Pagan religions are living traditions that have evolved over time and continue to change today.  Occult practices and religions such as Wicca in particular have drawn from inspiration around the world including sources originating in the Americas.  The West has had a very noticeable impact on the development of occult philosophy that is easy to see when we look for it.

In the early days of European contact with the American continents Europe and the United Kingdom were in the grip of the spirit of exploration with every new report back from the frontier welcomed by a novelty-hungry public.  Those who went to the exotic Americas came back with stories of Pagan tribes and even empires, rumors of hidden wealth, and accounts of life that sounded strange and in many ways romantic to Europeans.  If Africa was considered to be the dark continent with its impenetrable jungles, and Asia the mysterious and mystical East, the Americas were stereotyped as the land of promise where even the most lowly European could go and have a chance at becoming wealthy.  As European colonists established themselves in North America in particular the Americas also became known among Europeans as the destination for those wishing to create their own religious communities.  Groups such as the Puritans disliked the cosmopolitan nature of Europe with the relatively high population and well-established religious competitors such as the Roman Catholic church and the various Protestant denominations already in place.  The Americas, with the rumored open spaces and purportedly unclaimed territory, provided the opportunity for religious minorities to create Paradise in their own idealized image.

The Puritans, while popular as a subject in American history accounts, were not the only group who settled in North America and practiced their own forms of religion.  Quakers, Shakers, Mennonites, Amish, and many other religious minorities came over the years to the Western continents and spread across the land.  Some were openly antagonistic towards the natives who had lived in the Americas for thousands of years while others were friendly and at least tried to be good neighbors.  In some cases individual settlers or even whole settlements were absorbed by the native tribes sometimes willingly and sometimes through warfare.  And in some cases native tribes and individuals blended into the European settlements as well.  Intermarriage between European settlers and native inhabitants was not unknown.

One interesting example of an attempt to establish a settlement based on Pagan ideas rather than Christian ones is the Merrymount community in what is now Massachusetts.  Key to this settlement was a man named Thomas Morton who respected and admired the Algonquin tribe who were his neighbors, and despised the Puritans and their repressive society.  Morton encouraged the ideas of freedom, peaceful cohabitation with the Natives, and celebration along the lines of European Pagan traditions.  Historical records show that one of the highlights of the Merrymount celebrations was the Maypole dance when the local Algonquins were invited to join in days of feasting, dancing, drinking, and general merrymaking.  Unfortunately the neighboring Puritans were not happy about any of this and with the aid of Puritan authorities in the colonies they had Morton sent back to England and the Merrymount settlement was disbanded and destroyed.

Back in Europe and the British Isles those with progressive views had a tendency to romanticize Native American cultures.  It was a variant of the “noble savage” idea – those who live in other cultures, especially those who were not Christian, were seen by Europeans as less evolved but of interest because of their novelty as well as their apparent close connection to the natural world.

Europeans embraced three products from the Americas in particular that in their native settings were considered to be gifts from the gods.  Chocolate, tobacco, and maize (what we North Americans tend to call “corn”) were a hit in European homes.  In Europe however they lost their spiritual associations and were seen as merely things to consume.  Europeans tended to see American ideas, such as the stereotypical Native American way of life popularized in European accounts, as having a glimpse of spiritual truth although of course it was largely considered to be inferior to Christianity.

The attraction to a mythical American Indian spirituality though caught the interest of some Europeans and European settlers in the Americas to the point that sometimes Europeans would impersonate American Indians (at least when among Europeans) or claim that they were descended from American Indian ancestors.  Grey Owl, who was actually named Archie Belaney by his very English parents, gained fame popularizing American Indian folklore and culture.  While some real American Indians such as Chief Sitting Bull toured Europe with groups such as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, there were also those who made a living speaking to the gullible public about American Indian life claiming to be American Indians when in fact they were not.  Unfortunately this is still sometimes a problem today.

The European and UK occult world was involved explicitly in drawing from Native American culture at the start of the 1900s in the form of the work of Ernest Thompson Seton and his Woodcraft movement.  Ernest Thompson Seton grew up in Canada (in the Don Valley area of Toronto, Ontario) and also in the United States in various places.  In 1902 while Seton lived in rural Connecticut he started up a group for local boys to introduce them to the ideas of wilderness survival skills, good citizenship, and environmental awareness all with an overt Native American appearance.  Seton made his living writing books about nature and used his literary skills to produce magazine articles as well as handbooks for his new movement.  Before long there were thousands involved in Seton’s Woodcraft organization in the US alone.

Lord Baden-Powell and others decided to create their own version of a boys’ group and called it Boy Scouts, drawing similarly on Native American folklore but adding a more military structure and attitude.  For a time Seton’s Woodcraft movement and Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts merged but they split again over political differences.  Seton’s Woodcraft movement is still active today although Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts has surpassed it in popularity.  The Woodcraft movement is much more prominent in the UK and Europe today than it is in the Americas, where the Boy Scouts are much more popular.

Seton felt that the Woodcraft movement could be much more than just a club for boys.  In 1911 he established an inner group called the Red Lodge which consisted of adults who wanted to provide a spiritual core to the Woodcraft movement based explicitly on Native American spiritual ideals.  Accounts indicate that this secretive circle of people incorporated standard secret society practices drawn from fraternal groups such as the Freemasons and Native American spiritual traditions, with some emphasis on psychic development as well.  Members of this group included such notables as Manly P. Hall (author of the widely respected mystical and occult text “The Secret Teachings of All Ages”), Arthur Conan Doyle, and some who were celebrities in the Spiritualist community.

Seton traveled to the UK to speak publicly about the Woodcraft movement and it was enthusiastically embraced.  An offshoot group known as the Kibbo Kift was created and worked in conjunction with Seton’s Woodcraft, complete with the ideals of the Red or Sun Lodge.  The founders of the Kibbo Kift, Ernest and Aubrey Westlake and John Hargrave, brought British and European Pagan influences into the Red Lodge material.  (Hargrave was formerly a high-ranking leader of Boy Scouts but left it over dissatisfaction with the military emphasis.)  The Kibbo Kift, like the Woodcraft members, would often adopt names styled after Native American ones.  Hargrave was known for instance as White Fox.  Many Kibbo Kift members were also involved in nudism.  In various pamphlets and publications Hargrave explained the roles of the Pagan deities Pan, Artemis, and Dionysus as the patron deities of the Kibbo Kift.

Hargrave was also a personal friend of Michael Houghton who owned the famous Atlantis Books occult bookstore in London.  Houghton helped spread the word about the Kibbo Kift by publishing some of Hargrave’s articles in the Atlantis Books magazines.  Ross Nichols, who founded the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids left the Kibbo Kift a sizable donation in his will so there was another clear connection between the founders if not the ideas of the two movements.

And of course there was another key person who was influenced either directly or indirectly by Seton’s Woodcraft, the Red Lodge, and the offshoot Kibbo Kift  – Gerald Gardner.  Gardner is well known for his involvement in occultism through his Witchcraft Museum, his involvement with the Folklore Society, membership as a Freemason, enthusiasm for nudism, and involvement with Druid organizations, and of course for his promotion of Wicca.  He was also friends with Ross Nichols with whom he shared a number of interests including nudism as well as occultism and Pagan religions and philosophies.  There is also some speculation that Gardner was also friends with Harry “Dion” Byngham who was involved in nudism as well as both Pagan philosophies and various Woodcraft groups.  Evidence suggests that Byngham and Gardner were both members of the same nudist groups and so would have had a chance to meet that way.

The Woodcraft movement and the European romantic ideas about Native American spirituality and culture were not the only or even the most influential Western touches in European occultism.  In 1848 a religious group was founded in the United States that took off in popular culture and quickly spread to an eager European and British audience.  It all started with the Fox sisters, and became known as Spiritualism.

Spiritualism is based on the idea that some part of the human identity survives past death and is capable of communicating with the living.  Speaking with the dead has been a practice for time immemorial but the Fox sisters provided an apparently reliable method for doing so in a time and place where the public was eager to rediscover this possibility.  Once the Fox sisters were discovered they were quickly taken on tour (initially by P.T. Barnum!) where they performed essentially on command for a very willing paying audience.  Before long there were others serving as mediums between the living and the spirit world to not only meet the public’s growing demand for these services but also encouraging the public interest to grow even greater.

It was this atmosphere of acceptance that allowed mediums to flourish.  A few such as Daniel Dunglas Home, Maurice Barbanell (who worked with a Native American spirit guide, Silver Birch), the Davenport brothers, an American woman who was known simply as Margery, and Mrs. Guppy among others became common household names.  Spiritualist associations and churches were founded on both sides of the Atlantic and the movement found a very receptive public.  Enthusiastic endorsements of Spiritualism by such figures as Arthur Conan Doyle also helped in building the popularity of the movement.

Spiritualist mediums expanded their repertory to include not just providing messages from the dearly departed but also sometimes quite impressive demonstrations of physical phenomena such as levitation, teleportation of objects (often called “apports”), and even manifestation of spirits to visible appearance.  Some Spiritualist mediums were exposed as charlatans but some were never proven to be hoaxes.  In any case the popularity of Spiritualism brought new attention to occult ideas and spurred on further researchers and groups to explore magickal topics.

Some have said that the British, European, and North American cultures were primed for the return of Pagan religions and magickal spiritual paths.  If Gerald Gardner had not come along and started promoting Wicca then someone else was bound to do the same or similar – society was ready for just this sort of thing.  The one thing we can count on though is that things will always change and that is true with Wicca and British and European Paganism.  Since Gardner’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s the Americas has had a very significant impact on Paganism.

Gardner’s Wicca was brought to the United States in 1963 by Raymond Buckland and in the hippy alternative culture at that time it quickly took off.  This colorful cauldron brew of a decade brought together a number of interesting factions including feminism, the civil rights movement (including the gay and lesbian rights movement), experimentation of alternative ways of seeing reality including both alternative religions as well as recreational drug use, and a general emphasis on freedom as well as seeking meaning through non-mainstream outlets.  Wicca and the idea of Pagan spirituality expanded rapidly with countless new systems and groups springing up overnight.  Some attempted to stick to preserving Wiccan and other specific Pagan systems while others openly drew from any and all sources that inspired them.  Gardner’s Wicca blossomed and spawned whole new generations of alternative Wiccan denominations and inspired many non-Wiccan Pagan groups to form.  Wicca itself evolved in many ways and in some specific cases changed so much that some groups were really not Wiccan any longer.  The Divine loves diversity though and since the 1960s the variety in the Wiccan and Pagan community has increased rather than decreased.  Some groups will likely become more solidified and will last in the long run, with other groups disappearing as they lose popularity, but the diversity is here to stay in some form.  As they say, the cat is out of the bag now and having too much fun celebrating freedom and diversity so it isn’t really possible to bring everything back to the point of eliminating all the variety.

The community in North America also saw the formation of a number of influential Pagan organizations such as the Covenant of the Goddess, the Church of All Worlds, Ár nDraíocht Féin (the Druid group ADF), the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, and of course Circle Sanctuary which all served to not only provide valuable networking resources but also helped introduce Paganism to many individuals who otherwise would likely have never found these spiritual paths.  Networking and outreach were done a number of ways but one of the most effective methods used was the regular publication of newsletters and magazines.  Connections were made and ideas were shared in ways that allowed even those living in remote areas the chance to learn and participate.

These more formal Pagan organizations also helped to address legal issues affecting Pagans including basic recognition by governmental authorities.  By becoming incorporated as legal entities, or established as bona fide religious institutions with legal tax exemptions just like other religious groups, the Pagan community started to gain acceptance and visibility.  Our spiritual paths moved from rumors and shadows to very real legal status deserving of all the legal benefits enjoyed by other religions.  And just like dominoes, as one Pagan group builds its legal existence awareness spreads and allows other Pagan groups to do likewise.  The success at establishing legal Pagan religious groups in North America makes it easier for groups in other parts of the world to do the same.

American commercial publishers started to discover the Pagan market and began to produce increasing numbers of books for us.  It started with a trickle of books by a handful of authors but quickly grew until in the 1980s and 1990s publishers such as Llewellyn had books on Paganism, occult practices, and Wicca in not just specialty but also mainstream bookstores all around the world.  Some decried the quality of some of the authors and books but even watered-down material helped to spread awareness of magickal spiritual paths.  Thanks to the occult publishing boom that happened in the United States it is now relatively easy to get your hands on such classics as the works of Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, Doreen Valiente, Ray Buckland, and many others no matter where you are in the world today.

Modern Paganism of the UK and Europe did not develop in isolation and are still evolving products of influences from around the world.  As we have seen there are indeed some very intriguing developments that have their roots firmly in the West, in the American continents.  History has a way of constantly unfolding and we will undoubtedly find that as further research is done that even more remarkable detail will come out about the impact of Western ideas on European and UK occultism.

References

Buckland, Raymond.  “Buckland’s Book of Spirit Communications,” Llewellyn Publishing, Second Revised Edition, 2004.

Greer, John Michael and Cooper, Gordon.  “The Red God: Woodcraft and the Origins of Wicca,” from the Summer 1998 issue of Gnosis Magazine.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.  “Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience,” HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

Heselton, Philip.  “Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration,” Capall Bann Publishing, 2003.

http://members.aol.com/srasmus/oldentext/merrymount.html for information on Thomas Morton and the Merrymount community.

this National Library of Canada article for information on the life of Grey Owl.

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/buffalobill/bbwildwestshow.html for an account of Native Americans touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, including in Europe.

http://www.woodcraft.org.uk/ is a UK Woodcraft website.

Wikipedia entry on E. T. Seton or this archived copy of the E. T. Seton Institute website for information on Ernest Thompson Seton.

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Ben Gruagach is an eclectic Wiccan writer living in Oakville, Ontario Canada with his sweetheart, two wonderful sons, and both a feline and canine companion. Look for his book, “The Wiccan Mystic,” which explores mystery religions and mysticism in a Wiccan context. Ben’s website is http://www.witchgrotto.com.

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Bryon Morrigan is a former US military intelligence analyst with a degree in forensic science. He lives in a beautiful Southern estate in Florida with his wife and two daughters.  He counts Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Wells, and Hunter S. Thompson among his literary influences.  Look for his horror thriller “THE DESERT” in bookstores and libraries – or ask for it if you don’t see it on the shelves!  Bryon’s website can be found at http://www.bryonmorrigan.com/

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MW: You’ve listed your path on your MysticWicks as Ár nDraíocht Féin.  Tell us about your spiritual journey – when did you get started, how did it develop, and how do you feel about where you are now?

Bryon: My path began a long time ago, during the Dark Ages of the Satanic Panic.  It started out in two major ways.  The first was that I began asking questions at Sunday School.  In particular, I remember what I like to call the “Hitler Conundrum.”  I lived in a very rural area, and my parents made me attend one of those one-room, no air-conditioning (in Florida!) Missionary Baptist churches.  One thing they kept hammering at us was that anyone who believed in Jesus would go to Heaven.  No “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.”

