So recently a friend, whom I will refer to as Biff, asked me for some assistance with a project.  He wanted to create a functioning juju running ley line and he wanted to situate an anchor for it in my back yard.  Naturally, I thought this was pretty cool.  He lent me a book called Shamanism and the Mystery Lines by Paul Devereux which I’ve been reading.  I’ve gathered that that for some reason or another, ancient people liked to... Read more

Night Sky(Private Collection) I was working at multiplying myself during my trancework.  This is a task one of my spirit guides has set for me.  Some months ago he said to me, “Make three of yourself. Now.” “How exactly am I supposed to do that?” I ask with indignation.   So he instructs, “When you fare forth there are two of you. The one who is here and the one who is there. Simply make another one as you made the... Read more

Naked, I ran into the waves with my fellow women.  The wind touched my skin and the sun’s unblinking eye watched from the horizon as we laughed and splashed.   The cold water delighted us.  The bracing feel of waves crashing into me was as if everything was being ripped away from me but this moment where the sky was painted in pastel hues that faded into indigo thunderheads.  We were at a secluded spot on Lake Michigan, modeling for a... Read more

Somehow this pagan priestess ended up playing the part of Ravaging Nature in a short horror film this weekend. I pretended to stab a lot of people with a long spiraling horn that apparently came from a Kudu. I had to go look up what a Kudu is. In case you were wondering, they’re a kind of antelope from East Africa. I also made weird growly noises and was instructed to push someone over and pretend to eat them.  My... Read more

I was sitting and watching dead people. Or at least those brave enough to impersonate them.  They wandered around with greasepaint skulls overlaid onto their faces preparing for what was to come.  I was perched on a wall of the pavilion where the Devotional for the Dead was to take place, kicking my leg out and back like a cat’s considering tail.   I am more comfortable with the spirits of the land than the ancestors.  The dead leave me cold, literally. ... Read more

I was asked to assist a grove member’s daughter who has had some complications in her pregnancy by working up a pregnancy blessing ritual.  Part of that was researching what the old norse and irish did, in which I was immensely helped by Living Liminally the blog of another ADF member and reconstructionist. I found a record of a norse charm carved on wood with threads of red, white, and black wound around it.  The bindrune that was carved on... Read more

As a pagan, the new year is a little more fluid for me than it is for many.  Many pagans see the new year  as starting at the beginning of November, when Samhain is celebrated.  This is part of the Celtic tradition which has heavily influenced Wicca and is part of the Celtic Reconstructionist paths.   Some pagans follow more modern traditions of starting the new year in January.  This too has it’s basis in the past in the Scottish... Read more

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As the wheel of the year turns to the darker half of the cycle we pagans turn our attention to our ancestors. Even as I am furiously sewing costumes and decorating with skeletons and jack-o-lanterns I want to help my kids reflect on the more serious side of death. We are lucky enough to be able to walk to a cemetery from our house now and a few days ago we gathered flowers from our garden and went to give... Read more

Prayer is more than hands folded and looking upward. Prayer is a way of communicating with That-Which-is-not-Human. Woman in the Water  Many years ago when I was newly pagan the idea of prayer disturbed me intensely.  I hated the whole idea.  The way people would sit around with folded hands and beg for help from some power so remote that he barely managed to have gender bothered me.  This Being, who, if the story was correct, was so vast that... Read more