETYPES is a kind of building structure.

BLESSED BE is the god of insects.

A BOOK OF SHADOWS contains silhouettes of friends or family members.

A BRAZIER is support wear for women.

CASTING is done with a fishing line, or on a set in Hollywood.

CHARGING is done with a credit card or battery.

The only way to get into a CIRCLE is to have the right of way.

Crystal CLEANSING is done with window cleaner.

CYCLES have to do with your washing machine and when to add fabric softener.

DEMETER is where you put your quarter when you park downtown.

A DOLMAN is a new brand of banana.

HANDFASTING is eating without utensils.

LEY LINES happen at the airport in Hawaii.

PAN is something you fry food in.

A QUARTER is 25 cents and still buys a cup of coffee. (Note: This person is not only new to magick, but they also haven’t been out in a while!)

SKYCLAD is a shade of blue clothing.

A TRAD is a type of geometrical figure.

WHEEL OF THE YEAR is the game show with Vanna White.

A Very Wonderful & Blessed Wednesday To You, My Friends & Family!

 

A wonderful and inspirational prayer to start your mornings with….

I arise today

Through a mighty strength:

Goddess’ power to guide me,

Goddess’ might to uphold me,

Goddess’ eyes to watch over me;

Goddess; ear to hear me,

Goddess’ word to give me speech,

Goddess’ hand to guard me,

Goddess’ way to lie before me,

Goddess’ shield to shelter me,

Goddess’ host to secure me.

So Mote It Be!

 

 

 

More Winter Comments

New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions are a modern tradition but despite being neither a Wiccan tradition nor linked to the Witches’ year, which begins and ends at Samhain, many Witches still practise this.

Rather than setting yourself one or two difficult-to-attain targets, make a list of 6 to 12 things you would like to achieve during the coming year.  Some could be linked to self-improvement like eating in a more healthy way or learning a new skill, whilst others are perhaps more in the way of personal treats; for example saving for a balloon flight or a weekend at a health spa.  Try to include one or more things associated with your Craft, like remembering to observe the cycles of the Moon or writing up your Book of Shadows, for example.  It can also be helpful to apply a ‘rule of three’ approach to this: for each item for self-improvement, have one benefit of others, the land or the Craft, and one which is for pleasure.  Ensure that your list includes things which are relatively simple to achieve as well as more difficult goals.

Write a list of all your targets and, whilst burning a gold candle, recite them to yourself, repeating after each: “As in my will so mote it be.” Pin the list in a place where you will see it everyday.  If you don’t want to announce your intentions to the world, you could place it on the inside of your wardrobe door.  Now select one goal from your list and start work towards achieving it as soon as you can.

“The best way to succeed is to start.”


January 1 – The Real Witches Year by Kate West

Love and the Use Of Magick

Love and the Use Of Magick

Author:   Gentle Deer Lion Tamer 

In this rambling, I will talk about the ever-present topic of Love Spells and also offer some guidance on the use of any spell, ritual or potion for manipulative purposes. By manipulative purposes, I am referring to a working where the object of said working is not aware it is being done, nor has he or she consented to such a working.

Of course this is only my opinion and it is not intended to embarrass anyone. These are simply my thoughts on a subject that gets batted around quite frequently, so take it for what is worth. From the mail I receive from those who have made or seen these mistakes happen, I’m confident the majority who are experienced in this path shares them.

The primary question one must consider before undertaking any ritual working, especially where Love Magick is concerned is, “Is This Working Consistent With The Basic Tenant of HARM NONE as expressed in The Rede.”

Upon asking yourself the following two questions, you can effectively analyze the reasons to either justify or dismiss the working.

1. What is my intent in performing this work?
2. Is this spell or ritual influenced by anger; hatred; lust; greed; jealousy or envy?

If your answer to question number 1 is found within question number 2, then as a Wiccan and follower of the Light Path, you must abandon this spell or ritual because it will not be consistent with the Rede.

Likewise, if question 1 is answered by question 2 and you continue, you can no longer rightfully call yourself Wiccan. A True Wiccan will not use manipulative magick to negatively influence another for his/her own personal interests.

The whole purpose of following this path is to live in harmony and balance with the natural rhythms of life, not to manipulate them to suit a selfish goal. At this point, you need to refer to yourself as a follower of the Dark Path since manipulative magick for personal gain without consideration of the outcome falls within that realm…

Harsh Words? You Bet…

Does It Make You Uncomfortable?

Good…

By undertaking such an action without the consent or approval of another, you are clearly disregarding the Rede and using your gifts for purely selfish reasons. Therefore, you are setting forces in motion that will ultimately have negative impact in one way or another and you are practicing Dark Magick.

You must remember that once you create and release this energy as a thought form, it will acquire life, form and substance. It will run it’s course, and the final outcome through the laws of cause and effect may not be what you wanted. The potential for great harm to both yourself and others are clearly evident in such a working. This is especially clear when you consider that you will eventually need to absorb this energy back into yourself after it has ruined your life and the lives of who knows how many others…

Let’s Look At a Potential Outcome of Such a Working for a Moment…

You create a Love Spell, focus your energy and release it toward your victim. I use the word victim because that is what you have just made this person if they are unaware of your work and have not given their consent.

Through the laws of magick, your victim begins to fall hopelessly in love with you or the person you performed this spell for. So much so that they become increasingly dependent as time passes. They can no longer function without your presence and guidance. You cannot get a moments peace because they constantly have to be with you. You can no longer function at work because they are calling every ten minutes. They become increasingly jealous, possessive and suspicious because they cannot have all of your time. The list of undesirable effects could go on and on and can become more than a little frightening.

Ultimately, you must ask yourself the following questions. Would “you” want someone doing this to you, and if you truly cared for someone, how could you risk doing something like this to them? In my humble opinion, it does not show a very high regard or respect for others or yourself and the decision on whether or not to proceed is clear.

I caution you that non-consensual Love Magic is a double-edged sword and borders on the manipulation of another human being against their “Free Will”. It is also dangerously close to Psychic Rape and is considered highly unethical by most who practice the Craft.

I hope this has given those who have considered using such practices food for thought. While all may not share my opinion, it illustrates the need to consider all potential outcomes before focusing and releasing a spell.

A Better Solution

A friend who wishes to be known as “Betty” writes this:

A couple of years ago, I was single again after the demise of a long marriage. I was lonely, and hoping I would not spend the rest of my life alone. I had decided to ask the Goddess for help, using my own energies and powers. So, not wanting another not-so-good marriage, I was asking for what qualities in a person I wanted, and asked to be -SENT- someone rather than just find someone. I went outside and performed a ritual under the full moon, by myself. I asked that I be sent -THE RIGHT- person, with no particular idea of who that person would be, or any specific qualities about that person. From my previous marriage, I knew that it was important to me that the person share important things in my life, including my religion, at least in a basic sense.