So I started asking about Hitler.  Since Hitler was a Christian, logically one had to assume by that reasoning that he went to Heaven.  On the other hand, people from places like India or China that had never heard of this Jesus guy would be doomed to eternal torment.  Even in 3^rd grade, that seemed utterly stupid to me.  Add to that the fact that I thought the stories in the Bible were completely boring, and you certainly have a recipe for apostasy!

The second major issue that impacted my journey was my interest in fantasy and magical stories.  I played Dungeons & Dragons from about 4^th or 5^th grade, and I was always interested in trying to figure out a way to make “real magic” happen.  So what I started doing was creating a “grimoire,” that I reverse-engineered from anthropology books about voodoo and witch-doctors, combined with excerpts of supposed “witchcraft” rituals and incantations from those Satanic Panic books.  (IOW, if it said, “You should watch out if your kids do _____.” then I would do “_____.”)

Much of my early Pagan “identity” at this time came from Mary Stewart’s “Merlin Trilogy.”  You have to remember… this was the 80s, before the Internet and the ease of availability of knowledge about these things, especially to a young boy in elementary school.

In high school, I started dating a much older Wiccan woman, and I tried to get into Wicca, but it never felt right to me.  As soon as we broke up, I was back to my “I’ll figure things out myself” ways.  Eventually, I ended up reading a lot of Mary Renault, and her descriptions of Hellenic Polytheism rang “true” to me. I could believe in the gods of the Classical world, whereas the gods of the Abrahamic religions have always felt as “real” to me as Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus.

Eventually, I moved from a strictly Hellenic tradition to a more Roman model.  I love Classical history, and I have a deep affinity for the Roman world, particularly the somewhat “eclectic” way that they viewed their religions.

Recently however, my wife and I came to a compromise.  She is also a long-time Pagan, but just doesn’t feel the connection with the Greco-Roman world that I do.  It got to the point where I was the only one doing rituals or teaching the children about religion.  So I went to her and asked her what I could do to make it more interesting to her.  She’s Irish-American, and feels much more at home with the Celtic world.

To me, there really is no issue in moving between pantheons.  No more than it was difficult for a Roman stationed in Britain to call upon Mars Nodens (Celtic), rather than Mars Ultor (Roman).  So we jointly decided to make our official home religion Celtic, and teach the children to worship in the Celtic fashion, while still learning the Greek, Roman, and even Germanic myths and stories.

Since I never do anything half-assed, I decided to join ADF to assist me in this endeavor.  I have always admired Isaac Bonewits and the ADF’s commitment to scholarship and excellence.  (I was even originally going to be Professor of Classics at Isaac’s ill-fated Real Magic School.)

Also, being a Left-Wing, tree-hugging, environmentalist, Liberal, I find myself a lot more at home in ADF than some other groups in the Pagan world.

MW: Tell us more about your background in the US military.  Were you “out” as a Pagan while you were serving?

Bryon: I joined the Army in 1996, enlisting as a Signals Intelligence Analyst, which is basically a fancy word for “code-breaker.”  I had a Top Secret/SCI clearance at the time, but unfortunately did not get to see any secret UFO facilities. 

I checked “No Rel Pref” on my official religion, like most Pagans at the time, and was glad of it.  One drill-sergeant in basic training made us all pull our dog-tags out of our shirts in formation one day, so that he could go check to make sure he didn’t have any “dog-gone witches or warlocks” in his platoon.  Trust me, basic training is not the kind of place that you want to “stand out.”  On Sundays, we were given the choice of going to church, or cleaning the barracks.  I went to church and daydreamed.  There were other “pseudo-mandatory” Christian functions from time to time, but I don’t remember them as well as that particular incident.

MW: Tell us about your novel “The Desert.”  What has been, in your experience, the hardest part of bringing the story to market?  What was the easiest?  What was the most rewarding?

Bryon: Gods.  Bringing the story to market was rather easy.  Within a week of finishing the novel, I already had publishers interested.  (It’s topical… see?)  The hardest part has been the movie.  I’ve gone through a few interested parties trying to get the movie made, from a big-name Hollywood guy to a low-budget company pitching it to SyFy Channel.  I’ve written 10 different screenplays, and it has yet to go into production.  The SyFy Channel one was the closest to going through, but it looks like it’s not gonna happen at this point.

MW: Do you have any new books coming for us to look forward to reading?  What publishing or related projects are you working on now?

Bryon: I have a sequel to THE DESERT that I’m finishing up now.  It’s called ACHERON, and takes place in Basrah, Iraq, as a lone Army officer escapes from the hands of a terrorist group… only to find that the world outside has gone to Hell… somewhat literally.  There’s a lot more Pagan mythology in this book than in THE DESERT, which only lightly touched on Yazidi mythology.

I’m simultaneously working on the screenplay, and the aforementioned Hollywood guy has already expressed an interest in it.  Keep your fingers crossed.

I’ve also just begun a project with a very Pagan focus.  My friend, the horror and Christian theology author Kim Paffenroth, Ph.D. (http://gotld.blogspot.com/), and I will be collaborating on a screenplay about the Roman emperor Julian II (Aka “Julian the Apostate.”)  It will likely be about an important moment in his life, from both the Pagan and Christian perspectives.

MW: Has being a parent changed your world-view (your spirituality or your career)?

Bryon: Gods yes.  Spiritually, it forces you to really confront your own feelings on religion constantly, since you are essentially their spiritual teacher.

Career-wise?  Let’s just put it this way: Sometimes, it can be a bit trying when you are attempting to write a novel and a baby is screaming in the next room.  On the other hand, there are few things as uplifting as making that same baby laugh or smile… or snuggling up to her to take a nap together.

MW: What advice would you give to budding writers just starting out today?

Bryon: Buy a copy of Stephen King’s ON WRITING.  Live it.  Read about the experiences of other writers, particularly a great guy named Brian Keene, who has blogged extensively about the real experiences of being a professional writer.  NEVER EVEN CONSIDER SELF-PUBLISHING!  Don’t do it!

Also, consider this: The only reason that I can afford to support my family solely as a writer is that I bought a cheap house, in a small town, and I own both my cars.  It’s a wonderful feeling getting up every morning knowing that I don’t have to go to a “real” job… but you have to be realistic.  There are houses for sale in my town for $15k.  Nice, big Victorian houses like mine…  (My house was built in 1883, and is enormous.)  If you search around the country right now, there are plenty of small towns just like this one where you can buy beautiful houses for practically nothing.  If you’re serious about writing for a living, and you aren’t on the New York Times’ Bestseller List, you might want to start doing some research.  (We searched for a year before settling on this house.)

MW: What do you hope the Pagan community will look like in the future?  What do you see as our greatest challenges in attaining this future?

Bryon: I see a lot more “educated eclecticism” creeping in, and hopefully a great deal more focus on “the now,” as opposed to “the then.”  As we become more out in the open and mainstream, I see us becoming more about being a living, breathing religion, rather than the live-action-role-playing-game that some people tend towards.  Scholarship is wonderful.  I have an MA in History myself… but trying to live in the past, without allowing for the changes that have occurred in society over 2000 years, is just not something that I’m particularly interested in.

MW: What advice would you give to those starting out on the path exploring Paganism?

Bryon: Read.  A lot.  Preferably from people with the letters “P” “H” & “D” at the ends of their names.  Question everything you read.  There was a lot of misinformation published in the 1990s where every Pagan tradition was explained as just another kind of Wicca, and the authors usually presented these anachronisms as “fact.”  Skip the Amber K’s and D.J. McCoy’s of the world, and pick up something by Isaac Bonewits, Ronald Hutton, or John Michael Greer.

And while you’re at it, pick up THE PRICE OF MONOTHEISM, by Jan Assmann, and GOD AGAINST THE GODS: A HISTORY OF THE WAR BETWEEN MONOTHEISM AND POLYTHEISM, by Jonathan Kirsch.  If you want to be truly educated about the relationship between Paganism and Christianity, you really have to read books like those.

MW: What advice would you give to elders in the Pagan community today?

Bryon: See the previous question.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of elders in the Pagan community who have stopped learning.  They feel that they learned everything there is to know about our religions back in the 80s or 90s, and they haven’t kept abreast of the modern philosophical and historical strains and discussions going on.  One thing that I’ve learned over the course of my academic enlightenment is that you should never stop learning or challenging your own beliefs and assumptions.

Also, we really need to keep on top of what political issues are going on in our countries that affect our rights as Pagans.  I’ve run into all kinds of Pagans online who support candidates who they didn’t realize were actually Christian Dominionists actively trying to create some kind of sick Theofascist society.  (Senator Sam Brownback, I’m looking at you!)

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Ben Gruagach is an eclectic Wiccan writer living in Oakville, Ontario Canada with his sweetheart, two wonderful sons, and both a feline and canine companion. Look for his book, “The Wiccan Mystic,” which explores mystery religions and mysticism in a Wiccan context. Ben’s website is http://www.witchgrotto.com.

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To get a good grounding in astrology start with a book like “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Astrology” by Madeline Gerwick-Brodeur & Lisa Lenard, or “Parker’s Astrology” by Julia & Derek Parker.  Another beginner book that I’ve heard good things about is “The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need” by Joanna Woolfolk.  Even if you don’t end up drawing up charts the books will give you enough info to understand the basics behind the system and what the associations are with the various planets, signs, etc.

As you start to move into trying to time your spiritual and magickal work with heavenly cycles you’ll likely want a reference to consult such as “The Spellcaster’s Reference: Magickal Timing for the Wheel of the Year” by Eileen Holland.  Another book with lots of great suggestions is “Pagan Astrology” by Raven Kaldera.  Both books provide information, with concrete examples, of how to work magick with the various planetary and stellar tides.

Magickal systems can have a clear basis in astrological theory.  Old grimoires such as Agrippa’s (such as in the new annotated “The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy” edited by Donald Tyson), or the Arbatel (with a recent version edited by Joseph Peterson) provide source material for those working with ceremonial magick.  More modern systems based on the older material are presented in books such as “Practical Planetary Magick” by David Rankine & Sorita d’Este, “Planetary Magick” by Denning & Phillips, and “Stellar Magic” by Payam Nabarz.

Those working a more witchy style of magick will find lots of great ideas in Dorothy Morrison’s “Everyday Sun Magic” and “Everyday Moon Magic.”

One last resource which I’ve personally found invaluable is the website http://www.lunarium.co.uk/planets/hours.jsp — it provides a handy calculator for planetary hours for a specific location and date.  Finding out which planet is likely to be dominant for a specific date, time, and location doesn’t have to stretch your brain with complicated calculations!

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Ben Gruagach is an eclectic Wiccan writer living in Oakville, Ontario Canada with his sweetheart, two wonderful sons, and both a feline and canine companion. Look for his book, “The Wiccan Mystic,” which explores mystery religions and mysticism in a Wiccan context. Ben’s website is http://www.witchgrotto.com.

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Charcoal tends to be messy when one is grinding it up. A much neater way to break up the briquettes is to put them between several layers of old newspaper or cloth and giving it some really hefty bangs with a hammer, breaking it up into very small lumps. (You can even save the newspaper or cloth and reuse it again for that very purpose).

You will need:

6 parts ground charcoal

1 part ground Benzoin

2 parts ground Sandalwood

1 part Orris root (fixes the scent into the incense cones)

Pestle and Mortar

Bowl for mixing

6 drops essential oil… Use the oil form of one of the ingredients of your chosen incense

2-4 parts loose incense of your choice 10 percent by weight of Potassium Nitrate (Saltpeter) (Do not use more than 10 percent by weight because the cones may explode)

Gum Tragacanth or Gum Arabic

Method: Mix the first four ingredients in the pestle until well blended. Add the essential oil and mix again until it becomes a very fine powder. Add the 2-4 parts of your chosen incense mixture, grinding and empowering it thoroughly.

Place the mix into the bowl and combine them with your hands while thinking of your intended purpose.

Weigh and add in the 10 percent by weight of Potassium Nitrate (a white powder). Mix until thoroughly blended.

Add the tragacanth glue or gum Arabic, a teaspoon at a time, mixing with your hands until all the ingredients are dampened and the mixture forms a stiff dough-like texture.

Shape the mixture into small cones. Let them dry slowly for 2-7 days in the sun, a slow oven or a drying cupboard. When the cones are completely dry, store in a small plastic bag or airtight container for future use.

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“I enjoy perpetual spring: the year always shines, trees are leafing, the solid always fodders. I have a fruitful garden in my dowered fields, fanned by breezes, fed by limpid fountains. My husband filled it with well-bred flowers, saying: ‘Have jurisdiction of the flower, goddess.’ I often wanted to number the colours displayed, but could not: their abundance defied measure.”

Flora is a Roman goddess, one of flowers, spring, beginnings, renewal, fertility, abundance and growth. She isn’t just a goddess of flowers, but a goddess of life, for if it was not for her gentle touch flowers and plant life would not grow. It was she who made things blossom, come to life and bear fruit. This importance was something the Romans recognized and made sure not to forget. Nearly all of our food (and the food of many animals and livestock) comes from flowering plants. We consume their seeds, fruit, roots, and leaves. We use these plants to produce paper, wood, fibers and medicine. The role of flowering plants is an essential one, not just to us, but the Earth as a whole.

Flora is an old goddess, worshipped in some form or another by the Sabines and other tribes, where her worship was absorbed and continued on into the Roman Empire. She had two temples, one by the Circus Maximus and one on the Quirinal Hill. The temple near the Circus was dedicated April 28^th 241 (or 248) BCE after Rome experienced a severe drought. She was also one of the few lesser deities to have her own priests (flamen) to preside over her festivals and cult. Flora is equated to the Greek goddess-nymph Khloris, but unlike many other Roman deities, it is the Greeks that looked to the Romans for mythology. Most of the mythology associated with Khloris is Roman, though she is linked to the Hellenic west-wind God, Zephyros (Roman: Favonius) by Ovid, in his work, Fasti.

The festival to honor Flora was known as Floralia or Ludi Florales (the Floral Games). It started on April twenty-eighth (on the day her temple was dedicated) and ran until May third. It was a time of celebration and merriment. Chariot races and circus games were a big part of the festival. Theatrical performances (mimes, actors, etc), singing and dancing were common as well. People wore brightly colored clothes and decked themselves in flowers. Prostitutes also considered the festival a special time for them, as sex and celebration were linked with the new season and fertility. Offerings of milk, flowers and honey (said to be one of Flora’s gifts to mankind) were offered to the goddess as well. Various May Day celebrations can trace aspects of their traditions to the Floralia festival.

Ways to Honor Flora

One can honor Flora by appreciating the beauty of flowers and all they have to offer. Offerings of honey and flowers are appropriate as are garlands and floral arrangements. One can take a walk through nature and enjoy the beauty of what spring has to offer. Tending to, starting and/or dedicating a garden of your own would be a great way to not only honor Flora, but to help out nature. Due to the importance of bees and other pollinators to the life-cycle of flowers and plants, conservation to further their causes might be something to look into. With Colony Collapse Disorder affecting huge populations of bees, they could use all the help they can get! And of course, anyone wanting to honor Flora can take a special note of the Floralia, and while chariot games and other aspects of the festival are hard to translate into modern times, the spirit of merriment, gratefulness and worship are not.

