44 Days of Witchery - Day 35
Something that I think people who don’t know much about paganism/witchcraft should know.
Pagans and witches are just people. We love, need, laugh and cry just like everyone. I like to chat. I refuse to argue. I have better things to do with my time, like ... live life.
If you want to learn and understand, email me. :)
If you want to troll and argue, move along.
Showing posts with label pathworking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pathworking. Show all posts
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
44 Days of Witchery - Day 25
How do your close ones feel about your witchy path? Do they know? Why or why not?
I'm using a photo of the altar at our handfasting and wedding. This was when my parents learned that I definitely was not a christian. I had tried to give little warnings, but it was hard to come out and say "I'm Wiccan (as I was then, I do not identify as wiccan now), in a coven and everything." Or even that other dreaded "W" word... witch! gasp.
My hubby doesn't seem to have any religious or spiritual leanings at all... I might be able to safely call him a "pagan agnostic". hahaha. He's totally supportive of my choices, I was a witch before we met and he knew what he was getting into. Theoretically at least. :) He's attended open rituals and celebrations, he's attended a few workshops and my former coven's Wicca 101 classes.
Dad never talked to me about it, and my stepmom has never spoken in disapproval about it. Both were raised with christian backgrounds. Dad has passed away, so I'll never know how he felt about it I guess.
My lack of communication did hurt my mom's feelings and we needed to process it later, a few weeks after the wedding. Mom has a strong christian lifestyle and at first there was a lot of "I'll pray for you." But now she doesn't say that anymore, and I think she even made a witch joke to me once. :) I do know she's passively tried to instill christian ideas into my kid's head, once. I watch for that though. We live quite a distance so our visits are not as often as I'd like... I do long for the days when we could talk about anything openly... after I got over my teen rebellious stage, we used to talk about astrology and other things.
My husband's mother doesn't seem to care one way or the other...she even asked me to teach her a little about it, not for herself but in case something happened to me, so that she could tell my son what she knew and he could decide to walk a similar path or not.
Nearly all my closest friends are either pagan themselves, or at least know and accept that I'm pagan even if they don't know the details. Anyone else's opinion doesn't really have effect on me.
While I do consider myself "out of the broom closet", I do not consider myself "out there" or super blatantly witchy. I don't do the "goth" look except perhaps as a costume. I look like a tubby middle class mom, not particularly witchy... if witchy has a look. But I am not furtive or secretive in my choice of lifestyle so if someone hears me say "by the gods!" they are welcome to ask what I mean, if it matters that much to them. :)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
44 Days of Witchery - Day 13
44 Days of witchery - day 13: what are some of the witchy books that influenced you?
Lucky number 13! LOL I get to talk books on lucky day 13. :)
The first thing that I ever read where I learned that witchcraft is not at all like the historical witchcraft of the persecution years of medieval times was a fiction novel. In it, witches were doing interesting things; there was magic, healers, shaman-like trancing and ecstatic dancing. THIS! I knew after I read this book that I wanted THIS. I knew that even fiction authors do some research before writing, surely this book had been researched? So I started researching.
Diary of a Witch by Sybil Leek is the first non-fiction book I read that did not portray witches as "wicked, evil" creatures that worshipped a devil. It just whetted my appetite.
The
only other books I found at the time (late 80's) that were at the
public library were two Cunningham books: Earth Power and the book of
Oils, Incense and Brews. I had them checked out for a long time! Then,
suddenly, there were lots more books at the library, and I had a job
where I could afford to buy books, and my tastes expanded. Also, I
joined a coven eventually, and had reading assignments... which I
expanded on my own.
And of course, Drawing Down the Moon is a MUST READ.
I read a ton of stuff... histories both pro and con witchcraft, treatises like The Chalice and the Blade and some others.
No student of the Craft can NOT read Spiral Dance by Starhawk. Very influential in my early years.
Some books left more of an impression than others. I was glad that many books were available through inter-library loan so I didn't have to pay for them!
What are your most influential reads?
UPDATE 8/2016: I wrote this post two years after I left my initiating coven. That coven identified as a Wiccan coven and called themselves witches. When I discovered that coven and joined it, I thought it was exactly what I was looking for. A few years prior to leaving that coven, I started feeling something was lacking, but wasn't sure what it was. After I left that coven, I realized that Wicca isn't the only game in town, and that people are doing witchcraft differently. Several months after I wrote this post, a good friend invited several women to form a coven with her and we did. We now do witchcraft much more like I always wanted... and interestingly, much more like the witches in the first fiction novel that I posted about in this post. So I have been reading a lot since 2010 when I left my initiating coven. Here's just some of what I've read:
Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth is actually a re-read. I'd read it about 15 years ago, but I recently re-read it because my coven created 2 rituals based on two of the stories. The rituals were intense, connecting and beautiful. This literature is intense and beautiful if you read it with an open heart.
