Family Traditions: Ascent of the Goddess

April 11, 2012 By 9 Comments
British_Museum_Queen_of_the_Night

Last month, my ritual partner and I held my coven's Ostara sabbat. As ever, holding a sabbat is an exhausting process, but a wonderfully gratifying one. One reason I remain in love with Wicca is the creativity of ritual. The framework remains the same – the casting of the circle, the invoking of the elements, the Great Rite, and so forth – but everything else can be strikingly different. Your Ostara ritual will be considerably different than mine, but that's a good thing. We arrive with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family & Household Practice, Family Traditions, Top Posts, Top Religion & Culture Tagged With: , , , , , 9 Comments

Arguing History

April 11, 2012 By 18 Comments
Wheel_of_the_Year

For all intents and purposes I'm a "Pagan Minimalist*." That doesn't mean my practice is minimal or small, it means that I view Modern Paganism as a relatively recent phenomenon. If you were to ask me how old I think a practice like Modern Wicca is; I would offer you a guess of maybe seventy years on the high end. Seventy years is a pretty long time, but for a lot of people that's just not long enough. They like to make the argument that Wicca is hundreds if not thousands of years old, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: History, Religion, Top Posts, Top Religion & Culture Tagged With: , , , 18 Comments

Making Light: A Very Pagan Pesach

April 6, 2012 By 3 Comments
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You haven't lived until you've heard a roomful of drunk Pagans shout "Next year in Jerusalem!" at the end of a Passover seder. We've been doing this for more than a dozen years and it has become such a part of our local traditions that if the priestess in charge suddenly stopped doing them, there would be angry mobs brandishing horseradish and parsley. Said priestess happens to be my best friend in the Universe and started doing them because it was something her mother had done. There's more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Columns, Culture, Family & Household Practice, Making Light, Religion, Top Posts, Top Religion & Culture Tagged With: , , , , , 3 Comments

Dear Jasmine: The Rede

April 6, 2012 By 2 Comments
750px-Horned_God_and_Mother_Goddess_(Doreen_Valiente's_Altar)

Dear Jasmine, I am wondering about The Rede and “Harm None”, and how it works with yourself. Is intentionally harming yourself with toxins (cigarettes, alcohol, pills) fall into the category of harm none? Sincerely, Pixie Dear Pixie, First off I will start by saying that I do not use the Rede in my practice. I have however put a lot of thought into that choice and its usage in Neo-Paganism and Wicca. I do feel that using the Rede is a very personal choice that can only be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dear Jasmine, Religion, Top Posts, Top Religion & Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Making Light: Listening as Mystery Unfolds

April 1, 2012 By 6 Comments
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I keep meaning to write something about Anthesteria or Thargelia or something relevant to this time of year, but I’ve been distracted. A few weeks ago, I found out that I’m pregnant and I’ve been occupied with that pretty much exclusively since. The housework is slipping big time, mostly due to the utter exhaustion that comes with the first trimester. It’s like pregnancy narcolepsy; if I sit still long enough, I fall asleep. I’m not eating like I usually do because of the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Columns, Culture, Family & Household Practice, Making Light, Religion, Top Other, Top Posts Tagged With: , , , , , 6 Comments