“Live so that someone ignorant about Paganism would know from watching your life or visiting your home, that you followed an Earth religion." -- Chas S. Clifton (1) My Witchvox article about crystals has generated a lot of replies and many of them are from people trying to find ways to eco-up their nature-worship and Earth-honoring religious practices. That’s awesome! I also know how HARD it is to do, because I have been working on this for as while. So I thought I’d share what I have le ...

It was a beautiful late summer morning. The kind of perfect day with sweet air and deep blue skies. I was outside with my Arabian horse Hamdan early after leading him out of his stall. Over the next hour and half we stood together quietly, me feeding him the rest of a bag of fresh carrots. After the carrots were gone, we just stood near each other in the way that horses do with herd mates. The proximity of each other was all the comfort that each needed. Horses think that way you know. H ...

As I look around the room, it hits me how much I have related to Wicca. It has literally become a huge part of my existence. My focus is directed to a piece of amber crystal that I bought for fifteen dollars at a local shop. I now wonder to myself whether it was worth it but a bigger question arises from this. Whatever happened to down to earth practical magic? It’s no secret that most people live on a budget. Although I love those spiritual stores with so many wonderfully witchy objects ...

The ol’ Witch in the woods had a couple of beeswax candles, the Sun, Moon and stars and knowledge of the uses of herbs in her area to use in her practice. The modern Witch has the world at their fingertips at the click of a mouse button. Were things better in her time, without the cacophony of engine noise, the persistent hum of computers, and mobile phone signals that clog up the air? Or are we far better off out of the dark ages, living comfortable lifestyles without constant fear of persecuti ...

Once upon a time, My Children, a very long time ago, a woman was out gathering seeds and grains. Her children were close, helping her and gathering berries. Her youngest was in a leather sling at her breast. They had to walk a long way; the wild grasses she was concentrating on had mostly sparse heads of poor grains. Only occasionally was there one worth plucking; a fat one, a plump one, a full head of grain. As the day began to close, and they made their way home, her day's work was one, nearly ...

In pantheism it begins with the ALL, the pantheistic belief that all things are connected and all the realms of the multi verse are ONE spiritual being. ALL beings, every thing, every molecule of the universe has an energy like connection to everything else. We are connected to each other, to the plants, and animals, and stars, and they are connected to us. In pantheism this connection in and of itself is divine, the ultimate expression of true divinity IS the connection.The gods and god ...

I've been struggling with not feeling that I want to call myself a Pagan; that somehow I missed the cultural boat. This boat feels like something I will never understand nor connect with. Yet, my religion is Wicca, and I am a Qabalist, ritualist, and magick worker. I never towed the feminist political line enough for the Goddess community, wasn't political enough for others communities either. I've always been missing the Pagan cultural "norm" boat!I have finally come to a resolution for ...

Now, as we just discussed in my previous article, I don't really ascribe to needing to forgive every person in your life. If that person has crossed a boundary that is unforgivable to you and you no longer wish to have a relationship with that person and strive to have as little contact with that person as possible, congratulations! I will be more than happy to write you a note excusing you from having to forgive that person. So, we got through the first part where we've made that determ ...

To me this is something especially magickal about late August. The knowing of the great changes to come as the Autumn energies begins to fill your senses. The way the heat of the day has a power over the very soul of man for both good and bad. But most of all, I loved the evenings … those long hot and steamy evenings as the sun would just begin to set way beyond the mountains of my Great Grandmother’s farm. I lay on the ground underneath the Great Willow tree in my Great Grandmother’s ya ...

The ancients held natural cycles and rhythms of nature as symbolic keys to the great cosmic mystery. We do know that the ancients had great pagan centers of learning—the great mystery schools. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact nature of their teachings. They had a secret knowledge, which was not taught to the multitudes of people. There were two basic forms of religion in many pagan civilizations. There was the religion of the common individual, the worship of the gods and goddesse ...