Another classic that I've read recently is Aradia, by Charles Leland. I found it online at a website I think called Sacred Texts. I'd like to purchase a paper copy eventually.
I have read several books on Traditional Witchcraft. This book is
one of them and was very interesting. It's a shame Robert Cochrane is gone. I wonder what he'd think about the craft now.
Apocalyptic Witchcraft is an amazing book, and if I'd read it 20 years ago I might never have become a witch, it's that challenging. But now? Worth every challenge. Read it.
Masks of Misrule made a huge impression on me. I wish I'd found this book a very long time ago. I plan to read more like this, if I can find them.
The next 3 books listed here I am currently reading. Letters from the Devil's Forest is extremely thick. Extremely. But I like it's format: it is a series of essays written on individual topics and collected in the book. That makes it easy to consume... I can read an essay or two at a time and not feel like I'm stuck reading consecutive and cumulative chapters. I had originally bought it as a kindle ebook but I soon realized that I needed it in hard copy so that I could take notes in the margins, mark page edges for reference, and use a highlighter on lines I wanted to find quickly. I do not feel cheated out of my money. Now I have the kindle book AND the hardcopy... I can have it with me no matter what. And it's a self-published book so the deserving author gets the money.
The Secret History is written by the same author as above. However, it's a much thinner book and I'm very close to being done with it. I've enjoyed it a great deal, though there was one section I raised my eyebrow at, because it sounded almost... evangelical. I suspect Robin Artisson would not like that description lol... so I'm looking for a better way to say that. Still, it was very interesting and provided a lot of food for thought.
I'm also currently reading The Visions of Isobel Gowdie by Emma Wilby. This book is like a text book (I'd love to take this class! lol) However, it's very thick, written with very small print and is jam-packed with info. But it's also amazing information. Well worth reading no matter what.
My To-Read pile is HUGE. All books highly recommended for the study of modern traditional witchcraft and in no particular order of importance:
Witchcraft Medicine - Claudia Mueller-Ebeling
The Triumph of the Moon - Ronald Hutton
The Red Goddess - Peter Grey
Mastering Witchcraft - Paul Huson
Children of Cain - Michael Howard
History of the Devil, Horned God of the West - R. Lowe Thompson
Call of the Horned Piper - Nigel Jackson
Craft of the Untamed - Nicholaj Frisvold
Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits - Emma Wilby
Roebuck in the Thicket - Evan John Jones (I can't find it though)
Books by Gemma Gary, more by Artisson, and a number of other books that are not specifically modern trad witchcraft but are useful to it.
Lucky number 13! LOL I get to talk books on lucky day 13. :)
Diary of a Witch by Sybil Leek is the first non-fiction book I read that did not portray witches as "wicked, evil" creatures that worshipped a devil. It just whetted my appetite.
The
only other books I found at the time (late 80's) that were at the
public library were two Cunningham books: Earth Power and the book of
Oils, Incense and Brews. I had them checked out for a long time! Then,
suddenly, there were lots more books at the library, and I had a job
where I could afford to buy books, and my tastes expanded. Also, I
joined a coven eventually, and had reading assignments... which I
expanded on my own. And of course, Drawing Down the Moon is a MUST READ.
I read a ton of stuff... histories both pro and con witchcraft, treatises like The Chalice and the Blade and some others.
Some books left more of an impression than others. I was glad that many books were available through inter-library loan so I didn't have to pay for them!
What are your most influential reads?
UPDATE 8/2016: I wrote this post two years after I left my initiating coven. That coven identified as a Wiccan coven and called themselves witches. When I discovered that coven and joined it, I thought it was exactly what I was looking for. A few years prior to leaving that coven, I started feeling something was lacking, but wasn't sure what it was. After I left that coven, I realized that Wicca isn't the only game in town, and that people are doing witchcraft differently. Several months after I wrote this post, a good friend invited several women to form a coven with her and we did. We now do witchcraft much more like I always wanted... and interestingly, much more like the witches in the first fiction novel that I posted about in this post. So I have been reading a lot since 2010 when I left my initiating coven. Here's just some of what I've read:
Another classic that I've read recently is Aradia, by Charles Leland. I found it online at a website I think called Sacred Texts. I'd like to purchase a paper copy eventually.
one of them and was very interesting. It's a shame Robert Cochrane is gone. I wonder what he'd think about the craft now.
