Jaspenelle over at The Painted Dragonfly poses a very difficult question: If a religious civil war broke out in your country, would you stand against it? Or would you flee? (I’m paraphrasing here.) I had to answer honestly that I would flee. I know that I am nowhere near as strong as I pretend to be, and I don’t think I would have the strength to fight, whether that be physical fighting or any other type. I wonder if this makes me any less of a devotee to my religion? I don’t think it does, partly because some of us…
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I’m reading a cute book called The Love Almanac. It is full of poems, recipes, and stories about love. I was very surprised when I came across a bit of Wiccan “bad history.” Page 43 of this book there is a piece entitled “Love Spell Bottle.” It reads in part: If you’re on the lookout for love, this love spell bottle might just do the trick. Spell bottles have been in use in America and Great Britain as part of the Wicca tradition since the 1600s. Can you spot the “bad history”? Like I said to quanta, it would be…
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Calling oneself a “Witch” does not make a Witch – but neither does the heredity itself, nor the collection of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and well without harm to others and in harmony with Nature. (from the 1974 meeting of the Council of American Witches) Wise words written by a group of pioneering pagans over twenty years ago. When they wrote the document that these words were taken from (read it here on my website) did they have any idea about how…
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Building off my entry from the other day, I am hoping to form a more homegrown and integrated from of spirituality for myself. A sort of kitchen-witchery, with spontaneous rituals and a personalized correspondence and symbol set. Essentially, I want to bring Wicca into my everyday life where I can learn spiritual lessons from everything and where I don’t need a formal Circle to worship. This is an ideal that is mentioned in many books, but how to achieve this integration is glossed over or ignored. You are told you can worship without a Circle, and then you are told…
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Wicca seems to have become very caught up in ritual forms and the “proper way” of doing things. Supposed Wicca is a rebirth or re-imaging of early European pagan practices. It seems to me not very likely that they would have 161 rules regarding the functioning of a coven as Alexandrians do, or a rigid circle framework, or a set of tools that are absolutely required. In my opinion, Wicca has become very High Church and high magic oriented. Everyone has a set rule to play, which can become semi-permanent, there can also be set dogma and even rigid correspondences.…
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So many people have the attitude of “Seeing is believing”, but I am beginning to wonder if this is really healthy. For example, why do we need to prove that prayer and magic work? Isn’t it enough that they provide spiritual nourishment for our souls? What is it about out society that makes us demand proof of things that should be matters of faith? Is it now too much to believe in something without a scientific study to back it up? Our new motto should be “Believing is seeing.”
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It has been a long time since I posted my last Adopt-a-Deity entry. Inspiration for another entry came to me when I was listening to Bananarama’s Venus. Venus (similar to the Greek Aphrodite), is the Roman goddess of love and beauty, although it is believed that She may have originally been a vegetation goddess. She is the daughter of Jupiter, and the lover or both Mars and Vulcan. Most of her Roman mythology matches that of Aphrodite—trysts with Mars (Ares), being given as a wife to Vulcan (Hephaestus), mother of Cupid (Eros), etc. Another aspect of Venus, that of Venus…
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I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Scrapbooking and Wicca have combined to bring you The Create-a-Grimoire(TM) system. Yes, apparently it has been trade marked. Okay, maybe it isn’t so bad. I am overreacting a little bit, since I was planning on using a few scrapbooking techniques in my Book of Shadows. I think was has irked me is the shallow way it is presented. Simple stickers are given names like “Colours of Mabon” and “Family Trad Heritage Accents”, and papers are called “Love’s Magick” and “Path of the Alchemist”. The fancy names sort of cheapen it…
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This link, It’s a Mystery (Part I): Dysfunctional Behaviour and the Pagan Scene, made an appearance on one of the mailing lists I belong to. It is a really interesting look at why so many Pagan groups are dysfunctional, and reinforces all my reasons for being as solitary as I am. This articles bring up a few thoughts. Firstly, I don’t think that only Pagan groups have these problems. I’m sure groups of like-minded dysfunctional folks exist in all religions. As they say, there is nothing like religion to bring people together. And, not to be cruel, but those snake…
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Being “green” is supposed to be a big part of being Wiccan, but sometimes I’m not really sure what is enough. I recycle nearly all of my paper, cans and plastic. I also try to not use too much power or water, but I am not overly conservative. (I also have no desire to go off the gird. But I wouldn’t mind using solar panels or a hybird car.) We also donate items to the Amity instead of justing throwing them away. And I only use public transit. On the negative side, I don’t recycle my kitchen waste, mostly because…