How often do you think about the day you discovered Paganism? Not when you found it, at least not in my case—I have always been a Witch; I just didn’t call it that until I was teenager. Ironically, I saw my witchy light in a church…The church looked amazing. The altar was adorned with huge candelabras, white roses and tulips, and there were chains of white daisies draping from the back of every pew. My catechism instructor had told the class that Father Elias was going to marry a ...

Now let me start off with a disclaimer (yeah I know, annoying) but I have been out of the loop a bit for the last three years. Some older patrons might remember me posting from my high school and college years, but many probably do not. In my defense, it’s hard to keep up when you are on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean three months at a time serving our country.I’m now stationed on land and I see some trends that worry me. When did those of us in Paganism become snobs? I ha ...

No one ever believes this, but of all the religions out there, Heathenry/Asatru is my favorite. Not as it is actually practiced by many Heathens, but hey, that’s how I feel about most religions. I love the Nine Virtues, although I am shocked that wisdom is not one of them or even common sense. But I am going to run through the Nine Virtues and show how they could be a wonderful guide for people who are not forming libertarian militias with the hierarchy of biker gangs while playing Warlord video ...

Why do bad things happen to good Pagans? This is a touchy subject. It would be great if Pagans could just skip along lightly, hold some get-togethers every full moon, gently die in our sleep and head on to the next life after a brief stop in Summerland for some spiritual R and R. Life, however, is not that great.Stuff happens, sometimes very messy, very terrifying, very traumatic stuff. And if the only thing we’ve done in life is be good, help others, hug trees and donate to PETA, that s ...

When it comes to dating, disclosing the particular religion or spirituality you happen to follow would seem to be relatively unimportant. In the overall grand scheme of things, it would seem that having a basic connection is more important, and there are plenty of different topics to discuss before even thinking about bringing up the subject. After all, how often do religious views come into play during the first three dates? The first five?If I had to make a general estimate, I would sa ...

I turned on my computer this past Sunday afternoon and the first thing that I see is “True Blood” trending on Yahoo.com. So being a HUGE fan of the show I click on the link expecting to find an article about an episode coming on that night. But, to my surprise, I get to linked to an article and can’t believe what I’m reading. A Reuters’ online article called, “Real Witches Cry Foul at Portrayal on “True Blood”. The first thing I think to myself is “please don’t say what I think this will”, and t ...

Casually curious and sick in bed, I watched The Craft the other day. Acceptably entertained but more seriously disturbed by its theft of Wiccan words and ritual, I have slowly realized the sorry state of Witchcraft in the media. I always knew it was bad, but not this bad. Be warned, I might ruin the story for you! If you have not seen it, The Craft follows a teenager named Sarah who moves to a new town with her parents. At her new high school, she meets three young women wh ...

From time to time, we all lose our way, wonder who we are and what we feel we need to do, and as a teen, the pressure becomes high. For a while after I moved and switched schools away from everything I once was familiar with, I began to lose faith in myself. Everyone at this new school was very dramatic about everything, and I felt uncomfortable coming out of my shell and sharing things about myself to people that I felt were complete strangers. My day-to-day activities felt so awkward t ...

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, I had the long awaited opportunity to visit Gettysburg, PA and tour this immense and historic Civil War Battlefield. This is one of our National Parks with many tour guides, roads for cars, bicycles and trails for hiking; it is immaculately kept, with stonewalls, horse barriers, hundreds of monuments and dozens of cannons. As much as possible, trying to authentically replicate the actual battlefield. Our Legacy of WarA number of monuments sit ...

Looking out the big sunroom windows of our new home, my Mom said, "I can't pick up anything from the land here." This is big news because my Mom can read the land most anywhere. "Can you feel anything?" she asked me."Welllll, " I paused, "It's more like I go outside and leave my offerings and sense that the spirits are here on the peripheral of my second sight. Like feeding a cat who won't let me see it, it's too scared."My Mom needs nature spirit companionship much more ...