*

Links of interest:

About Flora:
On MysticWicks: Flora {Goddess of the Week}
Thalia Took’s Flora entry
Short article on Floralia
Theoi: Chloris – shows relevant Roman texts
Ovid’s Fasti, where Flora is discussed
A prayer to Flora

About bees and Colony Collapse Disorder:
Wikipedia
Burt’s Bees info on how to help the bees
PBS: The Silence of Bees — full documentary as well as information

Miscellaneous:
Instructions on making a flower garland
Flora garden statue &  here
Zephyrus and Flora statue
Cedar Flora sculpture

Books that may be of interest:
Anatomy Of A Rose: Exploring The Secret Life Of Flowers by Sharman Apt Russell
The Gardener’s Way : A Daybook of Acts and Affirmations by Maureen Gilmer
Gardens of Pompeii by Annamaria Ciarallo
The Language of Flowers: Symbols And Myths by Marina Heilmeyer

Agaliha is 24 years old and has a wide array of interests.  She lives in Washington state with her family and pets.  She spends a lot of her time reading, researching and when inspired, being creative.

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The egg symbolizes fertility, abundance and eternal life. Some Pagans prefer to decorate them to honor the deities, adorning their alters or are given as gifts. While coloring the eggs, our group uses the colors that represent our goals for the coming year
Red: courage or romance
Pink: a new love of something/someone
Green: fertility or abundance/prosperity
Blue: spiritual awakening
Black: banish a bad habit
Brown: grounding or stabilizing
Violet: developing intuition
Orange: willpower
White: purity

A fun way of making your own natural dyes is by using herbs, flowers or food. To make these types of dyes; boil about a handful of chosen plants until the water is well colored, pour it into a non metal cup add a teaspoon of vinegar, a pinch of salt, and then color the eggs. Just keep in mind that this type of dye is a bit slower than the store bought kind and can scratch easily.
Here is a list of the plants you can use.
Blue: blueberries, red cabbage, black raspberries
Blue Violet: blackberries, beet juice, mulberries
Red: red onion skins, madder root, cayenne, cranberries
Yellow: turmeric, carrots, fenugreek, white grape juice
Brown: dark walnut shells
Green: carrot tops, bracken
Pink: heather
Orange: onion skins, paprika

Another activity is called seed eggs; this is very easy to do and a lot of fun. First you poke a small hole in both ends of an uncooked egg and gently blow out the inside, then decorate it with symbols or write your goals for the year to come on it. Afterwards, make one of the holes a little bigger and place some potting soil and a few herb seeds inside. As you do this visualize intentions of what you would like to see “grow” in your life in the year to come.
A similar activity to the seed egg is an egg candle. This is a great use for that old candle wax you may have been saving and all you have to do is buy a few wicks. This time only poke one hole in one end of the egg and clean it out well then set it in an egg carton. Melt the wax over low heat and gently pour it into the egg shell, then put in the wick. Once it has fully cooled break the shell (or you can leave it on if you would like) slightly heat the bottom and flatten it so the candle can easily stand on its own, or you can use a candle holder with a spike to hold it. The candles can be made in any color and even multiple colors as long as you let each level cool thoroughly before adding the next, they can also be embellished with small gems, glitter, flowers or herbs.
If you are into the more natural type egg decorating you may use things from around your environment that create very unique designs such as pine needles, dandelions or other spring flowers, leaves, twigs, or grass. You may want to test out how the design will look, to do this place paper over the item you plan to try and carefully color over to get an imprint. When you have made your decision, cover the eggs with the item(s) and place brown onion skins over the entire egg and secure it with a string, Boil the eggs until they are hard boiled, once cooled peel off the skin and you will have beautiful natural designs with not too much effort and no mess.
So try something new with your eggs this year rather than just eating them and have a lot of fun in the meantime.
Astara Seague

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(Imagine a Wise Woman in the old days, her hair just turning grey. She wears slightly ragged clothes. She walks through the forest at night …)

The Crooked Path

Alone I walk the crooked path
A heavy basket upon my back

Through moonlit groves to home at last
Guided by dimming stars above my head
Through the valley and around the bend
With eager eyes do I see the gate ahead

Behind me lays the farmer’s hedge
Beyond the hill does my cottage stand
Away from village lights and prying eyes
I work a craft they cannot understand

My garden beckons while my dog does growl
Heavy basket goes into potting shed
Herbs to be hung with morning light
It is the stew pot that I seek tonight

Dog gets fed and cow is checked
I lay me down upon a lonely bed
I dare to dream of a village-life lived
With a family and a loving husband

But the life I lead is a road for one
In a creaking home blasted with cold drafts
Alone I walk the crooked path

(Now let us take up the story again some five to ten years later …)

Along the Crooked Path

Along the crooked path we walk
Harmonizing with birdsong as we talk

We wander along a sun-dappled path
Through forests’ edge to meadows ahead
Summer’s sweet kiss gives warmth to the land
My steps now guided by a nice young lad

His lass bore a child before they wed
This the town folk would not understand
Beside my cottage now a cabin stands
He says he wants to be a conjure man

The garden blossoms as our family grows
All the herbs have been hung and dried
Horse and cow in the barn by the shed
I shall tell the children a story tonight

As they tuck into bed with the moonrise
I steal away and into the night
My heart and hands reach up high
I sing a song of sorrow and joy

Though my hearth now brims with love
The craft I work is still a road for one
Along the crooked path I walk

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Not only are we acquisitive, we are also inquisitive. We like to see how various artists and authors interpret different cards. It is endlessly fascinating to compare one artist’s interpretation to another’s and to see how that aligns with our interpretations as well. This process broadens our understanding and appreciation for the tarot. (Do you like how I totally justified my obsession? Thought you might.)

Let’s take a look at one card in the deck from a few different perspectives: Nine of Wands.

In the Rider Waite Smith (Waite Coleman-Smith) deck this card is shown as a man with bandages on his arm and head leaning on a stave. He is standing on what appears to be a stone surface, possibly the top of a rampart. Behind him, around the rampart are eight more staves. In the distance we see mountains. He looks tired and wary. From this image we can gather that he has sustained injury and has retreated behind the ramparts and taken up a defensive position.

Taking a look at the Legend: The Arthurian deck by Anna-Marie Ferguson, we see the high cliffs of some ocean inlet. The waves are crashing upon the rocks. Placed throughout the inlet are great war harps. The purpose of these harps was to create a dissonant noise, as they were played by wind & wave, towards approaching enemy ships. This noise would disorient and strike fear into the enemy and was primarily a psychological tactic of defense. There are archers placed in a secluded spot on the cliffs, presumably to take advantage of the cover and shoot at enemies as they arrived.

In Lisa Hunt’s Fantastical Creatures Tarot, the Nine of Wands is represented by the Griffin. He sits regally at the entrance to his mountain cave, surveying the land below and his domain. He stands between our world and the spiritual world, and we must pass him to gain entrance. He is protective of the secrets within.

The Nine of Wands in the Mystic Faerie Tarot by Linda Ravenscroft depicts a young man standing over and gazing at a captive dragon. The dragon has been tied up with a rope to nine staves sticking into the ground. The tied-down dragon represents danger averted, but perhaps not completely over-come, one must still be cautious.

By comparing these four images from four different artists, we can see the common themes of this card: caution, wariness, defense, retreat, confusing your enemy, protection. All have used very different imagery and symbolism, but all have reached the same basic conclusion in the end.

If you are a collector, try laying out your spread and then laying out an identical spread using a different tarot deck. See if this process expands your understanding of your reading.

If you have only one tarot deck, you can use sites such as Aeclectic Tarot or Tarot Garden to see other cards from a deck. Or, you can simply Google images of the tarot card you’re looking for.

Comparing tarots introduces a wealth of understanding and interpretive possibilities. It broadens our appreciation for varying symbols and artistry. Not to mention it gives us a reason to keep buying new decks!

LisaT4P (not Lisa for TP) is a witch, tarot reader, Reiki master, mother, wife, cat herder and general pain in the butt. She has been at least one of these things since birth, we’ll let you guess which one. The others have come about over the last ten years or so.

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Since April is the American Autism Awareness Month, I thought I would share my experiences about raising a child on the autism spectrum. This is our journey of ups and downs, failures and triumphs, laughter and tears… It has been a very long road so far and the journey isn’t over yet, we still have a long way to go. My son, Lil Cloaky, will be six years old on May 29, 2010 and he still needs a lot of help learning social skills and about the world around him.

It was the spring of 2007 when we began our long journey to understand what was happening in our son’s mind… He was almost three years old at the time but wasn’t vocalizing his wants and needs, nor was he able to be around a lot of confusion without having a meltdown and was refusing to be potty trained… We decided to take him to our doctor to see if there was anything we could do for him.

At the time, he was developing normally physically… In fact, he had gone from overly small for his age to about average, if not slightly above average… He had been born at 37 weeks but was the size of a 30 week old fetus when he was born. Seeing his physical development happen when it was supposed to be, even though he was born early, made me a little blind to the fact that he wasn’t talking or playing like other children his age. I thought he would catch up in time but the longer he was non verbal and having meltdowns when he was over-stimulated made me wonder if he needed some help learning how to talk or if he had a medical condition that physically stopped him from talking, like his tongue being tied… His oldest cousin had that problem and had recently had a small procedure to correct it.

Our doctor checked my son over from head to toe. There was nothing physically wrong with Lil Cloaky, in fact, he was perfectly healthy. So we discussed various things that may work for him. Our doctor suggested a hearing test and maybe talking to a speech pathologist. We agreed.

Our son had his hearing test during the summer of 2007 and his hearing was perfect for a child his age. Since it wasn’t his hearing that was preventing him from talking, it had to be something else. We decided to pursue this further. My husband and I were determined to help our son in whatever way we could. We were put on the waiting list to be assessed by a speech pathologist and waited for the appointment for several months.

He had an assessment with a speech pathologist from Halifax, Nova Scotia in late fall of 2007. That didn’t go very well. Lil Cloaky was non responsive. He didn’t want to point out different things when asked… He just wanted to look at the pictures and run around the large room. The result was a meltdown and my husband and I being very upset. However, the pathologist decided that Lil Cloaky was a good candidate for speech therapy, so we were put on the waiting list for a speech pathologist in our area. I was given a few tips to help myself to figure out what his wants and needs were. For example, if he opens the refrigerator, go over and hold up different things that I suspect he may want, like a can of apple juice and if he reaches for it, give him some while saying the name of the item. This did work once in a while but it seemed that my sweet little boy needed extra help. I waited impatiently for our first speech therapy appointment.

Five months after my son’s initial assessment, we went to our first appointment with his speech pathologist in May of 2008. She is a little blond haired woman named Trina and I liked her instantly, she has an energy about her that makes one feel instantly comfortable and it wasn’t hard to tell that Lil Cloaky liked her too. Despite a small meltdown, he warmed up to her in no time.

Speech therapy began in earnest… Trina would use different methods to get Lil Cloaky to verbalize his wants and I would do the exact same thing at home between appointments. It was slow going at first but then we saw slight changes in my son… He was more apt to verbalize what he wanted or needed!! I remember being so excited the first time he said what he wanted without prompting, I picked him up and danced around the house with him!!

However, Trina noticed a few actions my son had that made her start wondering if he was on the Autism Spectrum. She noticed that when he really got excited, he would flap his hands and if he got over-stimulated, he would have a meltdown and we could not calm him down at all. She suggested that we see a psychologist to determine if he is on the autism spectrum or not.

I was very upset with Trina’s speculation at first… After all, I had the stereotypical image of an autistic person in my mind… A person like Dustin Hoffman’s character in the movie “Rain Man” or Megan Follow’s character in “Under the Piano”… Someone who was a genius but unable to completely verbalize their needs or sat in a corner in their own little world. Then I started doing some research and discovered that not all people on the Autism Spectrum are like those two characters… In fact, they are an example of the most extreme cases. People on the Autism Spectrum are generally more verbal and more connected to the world around them. They may need some extra help learning social skills or being more connected to their emotions but it IS possible, and for the most part, they grow up to be very productive members of society.

This gave me hope… Especially since a person I know who is an early childhood educator once said that my son was “stupid” and would “never amount to any more than flipping burgers at McDonald’s—IF he was lucky!” Those not so nice words made me even more determined to prove this person wrong—I would see my son doing more with his life than working at a fast food restaurant. I set out to do everything I could to make sure he has the skills to be able to live in this world and follow whatever career path he wishes to pursue.

We were referred to the South Shore Mental Health Program and met with a psychologist to assess Lil Cloaky for Autism in the summer of 2008. We sat down with Dr. Valerie and went over my son’s medical history while he basically dumped out all of the toys in her office. Even a small meltdown was information for her, she told me, it would help her determine if he was a high stress child just by the way he reacted to changes and if he participated in any activities she tried to interest him in.

We continued going to speech therapy and in the fall of 2008, I started attending a multi-session workshop for parents and caregivers of children on the autism spectrum, to help me learn how to teach my son to learn. The workshop was hosted by Trina and her assistant, Mary, and there were two other families attending it. In it, I learned that asking (most) children on the spectrum a lot of questions will only cause confusion, so I learned to re-word things in such a way that it sounded like I was making a statement and letting him fill in the blanks at my cues. For example, I don’t hold up a dinky car and ask him what color it is, instead I say “This car is colored _____.” The cue for him was me pausing and he would then say what color the car was. I also learned that repetition is the key to helping a small child on the autism spectrum… Repeating a verse or simple song over and over again is not only fun for a child, it can also be used as a learning tool when it comes to every day life.

One example I have used when trying to teach my son to treat our elderly cat with gentle hands is by singing a very simple song, “This is how we pet the cat, pet the cat, pet the cat… This is how we pet the cat… Soft, soft, soft.” I would then demonstrate how lightly a cat must be handled. Lil Cloaky responded to the song right away, even filling in different parts of it when I paused to cue him. He is now being gentler with Birdie, our elderly cat, and will even sing that very song to her sometimes when he’s petting her.

Repeating what one says and does, offering cues to the child to participate and keeping it fun seems to help a non verbal child open up and become more communicative, if not verbally, at least in some way like handing over a picture of a cookie or pointing to a glass of juice… Along with saying things slowly, demonstrating the proper grammar in speech and being highly energetic. Communication is more than words… It can be as simple as a smile or handing an adult a favorite toy or book. Learning to respond to these non verbal cues helped me understand my son and his behaviors/actions better.