Apocalyptic Witchcraft is an amazing book, and if I'd read it 20 years ago I might never have become a witch, it's that challenging. But now? Worth every challenge. Read it.
The Secret History is written by the same author as above. However, it's a much thinner book and I'm very close to being done with it. I've enjoyed it a great deal, though there was one section I raised my eyebrow at, because it sounded almost... evangelical. I suspect Robin Artisson would not like that description lol... so I'm looking for a better way to say that. Still, it was very interesting and provided a lot of food for thought.
My To-Read pile is HUGE. All books highly recommended for the study of modern traditional witchcraft and in no particular order of importance:
Witchcraft Medicine - Claudia Mueller-Ebeling
The Triumph of the Moon - Ronald Hutton
The Red Goddess - Peter Grey
Mastering Witchcraft - Paul Huson
Children of Cain - Michael Howard
History of the Devil, Horned God of the West - R. Lowe Thompson
Call of the Horned Piper - Nigel Jackson
Craft of the Untamed - Nicholaj Frisvold
Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits - Emma Wilby
Roebuck in the Thicket - Evan John Jones (I can't find it though)
Books by Gemma Gary, more by Artisson, and a number of other books that are not specifically modern trad witchcraft but are useful to it.
Friday, January 27, 2012
44 Days of Witchery - Day 1
What's your witchy background?
A very long time ago, when I was 20 year old, I got out of the military and came home to be a "civilian" again. I was adrift... the military and I had not gotten along well enough for it to be a permanent career. I felt adrift spiritually as well... not comfortable at all in the pentecostal christian church I'd been a member in, or really any christian church. Like most people, I never knew of any other options... it was simply assumed to be a choice of which christian denomination I would join, or atheism.
For months and months, I worked part-time jobs and read books, mostly science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy. I found this novel on the shelves at the public library, and being a fantasy story and having something to do with a cat and magic, I thought it sounded like a good read.
That book, that fictional fantasy, changed everything.
You see, that story included modern people that called themselves "witches". Normal men and women with jobs, lovers, families. They weren't bad or evil just because they were witches. And their lives were full of interest, mystery... magic.
Now I knew a little bit about authors. They write about things they know... things they've researched. What if... what if these authors had researched REAL people calling themselves witches? I had to know more. And I knew a little bit about researching too, so off to my public library I went.
It
might have ended right there, except that my local public library had a
librarian who (unknowingly to me) happened to be pagan, and had the charge of buying books for the
"occult" section. Of course, this was 1988, and there were few and far
between books on modern paganism available. But there was Diary of a Witch
by Sybil Leek. And there were a few books by Scott Cunningham. (pagan,
witchy and wiccan friends, you may roll your eyes all you like at Scott
Cunningham (or even Sybil Leek) books, but when you are a closeted introvert in 1988, have no
money and no internet, and at that point, Cunningham is ALL that was
available at the library... well this blogger has fond memories,
and still has most of his books) I kept Earth Power checked out from the
library for months before I finally got the courage (and money) to go
looking at the bookstore.
By 1990, I had not only gotten hired on at the public library, and made friends with a certain librarian, I had devoured every current witchy book I could get my hands on. Between what the library had, and the staff discount for buying books via the library, that was a LOT. By 1991, I had met local pagans and witches (other than the librarian). A local coven offered "Wicca 101" classes, and I took those and any other classes they offered, even going so far as continueing self-taught "classes" with my classmates. By 1994, she had joined that coven as a dedicant, and eventually initiated in that coven.
I learned much about magic, goddess and god, ritual, pagan festivals, coven and group dynamics. My experiences were transcendental, wonderfully positive and some negative as well. My coven had initiatory degrees (initiate, elder and High Priest/ess), and I became elder, considered ordained. The coven was also "out of the broom closet" so I had to grow into the ability to teach others, be willing to "out" myself, even becoming less of an introvert and growing far beyond what I'd ever hoped to be.
As life happens, I married, had a child, changed jobs. When my job schedule began to interfere with the coven schedule, I parted ways with the coven to walk my path on my own for a while. I create my witchy world on my own for now, still making magic, talking to goddess and god, still planning to attend pagan festivals, still finding the Sacred in everything.
