Category Archives: Magick

The Pagan Census

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I’ll join a number of other bloggers and pagan spaces to let y’all know about the Pagan Census being conducted.

Take the survey here:
_http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WYCq4kaxG_2bYrJ8xnemeR3A_3d_3d_
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WYCq4kaxG_2bYrJ8xnemeR3A_3d_3d)

This survey builds on an earlier one completed over twenty years ago,
primarily in the United States, which was conducted by Helen A. Berger and
Andras Arthen (of the EarthSpirit Community) entitled the Pagan Census.  .  . The survey data is now available on line at Murray Research Archive at Harvard University.

A number of scholars have noted that it would be helpful to have a
follow-up of that survey to see if and how the community has changed or remained the same. . . .

Please inform other Pagans about this research project and feel free to
pass it along via e-mail or to post a link on appropriate blogs or websites.

Thanks for your help.

Miss Cella

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Nothing particular on my mind today, but a couple of things have come to me to post here.

The Fabulous Anne Johnson, whose “The Gods Are Bored” blog puts me in a good mood nearly every day, is looking for a set of Encyclopedias for her classroom. Yes, she’s bucking the all-online trend. So if you have a set in moderately good condition and less than 25 years old, would you consider giving it to her? (She’ll pay for media rate shipping.)

Chas Clifton directed readers to an article over at LiveScience about how humans emit light in a way that varies through the day and seems to be linked with metabolism. Who was it who said magic is just science we haven’t figured out yet?

A friend asked me to find recipes for pawpaws. I’ve got a bunch *somewhere* around here . . . .

One Year Ends . . .

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. . . and we are in a breathing space before the next begins. I’m talking about my year-long Art of Ritual class. We start the year on July 1st and end it on the last Friday in June.

Our three students are outstanding. They are funny, intelligent, and generous people who clearly *grew* over the course of their year with us. I am very very proud of them and what they’ve accomplished. Moreover, two of them will be joining JaguarMoon as Dedicants; thereby continuing the cycle of student to mentor. (The third may join our daughter coven, Southern Cross, as she is in Australia and the timing of rituals and such is so much more complicated for her.)

Each year is so different, even though the overall structure of the lessons remains constant. Since I first created this lesson plan in 1998 my life has followed its rhythms, with a couple of exceptions (that is, the year I took a semi-sabbatical and the year we closed the class in mid year).

Six months ago I didn’t think we’d have a class to teach. Now we have five students, two of which are the rare breed: males, and one is a returnee from a previous year. With four people mentoring, my HP (Daystar) and I don’t have to mentor as well as lead. That means we can start to develop a more advanced curriculum, and get deeper into the Mysteries.

I may occasionally dream of a tradition that spans the globe and encompasses thousands of practitioners, but I am truly pleased that we remain small and focused on our mission of teaching in service to the Lord and Lady, teaching Wicca to those who are unable to find teachers elsewhere, and expanding/deepening our spirituality.

The Wheel turns, and a new cycle begins.

A New Joy: Lover of Strife

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I’m not much of one for celebrating a new source of reading — at least not here — but I have to rave about a new blog I just stumbled upon. Evnissyen, Lover of Strife is  A character from the epic Mabinogion, whose tendency to bash heads first and ask questions later leads to a terrible war between Britain and Ireland. Also, a modern-day, kind of high-maintenance, very male Witch from Houston, Texas. He can often be found not keeping his mouth shut and taking creative liberties with What Really Happened.

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I’m not sure what to call this post . . .

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Jason over at The Wild Hunt called my attention to the fact that AJ Drew has seemingly called it quits as far as being a public figure. The website pagannation.com is up for sale, packaged along with witchesball.com, and therealwitchesball.com, for $10,000. I’m not sure why that figure was picked, but it is likely very far out of the reach of most pagans, and the current economy doesn’t make it any more palatable. Moreover, a quick WHOIS search reveals that PN will be up for renewal in April 2010, TRWB in July of this year, and WB isn’t even owned by AJ — which raises a lot of questions about  what exactly is for sale, and why anyone would want to spend so much money for a few months’ ownership.

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Ostara: It’s Not Just About Rabbits . . .

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 . . . but don’t you dare take away our eggs!

 Here we are once again at the balance of night and day. We made it through a tough winter, and its time to start planting the seeds for a healthy, hearty, harvest later this year. Ostara is an old word, derived from the Germanic Oestre or Eostre (“to shine”), and it is the only pagan celebration that is not Celtic in origin. (I can see why, at this time of year the Celts were most likely still trying to keep warm and not thinking about planting just yet — that would be more like late April, or Beltane.)

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How To Take The Power Away from Crazies

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I saw this story originally at the ACLU blog, and had to share.

It seems that members of the Westboro Baptist Church (the home of the vitriolic Fred Phelps, owners of the website godhatesfags.com and justly vilified for their picketing of military soldiers) decided to protest against the University of Chicago (for general reasons), the Chicago Theological Seminary (for religious reasons), and the University’s former employment of Barack Obama in the Law School (for racial[?] reasons) on March 10th.

In response, more than 100 students gathered in demonstration against the Church protesters. They didn’t shout, they didn’t provoke; instead, they mocked. They passed out leaflets explaining that ‘God hates figs’ (based on a biblical passage wherein Jesus rails against the fig no less). A fraternity stripped to their boxers and danced to “I’m Coming Out” and the infamous “It’s Raining Men”.  Students from the CTS held signs reading “Chicago Theological Seminary: Question, Teach, Transform.”

There are fabulous pictures at the above link. Enjoy.

Earth Hour

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Sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund, the idea behind Earth Hour is to show how even a small conservation effort — like giving up just 60 minutes of lights — can have a big impact when a lot of people do it. The “official” action is to shut off your lights for an hour starting at 8:30pm, local time.

I’m planning to turn everything electric off. Of course, I’m also going to be out of town for the weekend (wedding in Cleveland, OH and not coincidentally raising Daystar to his 3rd*). But at 8:30pm I’ll be in a hotel room, and I intend to turn everything I can off. J. and I will just sit in the dark and giggle for awhile. (It’s a good thing he still finds me charming.)

You can pledge to participate on the Earth Hour site, either as an individual or as a group. Seattle is a participant, as are many cities in the US.