Lil Cloaky had his first autism assessment in the fall of 2008… His psychologist Valerie did the observation while her colleague Jeanie actually interacted with Lil Cloaky. I sat in one corner of the room, observing, while they tried different tactics with my son in order to see what skills he had and what skills he needed some help with. For the first time in my son’s life, I watched him pretend play… He actually pretended to feed a stuffed animal some play food!! But when they ended an activity that was high interest for my son, he started having meltdowns and could not focus on anything else. I remember sitting there, crying, while my son showed his frustration that the activity he wanted to do was being put away. Both Valerie and Jeanie were very quick to comfort me… The meltdowns were giving them some very valuable information and it was okay for me to be upset. Watching one’s child get frustrated can be very stressful for any parent, they told me.

Later that fall, Valerie informed me that Lil Cloaky was definitely on the autism spectrum, he has Autism Disorder to be exact. In a way, it was terrifying to know this… Knowing we had a very long and somewhat frustrating journey ahead of us scared me to the core. Yet at the same time, a glimmer of hope shone, getting brighter by the minute. We now knew what why our son acted the way he did and had taken the first steps on the road to help him.

Even though I had been in the workshop for only a couple of sessions, I noticed some slight changes in my son’s communication… He was a little more verbal and more open to learning about the world around him.

During the workshop, we parents learned how to set up a visual schedule and show our children how to use it. A visual schedule is set up similarly to an agenda that one uses for appointments, etc, but much more detailed. Each evening, we set up what we’re doing each day so my son knows what to expect. It can have pictures, words or a combination of both on it. Each part of the schedule is put on a board, fastened with Velcro and as each activity is finished, the child takes it off the schedule and puts it away, in an envelope or on the back of the schedule. For example, our morning schedule starts off with a trip to the potty, followed by breakfast and watching cartoons before a snack and then my son gets some time on his learning computer before lunchtime. As each activity is finished, he or I remove it and go on to the next one on the list. We have adapted this for traveling or shopping… Just so he knows where we’re going and what to expect. We even have a “Today” and “Tomorrow” schedule so he knows what’s going on each day, along with his own calendar so he can see what’s going on during the month. I’ve found he isn’t overly interested in the visual scheduling yet but I do find he is more responsive to not as high interest activities if he does have the schedule in front of him. He’s more apt to finish something he doesn’t like to do before moving on to something he really likes to do if he can actually see that there is something he likes ahead.

As fall turned into winter we started noticing bigger and bigger changes in Lil Cloaky’s communication and behavior. He was more able to express his wants and needs and wasn’t taking as many meltdowns as he had been in the past. We decided it was time to start trying new things with him.

He had been sleeping in our big bed with my husband and me since he was 5 months old and was getting too big to continue sleeping there. My husband had been laid off from work at the time, so we decided it was the perfect time to try it. After all, neither of us got much sleep at night, due to Lil Cloaky laying on top of us or shoving us both out of bed at different times during the night. Both of us have back problems and this intensified them. We had already set up a small bed in our room for Lil Cloaky and were determined he was going to sleep in it and not sleep with us.

At first, we had a lot of sleepless nights… Lil Cloaky apparently inherited my stubbornness and refused to sleep in his own bed at first. He would get up and try to climb in between my husband and me, but we were more stubborn and told him to go back to his own bed. There were a couple of nights where one of us would wind up sitting alongside of his bed, sleeping, just to keep him over there and not in the big bed with us. It took a few weeks but soon he was into the routine of climbing into his own bed at night. It’s been over a year now and we’re happy he took that first step toward sleeping in his own room.

We have discovered that changing things in very small steps is the best way for our son to accept change. If we had moved him into his own room at that time, he wouldn’t have accepted the change as easily. So moving him from one bed to another in the same room was the best choice for all of us at that time… He knows he is not alone and can talk to us if he wants to… And we are right there if he has a nightmare or gets scared. I do admit to allowing him to crawl into bed with me after his father gets up to go to work in the mornings, that is our time to cuddle and talk about the day ahead.

Spring 2009 started with a visit to Yarmouth, NS so we could see my sister, her family and my mother, who lives with them. Lil Cloaky didn’t like being stuck in the car for the two hour drive but was very happy to see his aunt, uncle, cousins and grandmother. I remember hearing my mother comment on how much his speech and behaviors have changed for the better… She noticed how Lil Cloaky was talking a lot more and even starting to put sentences together. She then expressed how proud of him she was and I noticed she was following my lead in the way I spoke to my son.

We discussed why my husband and I didn’t think he was ready to start regular school in the fall and the pros and cons of having him attend daycare for a year instead. I may be a stay at home mom but the benefits of having him going to daycare every day and interacting with other children his age outweighed the fact that it is expensive and we’d be driving him to and from the daycare ourselves.

Late spring 2009 saw Lil Cloaky’s fifth birthday… He had come so far, yet he still had a long way to go in his journey. He still wasn’t potty trained and was still wearing pull ups. He wouldn’t tell me when he had to go to the bathroom, even after I showed him what to do many, many times. I was getting frustrated and was sick of changing poopy pull ups… We decided to buy him some regular underwear and try him with it.

I wasn’t expecting it to work, in fact, I had visions of him starting school still wearing pull ups and needing to be changed each time he either wet or pooped himself. After wetting the underwear and the living room carpet several times, Lil Cloaky surprised me by running to the washroom one day in early June 2009, screaming “I need the potty!!” He didn’t wet or filthy up his pants that time. I was so excited, I was jumping up and down and cheering!! He finally got that using the potty in his pants was for babies, not for someone five years old!! He still has the occasional accident, but that’s normal for a child his age as far as I’m concerned. I’m no longer changing dirty diapers or pull ups, the occasional accident is not going to upset me at all!!

As 2009 progressed, we started noticing that our son was a lot more verbal than he had been… He started talking in full sentences more, he was starting to pretend play and was more conscious of the world around him. If someone started to cry in front of him, he was the first person to offer comfort and give hugs when asked. He used to respond to “I love you,” with blowing a kiss, then he progressed to responding with “I love you too!!”. He became even more verbal in what his needs and wants are and will not hesitate to tell someone when he is sad, happy or upset. The meltdowns started to show up less frequently and if he does get upset about something, we have learned to remove him from the situation and try to calm him down by distracting him with a high interest activity.

In April of 2009, Lil Cloaky started attending a play group for children with social development problems, with the First Steps Early Intervention team… Some of the children were on the autism spectrum while others had other non-specified reasons why they needed some extra help. His speech pathologist, Trina, was one of the leaders, along with various members of the First Steps team. I met my son’s now First Steps caseworker at the play group, Joanne, who has also been a huge help with my son’s fine motor skills and play.

Leaving him there for the first time was a shock for me. I had never left him with anyone but family members before and it was very new to me. I think I had more separation anxiety those first few sessions than he did… He was able to be distracted by Trina, Joanne and the other adults and children while I was wondering what I was going to do for two whole hours of unexpected free time. Lil Cloaky played with other children his own age, participated in crafts, learned some new songs and made a lot of new friends. Those ten weeks gave him so many benefits. We are considering taking him to the play group again this coming spring, if it isn’t at a time or day that conflicts with his other activities or appointments.

I began researching daycares that spring and found two in the area that would suit him and make me comfortable leaving him there. Both had experience with children on the autism spectrum and were more than accommodating. Both directors answered my countless questions with patience and good humor, I wasn’t the first parent to be nervous about leaving their child with anyone other than family after all. I think they sensed how protective I am of my son… My son has no fear and will talk to almost anyone or run out in the road if he has a chance to. I was assured that both places would look out for him as I would. I felt my fears easing slightly. Seeing the fenced in play grounds at both centers eased my fears even more. Lil Cloaky would be fine and safe at either one.

I started getting anxious for a phone call from one of them, telling me that they had a spot for Lil Cloaky. However, both of those daycares were full for children in his age group when daycare started up in the fall. So we decided to start looking for an alternative—preschool. It would mean that Lil Cloaky wouldn’t have as much time away from me and it would be more of a baby step toward attending regular school in the fall. Lucky for us, one of the daycares has a preschool program and had my son on the waiting list. I found out through a member of my son’s autism team that there were openings in the one class and I called to sign him up for it.

September 2009, Lil Cloaky started attending preschool three mornings a week. For the first week, we started off slowly… The first day, it was only an hour, going to two hours the second day and the entire three hours the third day. I stayed those first three days during his transitional period. The fourth day, I snuck out while he was playing with one of his new classmates and sat in the car and cried for a few minutes. My baby was entering a whole new world and it was time for me to start learning to let go of him just a little bit now and then. There are days when he doesn’t want me to leave right away so I will stay until he says I can go, and that is generally after only 15 or 20 minutes, then he’s happy to play and learn with the other children.

He is in the smallest class the preschool has, with only 16 students in it. There are three teachers and an excellent student to teacher ratio. All three of his teachers are wonderful with him, they are so patient, understanding and gentle with him and the rest of the students. The class is divided into three groups, my son is in Shelley’s group with three other students that he is really good friends with. They are the best teachers a mother could ever ask for her child, they have been a godsend to me and my son. He is still very active and doesn’t like to participate in story time but he will do a craft and help Shelley get ready for snack time or get her something she needs when she asks for it… And if one of his classmates is upset, he is the first to offer comfort, even if it’s asking, “Are you okay?” to the other student. He scribbles in a work book, paints with enthusiasm, drums for the rest of the class and is always trying to play the piano. He is a very loved and popular child by the rest of his classmates. They are so good and are very understanding with him too… If he doesn’t understand something, one of his classmates will explain it to him in a way that he understands. If that doesn’t work, the other student will get Shelley or another teacher to help out.

October 2009 saw my son’s class take their first field trip of the year, to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I was expecting disaster, considering how my son does not like to sit quietly and listen, but he surprised me. During the little learning session about lobsters, he tried to get up and run around but with a threat of going home (from me) he sat down and listened!! After the session, the lady showing us the lobsters played some music and danced to the “Lobster Dance”. No other students wanted to participate in it until Lil Cloaky got up and started dancing right along with the lady from the museum!! The rest of the morning was spent doing crafts, touching safe sea creatures like a starfish in the museum’s touch tank, watching how a boat is launched for their maiden voyage and exploring one of the trawlers that the museum has berthed alongside of it. I managed to sneak off long enough to get a few pictures of Nova Scotia’s ambassador, the schooner Bluenose II, which has its home port at the Fisheries Museum. All in all, we had a lot of fun. It was a crisp and cloudy day but getting a little chilled was worth the fun.

December of 2009 was the daycare’s annual holiday/Christmas concert. All classes from the day care and preschool participated, which meant I was able to meet other families who had children in the day care and the other two classes at the preschool. Lil Cloaky’s class sang two songs. He participated in the first song with no problems, then proceeded to have a meltdown during the second song. The director of the entire daycare was so good with us, she even tried to help me calm my son down and offered me comfort when I became upset about my son being upset.

I cannot express just how grateful I am that Lil Cloaky is involved in the preschool that he is… He has been accepted and liked for who he is, even if his mind does work differently than his classmates. Even the parents of his classmates seem to like him a lot and are always saying they are impressed with how far he has come in five months’ time. It’s like being a part of a much larger family, a feeling that warms my heart and makes me cry, I’m so happy.

The second field trip of the year saw us at a local bowling alley. Bowling is a VERY high interest activity for Lil Cloaky, he has a set of toy bowling pins and balls at home and he uses my long, narrow kitchen as his own personal bowling alley.

At first, he was taking meltdowns when he realized he wasn’t allowed to bowl by himself and he had to wait for the other three students to take their turns. After a while, he calmed down and was waiting for his turn. He did pretty well, he got a score of 55 after only 9 frames, which is really good for a beginner at candlepin bowling!! The last going off, he and one of his best friends were bowling down the same lane simultaneously… It was very cute and everyone giggled over it.

That same week, Lil Cloaky had his very first play date with a friend. One of his classmates and their younger siblings came here to our house with their mom for the afternoon. Things went pretty smoothly. We had lunch and we moms let the older children play with Lil Cloaky’s toys while we sat out in the kitchen with the youngest child and chatted. I had known their mother briefly several years ago, she used to be friends with a former co-worker of my husband’s and she is a very nice lady. We are discussing having another play date here later in the winter or sometime in the spring. Hopefully things will go as smoothly as they did during the first one, so we can continue this and maybe even have other students over for play dates in the future.

The winter holidays are always a busy time here at my house… Getting the house decorated, the artificial tree set up and the shopping can be very confusing to a child on the Autism spectrum. This past holiday season, Lil Cloaky helped his father decorate… It was very cute to watch the two of them working together. Lil Cloaky would ask his daddy a few questions and my husband answered them all with good humor. After all the decorating was done, Lil Cloaky would look at the tree and point out what the different ornaments were… We have several cross stitched ornaments made by my mother and Lil Cloaky was fascinated by the ones that have pictures in them… I have one that has a photo of his three cousins in it and he would point out each cousin, saying their names perfectly.

We always visit my husband’s grandmother at least once during the holiday season… This past year saw her niece and nephew in law visiting from Quincy, Massachusetts.

As always, there was mass confusion at Nanny’s house… My mother in law, sister in law, brother in law and his fiancée were all there on Christmas Eve, plus various other friends and family members.

I was expecting my son to have at least one meltdown due to the noise, confusion and the fact that he wasn’t allowed to open any of the presents under Nanny’s tree. Once again I was surprised. Lil Cloaky was distracted by his distant cousins, whom he adores. They let him open his gift from them on Christmas Eve… It was an electronic drum set, which he immediately started using to show off his drumming skills with. All in all, the 2009 holiday season was the quietest and less chaotic one we’ve had since Lil Cloaky was a baby.

As of the end of February 2010, we still haven’t exchanged holiday presents with my mother, sister and her family yet, but we are planning a trip sometime during the month of March to their new house in the Annapolis Valley, about an hour away by car. I’m hoping things go smoothly… After all the people are the same, it’s the house that is new to us and our son.

January 2010: I register Lil Cloaky at what will be his elementary/grammar school. It was a bitter sweet moment for me… After all, everything we had being working with Lil Cloaky on had been building up to the moment he starts going to regular school with children his age. He will need a full time aide and lots of support for sitting down to do his work, interacting with other children and following the rules of the school and the hidden social agenda for at least the first year, if not for his entire school career.

January and February of 2010 were full of meetings between me, our autism team and various members of the preschool for deciding what the best action plan was for Lil Cloaky’s first year of full time school. Tours of the school are being discussed, as are meetings with Lil Cloaky’s future teachers and other staff members at his soon to be school and how we are going to assist him with going on the bus for an hour long ride every weekday. The bus ride will be a huge challenge, Lil Cloaky cannot sit still for more than a few minutes without something to distract him and the confusion and chaos on a school bus may cause him to experience a meltdown or overload his senses to the point where he is so distracted, he may lose his perception of where he is and what he is supposed to be doing. A “bus buddy” is on the list of things to try with him… Having a child who is older than him and very responsible sitting with him may be the key to Lil Cloaky having a successful ride on the bus every single weekday. If he cannot handle being on the bus, I am prepared to drive him to school each day but only as the very last resort. If he can go on the bus without problems, that would be the ideal situation and a major achievement for him.