Well, in a couple of days, I met a new person online. I thought we were writing about our shared interest in folk music. Then, after a little while, first he, then I, admitted that there was more interest than that. One thing led to another there, he came to visit me. He told me that he too, had been doing a simple ritual during that same full moon: Lighting candles, and asking Goddess, “Please Mother, send me someone to love so I don’t spend my life alone”. He ended up staying and sending for his things, and we were later married.

This is a better solution than asking for a specific thing, in a specific way, or especially from a specific person. For one thing, the issue of manipulation completely went away. Instead, the person who was sent was also asking for someone to love, through his own ritual. We did not know each other when we did these rituals.

For another thing, we were both asking for a “right person” for us. In both of our cases, sure, other people (former spouses) believed that we were not “the right person”. We probably weren’t for them. For each other, we may well be. Neither of us is perfect, no one is a “perfect partner” for everyone.

We have always been amused that we were doing these rituals with similar intent, although the specifics of the operation of the rituals were very different at the same time, for the same purpose. Perhaps Goddess runs a “cosmic switchboard” of sorts. When She gets various requests, She just introduces people on some criteria – kind of like a dating service with ALL of the information.

Diary of a High Priestess

Diary of a High Priestess

Author:   Ehstemai 
 
MONDAY:
Morning: Homeschool my children.

Afternoon: Maintaining website, responding to e-mail inquiries and voicemails. Most of my inquiries are the normal stuff. “I need a teacher, ” and “Please help!” Luckily I have a few form replies I use. “Thank you so much for contacting me. I’d love to chat with you some more and answer any questions that you have. First off, what all books have you read about Wicca? How long have you been practicing or interested in Wicca? How old are you? What town do you live in?” It’s all just a way to get some more information. Most of the people who e-mail me at first never reply to my question letter.

4:00 PM: Time to call coven members who’ve volunteered to get stuff done for the upcoming Pagan Pride Day. As expected, half of them have done nothing. I have to spend some time getting them motivated.

5:00 PM: Dinner

6:00 PM: Willow comes over for her weekly counseling session. Willow’s been battling with depression for months now and can sometimes be moody and sullen at coven events. The coven elders have “sentenced” her to 3 months of weekly counseling with Yours Truly.

7:00 PM: Time to call coven mentors. I try to call them at least once a week to see how their students are doing and if they’re noticing any problems. I also want to make sure they’re doing okay. Managing students can sometimes be very stressful and difficult, so I try to give them lots of support and encouragement, and to help out wherever I can.

Sure enough, Oakthorn is still having problems with his student, Amber. I was really hoping he could manage her, but after two months he’s making no real progress. Amber has some childhood issues—lots of anger toward her father who she feels abandoned her. Oakthorn is a middle-aged father of three, and I really hoped that he could be a good influence on her. Amber is becoming openly defiant towards Oakthorn—refusing to do her assignments, being openly disrespectful to him, and so forth. I know that Amber would not treat a female mentor like this (and our coven has no hard and fast rules about gender pairings) , but I really think she needs a male mentor so she can overcome these issues.

8:00 PM: Put my kids to bed.

9:00 PM: I need to call Amber to get her take on things. She immediately accused Oakthorn of “spreading lies” about her. After I got her calmed down, she told me that she feels Oakthorn is too demanding and strict with her. I’m strongly suspecting that he bears a resemblance in her mind to her father. She sounds like she’s been crying. I squeeze her in for a counseling session the earliest I can find the time—1:00 tomorrow while my kids are doing their independent work.

When I hang up with Amber, I call Galadriel. She’s a fellow High Priestess in the community that I’m a close friend with—our covens work together on PPD and some other large events. Sometimes another High Priestess is the only one who can understand. I ask her what she would do with my situation. She agrees that Amber’s behavior is a problem. Her coven is much more strict and closed than ours—she says that her coven wouldn’t allow Amber to remain. I explain that we’ve accepted Amber for Dedication, and so Amber is like a child to us. She says she thinks drastic action is called for. I agree. I’ll see if I can get the Council on chat this evening.

10:00 PM: Red Horn can’t chat tonight—he’s working third shift. We’ll do a Council chat tomorrow night. I get to work on paperwork. We’ve got that big PPD celebration coming up and I have to send out some PR requests and finish polishing press releases.

I update Willow’s file, Amber’s file, and Oakthorn’s file. I draft up a proposed itinerary for PPD—we’ll vote on it at our next Council meeting. I re-read the coven by-laws to see if there’s any wisdom there for me on the Oakthorn/Amber issue. It’s open to interpretation. At around midnight, I go to bed.

TUESDAY:
Morning: Homeschool my children.

1:00 PM: Counseling session with Amber. I mostly let her talk. I learned a lot from what she had to say. I think again that a lot of her problems with men are related to her relationship from her father. I’m still trying to dig to find out what was so bad about him. He was around her entire childhood and even into adulthood. She says that she was a tomboy until she hit puberty and then he stopped being so friendly to her, and she always felt the sting of that. I understand, but I can’t help but wonder what else is here. There’s something she’s not telling me.

3:00 PM: I want to do a rune spread on Amber. I keep getting this feeling that something more is going on here than I’m getting. The runes are inconclusive. I keep getting the “father figure” theme and the abandonment, but I already knew that. The runes aren’t giving me any new information. Oh, well. I’ll write down the reading, put it in her file, and maybe it’ll become clearer in time.

4:00 PM: I got an unexpected phone call from Sierra and her husband, Alex. Sierra’s doubled over in pain and feeling faint. I advise Alex to take her to the ER and call me as soon as they know what’s wrong. I go light a candle for Sierra.

5:00 PM: Dinner

6:00 PM: Another unexpected phone call, this time from Blue Stag. He tells me that his girlfriend (a non-practicing Christian) has been complaining to him about ghosts in her new apartment. I tell Blue Stag to let his girlfriend come over to his house and call me—I want to talk to her first.

6:30 PM: Blue Stag’s girlfriend, Susan, calls me from Blue Stag’s house. She tells me about doors opening and closing unexpectedly, cold spots, etc.–all the usual signs of a haunting. It doesn’t sound immediately dangerous, though. She indicates that she’s okay with spending the night with Blue Stag tonight, and I promise to go out and take a gander at it tomorrow afternoon. (I do wonder, however, how much of this apparent fear might be a subconscious desire to spend the night with Blue Stag? She may be a non-practicing Christian, but according to Blue Stag, she’s been using her religion as an excuse to not get too close to him. Maybe he’ll be smiling at class tomorrow!)

8:00 PM: Put my kids to bed.

