How Sexual Was Your Beltane?

May 6, 2012 By 22 Comments
392px-Wiccan_spouses

Many of us in Pagandom participate in several groups/circles/covens etc. My preference has always been to be a part of a small, intimate group (sometimes a full-fledged "coven," sometimes not) along with a larger, more open circle. The small group becomes my place for serious work and instruction, and hopefully lives up to the idea of "perfect love and perfect trust." The larger group satisfies my social urges, and allows me to be a part of my greater community. There are unique aspects to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holidays, Love, Sex & Relationships, Ritual and Practice Tagged With: , , , , , , 22 Comments

Druid Thoughts: Beltain Without Ritual

May 2, 2012 By 7 Comments
450px-Maypole

Beltain has been and gone. I didn’t celebrate this year in any obvious sense. I’m finding the seasons hard to get to grips with at the moment. In February it was hot enough, in the south west of England, for me to get sunburn. Then we had rain. I’ve always associated Beltain with the coming of bluebells and May blossom on the hawthorn. The bluebells were out weeks ago and the May hasn’t shown up yet. In previous years they’ve been much closer. Climates have always changed. In Celtic … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Columns, Druid Thoughts, Holidays, Ritual and Practice Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

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: Columns, Family & Household Practice, Family Traditions, Ritual and Practice Tagged With: , , , , , 9 Comments

Making Light: A Very Pagan Pesach

April 6, 2012 By 3 Comments
800px-Seder_Plate

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, Family & Household Practice, Holidays, Interfaith, Making Light, Ritual and Practice Tagged With: , , , , , 3 Comments

Building the Magic of the Future

March 14, 2012 By 8 Comments
500px-'Landscape_with_a_Greek_Temple'_by_Louis_Comfort_Tiffany,_c._1900,_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art

Star Foster over on the Pantheon blog got me thinking with her two recent articles on  the feasibility of Pagan temples in the modern age.  ( first article : second article ).  Doing something like this would be a considerable undertaking by any group of Pagans in the community. It would also take a transformation of the financial mentality of  Pagan community as  eloquently pointed out by John Beckett over at Under the Oaks. The idea behind building a temple in the Southeast region is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Magic or Magick, Ritual and Practice Tagged With: , , , , , , 8 Comments