As of February 28, 2010, we are considering putting Lil Cloaky on medication to help him sit still and concentrate on his school work. If we can get him to take it, he will start off on the lowest dose and if that doesn’t work, we will be adjusting it as necessary until we reach the lowest dose that will help him.

Our journey has barely begun yet we have come a long way… We still have a long way to go before Lil Cloaky is able to understand the subtleties of human emotions and the hidden social agenda but he is slowly starting to understand. Each time he learns something new about the world around him, I see his eyes getting brighter and he is remembering to use it at a later date in different situations. He is more social, more understanding and a very intelligent child… Our long term goal is to have him able to function in the big wide world as a fully adept and competent adult, but we still have a long way to go and a lot of work ahead of all of us before that goal is achieved.

I don’t mind, I’m his mother, and it’s my job to see that any children I have are equipped with the skills and the necessary tools to see that he succeeds in this life.

If you would like to know more about Autism Spectrum Disorder, please visit the Autism Society Canada’s website at http://www.autismsocietycanada.ca/index_e.html.

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So why do I have to do all this required reading and research? Isn’t that work? It is so time consuming and the books are hard to read! Why can’t we simply practice solely based upon our instincts and natural talents?

Instinct is only one part of the equation.

Imagine that your spiritual practice was a house. Now, try to build that without blueprints, without a plan, without the knowledge of how to properly the use a nail-gun and electric drill. You could probably build yourself and nice little shanty but it’s probably not going to keep you very warm come winter time. It is also certainly not the four bedroom post and beam home you had hoped for either.

It’s all about balance. It is alright if your spiritual path leans more on the instinctive side than the research side, or vice versa. After all you should build a house you’d actually want to live in. However leaving out one or the other entirely is just plain irresponsible.

An adult doesn’t go into a job interview with having some experience at that job, or without at least doing a little research first, or else they wouldn’t get hired. So a Witch shouldn’t be summoning spirits, ancestors and gods without having a clue as to what they are dealing with and how.

I know a number of Witches and Pagans who practice almost totally based on instinct and natural talent alone. It’s wonderful to be blessed with strong instincts and natural talent, if you have it. However these instincts only Witches will, more often than not, report frightening and bad experiences or a lack of anything “special” happening at all. Why you may ask? This is because instinct and talent is the starting point, not the be-all and end-all.

They go walking into ritual and situations they are not properly prepared for and wind up doing more harm than good. If instinct and talent were all that was required than these instincts only Witches would not be having such bad experiences in the first place.

Working based on instinct and talent is supposed to come after years of research, practice and trial and error. Practicing a beautiful and fulfilling non-scripted ritual is your reward for years of practicing with a script in hand until you don’t need one anymore.

Starting at the 101 level without a script, with out doing your research, is taking a shortcut. It is lazy, immature and irresponsible. It will never be as enlightening and fulfilling as a ritual, rite or Craft that you earned the hard way. There is no such thing as “good enough” in a spiritual practice, especially when that “good enough” means you did next to nothing at all. A spiritual Path is not supposed to be easy and the gods don’t like lazy people.

The gods, spirits and ancestors do not reward people who do not do the work to earn their respect. If you want to develop a relationship with the Otherworld and the Spirits of the Land you have to earn it. You cannot simply show up with your hand out expecting a prize, for no work, like a spoiled child.

This is witchcraft, not a revealed religion. You cannot just show up, sit down, open one book and expect heaven to be handed to you for no reason other than that you are a good person. Declaring “I am here and I am good” may work for monotheism, at least on the surface, because they are on a conquest kick and want as many people to join as possible. Yahweh and Allah just aren’t all that picky, its enough that you are willing to show up and feel guilty for the bad things you do and then try to coerce other people to join too.

Our gods expect a little more from you than that. After all, they put you here and they made you good (at least that’s how you started out anyway) so showing up and saying “I’m here and I’m a good person” fails to impress them. Our gods used to be worshipped by people who would sacrifice their very best goat to them and now you expect them to hand the Mysteries over to you because you showed up with Enya playing on your MP3 player? For shame!

You cannot expect your ancestors, people who fought battles with swords, who pushed horse drawn plows, how would walk many miles to the yearly feast grounds, to give you long lost lore for nothing. What we must look like to them, we who are so spoiled and pampered that we whine and complain when the processional to the ritual is longer than 3 city blocks. How can you ask for their aid or protection or knowledge when you are willing to do little more than pour half a bottle of cheap whiskey out to them once in a while? The processional for the Eleusian Mysteries in ancient times took a whole day.

Now I know I am being a bit hard on you here. I do so because I care and also because I myself have learned these lessons the hard way. I was once a young aspiring Hedgewitch who covered herself with too-potent, homebrewed, flying ointment only to have a truly terrifying, mind shattering, life changing experience. The kind I would not wish on my greatest enemy. So I speak from experience here, not a high horse.

Allow me to give you another example from my own experience. I have a staff that I now call my “fluffy staff” made many years ago when I was younger and impatient it is covered with poorly researched runes and ogam, silly markings and glued on crystal beads. Truly it looks like a cheap prop for a small community’s stage production of Harry Potter. I grimace every time I look at it now and vow that one day I will sand it down and start again.

In the meantime however I have spent the last six years slowly creating a most wonderful and beautiful stang. Made of juniper wood from an uncles back yard and seasoned for three years. It has been carefully laid in the sunlight and moonlight, placed in the winds of the great Canadian Rockies, the Kootenays, the wind off the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Carefully carved, each stroke with the knife researched, planned and mediated upon. Lovingly hand sanded over an entire winter until my hand ached. I have loved this piece of wood for the better part of a decade now; I know every millimetre of it better than I know my own body. All I have to do it touch it to enter into a light trance state and it has not yet been blessed.

This stang is nearing completion and will be finished in its seventh year of creation; it will be one of my proudest achievements as a Witch. And it will be a tool far more potent and powerful than anything even an Elder could whip up in only a week’s time. I know all this work and worry, waiting, plotting, planning and research is worth it. I know that when I come into the presence of the gods with this tool in my hand, they will see plainly my dedication to the Craft and approve.

I have learned to earn my right to call myself Pagan, Witch, Priestess and Shaman. How about you?

“Properly prepared I must always be” ~ part of the 2nd degree oath as written by Gerald Gardner.

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November 2009 Photos!

From Mystic Christian

From Mystic Christian

From Alorelith Rose

December 2009 Photography!

From Scarlen

From Scarlen

From Scarlen

From TeamTwig

From Mystic Christian

And just because I can, an update photo of my Kyuui whom you may remember from one of the Critter Contests!

I’m looking forward to seeing more photos in the new year my dears!  Let’s get out there and take some pictures because I know there’s a shutterbug in just about every single one of us!

Ciao for now!

Amilee

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You will need 5 good size stones, 19 medium size stones, and 12 smaller stones.  Personally I like to gather river rocks the smaller stones are all about palm size and the medium stones double that in size.  The five larger stones are closer to the size of a smaller youth basketball.

Your choices may vary based on the space you have available.  I like to use this at events to allow youths and or their families to take a handout that shows all of the stones laid out with a number on them and a corresponding note of what each number means.  They can then walk around the medicine wheel and see where the stones are and what the placement of each means.

We will start with the five largest stones, place one in the center and the other four at the directions of North, East, South and West.

These are the Spirit Keeper Stones:

The center stone is the creator, center, universe stone or spirit.

The stone to the east is for the teacher, morning and birth and the golden eagle.

The stone to the south is for the healer, midday and youth and the coyote.

The stone to the west is for the visionary, evening and middle age and the grizzly bear.

The stone to the north is for the warrior, night and the elder years and the white buffalo.

You can already see how the wheel works to tell a story.

Next you will take 7 of the medium size stones and place them in a circle around the center stone, these are the foundation of life stones.  However some tribes choose to represent the clans here with these stones.

these 7 stones are:

father sky

mother earth

grandmother moon

grandfather sun

stars

planets

milky way

Next you will take the 12 smaller stones and make the “wheel spokes”  you will take three each from center to the stone of the east, three from the center to the stone of the south, three from the center to the stone of the west and the final three from the center to the stone of the north.  These are the spirit path stones and from center to the outer stone are:

Center stone then illumination, wisdom, clarity, stone for the east.

Center stone then trust, love, growth, stone for the south.

Center stone then introspection, strength, experience, stone for the west.

Center stone then physical cleansing, purity, renewal, stone for the north.

Again are you seeing the story in the wheel? the lessons, the circle of life and path?

You should have 12 stones left and they should be of the medium size.  Starting at the east stone you will place three between the east and the south stone, then repeat with three between the south and the west stone, again between the west and the north stone and then completing the outer circle with three from north to the east stone.

These are the stones that hold the place of the moons; of course there is some variance in tribes as to the animal attributes to the moons and again this is a common base that is shown.   We will read these in a circle starting and ending at the stone of the east.

East

SE 03-21 to 04-19 red tail hawk

SE 04-20 to 05-20 beaver

SE 05-21 to 06-20 deer

South

SW 06-21 to 07-22 flicker

SW 07-23 to 08-22 sturgeon

SW 08-23 to 09-22 brown/black bear

West

NW 09-23 to 10-23 raven

NW 10-24 to 11-21 snake

NW 11-22 to 12-21 elk

North

NE 12-22 to 01-19 snow goose

NE 01-20 to 02-18 otter

NE 02-19 to 03-20 cougar

***

Also known as Theresa, Hope lives in Boise,  Idaho.  She raised two children that are now adults out on their own paths,  and is now a granny to a beautiful baby girl.  She works from home full time with her constant companion Anna a  Capuchin monkey. You can find her online at Earth Tribe Hope.

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Some branches of ancient and modern Paganism have close ties with fairies, with some revering the Good Neighbors as deities while others treat them more as spirits, sometimes even considering them to be the spirits of deceased humans.  Few see them in the stereotypical way portrayed by Disney and in children’s picture books.

There are many books on the topic and a growing fairy festival culture, like Renaissance festivals but devoted to fairies, and even a Faerie magazine (http://www.faeriemagazine.com).

The classic text that is most widely available on the topic is undoubtedly W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s “The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries.”  It was originally published in the early 1900s and has been republished a number of times since by various publishers.  It can be found in most libraries and bookstores, usually in the mythology and folklore sections.

Another classic which has been reprinted by a few publishers recently is “The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, & Fairies” by Robert Kirk.  The book is purportedly based on Kirk’s personal encounters with the shining ones.

Both books can be found in free online editions at http://www.sacred-texts.com along with a wealth of other public-domain texts on fairies, occultism, and world religions.  Use the search feature there to find lots of helpful pages!

Another author who wrote extensively about fairies from the late 1800s and early 1900s to hunt down is Fiona Macleod (a pen name used by William Sharp.)  Macleod/Sharp was a member of the Golden Dawn magickal group and worked with W. B. Yeats in his attempts to establish a Celtic cultural and spiritual revival.  In addition to the books written under the name Fiona Macleod, look for Steve Blamires’ book “The Little Book of the Great Enchantment” for an examination of what Fiona Macleod was all about.

There are a number of handbooks or encyclopedias giving capsule descriptions of fairies from various cultures.  One of the classics that is well worth reading is Katharine Briggs’ “An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures.”  Dr. Briggs was involved with the Folklore Society in the UK, and has an annual award named after her in honor of her work in folklore.

Folklore about fairies is not just a bunch of pre-1900s tales passed on in rural areas.  There are a surprising number of stories, from all over the world, based on events that have happened quite recently.  “The Good People” edited by Peter Narváez is a collection of essays including fairy encounters and fairy lore from recent times.  It’s a scholarly book and sometimes rather eye-opening if you’ve only read stereotypical fairy lore.

There are a number of modern Pagan spiritual paths that focus on fairies.  One recent example of this is the system taught by Orion Foxwood.  His books “The Faery Teachings” and “The Tree of Enchantment” provide a solid, ecologically-conscious magickal spiritual path.  Another prominent author (who Foxwood drew on as a source) is R. J. Stewart.  The most representative book of his for working with fairies is “The Living World of Faery.”  Look for Stewart’s other books too for a great foundation in magickal spirituality.

Witches, too, have a long history of involvement with fairies.  Of particular note is the Feri Witchcraft system originally taught by Victor and Cora Anderson.  Cora Anderson’s “Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition” and Victor Anderson’s “Etheric Anatomy” are must-reads for those wishing to learn more about this path.

Other books to watch for include John Matthews’ “The Sidhe.”  It’s a daring book for Matthews, as he notes in the introduction he generally discounts “channeled” material until his own personal experience changed his mind.  Then there’s “The Faerie Way” by Hugh Mynne; a great introduction to the role of fairies in magickal spiritual traditions, and including some never-before-published art by George “A.E.” Russell.

There are books and other items such as divination sets that encourage us to interact very directly with Them.  Most popular are the work of Brian Froud’s fertile talent: his “Faerie Oracle” and “The Runes of Elfland” are personal favorites of mine.  If you can find their books such as “An Elfin Book of Spirits,” the stuff produced by the Silver Elves is pretty impressive too.  You can find Brian Froud, his wife and son online at http://www.worldoffroud.com and the Silver Elves at http://silverelves.angelfire.com

And finally, to round out the list of interesting books on fairies I’d like to add two guidebooks to fairy sites.  “The Traveller’s Guide to Fairy Sites” by Janet Bord lists locations in England, Wales, and Scotland.  Paul Devereux’s “Fairy Paths & Spirit Roads” talks about the topic of magickal pathways in general and lists sites around the world.

Happy Yule, and happy reading!

***

Ben Gruagach is an eclectic Wiccan writer living in Oakville, Ontario Canada with his sweetheart, two wonderful sons, and both a feline and canine companion. Look for his book, “The Wiccan Mystic,” which explores mystery religions and mysticism in a Wiccan context. Ben’s website is http://www.witchgrotto.com.

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Kenaz Filan (Hougan Coquille du Mer) was initiated into Societé la Belle Venus in 2003 after a decade of solitary service to the lwa.  Look for Kenaz’s books such as “The Haitian Vodou Handbook,” “Vodou Love Magic”, and “Drawing Down the Spirits” (the last one cowritten with Raven Kaldera).  Kenaz also writes regularly for magazines such as Pagans & Witches (formerly known as the two magazines NewWitch and PanGaia), Planet magazine, and Widdershins.

MW: How did you get started in magickal spirituality?  Was it love at first sight or was it something that crept up on you?

Kenaz: For as long as I can remember I’ve had a mystical bent.  I’ve always felt there was something else out there besides the material world, and that if I only tried hard enough I would make contact with it. I was raised Catholic and went through an intensely devotional stage, so I suppose that had something to do with it. (All the best mystics, like all the best perverts, are Catholic ).

MW: You embody fluidity of boundaries in many ways: through gender, spiritual, and even cultural identities.  Do you find Pagans to be tolerant of shifting boundaries and challenges of the status quo?