9:00 PM: Council chat. It’s always nice to touch base with my Council Elders throughout the week. We go over the upcoming schedule and then I ask for input on the Amber/Oakthorn issue. After much debate and discussion (and frequent off-topic ramblings) , it is decided that she will be temporarily placed under my personal mentorship and be ordered to attend weekly counseling for one full quarter, at which time we’ll attempt to re-evaluate her progress. I get to bed early tonight, at about 11.

WEDNESDAY:
2 AM: The whole getting to bed early thing didn’t help me that much. Alex called with news from Sierra. She’s been admitted to the hospital with an inflamed gall bladder. Alex is frantic. I try to calm him down. They’ll be doing emergency surgery on Sierra tonight. I ask if Alex needs me down at the hospital tonight or if he’ll be able to manage. Thankfully, he says he’ll manage. He promises to call me if there are any other complications, and I promise to come check in on Sierra Wednesday afternoon. I fire off an e-mail to my Maiden who has no morning classes tomorrow and ask her to go out early in the morning for me. Then I drop back into bed.

Morning (when the sun is up) : Homeschool my kids.

1:00 PM: Go visit Sierra. She’s doing just fine. Alex is a bit sheepish about his freak-out last night. Sierra’s managing it like a trooper. My Maiden did stop by this morning.

3:00 PM: Call Amber to let her know what the Council has decided. She seems relieved to have me as her mentor. We’ll see how she feels about that in a month or so. There’s a reason my coven doesn’t usually let me be a direct mentor to younger candidates: I tend to be a slave driver. I go ahead and set up a counseling session for Amber on Tuesdays at 1:00 PM, indefinitely. I also call Oakthorn to tell him the news. He seems relieved.

4:00 PM: Galadriel calls me. She’s on a break from work and wanted to see how the Amber thing was going. I fill her in. She also wanted to tell me about a person they’ve had to kick out of their coven. Apparently an older woman named Phoebe has been causing problems in their coven. She’s been disrespectful to the elders, difficult to teach, a know-it-all, and a general pain in their butt. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she brought marijuana to an open event—a clear violation of their coven by-laws.

I thank Galadriel for the heads-up. We don’t allow marijuana at ANY of our events, nor do we allow any of our coven members to use illicit drugs, so Phoebe wouldn’t be a good fit in our group.

5:00 PM: I went to see Susan’s new apartment. Sure enough, she’s got some very minor ghost activity. I do a sage smudging (although I hardly think it necessary—these ghosts are harmless) and then advise her to hand some religious artwork on her walls in the dining room. Blue Stag is smiling.

6:00 PM: Tonight’s class is one of my favorites. Every Wednesday night we teach a class. Dedicants (training for First-Degree Initiate) are on the first Wednesday of the month. Initiates (training for Second-Degree Witch) are on the second Wednesday of the month, and Witches (training for Third-Degree Priest/ess) are on the third Wednesday of the month. On the fourth Wednesday of the month, we hold our Coven Council meetings.

Tonight I get to do the “Experiencing the Goddess” class for my Dedicants. It’s one of my favorite classes to teach, although it is quite possibly the most challenging and exhausting class that I do. We begin with a review of their homework assignments and answering questions (as in every class) , but then we set up a mini-ritual and do a Goddess invocation in me. I’ll do the Charge of the Goddess and then spend as much time as they need answering their questions and talking with them as the Goddess.

It’s so much fun to see how their attitudes change with this class (and the Experiencing the God class that’s next month) ! They finally start to see the Goddess as a woman! But maintaining an invocation for 2-3 hours is kind of exhausting.

10:00 PM: The last student has finally left. I’m exhausted. I’m going straight to bed.

THURSDAY:
Today is a ritual day. We’re doing the Full Moon Esbat this evening, so I’m purposely taking it very easy today. Sierra’s out of the hospital and should recover nicely, although she (obviously) won’t be able to make ritual tonight. I get the coven phone calls starting at around 1:00 PM, and they don’t end until about 5:00 PM. The baby-sitter had a schedule conflict, so I have to spend the afternoon calling our alternate sitters to see if I can find someone to watch the little ones while we do ritual.

I field a few calls from Congregation members asking if they can come. “Sorry, but most Esbats are coven only. We look forward to seeing you at PPD, though!”

I do have one set of phone calls to make, and that’s the Congregational calls about tomorrow night’s social event. We’re doing a coven movie night, so I have to make sure everything is still set up and ready to go for the event.

Finally, everyone starts to arrive for the Esbat at about 6:00. It’s a good thing I spent the afternoon cooking. All our Esbats are potluck and yet only Blue Stag and Willow brought a dish. I’m surprised Willow brought a dish. She seems to be doing better tonight. Where the other coveners are able to enjoy this before-ritual time, I’m constantly answering questions. Finally, we get down to business. After we go over the purposes of the ritual and get everything set up, we have a nice, normal Full Moon Esbat.

Then everyone starts to eat. I have to watch everything to make sure everyone is playing nice. As soon as the food is gone and it’s obviously time to clean up our mess, everyone in the coven suddenly remembers how late it is and has to head home in a hurry. They all left at 10, but I’ll be down here until at least 11 cleaning everything up again.

FRIDAY:
Morning: Homeschool my kids.

Afternoon: Task the kids on cleaning the house to get ready for the Congregation social event. We have a lot more people at the Congregation events than the coven events, so the house has to be picked up and re-arranged a bit. Go pick up the movies from the video rental place. We’re doing a pagan movie night with “The Craft” (bad) and “Practical Magic” (not so bad) . I start getting the kitchen set up buffet-style. At least I don’t have to cook for Congregation events. Since our Congregation is more of an informal thing, they tend to help out a lot more than the coven does.

Evening: Movie night. A couple of the Congregation members stayed to help clean up, even though it was already midnight. Cool!

SATURDAY:
9:00 AM: Arrive at the library and begin setup for Wicca 101 class. We hold these once a month and everyone who is interested in Dedicating has to attend them. They’re also a good source for friends and family members of pagans. About once or twice a year, we also do the Wicca 101 for the local police department and Child Protective Services workers—that class is a little bit different and geared more towards law enforcement and CPS stuff, though. The room at the library is mostly set up. We get the PowerPoint slides up and set up the back table. Our back table has several 20-page booklets that go along with the class—we’re expecting 10 guests today, so the 20 booklets I had printed cost me about $20.00. We also have some “Recommended Reading” lists and some of our favorite Wiccan books that our students can look at during breaks.

10:00: We begin our first session of the Wicca 101 class. Although 10 RSVP’ed, only 5 showed up. Typical.

12:00 PM: We break for lunch. I always think it’s really cool that the students want to follow you to whatever fast food restaurant you’re having lunch at, but I must confess that sometimes I really would love the opportunity to get away from my students for an hour. Still, I can’t really turn them down.