Edited to update (9/2013): I have recently become part of a newly formed coven. It's an entirely different sort of coven from the previous, more formal tradition, and good to be part of a group again!
A very long time ago, when I was 20 year old, I got out of the military and came home to be a "civilian" again. I was adrift... the military and I had not gotten along well enough for it to be a permanent career. I felt adrift spiritually as well... not comfortable at all in the pentecostal christian church I'd been a member in, or really any christian church. Like most people, I never knew of any other options... it was simply assumed to be a choice of which christian denomination I would join, or atheism.
For months and months, I worked part-time jobs and read books, mostly science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy. I found this novel on the shelves at the public library, and being a fantasy story and having something to do with a cat and magic, I thought it sounded like a good read.
You see, that story included modern people that called themselves "witches". Normal men and women with jobs, lovers, families. They weren't bad or evil just because they were witches. And their lives were full of interest, mystery... magic.
Now I knew a little bit about authors. They write about things they know... things they've researched. What if... what if these authors had researched REAL people calling themselves witches? I had to know more. And I knew a little bit about researching too, so off to my public library I went.
By 1990, I had not only gotten hired on at the public library, and made friends with a certain librarian, I had devoured every current witchy book I could get my hands on. Between what the library had, and the staff discount for buying books via the library, that was a LOT. By 1991, I had met local pagans and witches (other than the librarian). A local coven offered "Wicca 101" classes, and I took those and any other classes they offered, even going so far as continueing self-taught "classes" with my classmates. By 1994, she had joined that coven as a dedicant, and eventually initiated in that coven.
I learned much about magic, goddess and god, ritual, pagan festivals, coven and group dynamics. My experiences were transcendental, wonderfully positive and some negative as well. My coven had initiatory degrees (initiate, elder and High Priest/ess), and I became elder, considered ordained. The coven was also "out of the broom closet" so I had to grow into the ability to teach others, be willing to "out" myself, even becoming less of an introvert and growing far beyond what I'd ever hoped to be.
As life happens, I married, had a child, changed jobs. When my job schedule began to interfere with the coven schedule, I parted ways with the coven to walk my path on my own for a while. I create my witchy world on my own for now, still making magic, talking to goddess and god, still planning to attend pagan festivals, still finding the Sacred in everything.
Edited to update (9/2013): I have recently become part of a newly formed coven. It's an entirely different sort of coven from the previous, more formal tradition, and good to be part of a group again!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Moons and magick
 |
| National Geographic |
Save the Sabbats for family and festivities!"
~ Melanie @ The Pagan Family
I have been contemplating my pagan path a lot lately.
You see, I had been in a coven for over 16 years. I have been pagan for longer! But my membership in the coven defined my path for so many years. Now that I'm on my own, I think, "What next? What now? Which way, Lady?" And, secretly, am I somehow "less"?
When I mentioned my change in status to my friend Melanie at the beginning of the year and that a Sabbat was coming and now as a solitary with a child, I wandered how to celebrate the Sabbat with my son and without a coven, she made the statement "Covens are for moons and magick, save the Sabbats for family and festivities." That sentence has been resounding through my head now for months. I think it defines what I felt was lacking in my path at the time I chose to part ways with the coven I was in.
- Moons and magick were... well... not feeling as magickal as they once had.
- I was operating under the assumption that the coven was my "family of choice", when in fact I was incorrect.
In the very beginning of this year, coven-less, I was quite adrift. But as time went on I realized... nothing *really* has changed other than I don't go to someone else's house once or twice a month. About the only other real difference is that I no longer have a membership in COG. Since all that ever really meant to me was that I had a little card that said I held ordination credentials through COG, and if you asked me to produce that little card right now I'd have to say, "um... dunno where it is." I think that makes it pretty clear how important that card really is in the grand scheme of my life.
In that coven's tradition, I held elder status. That did mean a lot to me. I worked for that, I EARNED it. (insert light bulb moment) I am still an elder! That still means a lot to me. Elder status conferred "clergy" status, ordination status. Whether that means anything to another wiccan or witch is up to them. It won't change who I am, it won't change the fact that I know I am a Priestess. It doesn't change the fact that once recognized as an elder by myself and others (in that coven and outside of it), I will always remain an elder, an ordained priestess, as long as I choose to be one. I may, should I choose, perform the services of clergy should someone request such services.
Whatever my path may look like, right now it is one I am building as I am led back toward what has called to me for years. And exploring THAT is for future blog ramblings. :)
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