Kenaz: I haven’t run into many problems within the Pagan community regarding my gender-variance.  By and large Paganism is pretty GLBT-accepting: all acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals, after all.  (And there’s certainly plenty of precedent in our legends, from the gallae who served Cybele to the bearded Venus… ). There are certainly isolated bigots and haters who identify as Pagan, but by and large being a Pagan homophobe will garner more scorn than being gay.

But I’ve also found that Pagans can be tolerant of any viewpoint they agree with.  A Witch who votes Republican or supports the pro-life movement (or, horror of horrors, identifies as a Christopagan!) may not receive a warm reception.  A lot of Pagans need to learn that “inclusive” means tolerating views you don’t necessarily accept, and engaging with those people in a respectful fashion… including, if necessary, agreeing to disagree.  A little political disagreement is a good thing: it means we all have to be on point and ready to defend our positions, rather than complacently assuming we are right and everyone else is wrong.

(Of course, this is a problem with American society in general. Take a look at the way our debates over health care have turned into “You’re an Indonesian Muslim terrorist fascist communist born in Kenya!” and “You’re a trailer park-living mullet-wearing white trash bigot!” Civility is, alas, a dying art).

As far as cultural identities go, I’ve been trying to walk the line between learning about different cultures and cultural appropriation. If you’re working with a reconstructed tradition or with gods who haven’t been worshiped for millennia, this isn’t an issue. When you are working with spirits served in a living tradition, things become a lot more complicated.  I think it’s important to approach these traditions with respect and reverence. You have to understand that certain titles must be earned and certain spirits may only be interested in working with those who come from their culture.

MW: Tell us about your experiences working as Managing Editor of NewWitch magazine.  Have you seen many changes in Pagan publishing over the years?

Kenaz: The Internet has been a huge game-changer.  Before the Net, Pagans communicated through fanzines and newsletters. This meant there was a limited audience and little money to be made writing about the Craft. But it meant that anyone who took the trouble to find your publication was serious about the occult: these limited circulation publications became exchanges for ideas and communities for like-minded magicians of all stripes.

Today anyone can find hundreds of Pagan sites with a few mouse clicks.  Forums like Mysticwicks have thousands of members and anyone can put up a website complete with spinning pentagrams and cheesy .WAV files.  It means there’s a much larger potential audience, but it’s an audience that is much less focused on the subject than in the pre-WWW days.  Identifying as a Pagan involves less buy-in today.

Unfortunately, that means a lot of people who identify as Pagans don’t bother with buying obsolete things like print publications. It has become increasingly difficult for a magazine to stay afloat, never mind a bigger book publisher.  When there’s so much free material online, why pay for stuff on paper?

MW: Your books “The Haitian Vodou Handbook” and “Drawing Down the Spirits” (co-written with Raven Kaldera) are quite cutting-edge in many ways – you don’t shy away from getting to the meat of your magickal spiritual practice.  Were they hard to sell to publishers since many publishers seem to feel most comfortable with introductory texts rather than more challenging material?  Do you think we’ll see an increase in intermediate to advanced material being published?

Kenaz: Because of the Internet, publishers are fighting to find a new niche.  There’s such a plethora of introductory material online nowadays. And the publishers who were trying to appeal to the mass market by producing basic and easier-than-basic material for the lowest common denominator are really feeling the effects of that.

The big problem with the Internet, alas, is that there is very little in the way of fact checking and quality control. For every excellent blog or website on Paganism there are a hundred “Lady Idiota’s An It Harme Nunne Guide to Ye Olde Religione.”  People who want to move beyond introductory stuff online will have to shovel through a whole lot of dung to find the occasional diamond.

And that’s where print publishers come in.  Editors slog through the silly crap so their readers don’t have to: when they are doing their job, they separate the wheat from the all-too-abundant chaff.  I believe the Pagan and Occult publishers who will survive the world wide webification are the ones who are providing stuff you can’t easily find online – well-written, fact-checked scholarship.

MW: Have you seen an increase in interest in ritual possession since publishing “Drawing Down the Spirits”?

Kenaz: Actually, Raven and I saw an increase in ritual possession before we started work on the book. Raven’s group had been doing possession rituals involving various Northern Tradition spirits and deities.  I had seen a tremendous amount of interest in African and Afro-Caribbean possessions from people attending my workshops.  We were running into people who were interested in possession – and in people who had begun experiencing involuntary possessions.

As we began research on the book, it became increasingly clear to us what was going on. At first I had been afraid that I would have difficulty finding examples of ritual possession outside the African and Afro-Caribbean traditions. But it soon became clear that it would be more difficult to find cultures in which possession didn’t occur!

It was also clear that if we didn’t write a book on the subject someone else was going to – and there was no guarantee they were going to talk about safety precautions or any of the things that can go wrong when working with ritual possession.  We were afraid we’d see books that talked about how wonderful possession was, and how everything would be fine if you just visualized white light and kept a positive attitude.

We tried to discuss both the benefits of possession and the potential dangers.  It’s an advanced technique and it should not be taken lightly.  We knew that it was happening and it was going to keep on happening.  We’ve been calling on the old gods for decades now and can hardly be surprised that they are showing up!  But we wanted to make sure that their devotees approached them with the appropriate caution and respect.

MW: What projects are you working on now?  Do you have any new books for us to request at our local bookstores?

Kenaz:  I am presently working on The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook, which is the story of New Orleans Voodoo.  Researching that has been great fun: it’s difficult to be bored when you’re studying New Orleans. There are so many fascinating characters and wonderful stories.  While I debunked a few cherished legends about the Crescent City, I always found the true stories were even more entertaining.  So I’m really looking forward to getting that out soon.

I’ve also got a manuscript on Papaver somniferum, otherwise known as the Opium Poppy, on my editor’s desk. I am hoping to sell it to my publishing house (Inner Traditions/Destiny Books).  But if they don’t pick it up I will probably put it out as a self-published book and sell it on my website.  It’s a departure from my earlier work – opium poppies, or any kind of entheogens, have very little use in Afro-Caribbean ritual.  But every now and then you want to do a change-up: I’m curious about a lot of other subjects besides Vodou and always enjoy exploring new topics.

And, finally, Raven Kaldera and I are hoping to start work soon on Talking With the Spirits, a guide to mysticism and personal gnosis (verified, unverified and otherwise).  Writing with Raven is always a pleasure and a great challenge – the guy pumps out words like nobody’s business. Trying to keep up is like drinking from a fire hose! But all that hard work pays off: I think we bring out the creative best in each other. I’m very pleased with how Drawing Down the Spirits turned out and hope our next collaboration goes equally well.

MW: What do you hope the Pagan and magickal spirituality community will look like in the future?  What do you see as our greatest challenges in attaining this future?

Kenaz: Today the biggest influences on magical thinking are Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley: almost everyone who writes on the subject engages with one or both of these gentlemen and their ideas for better or for worse.  Before that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Theosophy were the big players: before that Spiritualism claimed millions of table-turning spirit-rapping devotees.  But today those movements are largely historical curiosities. There is a lesson there for modern Pagans: 100 years from now we may be a major religion or we may be an interesting byway still practiced by a few as the larger magical world does the Next Big Thing.

I think the magical community is going to have to grow up.  For all the bashing of Christianity, we’ve yet to match their artwork or charitable efforts.  Nor has our philosophy reached the levels of sophistication we find among Christian, Islamic or Hindu writers.  We need another Golden Dawn, with artists who can paint like Pamela Coleman Smith and magicians who can write poetry like William Butler Yeats.  The Renfaire/Tolkien aesthetic is fine but it’s getting tired.  I want to see something that moves beyond those clichés and give them back their power.

MW: What advice would you give to those starting out on the path exploring magickal spirituality?

Kenaz: My first bit of advice would be “take your time.” Don’t rush into a teacher-student relationship.  Get to know your prospective mentor and the fellow members of your coven, grove, circle or group. Treat a spiritual relationship as seriously as you would treat a romantic relationship.  When the student is ready the teacher will come.  Until then there’s no shame in exploring until you find the path that is right for you.

Not everybody in the spiritual community has your best interest at heart.  This includes corporeal and noncorporeal entities.  There are spirits out there that will treat you like lunch: there are “teachers” out there who will exploit you financially and sexually.  A little bit of caution will go a long way: if you feel like you’re being taken advantage of then you probably are.

I often see people who spend thousands of dollars and travel to far-off lands after exchanging a few e-mails with someone they found through a Google search. They wouldn’t buy a new car without doing some research and taking it for a test drive – but they’ll throw common sense to the winds where spirituality is concerned. Then later they complain that their teacher took their money and gave them nothing save a painful lesson about fools and their money.

MW: What advice would you give to elders in the Pagan and magickal spirituality community today?

Kenaz:  First, I’d ask  “What makes you an elder?” I see many young people who read a couple of books and buy some jewelry, then declare themselves “Magister Malodorous” or “High Priestess Crystal Breakswind.” At best this is silly: at worst it results in several of their gullible friends actually taking them seriously and wasting years of their spiritual lives – or worse.

How would you handle a 3AM call from a suicidal student? What would you say to someone whose father had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness? How would you deal with a fellow covener who confessed that he was molesting his stepdaughter and wanted desperately to stop?  If you aren’t ready to face situations like this with firmness and compassion, you have no business calling yourself an elder.

Elders are frequently called to work in unpleasant situations with little praise and lots of criticism.  Every time you give a pound of flesh, someone will bitch because you didn’t hack off two.  It’s not just about fancy titles, extra hit points and access to 7^th level spells: it’s an enormous responsibility and commitment, with long hours and lousy pay.  If you want this job, you’re either crazy, deluded or both.

But if you’re one of those poor SOBs whose words are actually taken seriously by your community, then all I can say is “respect your power.”  When you take responsibility for teaching people, you hold their spiritual (and often their mundane) lives in your hands.  You can change peoples’ lives for better or for worse. Understand that and act accordingly.

Keep up with Kenaz online at http://www.kenazfilan.com

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Ben Gruagach is an eclectic Wiccan writer living in Oakville, Ontario Canada with his sweetheart, two wonderful sons, and both a feline and canine companion. Look for his book, “The Wiccan Mystic,” which explores mystery religions and mysticism in a Wiccan context. Ben’s website is http://www.witchgrotto.com.

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(This article originally appeared in Circle Magazine, issue 98, Spring 2007.)

Throughout history the British Isles have been swept by waves of new inhabitants and ideas. Some came as invaders and others as settlers from other lands. As each new ethnic group became established and eventually assimilated into British culture their unique qualities were absorbed too. One of the notable influences on the British Isles and therefore on English occultism and modern Paganism originated in the mythic North. Northern ideas swept down and like a good snowstorm they blanketed the land, eventually melting with time but having a very strong effect on the people and the Isles.

Today we often think of northern Pagans as being Norse. Historically they were not an isolated group even in the colder region of what is today known as Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and even Iceland. In the past these people lived in other lands, most notably Germany and parts of the former Soviet Union. These Germanic tribes were known as Angles or Anglos, Saxons, along with a few other names.

Just as the Celtic tribes before them swept westward across Europe and reached the shores of the British Isles, the Germanic tribes also swept westward. However, these tribes tended more towards the northern lands, eventually moving into the Norse lands where they settled and intermingled with other native tribes. It is particularly of interest to note that the Germanic tribes brought with them their strong culture, their religion, and their mythology. Many of the gods and goddesses that we think of today as being Norse such as Odin, Frey and Freya, and Frigga actually came with the Germanic tribes and did not originate in the Norse lands.

The culture of the Norse, the Angles and the Saxons, was one based on strong ideas of kinship and heritage. Tribes and their leaders traced their ancestry back to specific individuals who were often considered to be gods or directly descended from gods. The leaders of the tribes were usually the people whose bloodline was considered to have the strongest connection to the mythical ancestor – leaders were therefore divinely appointed to their roles. Along with the harsh northern climate with its shorter agricultural season and longer winters, the close proximity to the ocean and neighboring wealth only a short boat-ride away, it’s not surprising that this aggressive culture would encourage raiding and warfare.

The British Isles were blessed by geography with fertile lands and a milder climate than many of the Norse lands. From the fourth century CE onward the British Isles became the target of Angle, Saxon, and Norse raiding parties who would come and take what they wanted, and in many cases would end up staying to live. Before long the invaders from the north would become as much native to the British Isles as the Celts had before them.

The Anglo-Saxon culture, as it came to be called, dominated the British Isles like it had in the Norse lands earlier in their travels. Some historians believe that the Anglo-Saxons ruthlessly slaughtered and dominated the Celtic people who were there before them. Some recent genetic population studies in the British Isles such as the one reported by Ian Johnstone in his article “We’re Nearly All Celts Under the Skin” contradict the bloody historical claims by pointing out that at least today descendants of the Celts outnumber descendants of the Anglo-Saxons in the British Isles about two to one. It seems that while the Anglo-Saxons ruled at a political and cultural level the conquered Celts managed to survive quite well at a genetic level.

Anglo-Saxon political influence is still strong in England to this day. The British royal family, known since a royal proclamation in 1917 as the House of Windsor, was previously known by the clearly Germanic name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Germanic bloodlines are still strong throughout many royal families across Europe.

Anglo-Saxon ideas and mythology have been firmly entrenched in the cultures of the British Isles as well. In the English names for the days of the week, for instance, we honor the god Tiu/Tyr in Tuesday, Woden/Odin in the name Wednesday, Thunor/Thor in Thursday, and Frigga in Friday. The Anglo-Saxons saw the moon deity as male and it is because of this we still often refer to the man in the moon.

On a cultural level the Anglo-Saxons brought with them many of the traditions associated with Yule, including that jolly old elf known as Santa Claus, decorating pine trees, and the links to elves and reindeer. Some historians also believe that traditions associated with other times of the year, such as Morris dancing and maypoles, originated with the Anglo-Saxons rather than with the earlier Celts.

Mythical figures such as the wizard with his unkempt hair and beard, cloak, and walking staff who lurks in wild places and is mostly a loner trace at least some of their origins to Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology. The god Odin/Woden is sometimes depicted as precisely this sort of mysterious stranger – if you meet someone like him on a lonely rainy path you should be polite and helpful because he might just grant you a wish! In more recent times influential English authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien have based characters and plotlines on Norse myths.

Norse mythology is filled with references to runes, the sacred alphabet obtained through an ordeal of sacrifice by Odin, and handed down to be used by the leaders and wonder-workers in Norse communities. Runes were not merely written placeholders for spoken language but were considered to hold their own innate magickal power. Inscribing a rune on an object empowered that object with specific energies. This emphasis on the written word as a form of powerful magick took hold in the British Isles and quickly became a staple among magickal practitioners for use in healing, protection, and other types of magickal work.