1:00: We finish the class with our second session. Although we finish our presentation by about 3:00, we always reserve the room until 4. The question-and-answer period can be long sometimes. I always advise them to pick up a copy of the Recommended Reading list on their way out, and if they’re interested in joining the coven, to fill out an interest form (also on the back table) . I always beg them to fill out a survey and drop it into the collection basket, and I point out that while we do the class for free, we do spend a lot of our time and money making it happen and if they could possibly donate a few dollars to help us defray our cost, that would be great.

3:45: Now it’s time to rush through cleaning up our room. As expected, the collection basket contains 4 interest forms, 2 surveys, and only one dollar in donations. Why am I not surprised?

4:00: My High Priest and I go out for coffee and take along the interest forms and survey. We spend some time talking about how it went and what our impressions were of the students. I express my frustration with the fact that it seems like we work our butts off and nobody seems to care.

It’s not that I expect to get rich off of holding Wicca 101 classes, but when we spend almost six hours with five people and we do a good enough job that four of them want to join our coven, what does it say when only ONE of those people thought our time and presentation was worth a whole dollar?

He commiserates, but it’s not like we haven’t done this class a hundred times before, and this ALWAYS happens. One time we had a woman put a $20 into the collection basket—it was rare enough that we still remember that day.

6:00: I’m really down now. It’s not that I mind putting in the time and the money. I’ve spent probably 40 hours putting together just the Power Point for the Wicca 101 class. The booklets took me another 40 hours. Then I put out the advertising, arrange for the meeting place, field questions, and everything else.

When the day finally comes, my High Priest and I are doing setup and cleanup, PLUS teaching a 6-hour class. We do this every month, and every month it’s the same old thing. We have a lot of people that want to join the coven. We always get lots of positive surveys (only two negative surveys in three years of teaching these) . And yet nobody thinks that our time and energy is worth anything. I just feel like I’m getting taken advantage of.

GRRRRR! I’m going home to get into a hot bath. I’m way too flustered and upset now to do much else.

SUNDAY:
Today I’m feeling a lot better after my bath. Most weeks I might have Sunday off, but this is the week our coven does our volunteering with Galadriel’s coven to Adopt-A-Highway. It’s going to be a long, hot day. I dress warmly, comfortably, and practically, and then I stop by Sam’s to fill up my cooler with bottled water, juice, and trash bags. I’m even taking the kiddos out to help pick up the litter today.

Galadriel and I are the first ones there. She had the same idea I did and brought a cooler! We go ahead and get started while we wait on our covens.

Out of the twelve active coven members that I have and the fifty-something Congregation members, only 4 of my coveners showed up and 5 of my Congregation members. Galadriel has a full thirteen members, but only 5 of hers showed up.

My coveners are in BIG trouble. They knew this service project was mandatory. They are required to complete community service as a requirement of their degree training. I’m going to have to think up something nice and creative for them, but they WILL be making this up to me.

We finished up at about 3:00, and Galadriel and I went to get ice cream. I couldn’t believe what Galadriel told me—she’s stepping down from her coven! She hasn’t notified her coven yet but she plans to tell them next week. She told me that she’s just tired of running the coven and getting no appreciation. She’s going to move to her coven’s “Outer Circle”–their version of a Congregation.

I can’t believe it. Galadriel’s one of my dearest friends. She’s been leading her coven for six years, and she’s been a priestess for about fifteen! But as shocking as it is, I can most certainly see her point.

It’s hard to keep going on when nobody seems to care.

{Note: This is not an actual page from my datebook, but it’s pretty close! Names and identifying info have been changed.}

The Natural Witch

The Natural Witch

Author:   Hypatia 

My mother was a natural witch. she died in 1998. She was not a nice witch. She practiced dark magick and was not a good mother. She abandoned me when I was just a child. My father tells me she was powerful and passionate. She would scare him with witchcraft.

The memories I have of her are so intense. I remember she loved nature… but she was a hunter. I remember she had a madness that seemed to plague the thoughts of others. I was four when she left on her journey. I guess it’s where she felt she needed to be.

Me… I stayed and waited… the journey of a four-year-old witch was a rollercoaster ride of emotion, turmoil and eventual discovery.

Even at four I felt different. My whole childhood I felt a strange connections to nature and my dreams. My stepmother used to say I was one with my dreams. I talked, walked and enacted my dreams even as I slept.

I ran away a handful of times. I wanted to find my birth mother. The first time I ran away I was 13. I was chanting on the streets of Long Beach, “I will be fine, no one will hurt me”. I came up to a Jack-in-the-Box and sure enough a large black man (maybe large to me because I was all of 13) offered to buy me fries and a drink and asked me to sit down.

I could tell by his eyes that he was a kind man, intuition mind you that I would begin discounting in my late teens. He knew I was running away and managed to talk me down from my emotional ledge. I walked home at midnight on a busy street across from a strip club with a sense of accomplishment. I may not have found my mother, but at least I was looking.

My parents thought I was strange about nature but put it off onto my Navajo roots. I used to stick my head out the window while my parents were driving to get a better look at trees. I spent hours in forest preserves. I always felt like someone was waiting for me. At first I thought it was my mother. It was, but not any mother I could visualize with my mental database at 13.

At 16, I was pushing my birth mother out, everything about her, especially the fact that she was a witch. Actually, as open-minded as I was, I wasn’t very apt to listening to the nonsense people spewed about witchcraft. I didn’t mock it. Somehow even at a rebellious 16, I was still respectful. I hated her though. I hated what she had done to my father.

At 18, I met and fell in love with a beautiful woman; it was the first time I had ever loved another woman in a romantic way. She was a witch. She was older than me. She was my mentor in many ways. I would laugh though as she would cast spells.

I would think she was ridiculous as she tried to teach me. I was intrigued, and the power was still in me, but the chaos was so strong. I couldn’t pull together a fragment of a thought, let alone try to piece together the history of my people.

My beautiful kept telling me that I was a natural witch. She said I had a power that I didn’t even know how to harness. She said she observed my connections with nature, but abilities to get anything I wanted without hurting people and again… the dreams. I told her I didn’t believe in that voodoo. I slowly pulled away from the first coven that I was ever in, without even knowing I was a part of something real.

It wasn’t until I turned 30 and forgave my birth mother that the Goddess really started to hone in on me. I felt Her everywhere. I craved the outdoors just to be near Her. I saw Her face in everything: the trees, the sky and the ocean. It seemed that even the wind was calling my name.

Still friends with the witch from my childhood, I began to confess my feelings. She smiled and said that she had known all along. She was just waiting for me to be found.

I have always had this power. It is confidence. It is love. It is compassion. And it is so much more. I cannot tell you any more than this. I am a private woman with my craft. I will not even share my name with others. The only person I tell anything to is my friend, and she only hears some things.

