Which of the hurts and pains in the world are you called by the divine to try to heal? Every person and every group has a calling, and we are supplied with hearts to receive the call and compassion to lead toward expressing it, skills to work toward healing the world. In the case of Stony Creek Temple, at least a part of its Call is to be a LGBTQ+ welcoming Wiccan temple. Read more
Ritual is practice, not theory, and not dogma. But consistent and coherent ritual experimentation and goal-directed ritual construction is limited if we don’t think about what we’re doing - we just do what we have always done, then, which limits our ability to address different problems and repeats the same problems. We are faced with a practical or technical set of questions - not a theological, moral, or ethical issue but much more concrete, not”what is right?” but “what works?” Read more
For activities in the Pagan communities to happen, someone must organize them. Someone must pick up the phone and book the meeting space (park or community centre), they must put out publicity, they must directly contact and organize a team of volunteers to help set up before the event, perform the ritual or activity, and clean up and clear out afterward. Someone must pull together the initial cash to pay the rent or deposit, buy supplies, and then collect registration... Read more
“It is not the experience of the sacred that makes us spiritual, but rather it is our response to it. We are transformed not by standing at the threshold, but by crossing it. The Immensity does not provide you with any answers. It only provides you with questions. The answers must be discovered within yourself, in and through the things you do. Therefore, if the person does not act in response to the Immensity, then he effectively closes himself off... Read more
Ministry is a spiritually grounded and caring engagement with other people, which is available to every person. This kind of spiritual engagement is much stronger and easier to continue if a person is a member of a religious group that supports their values and ministry in both material and non-material ways – ‘spiritual but not religious’ is typically a crock. Read more
“Ritual is a means of performing the way things ought to be in conscious tension to the way things are in such a way that this ritualized perfection is recollected in the ordinary, uncontrolled, course of things.” – Jonathan Z. Smith An Introduction One of the things that distinguishes Wicca is our emphasis on ritual and experience. Why think about doing ritual? Why not just do it? We could begin with Socrates and say that “the unexamined life is not... Read more
When I started along on the Wiccan path 36 years ago, there were few public Wiccan temples. They are still rare but starting to be more common. I was, at that point, very strongly in the no organization is good organization camp but over the years I’ve made a 180. I shifted when I realized that most people who are called to Wicca’s goddesses and gods and approach to the spirit in the world are not called to the demanding... Read more
Although the ideas are simple it should be difficult to join a coven, difficult to qualify for Initiation, but simple to participate in it once in. Participation in Temple activities, which are basically an Outer Court version of the teachings and rituals, must be even more approachable. This doesn’t mean that we do not speak of profound or important things, but that we do so through the simplest language and with the most direct means possible and that we consider... Read more
May we go forward as the conscious voice, eyes and hands of the spirits of this place. May we build together in harmony and may what we bring from our Ancestors and from their homelands enrich this new homeland. May we return to the Earth what we receive from Her, may this earth feed us and receive our bodies on death. May we make love often and may we love even more often. May the waters of the ocean receive the sunset, may we see the beauty of this place, and may we always add to its beauty. May we achieve what we desire. May we desire the right things. May our passion for justice awaken, and may we make a good and a just peace with the descendants of the original peoples of this land, our sisters and brothers. Read more
I believe that we all have a general sense of what is undoubtedly Wiccan, what may be Wiccan, what's probably not Wiccan and what's not Wiccan (although it may be perfectly valid for those who like that sort of thing). If we accept that Wicca has a set of beliefs and practices which are typically Wiccan (although some will be found elsewhere), the questions are - what are they? And which beliefs and practices that are not Wiccan are acceptable in Wiccan practice, and why? And what reasonable set of criteria can be used to make these distinctions? If, for the purposes of making it possible to build a Wiccan religious community, we accept the value of making these distinctions, this is really where we must begin. Read more
Translating Worlds
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