If we fast-forward through history to the 1960s and focus on witchcraft in the British Isles we find that influential leaders such as Robert Cochrane promoted specifically Anglo-Saxon mythology rather than Celtic myth as was more common among Gerald Gardner’s descendants. Cochrane’s variety of witchcraft focused more on deities such as Frigga and the more shamanic style of magick described in Norse mythology. In the early 1970s prominent American Gardnerian Ray Buckland wrote and published his book, “The Tree,” a new denomination of Wicca devised specifically around Saxon myth. Buckland’s new system drew a lot of attention due to its provisions for solitary practitioners and self-initiation, ideas that were not encouraged in other prominent forms of religious witchcraft at that time.

The 1960s also saw an explosion in scholarly examination of another northern spiritual tradition – shamanism. Mircea Eliade’s classic text “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy” was translated to English and published in 1964, and Carlos Castaneda’s “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge” came out in 1968. While the term shaman quickly expanded to include similar magickal and spiritual techniques from a wide variety of cultures, it originated with the Tungusic tribe of Siberia and Central Asia. While the famous witch Robert Cochrane died in 1966 and did not live to see Castaneda’s popular work on Mexican shamanism, he might have become aware of Eliade’s book from a few years earlier and could have used what he learned in his own more primal form of witchcraft. In any case, many in the English occult community eagerly read both Eliade’s and Castaneda’s books and incorporated the ideas in their own spiritual paths.

Unfortunately it was through Nazi Germany that another major strand of Norse and Germanic mythology resurfaced in the form of modern Paganism. In the 1970s less racist forms of Norse reconstructionist Paganism came together and into the 1980s and 1990s Astatru became firmly established as a religion. Asatruar can be found today all around the world particularly in places with sizeable Icelandic or Scandinavian communities. Norse Paganism has come back into its own in revived and revitalized forms as well as through the evolved blended forms in English culture.

The next time you decorate a Yule tree, or consult your calendar, or engage in something more involved such as a spiritual journey on the World Tree to the Upperworld or Lowerworld, give a moment of thanks to our Norse and Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Without them and other Northern influences modern Paganism would be quite different and certainly less enthusiastic.

Cheers to our Northern ancestors and kin!

References

Buckland, Raymond. “The Tree: The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft.” New York NY: Weiser, 1974.

Castaneda, Carlos. “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.” Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1968.

Eliade, Mircea. “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.” London UK: Penguin Arkana, 1989 edition (first published in English by Pantheon Books, 1964.)

Greer, John Michael. “The New Encyclopedia of the Occult.” St. Paul MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2003.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. “Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience.” San Francisco CA: HarperCollins, 1991.

Jones, Prudence & Pennick, Nigel. “A History of Pagan Europe.” New York NY: Barnes & Noble Books 1999 edition, (originally published by Routledge 1995.)

Johnstone, Ian. “We’re Nearly All Celts Under the Skin,” news article from The Scotsman, 21 September 2006, http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1393742006

Matthews, John and Caitlin. “The Aquarian Guide to British and Irish Mythology.” Wellingborough UK: Aquarian Press, 1988.

Etymology of the words Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday can be found at http://www.etymonline.com

History of the British monarchy is available at http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page135.asp

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Ben Gruagach is an eclectic Wiccan writer living in Oakville, Ontario Canada with his sweetheart, two wonderful sons, and both a feline and canine companion. Look for his book, “The Wiccan Mystic,” which explores mystery religions and mysticism in a Wiccan context. Ben’s website is http://www.witchgrotto.com.

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Many witches already use quite a bit of magickal thinking in their every day food preparation.  If your kitchen is sacred you might already have painted it in specific colors, worked on the Feng Shui, and perhaps you may have an altar to a deity such as Hestia.  You might display your herbs and sundries as both practical tools and in an artful way.  Adding Reiki to your routine can give it that little bit of extra charge that brings your cleansing rituals as well as your spells and food to a new level.

Let’s start by discussing cleansing.  Washing all of your utensils, containers and such certainly goes without saying.  Cleaning your counters, floors, walls, etc. is also very important.  When I plan on doing some magick, I also take the step of smudging with some sage or sweetgrass.  During that process I’m also clearing the space with Reiki.  I envision the light coming from my hands and sweeping over my entire work area (whether that is my kitchen, my desk, my living room, etc.) or perhaps I’ll picture it as combining with my smudge and filling my space with a delightful, smoky light.  This is not a practice that I would necessarily do every single day, but I’d certainly do it before I was going to perform any spell work, make any magickal items, or cook any magickal meals.

Reiki can also be used to charge items, not just cleanse them.  Removing any energy that is dissonant with a cleansing, and then charging your tools by filling them with the light of Reiki can increase their usefulness, and handling them in this additional way makes you more familiar with the tool.  I have several wooden spoons that really soak up this kind of treatment well, but perhaps that’s just the romantic in me wanting to think that a natural product is “better” than synthetic.

When doing spell work in your kitchen, such as making candles, soaps, incenses or other preparations, we are often taught to direct energy toward our goal.   As with other types of magickal work and energy directing, Reiki can be added here.  Along with your own energy, you can send the Universal energy of Reiki into your spell and into your end product.  You can even go so far as to cleanse all of your pieces & parts before hand with Reiki and then add more energy into it as you’re stirring, chanting, etc. to charge it.

Cooking is, of course, a main function in all of our kitchens.  We often use herbs and spices, specific types of foods and ingredients to bring about our magickal dishes to serve ourselves and those we love.  When using an implement to stir we can wield it as we would a wand, sending our energy and that of Reiki into whatever we’re cooking up, making it that much more charged & powerful.  Reiki serves to both heal and enhance, so using it while stirring widdershins to banish & heal whatever is wrong would be just as appropriate as during our deosil stirring to enhance whatever is right.

And of course there are hundreds of little things that we do in our kitchens and might not even notice.  We can make the act of stirring our morning coffee or tea just as magickal as creating a larger meal.  We can enhance the medicines we take in order to make them more apt to do their job of healing us.  We can charge every meal we eat and every drink we take with this energy, filling our bodies from the inside out with Reiki. This energy can help us to become closer to our kitchens, our tools and ultimately our selves & loved ones. And of course, Reiki doesn’t have to stop in the kitchen, or the workplace.  Think about how it could be utilized in other rooms of your home and areas of your life, as well.  Reiki energy can do no harm, so why not try it out the next time you need that little extra push with a project or health concern?

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LisaT4P (not Lisa for TP) is a witch, tarot reader, Reiki master, mother, wife, cat herder and general pain in the butt. She has been at least one of these things since birth, we’ll let you guess which one. The others have come about over the last ten years or so.

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Sometimes, however, we’ll ask a question about where we’re headed.  What do we need to do to get ourselves back on track?  That kind of question is usually the time when the Hermit decides to show up with his lantern, shining the way for us.  He stands solitary on his mountain, looking down on us and illuminating us.

The Hermit is the ninth card in the Major Arcana.  The number nine is a philanthropic number.  It points us toward humanitarian efforts, the betterment of society.  Many people who have a nine life-path number will be in careers where they can help others, such as doctors, lawyers, etc.  The number nine can also lead to being a bit possessive (of knowledge, perhaps?), withdrawn and moody.  I think we’ll agree that those traits definitely apply to our Hermit.

Usually when we see the this card, we think that it might be a time to pull into ourselves, to retreat from society and get in touch with our intuition, our deities.  Perhaps we need to take some time out because we’ve been wounded (I do see him as a wounded healer archetype, occasionally), or are just too darn tired or fed up to take it anymore.  My friend Adam recently said, “Yay, cocoon time!” when I asked him what he thought about this card.  The typical words we’ll see when we go searching out the meaning of the Hermit are:

Introspection, illumination
Withdrawal, retreat
Wisdom, solitude
Distance, isolation

These are all apt descriptions of this card.  If we aren’t thinking of the Hermit in this way, we’re usually thinking of him in the sense that he’s a guru, a teacher, a yogi.  He’s the one on the mountaintop that we go seeking in order to gain his wisdom and enlightenment.  While researching for this article I found that some cultures revere their teacher above their god, because it was the teacher that led them to god.  The Hermit could be someone outside of us waiting to show us the way, instead of something that we have to discover within (but it is almost always both).

However, sometimes we can be the guru and teacher that someone else is seeking.  Not only could we have tread this path before, seeking this wisdom from another (or our inner selves) but we could have reached that goal, or be far enough along that path to help shine a light back for others to follow.

One of the things that I find amusing when thinking of the Hermit is that he could very possibly be some crazy man living in a cave, raving.  When I think of a Hermit, I think of some old, grizzly, unshaven (and unwashed) man.  Perhaps he is an old prospector (I associate this word with the “Old West”) who still raves about veins of gold in “them thar hills”!  Maybe the gold is there, and maybe it’s not.  And maybe the trusting the Hermit’s “teachings” is a risk we have to take.  Will believing his wild stories (told while eating beans from a can around a campfire, no doubt) lead us to the spiritual enlightenment we’re seeking?  Or will it be the proverbial wild goose chase?  And even if it does turn out to be a snipe hunt, would we have learned any less?

I’m also reminded of the crazy old man from Monty Python & the Holy Grail, scene 24 (which is a smashing scene with some lovely acting) where Arthur discovers a vital clue.  He is told by the crazy old man that he must seek out the Enchanter (is the Hermit sending us back to the beginning of our journey to meet the Magician again?) and go with him to a cave which no man has entered.  Then he must seek out the Gorge of Eternal Peril and the Bridge of Death.  Once these missions have been accomplished, we discover that the crazy old man is in fact, the Bridge Keeper!  The lesson here, ultimately, is that if you reach the Hermit, you’d damn well better know what your favorite color is.  And you may also want to brush up on your knowledge of laden vs. un-laden swallows and coconut migration.

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LisaT4P (not Lisa for TP) is a witch, tarot reader, Reiki master, mother, wife, cat herder and general pain in the butt. She has been at least one of these things since birth, we’ll let you guess which one. The others have come about over the last ten years or so.

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I first came to Vienna as an Au-Pair and later returned as an English teacher.  Of all the cities I have been lucky enough to visit in my travels, it is the one I have returned to most often and it probably feels more like my spiritual home than any other place I have lived in.  So let me take take you on a journey through Vienna’s Autumn and Winter, starting in the cemetery and taking in some of the darker ambiance and sites of the city that are often left out of the guidebooks.

There are many cemeteries in Vienna but the “Zentralfriedhof is by far the biggest.  In fact it is the second biggest cemetery in Europe and covers an area as large as a medium sized town.  It is the final resting place of over three million souls, more than the total number of people who actually ‘live’ in present day Vienna.  You could easily spend a  whole day wondering around the avenues and allies of this graveyard without seeing the whole place and, as well as being a resting place for the dead, it is an oasis of nature that is full of wildlife.  In parts it seems like a forest with rows of trees between each line of grave stones.  The branches and bushes are full of birds and squirrels and you may even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a deer.

I can think of few better ways to immerse yourself in the ambiance of Samhain than to visit the Zentralfriedhof on November 1st, All Saints Day in the Christian calender.  The Viennese can appear quite sophisticated and secular but they do take their national and religious traditions seriously.  On 1st November the Zenralfriedhof is bursting with people visiting the graves of their deceased family members and of the many famous personalities who lived in or were associated with Vienna.  Large groups of families and friends jostle with each other along the busier walkways placing candles and stones on the graves of those they honor while  feasting on roasted chestnuts as they walk solemnly but not glumly along.  I doubt if “The Day Of The Dead” is celebrated with more gusto anywhere in the world outside Mexico.

I usually begin my tour of the Zentralfriedhof at the graves of the famous musicians near the Dr Karl Lueger  Church in the center of the cemetery.  Here you can visit the graves and monuments of the great composers such as Beethoven, Brahms,  Schubert and the Strauss family; all of whom did much to place Vienna firmly at the center of the musical world. They still hold balls and concerts in Vienna, classical music is a big part of the city’s soul.  But it is not only classical music, there is a thriving alternative and independent modern music scene.  My friends and I usually pay a visit to one of the city’s more recently departed musicians.  Falco, of “Rock Me Amadeus” fame, was one of Austria’s few internationally famous rock stars and certainly seems to have lead the archetypal rock star life and early death.  Just as with Elvis, there are those who claim he isn’t really dead; or at least that he is “undead”.

After visiting the famous graves it is nice to leave the crowds behind and head for the quieter parts of the cemetery. I usually spend a while in the small but peaceful Buddhist section before walking through the older Catholic and Protestant areas of the graveyard.  By now the sun is sinking quickly in the sky, casting golden beams of light through the forest of trees that line most of the cemetery.  I walk over a carpet of fallen Autumn leaves which rustle and crunch beneath my feet.  There are few other people around now, my friends and I speak quietly trying to imagine the lives of the people whose stories are encapsulated on the tombstones and, apart from our own voices and foot-falls, the only other sounds come from bird-song and the damp breeze whispering through the trees.

Finally we arrive in the saddest corner of the Zentralfriedhof, the old Jewish cemetery.  Although it has been repaired and renovated in recent years,  much of this section was destroyed or vandalized during the time of the Nazis and some of what remains is still broken and overgrown.  It is a vivid reminder of the darkest stain on Vienna’s history, a city which was once home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe.  There is still a small Jewish district in Vienna, but it is a pale shadow of the community which used to thrive there. By this time my friends and I are usually alone, the sky is now quite dark and the air distinctly cold, but we take our time here, silently lost in our own thoughts.  It is usually here, on black broken headstones where Hebrew inscriptions are half hidden by dark green creepers,  that my friends and I light our candles and place our stones.

The best way to finish a walk around the Zentralfriedhof is to go for a meal across the street at the Schloss Concordia. The service is not particularly fast or friendly but the Wienner Schnitzels are huge and the ambiance is unique.  There are no electric lights here, everything is lit by candles.  Large mirrors decorate two of the walls so that in the dark smoky atmosphere the interior space is spookily deceptive.  In the misty darkness the restaurant seems to stretch into infinity and more than half the people who appear to be there are just reflections; or ghosts maybe… All of which seems to underline one of Vienna’s special characteristics; life and death are never far apart here.  The ghosts of the past and the souls of the present flirt with each other all the time.

Autumn in Vienna tends to be short; by the time December has arrived there is often snow on the ground and the city is already in the icy grip of winter.  And on December 5th, the devil comes to town.

The Krampus is a demonic creature who torments children and sometimes adults too.  His role is that of an anti-Santa or anti-St Nicholas.  While St Nicholas visits the good children of Austria on 6th December and gives presents, The Krampus visits naughty children on the 5th and issues dire warnings and punishments. Although The Krampus is more a tradition of rural Austria, he does visit Vienna as well.  At the very least people receive Krampus cards in the post which poetically detail their sins and failings of the past year and issue ominous threats of punishment.  Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus  (in wooden masks, sheep’s skin and horns) and roam the streets frightening children and sometimes chasing young men women with rusty chains and bells.  If caught by The Krampus you might be beaten up or birched.  Of course in modern times Krampus day is celebrated with a sense of fun; but those enacting the Krampus have gone overboard enough times that there is a real sense of threat.  I have myself been chased by a Krampus and it was a genuinely scary experience.