My husband doesn’t know. My kids are probably natural witches as well and that is a path they will find on their own. I found it, because the Goddess willed it so. I do not know if secrecy makes my powers stronger, but I figure I have no reason to share my identity with the world. If the Goddess wills it to be, it will be.

I wanted to share my story because I believe that others are like me. My grandfather was touched. My mother was touched. My brother and I are both touched. We never talk about it; but we know.

Maybe every person has the potential to harness such great power, but I know in my heart that the Goddess chose me. She sought me out. She spent 30 years waiting for me to find her. After my discovery I knew that She had been with me all along.

In retrospect, I felt Her with me at 11 while I was running through the meadow in the back of my house. I was a bookworm who never read outside. It was almost like outside is sacred. It was my first altar of sorts. I need this always to be my place of solace.

I respect my Mother, my Goddess, and reciprocate her kindnesses. I will always protect Her, the way She has always protected me.

Finding Serendipity

Finding Serendipity

Author:   Mirage 

When I was first drawn to Paganism and Wicca, I had some high expectations. I thought that I could summon dragons and fairies and they would appear whenever I wanted. I expected sparks to fly out of the end of my wand and every love spell I cast would bring the man of my dreams right to my door. As we all know, those events never came to be. One thing I didn’t expect, or even consider for that matter, was the relationship I would develop with the Divine. The ironic thing is, the one expectation I didn’t have became the most profound part of my spiritual journey.

I was brought up hardcore Catholic. I only knew of ONE God and His fury if you did something that He disapproved. Not a very fulfilling spiritual experience if you ask me… I was dragged to mass on a weekly basis and I also had to suffer through religion classes as well. I was forced to receive Holy Communion and become a Confirmed Catholic. This was a very angering experience for me- it never felt quite right and it left me feeling empty. I am by no means bashing the Catholic religion; I am just sharing my experience with it.

I was spiritually lost and confused and I had nobody to turn to with my questions and doubts. For a while, I did not believe in anything at all and considered myself Agnostic. I questioned the existence of the Divine and wondered why I should waste my time praying and worshipping something that never responded.

On top of that, I was going through a rough time at school and at home- I didn’t fit in and everybody knew it. The worst part of the whole thing was that people always had to express their feelings of disapproval toward me and that just made things even more difficult and awkward.

When I hit rock bottom and pretty much didn’t care if I lived another day, the Egyptian Goddess Isis called to me. I can’t recall the exact moment that it happened, but I was strangely drawn to Her. I researched Her online and at libraries and also bought everything I could that related to Her (jewelry, statues, books, etc.)

At first I thought the fascination was just something to distract me from all of my emotional issues, but now that I look back on the situation, I think She saved me from myself and my situation. She gave me a new focus and a reason to live.

Unfortunately, I had to hide my beliefs because I was still living with my parents and they considered anything other than what they believed to be “devil worship”. I still continued learning and worshiping, trying to avoid their “blasphemy radar”- I know they knew what I was doing, but they had no proof since I would do most of it after they went to sleep.

I hate to say it, but even after Isis had called to me, I was still skeptical about the existence of the Divine, so I decided to conduct a little “test”. I made several requests to Isis and if they came to be, I told myself that I would never doubt the existence of the Divine again.

Sure enough, my requests were met- not always in ways that I expected, but Isis definitely got Her point across. In the midst of all this, I ended up leaving my parents house-for two reasons to be exact. First of all, I couldn’t stand them continually bashing my spiritual beliefs and trying to impose their beliefs on me again. They never made an effort to learn about my beliefs or ask me why I didn’t want to be a part of their faith any more, and I found that disrespectful. They just assumed I was trying to be rebellious and if they kept threatening me with the fires of hell I would come back to their church and their beliefs. Second, they disapproved the greatest gift that Isis had given to me- my husband (at the time we had just been engaged) .

Once I was out of my parent’s house, I was able to worship and learn freely. No more hiding books and statues… Isis was my fortress. With Her I felt like nothing could harm me- She would let me stumble to learn my lessons, but She would never let me fail completely. I continued my studies pertaining to Wicca and Egyptian Paganism, but I felt something was missing…

Isis was wonderful and She was everything I could possibly want in a Deity, but Wicca emphasized both a Mother and Father God and there were also several Egyptian Gods I read about in my studies as well. As you can well imagine, every time I thought about the idea of a male Deity, I would cringe because of my experiences (or lack thereof) with the Christian God who so happens to be male. I suppose my past had caused me to develop a negative view of the Male Divine. The thought would cross my mind every now and then, but I would brush it aside because it would bring back those uncomfortable feelings I had as a Catholic.

Several years passed and I met a man who was a coven leader. I was a solitary practitioner and still am, but I am always interested in the viewpoints of others. His coven was Ecclectic, so they dealt with various Pantheons and Deities. I refused to budge from the Egyptian Pantheon when it came to worship and working magick, but I was willing to listen and learn about other Pantheons and Deities. I was having some personal issues at the time, and I needed a way to effectively let go of issues in my life that were holding me back.

The coven leader and I held a small private ritual in which we asked the Egyptian God Set for help to clear away my issues. I was both skeptical and uncomfortable for a few reasons. First of all, in Egyptian mythology, Set murdered the husband of Isis so he could be ruler of Egypt. Basically people have viewed him as being evil. I was afraid that by dealing with Set, this would irritate Isis and I would lose everything I had with Her. Second, my issue with the Male Divine came to mind as well.

I decided to let things take their course and go from there.

Months passed, and things gradually got better for me. I moved to a better apartment, got a promotion at work, and improved my relationship with my husband. I also strengthened my relationship with Isis and began a relationship with Set. I began to look past the gender of a Deity and focused on their aspects and how to develop a relationship with them.

I have several personality characteristics in common with both Isis and Set and I think this is why I am so close to both of them. I know it is an odd combination of Deities to work with (for those of you who follow the Egyptian Pantheon, I’m sure you can see why) , but they have both shown me that faith doesn’t have to be a blind and empty ordeal- the Divine is out there and if you know how to connect with it in a way that is personally moving to you, you will feel it and experience it!

I guess you can say that Set allowed me to let go of my negative preconceptions of the Male Divine and also helped me balance my spiritual life with guidance and protection from both a God and Goddess.

What I’m trying to say here is not to take religion or spirituality at face value. You can get caught up in all the glitz and glamour of magic and such, but our path has so much more to offer us! Expect the unexpected and view it as a gift from the Divine. I hope my story has inspired you to take a look at your spiritual life and count your blessings as well 🙂

Brightest Blessings,

Mirage

Living Life As The Witch – Finding Your Personal Goddess

Witchy Comments=

Finding Your Personal Goddess

One of the things that most of us have in common–whether we call ourselves Pagans, Witches or Wiccans–is a belief in the female divine. Many of us also acknowledge the existence of a male divine, albeit one that bears little resemblance to the God we may have grown up with, but it is Goddess worship which sets us apart from other religions and brings us together in this one.

But which Goddess? There are so many names by which we call her, it can be hard to decide which of the Lady’s incarnations is best suited to our own practice and personality. Yet for many of us, the search for our personal Goddess is part of the path we walk as Pagans. How can we know which Goddess to call on in our prayers?

The first question to ask, really, is does she need a specific name at all? Some Pagans are happy to simply refer to their female deity as “Goddess” in the abstract, without attaching any particular name or tradition to her. (I often do that myself, although I have one Goddess who I worship primarily, and often call on others for specific tasks or holidays.)

There are a few benefits to this approach: it is simple and easy, you can be sure that your prayer will get to Goddess in one form or another, and you don’t have to worry that you are addressing the wrong deity for your magickal work.

There is certainly nothing wrong with calling on a general all-purpose Goddess. After all, most people who talk to “God” don’t call him by any particular name. If you are just starting out, or haven’t figured out a specific Goddess who seems right to you, then it is absolutely appropriate to address your prayers and spells to “Great Goddess,” “Mother of Us All,” “Lady of the Moon,” or any other generic term for the feminine one.

Reference:

Excerpt from “Finding Your Personal Goddess”
By Deborah Blake
Llewellyn’s 2012 Magical Almanac

Do We Need To Defend Our Faith?

Do We Need To Defend Our Faith?

Author:   Disciple of Oghma 

I have been reading a lot of articles lately discussing the Christian path and its concerns and relations with the Pagan paths. I agree with the heart and the courage I see exemplified in these people who are demanding that we should all “step out of our Broom Closet”. But I am inclined to disagree with those sentiments on a few points. People might get the impression that we are in denial of our faiths because we are not louder than the Christians. But most of us aren’t even in the Broom Closet. And isn’t being loud and arrogant about our faith too negative a face to put forward to the world at large?

I am Pagan and I am very open about it. People either accept me and move on or they fight with me. After three years my wife still refuses to accept I’m pagan and occasionally asks if I have ‘prayed about my decisions’. I wish it weren’t so but she’d rather believe I am directionless and apathetic than I am grounded, at peace, and happy without her god.

I don’t rub my pentagram in people’s faces but I don’t hide it either. As far as our relationship with Christianity…well, we are not a threat to them. The true single most potent threat to Christianity is apathy. If they intend to continue in their tradition they must stop resisting growth and ignoring the changing needs of their people.

Paganism and Christianity have coexisted for thousands of years. There were periods of time where Christianity considered us merely woodland weirdoes who were not of sound mind but mostly harmless. Yes, there were periods when they have gone to bloody war with us. But those times are over. So remember them if you will, but, I believe we have it in us to move on and stop belaboring it. (Honestly, were any of us here today living during the Burning Times? Okay, let’s move on please.)

Wicca is a modern attempt to resuscitate a bygone path of nature reverence and self-discovery. Christianity is a path of self-denial and conformity. The two are oxymoronic and unable to be meshed. The basis of the Wiccan faith is an adherence to the ‘rede’ (which is basically an admonishment to respect others and yourself) and likewise to an absolute freedom within which to figure out your impressions of the world and your place in it. Christianity, on the other hand, has a story with a beginning and an end and its followers are merely disciplining themselves to be worthy of the ‘right end’.

Questions like ” Where do people go when they die” and “What if you are wrong” do not really matter as challenges to the Pagan faiths. Everyone’s worldview is defined by his/her own perspective. My answers to those questions suit me fine but may not work for you… as will likely be the case in reverse.

I viewed my relationship with the aforementioned Jehovah and came to terms with it and left that path. What if I am wrong? I honestly don’t care. If I am wrong I would rather be in a hell separated from Jehovah than spend eternity sucking up to him while I disagree with him in my heart and feel like I am prostituting myself for his favor. That is my answer.

Where do people go when they die? Well since no one has done so and returned to tell me about the experience, I sit quietly, enjoy my life and await that great adventure. I am at peace with not knowing. Some of the greatest things in life are ‘unknown’ until they are revealed by time. As one of my favorite authors put it, ” What awaits me in death? I do not presume to know. I am curious yet I do not hasten toward it to know. I expect that Death, like the other stages of Life, will be on time; enriching; and full of both tears and joy.” (-jk Rowling) The important thing is not defining Absolute Truth as much as finding peace and contentment, living life in productivity, and interacting and experiencing the world while we are here.

Now as far as changing the Christian mindset, well… it’s not going to happen. They are people who are raised from birth in a belief they are trapped in a prison built by their own hand and god, the Infinitely Patient One, is just trying to save them from their nasty blind selves.

And as for finding ‘our voice’, we actually have. Never before in history has our beliefs so permeated media, books, and youth. We are peaceably gaining a foothold in the battle for the young minds. If indeed we all stood up in public and demanded we be counted, some would think the Beast had risen and — if a violent and charismatic enough leader rose up — you may have another Burning Times (Worst Case Scenario) .

Best Case Scenario? They would just lament over the rise of ‘demonic worship’ [Interesting side note: According to Zoroastrianism, a demon is ANY spirit whom has never inhabited a corporeal form. Under that system just about every religion would be worshipping ‘demons’.] and declare that these are indeed the ‘Last Days’.

I myself was swayed by a quiet intelligent young man whom turned out to be a Celtic pagan. Those were the traits that led me to review my own beliefs.

I believe that Christians will NEVER accept us. They are taught to fear and loathe us. Thus I do not believe that we should demand consideration from them. I think we should ignore their distain and live our lives and simply share with any interested ear our beliefs and our freedom, peace, and joy.

We are more prevalent today. Take heart! We ARE standing up and we ARE getting noticed. Don’t lose courage in the face of ignorance and propaganda. The youth of today pay attention and they aren’t stupid. They see the witch is just a normal person. They comprehend the difference between what they are told and what they see. And I believe that the religious hatred will die slowly the same way racism is dying.

I appreciate your vigor and courage. I am proud to stand with you. For I am a pagan! And I see no reason to apologize.

Pagan Lite: Being A Non-Magical Witch in A Magical World

Pagan Lite: Being A Non-Magical Witch in A Magical World

Author:   Charmed Boy 

This article is one I had hoped to put off writing for a while. It is a continuation of sorts to the first article I wrote entitled When Walking The Path…Wear Shoes.I am what I call a “non-magical” Witch. I don’t cast spells or perform elaborate rituals. That may be fine for most of my Pagan brothers and sisters but it’s not really my thing.