If all that I have said so far sounds rather dark and forbidding it’s because that’s the way it is.  There is a dark trait that runs through the city and the people who live there.  The guilt and sadness of the city’s past is as real as the splendor of it’s architecture.  You have to understand that before you can really fall in love with the place and understand why in so many other ways the city and it’s people celebrate the finer things of life. It is a city of historic grandeur that was once the capital of a large, influential empire but is now a bit too big for the small modern state of Austria.  At various times it has been compared with the splendor of Paris and the decadence of Berlin.  It has been the global center of art, theater and music but it has also been party to some of the darkest crimes and excesses of the twentieth century.  The ghosts of Vienna speak of great pleasures and great pains.   The modern Viennese carry all of this heritage on their shoulders and the ghosts from their past are never far away. This is also, after all, the city of Freud.  Perhaps that is the reason that while the Viennese have a Germanic work ethic and sense of organization, they have a very Southern European lust for life. What they earn they spend on socializing and patronizing the arts. They enjoy good food and wine and they tend to smoke a lot.  They also have a very matter of fact attitude to sex.  Their flirtations with the darkness remind them that life is fragile and temporary and thus all the more beautiful and worthy of celebrating.

The remainder of the advent and Christmas season in Vienna follows a traditional central European pattern. There is more emphasis on tradition and less commercialism than you will find in Britain or America. Overall, the atmosphere is very conducive to those of us who celebrate Yule and there does seem to be an awareness and acceptance that Christian and Pagan traditions are very much entwined.

There is nothing better on an freezing cold advent evening than to visit one of the traditional Christmas Markets and warm yourself with some Punch or Mulled wine.  There are several Christmas markets throughout the city, all of them full of fairy lights,  hand-made seasonal gifts, the smell of spicy food and drink and general festive cheer.  The most famous and busiest can be found in front of the impressive Gothic Rathaus (city hall),  where an ice rink is installed during the winter and all the trees in the surrounding Rathaus Park are decorated with huge Christmas decorations and lights.

My personal favorite Christmas Market is in the  bohemian district of Spittelberg, a maze of tiny cobbled streets where the buildings have been restored to their original eighteenth and nineteenth century baroque style.  This is a left wing district and center of arts and crafts; and in December it is teaming with people huddled round the Punch stands.  Punch comes in many fruity varieties and each stand has it’s own specialties.  Mulled wine, beer and non alcoholic drinks are usually available too and there are plenty of seasonal snacks.  The busiest night in Spittelberg (and the rest of Vienna) is New Year’s Eve, or “Silvester” as it is known locally.  Tourists from the rest of Austria and all over Europe flock to Vienna for this spectacular night on which there are live entertainments all over the city, parties on every corner and the flash and bang of fireworks exploding every few seconds.  The streets of Spittelberg are so crowded that even in temperatures well below zero you don’t feel cold; this may of course have something to do with the copious amounts of alcohol you are likely to have consumed!  Just after midnight there is one special piece of Austrian magic to usher in the New Year.   The crescendo of firework explosions subsides and all over the city the air is filled with the strains of the “Blue Danube Waltz”.  In the narrow streets of Spittelberg, and throughout the city, people begin to dance the waltz with their friends, their families, their lovers or whoever happens to be standing close to them.  After that, the parties continue well into the morning.

These then are my personal highlights of Vienna in the darker months.  Spring and Summer are hot and bright but I think it is in the colder months that the soul of the city is most exposed.  Vienna is like the Crone, a wise and enigmatic old lady full of enchantments and secrets.  But just beneath the craggy exterior there still beats the heart of the nurturing mother and the flirtatious maiden.  It is the sum of these parts that makes her whole.  So it is that Vienna can cast a powerful spell on those she touches.

Cassie Wren

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About Cassie:    For a living I teach and promote English courses all over Europe.
I’m interested in music, art and politics. I like going to gigs, traveling, writing, hanging out, carrying things around and generally misbehaving.
I’m a very eclectic witch and my spiritual path is influenced by a mixture of Wicca, Taoism and Ancient Egyptian spirituality.  I am an empath and some people have said I am scarily psychic. I have been a member of Mystic Wicks for five and a half years.

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We know that Christmas/ Yule, as with most important Christian holidays, have pagan roots.  So many traditions are combined in this particular holiday, that it could not be eliminated by the church, so they incorporated a few.

To start from the beginning with the wheel of the year where the eight sabbats represent in their own way not only the things that are happening around us throughout the year, but also as the wheel of life that has neither a beginning nor an end which is symbolized by the wreath tied with a bow.  We use evergreen boughs or other certain plants that remain green all year round to symbolize life’s triumph over death and the bow representing how we should all be tied together in love and good will.

The tree is another tradition that is still very popular today.  It was used and decorated in many countries and groups for many different reasons.  The fir was chosen because of its evergreen status and was originally brought inside with its roots in tact to represent the adage we all know so well, “As above, so below.”  It was decorated with charms, or written spells representing wishes for the year to come.
One I particularly enjoy is the Scandinavian tradition of decorating the trees inside and outside with fruit and berries, baked goods and candies, as well as spices and nuts to help feed the woodland spirits during the dark time and the tree inside offered a warm place for them to sleep.  The trees were also decorated with bells and if you heard them ring, that was the fairy folk moving about the tree.  They were also topped with a pentacle for protection.

There are many traditions concerning gift giving.   In early Rome during the festival of Saturnalia, the gifts were in honor of loved ones who had died during the previous year.  Other groups gave simple gifts to others such as twigs cut from sacred groves for good luck and special foods such as figs or other symbolic foods like eggs for fertility, grains for abundance, honey for happiness and nuts for prosperity.  Others gave home made breads, pastries, jewelry, or candles.

Santa Claus has also been around for a very long time according to the pagans, but not quite in the way that society views him today. It is said that the first “Santa Claus” was Thor, the God of Thunder.  He lived in the north polar region and traveled by sleigh that was driven by a great white bison.  He brought coins and bread to the poor and good children and would punish the bad children.  His son Cronus, the God of Harvest and Hearth, superseded him.  He would wear red and enter through the chimneys also bringing coins or small gifts only for the people that left food out for him from harvest.

Every part of the world has their own folklore, such as Aire, the fairy from France that rides a burro and delivers gifts on Christmas Eve or the yule elf, Julbock, that exchanges presents for porridge.  There is also La Befana, the witch from Italy that rides a broomstick carrying a bag of toys and flies down chimneys to leave toys and goodies in jars called “urns of fate” that are left out for her to fill.

The mistletoe is another interesting tradition.  One story tells about Loki, the God of Mischief, that killed Baldiw, the God of Peace by shooting him with a sprig of mistletoe.  Everyone was saddened by this so his mother, Frigga, hung a mistletoe up and promised to kiss everyone who passed beneath it.   In doing so, it became the symbol of forgiveness and love and Baldiw was raised from the dead.
Mistletoe was one of the strongest healing herbs there was and if enemies met in the forest where it grew they had to lay their weapons down and observe a truce for 24 hours; this act attached peace to its meaning.

Wassailing, though considered a Yule tradition, was actually done by a group of boys and men at Samhain that had a bit too much ale to drink.  They gathered stones, sticks and weapons and left to find the largest apple tree they could.  They threw stones or fired their weapons into the branches to scare off the evil spirits and then drank to the tree’s health.
Now wassailing is drinking to anyone’s health with a warmed specially spiced punch. Here is a recipe that I stumbled upon a few years ago in one of my grandmother’s cookbooks:

Wassil
Heat a large container of ale or beer, about 3 or 4 pints, then add the following:
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c mixed spice (cinnamon sticks and whole cloves are excellent)
2 or 3 small sweet apples, cut up
1 1/4 c pineapple juice
1 1/4 c orange juice
juice of 2 lemons

Place over a slow flame.   Before it begins to boil, take off the heat and whip up some cream.  Float the cream on top of the brew similar to foam.

Another tradition of the ancients that my grandmother did and I still do to this day is the Yule cake.  This special cake is made with almonds, and charms are hidden inside wrapped in foil and placed in the cake before baking.  These charms are then found while eating the cake and each one fortells of the year to come.
Some of these charms are: a cinnamon stick for abundance, a whole clove for protection, a heart for love, a coin for wealth, a ring for marriage, a kernel of corn for good harvest, and a grain of rice for fertility.

Yule Cake
1 pkg yeast
1/8 c lukewarm water
1 c milk; scalded then cooled at room temperature
1 t salt
1/2 c melted butter
1 egg yolk; beaten
3 c flour
3/4 c almond paste (recipe below)
various charms
powdered sugar and more melted butter to top

Dissolve yeast in water then add milk, salt, melted butter, and egg yolk.  Add flour, then make dough into a ball. Let rise for 45 min.  Work almond paste into a ball and place in the center of the cake.  Place the charms into the cake then let rise 35 min.  Cut a pentacle across the top and bake for 25 min. at 375°.  Let cool and then brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle powdered sugar over it.

Almond Paste
(must be made one week ahead)
3/4 c blanched almonds
1 T lemon juice
1/4 c water
1/4 c sugar

Grind almonds and add lemon.  Stir water and sugar over heat til 240° and add ground almond mixture. Store in a covered container in the fridge for one week prior to use.

Food has always been an important part of Yule celebrations.  In the old days, Yule marked the cold and dark time when food was scarce, especially if the harvest was not as it should have been throughout the year.   It became the time to look forward to abundance of the year to come and forget personal desires.  It was an unselfish time used to help others get through the dark time with love and good will towards men.

Try not to allow the changes that Christmas/ Yule has gone through to spoil the holiday; keep some of the old ways in your own home.   Remind the children that there is so much more to Yule than presents.  Not only the return of the sun but the peace and good will we share as we find ways for both ourselves and others to get through the dark time and prepare to greet the sun as it returns in full to us in February as the wheel turns once more.

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Astara has been officially practicing for over 20 years, but was taught at a young age about the craft by her Grandmother a kitchen Witch. Later she met her mentor who soon took over her training at age 25 She has been the leader of The Archaic Silvermoon Coven in Salt Lake City Utah since 2002. She is also a teacher for her coven members and other seekers, she finds her peace in her somewhat eclectic path that keeps her at one with nature and the spirits.

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Here is a list of some of the herbs used for magickal purposes, in cooking, incense or just sprinkled over a fire during a ritual.

Acorn – Fertility, money.

Almond – Money.

Aloe – Peace, protection, healing.

Angelica – Exorcism (root), protection.

Anise – Purification, protection, happiness.

Apple – Love, luck.

Ash – Luck (leaves), good fortune, prosperity, healing (wood), psychic powers (leaves).

Balm of Gilead – Protection, love.

Basil – Exorcism, protection, love, prosperity, courage.

Bay Laurel – Protection, psychic powers.

Bay Leaves – Psychic powers.

Benzoin – Purification, money, prosperity.

Betony – Purification, protection.

Birch – Exorcism.

Black Pepper – Protection.

Chamomile – peace, protection, money, healing, meditation.

Caraway – Protection, love, mental powers.

Catnip – Love, happiness.

Chili Pepper – Hex breaking.

Cinnamon – Cleansing, psychic powers, lust, money success, healing, spirituality.

Cinquefoil – Purification, protection, money.

Clove – Cleansing, protection, money.

Clover – Spirituality.

Comfrey – Money, healing.

Coriander – Protection, love.

Cowslip – Love, psychic powers (to help induce contact during sleep).

Daisy – Luck.

Dill – Protection, love.

Dragon’s Blood – Purification, protection, love.

Elder – Psychic powers.

Elecampane – Meditation, psychic powers.

Eucalyptus – Healing.

Eyebright – Psychic powers.

Fennel – Purification, protection, money, healing.

Fern – Protection.

Frankincense – Exorcism, purification, meditation, psychic powers.

Galangal – Hex breaking.

Gardenia – Peace, love.

Garlic – Exorcism, protection, courage, healing.

Geranium – Fertility.

Ginger – Love, money, success.

Ginseng – Love, money.

Hawthorn – Protection, fertility.

Hazel – Luck, psychic powers.

Heather – Good fortune, money.

Heliotrope – Harmony.

Holly – Protection, luck (for newlyweds).

Honeysuckle – Love, prosperity.

Hops – Healing.

Hyacinth – Harmony.

Hyssop – Banishing, purification, protection, psychic powers

Ivy – Protection, luck (for newlyweds).

Jasmine – Love.

Juniper – Exorcism.

Lavender – Peace, purification, protection, love.

Lemon – Purification, friendship.

Lemon Balm – Love, success.

Lemon Grass – Lust.

Lemon Verbana – Love.

Lilac – Banishing, protection, harmony.

Lilly of the Valley – Happiness, mental powers.

Linden – Love.

Lovage – cleansing (powdered root).

Mandrake – Protection, fertility, courage (root).

Marigold – Love.

Marjoram – Protection, love, healing, happiness.

Meadowsweet – Protection, money.

Mint – Luck, money, healing.

Mistletoe – Protection, love.

Mugwort – Protection, psychic powers.

Mullein – Cleansing (of ritual tools and spaces), protection, courage.

Myrrh – Psychic Powers

Myrtle – Love.

Nettle – Protection, lust, courage, healing.

Nutmeg – Good fortune, psychic powers.

Oak – Purification of ritual spaces (leaves), psychic powers.

Onion – Protection, healing.

Orange (dried and powdered peel) – Fertility.

Orris Root – Love.

Passion Flower – Friendship.

Peach (fruit) – Wisdom.

Pennyroyal (avoid using while pregnant) – Protection.

Periwinkle – Protection.

Pine – Cleansing, purification, healing.

Poppy – Fertility, money (seeds and seed pods).

Rose – Protection, friendship, love, luck, good fortune, psychic powers.

Rosemary – Purification, protection, love, lust, healing.

Rowan – Protection, luck, success, healing.

Rue – Purification of ritual spaces and tools, protection, fertility.

Saffron – Healing, happiness.

Sage – Protection, fertility, healing, wisdom.

Sandalwood – Purification, protection, healing, psychic powers.

St. John’s Wort – Banishing, exorcism, courage.

Sunflower – Fertility (seeds), wisdom.

Thyme – Cleansing, purification, courage, healing, psychic powers.

Valerian – Purification, love.

Vanilla – Mental powers.

Vertivert – Hex breaking, good fortune.

Vervain – cleansing (of sacred spaces), purification, protection, love, luck, money, meditation.

Violet – Peace, love, luck, lust.

Walnut – Fertility, mental powers.

Willow – Healing, psychic powers.

Witch Hazel – Protection.

Wormwood – Protection, courage, psychic powers.

Yarrow – Love, courage, healing, psychic powers.

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Cloaked Raven or as many of you may know her Cloaky lives with her husband (Mr. Cloaky) and her son (Lil Cloaky) in Nova Scotia, Canada.  Her real name is Valerie-June and you can find their family in the community of Camperdown which is about halfway between Bridgewater and Liverpool.

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