I first realized magic and spells weren’t my thing when I attended the last Samhain celebration hosted by my friend Fran. As many who have read my first article know, Fran was the High Priestess of a group here in Arkansas called Net-per-netjer which means “beautiful house of the Gods.” Fran was an amazing woman. She meant business when she donned the crown of Isis and acted as High Priestess and conducted rituals. She also cared about the people who attended the celebrations.

I remember one occasion; it was after ritual. Fran had made a delicious feast of ham and colcannon. My father and I had both attended but my father preferred to observe from outside of the circle. He’s not Pagan but he is very supportive of my choice of faith. Fran made sure everyone ate. I was sitting in the front room watching a movie when I heard Fran’s voice from the kitchen.

“Chuck! Where is your father?”

I shrugged. “I think he’s in the car.”

My father is the type of person who doesn’t like to get into other people’s way when they are doing things like ritual. Fran frowned.

“Tell your father to come in and eat something.”

I went out and got him. Fran made sure he ate before we left. That’s just the kind of person Fran was. Always concerned with the welfare of others. After that, Fran and I didn’t see each other. Not because there was an animosity between us but because we both had things going on in our lives. We e-mailed and spoke on the phone quite a lot.

One day last year I sent an e-mail to Fran just to say hi and see how she was. I got a reply from her husband informing me that Fran had passed away. I miss Fran very much. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her and the good times we shared. Attending those rituals made me realize that, that sort of thing wasn’t what I wanted.

I took some time for meditation and reflection to decide if being a Witch and Pagan was really for me. I walked in the woods near my house and listened to the birds and the wind as it blew through the trees. During these walks I posed questions to myself. Do I really need to practice magic and perform rituals to consider myself a Witch and Pagan? Do I really need all the trappings that go along with it, such as candles and incense and athames? Where am I meant to be? I asked the Goddess and Fran for guidance. I asked them to speak to me and give me a sign if this is the path I am meant to be on.

One day I went out for one of my walks when WHAM!! The answer hit me like a ton of bricks: You don’t need to practice magic or perform rituals to honor the Goddess and or God.

I have spoken to other Pagans and Wiccans who have told me that if you don’t practice magic and do rituals you ‘can’t really call yourself a Witch and Pagan’. I believe differently. The definition of “Witch” as I understand it means “wise one” and “knowledge seeker” and that Pagan means “country dweller” I believe we are all Witches and Pagans, regardless if we cast spells and perform rituals… or choose not to.

I have come to realize things about my faith and myself. I am both a Witch and Pagan and am very proud of that fact. I wear my Pentacle with pride. Whenever a Pagan holiday or Full Moon comes around, I pray, make an offering of thanks to the Goddess… and that is pretty much it. No muss, no fuss. For many other Pagans and Wiccans, the lighting of candles and incense, the chanting and casting of a circle adds to the enjoyment of ritual, and that is awesome. I believe everyone should be able to do his or her own thing, whatever that may be. Goddess knows, I don’t have the right to judge someone by what they do or don’t do.

Occasionally I’ll read an article on Witchvox.com about performing ritual and working magic. Want to know what is magical to me? Standing outside on a cool night when the moon is full in the night sky and glows like a big orange night light. Talking to my best friend on the phone and hearing the sound of her laugh. Seeing the sparkle in my godson’s eyes when he is excited about something. Stepping outside in the wintertime and smelling the sharp, fresh, cold scent of the air and seeing the freshly falling snow on the ground. Seeing the leaves in the Fall change color from green to red and orange and yellow. Smelling the scent of burning leaves and wood. Eating handfuls of candy corn. Sipping hot apple cider on a cold October day while going on a hayride with my dad. Feeling the power and ancientness of All Hallow’s Eve. These are my rituals. This is my magic. This is the way I honor the Goddess.

Do I believe those who do cast spells and perform rituals are wrong? Of course not. Fran did, and seeing the joy and power it brought into her life was an amazing thing to witness. When I am asked what my choice of religion is and I tell them “I am a Witch”, the child within me claps his hands and squeals with glee. I laugh whenever someone asks me if I fly around on a broom. I smile and say “No but I wish I could. It would make getting from one place to another a lot more exciting!”

In all seriousness, I am very proud to call myself a Witch. Walking the path I have been walking for the past 12 years has made me the person I am today. I am a little wiser and a lot more compassionate and forgiving. I am humbled and honored daily by the compassion and endless love the Goddess has shown me. We are all her children, regardless of how we choose to honor her. I cherish the Pagan and Wiccan friends I have made, especially Fran. She will live on in my heart and in my memory forever.

In closing, to all my Witchy brothers and sister out there I say this to you: Be comfortable in your own skin. Don’t let others tell you your way of worshipping the Goddess and God is wrong. Wear your Pentacle with pride! These are indeed magical times!

Blessed Be!

Can You Think Like A Witch?

Can You Think Like A Witch?

Author:   T.L.   

There has always been a strong connection between Witches and Fairies known to all students who study Fairy lore. Several Pagan traditions have come to choose the term Fairy (or Faerie or Faery or Feri) as a result of Fairy mythology and scholarly research regarding Fairies in the past. In the late 1990’s, the year before her death, my 90-year-old paternal aunt, Nina Sutter, told me that our ancestors who lived in Mecosta County, Michigan, were Fairies. She also told me that “those people all stuck together” and that they were “like the Indians.” Because of what she told me and other family memorabilia I have, I believe it is possible that Wicca is a survival religion associated with Fairies. At the time my aunt spoke to me, I do not think she knew what a Fairy might be—just that this was something she was told and something that she sensed was important. I knew nothing about Wicca at that time, and I did not know what a Fairy was either. Several years went by before I figured it out what she was talking about.

My paternal great-grandmother, Alta Isadore Gould (born in 1851) published a book of story-length Civil War poems in 1894. The Veteran’s Bride And Other Poems was very popular for its day, going through five editions (and six printings) in four years. Gould integrates Wiccan symbolism in various ways within her published stories that are best understood within the context of their underlying themes, that include the myths of the Wheel of the Year, the myth of the Dying God, the Missing Cauldron of Cerridwen, and Hestia of the Hearth. When I realized that my great-grandmother’s book was about Wicca, I finally was able to figure out what it meant to have ancestors who were Fairies.

Gould’s metaphors are enhanced by hidden Wiccan symbols within each of her nine engravings. My aunt showed me one of those symbols—an “athame” hidden as a spire at the top of an arch in one of the engravings—except that she called it a “knife.” I do not think she knew the purpose of the “knife, ” just as she did not know the significance of “Fairy.” The knife was just something she had been shown and something she sensed was important. My aunt showed me the knife, just like her mother showed her the knife, just like her mother showed her the knife. This transfer of knowledge from my great-grandmother, to my grandmother, to my aunt, to me, shows that the knife was consciously positioned as a spire in Gould’s engravings and its presence is not just a matter of interpretation.

It is the culmination of Gould’s writing, her engravings, and other memorabilia I have regarding her life that makes me believe all of what my aunt said was true. My aunt was an honest woman, a Methodist, who would have had no motive for aligning the family with Paganism. The fact that she embraced these sparse memories in her old age, and wanted to share what little she knew with me before she died, shows she harbored warm feelings regarding this facet of our family’s history, and speaks positively of Wicca.

Obviously, I do not know what it means to have ancestors who say they were Fairies. More importantly, I do not know what being Fairies meant to them. It is possible that Alta Gould’s own ancestors, just like founders of Pagan traditions today, chose the term Fairy to describe themselves and created their own Witch-religion as a sort of secret society that encompassed all aspects of their lives. Theoretically, if there were multiple pockets of people similar to Gould’s group scattered throughout America, Canada, and Europe, perhaps something like this is the Witch-religion that Gerald Gardner ultimately was exposed to.

One good thing about social media is that participants do not have to yield to some higher authority in order to have their stories told. Currently, experts in Wicca claim there is no hard evidence that Wicca existed before Gerald Gardner–but it is hard to visualize what the hard evidence they seek might be. Although I do not have a stone tablet of Wiccan runes spelling out its history, or an ancient, crumbling Wiccan charter retrieved from a locked vault, the limited evidence that I do have is very real. It involves interpretation of texts, symbols, photos, and memorabilia, and is the closest and best thing to hard evidence of a Witch-religion prior to Gardner that, I believe, exists to date. One might critically say that my interpretation of these texts, symbols, objects, and memorabilia are just one of many. But the truth is, not all interpretations are equal. Some interpretations are better than others—and my interpretations are good, solid, and apparent. Interpreting texts, objects, and family histories has long been a tried, true, and accepted way of learning about the past and of doing research.

Even the work Ronald Hutton engages in involves interpretation. There is not (and never will be) a long buried stone tablet affirming that Wiccan imagery comes from the Romantic poets. Even though he will never find “hard” evidence to support his thesis, his research nevertheless is interesting. I know that I am not Ronald Hutton—far from it. But, on the other hand, Ronald Hutton’s aunt did not tell him that his ancestors were Fairies, and his great-grandmother did not write a book with an interwoven Wiccan subtext.

The biggest problem with my research is that first someone has to actually read it. I have written a book (Remembering A Faery Tradition: A Case Of Wicca In Nineteenth-Century America) . I am not a professional academic, but I did the best that I could to write about my discoveries and place them within an interesting context. I am sure my book has many faults, but my main message is very tangible. Also, I have made a web site that discusses much of my research and includes a chapter from my book. It is not a professional web site, but it serves a function. I have items and photos and letters that someone else, beside myself, would have to look at. Finally, and most importantly, someone else besides myself would have to read my great-grandmother’s book, front to back, perhaps several times, with a critical eye. If you understand how poetry is written and how metaphor is used, and if you are Wiccan, and if you are able to think like a Witch (surviving within a Christian culture) , you should be able to understand her poetry.

Social media allows me to put all of this “out there” whether anyone ever looks at it or not in current time. Perhaps someday new information will come out that will cause some other researcher to want to look at my research, and then my research might either provide a lead or confirm another finding. Perhaps there are other people, like myself, whose ancestors described themselves as Fairies, who will recognize some of the things that I talk about in my research, and then go public with their information also. Even though it seems that there is not even a small audience interested in the history of Wicca in America—for myself it has been exhilarating, thought-provoking, and a whole lot of fun.

Laugh-A-Day for December 28th: Safe Witch Kit (This is a Joke!)

Safe Witch Kit

 

 

Want to be a Witch, yet don’t want dangerous items in your home? We’ve assembled this comprehensive kit to meet the beginning Witch’s needs, without compromising safety.

Includes:

 

1 Rubber Athame. Painted black handle, silver blade. Very flexible. You can swing this about in Circle with no fears about hurting anyone!

Exclusive! The incredible Collapse-a-Wand! Hand-wrought of authentic wood-grained expanded foam, with a special adhesive patch for attaching the Power Stone of your choice (see below).

2 Battery-operated Candles (1 black, 1 white). No more concerns about flowing gowns catching fire.

1 package Glade Stick-ems. Fresh, floral scent, without the concerns of burning incense. No messy ash to clean up!

1 shaker Mrs. Dash. Get all the flavor and zip of salt, without the sodium!

1 Quality Fold-a-Cauldron. Easy-to-assemble, genuine simulated cast iron corrugated material. Complete instructions.

1 Fabric Rainbow Disk. No sharp corners to be concerned about. The perfect centerpiece for your own Altar. No worries of offending anyone, as could happen with those misunderstood pentagrams.

3 Assorted colors soft vinyl “Power Stones.” Focus the energy of crystals. Perfect for attaching to your Collapse-a-Wand!(Choking hazard. Not recommended for children under 3 years of age)

1 Booklet, “How to Be One with the White Light, Because There Is No Dark Side, Luke” subtitled: “The Absolutely, Completely Comprehensive Guide to Everything Possible that a Witch Needs to Know to cast Any Spell at All”

BONUS! Order now, and we’ll send you our exclusive Fill In The Blanks Book of Light! All the spells you’ll ever need, and YOU fill in the names and dates! Quality softcover binding.

All packaged attractively in a lovely carry-case, which unfolds to become your altar cloth.

Rush out and get yours today!

— by René Friberg, aka RaeVynn Sands

The Celtic Calendar for Thursday, December 27th

Witchy Comments & Graphics


The Celtic Calendar for December 27th

Honoring Horus

Wiccans honor the divine infant Horus, and his mother, Isis, at this time of year, for Horus represents the newborn Sun (Interestingly depictions of Isis nursing Horus inspired the Madonna-and-child iconography of Christianity.) According to ancient Egyptian myth after Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his evil brother Set, Isis search out and magickally reassembled her dead husband’s body parts, she then revived him long enough to conceive their son, Horus. Thereafter, Osiris become Lord of the Underworld, and Horus grew up to avenge Osiris’s death and rule the skies.

Merry We Meet On This Very Blessed Wednesday!

Witchy Comments & Graphics~Magickal Graphics~

Goddess Prayer

Our Mother who art the Earth

Nourishing are thy ways

They web of life be woven

They ways be found within

As it is all around.

 

Thank you this day for our bread and sweat

And forgive us our misuse of you

As we forgive others their misuse of us

And lead us not into exploitation

But deliver us from lording it over you

And over each other and over fellow creatures.

 

For thine are the waters of life

The feeding, breeding, seeding ground

For now and as far as close to forever

As we shall ever come.

Blessed Be!

Reference:

Author: Zsuzsanna Budapest’s Dianic University Online