paganism

A Witch’s View

Lyn Thurman June, 2010

Do you often wonder what the rules are to being Pagan? The Pagan path gives you such freedom and flexibility to worship and connect with the Divine in a way that feels right to you. But it’s also comes with no guide book, no official buildings and no main deity.  You really are on your own – even if you belong to a group of like minded people there are no official rules.

I popped on over to dictionary.com and looked up the word ‘pagan’.  Here are the definitions:

one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks.

a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.

an irreligious or hedonistic person.


Hmmm…interesting.  But no help whatsoever. When you think of the whole world then minus the said Christians, Jews and Muslims you’re still left with a whole bunch of Pagans.  And they’re all very different.  Pagans can be, by definition, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus and other people, you know, the ‘Pagan’ Pagans.

I often ponder on what exactly makes me a Pagan and witch. Just for the record it isn’t hedonism – having kids sort of makes that impossible!  But seriously, what is that vital spark or criteria which puts you firmly into the Pagan category?  What are you rules you follow?

When I have to break it down, these are my 4 rules to being a Pagan:

  • Finding the Divine everywhere and in everything
  • Reconnecting with the Divine feminine
  • Taking a step back from modern day life and looking towards our ancestors for guidance
  • Being tolerant and accepting of others


But those are my logical, left brain statements. When I connect with my heart I’m Pagan because it feels right and, as an added bonus, I love to make my own rules!

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The Gods Are Within

Blacksun January, 2010

I’ve watched Paganism in America change considerably in the last thirty years and I sometimes wonder what the next thirty will be like.  As the New Year begins, it is often the case that we look both to the past and the future with wonder.

When I first became interested in Paganism, most of us called ourselves witches.  If you wanted in on the fun, you had to really dig and show interest in just the right places and to the right people.  Not much was written about us that wasn’t 99% junk.  And even the stuff that was real was full of weird explanations that you sort of had to work around in your mind before they made much sense.  And if you were lucky enough to find anybody who actually knew what they were talking about it was like pulling teeth to get them to open up and tell it to you straight.

Then you had to wait about a thousand years before you were offered initiation.  Well, maybe not quite that long, but it seemed like it.  There weren’t enough people who could or would initiate folks and you didn’t get ‘IN’ unless you were initiated.  At the time, when a high priest and/or priestess initiated someone, the initiate’s magical behavior was the responsibility of the initiators.  The etiquette was that if you had a dispute with someone, you either dealt with them directly to resolve it or you brought it before your elders.  In most cases, the ‘elders’ were the priestess and priest that governed the coven.  If the problem involved people of different covens, it would probably involve both covens’ leaders.

By the mid to late eighties, the coven system of government and isolation was breaking down.  This was due to several reasons but the most important one was because the definition of initiation was changing.  The concept of self-initiation was gaining legitimacy and without a lineage of initiators, the authority of each coven to self-discipline was on the way out.  This also eroded the confidentiality and secrecy that had been a cornerstone of the coven system.

Covens had been much like the French WW II underground.  Each group was a closed unit and only its leaders knew of the other covens, where they were, who led them, and what they did.  There weren’t any large festivals or celebrations as there are now.  For the most part, coordination and communication between covens was limited to the leaders of the covens, a so-called ‘gathering of Elders.’  Occasionally, two or more covens would celebrate a sabbat or esbat with a related coven.

Eventually, books began to become available that gave just enough information to non-initiates that they began to practice magic and conduct their own celebrations.  Before that time, every person initiated to the Craft was told that they were a priest or priestess.  That is, they were considered to be responsible for the preservation an interpretation of their own spirituality.  With self-initiation, a much larger group of people began to emerge who wanted to follow a path of magic and spirit but not lead it.  The initiates of the coven system tried to respond and develop liturgy that didn’t require the entire circle to be of the priesthood.  But many of these chafed at the demands of clergy or simply didn’t have the skills.  Those who did step up made a big difference to the face of Paganism.

Covens still exist that maintain the initiate/priesthood format but they are few and far between, probably no even as numerous as in times past.  Most covens today consist of a loose body of people following one or two leaders who have gained sufficient knowledge and skill to hold the group together.  The differences, when compared to the old system, are significant.  Most importantly, today’s covens usually aren’t very exclusive or secret.  Certainly that’s not universally true, but it is for the majority.  The general social culture in America today is nominally tolerant of most of Paganism’s various forms of expression and most Pagans are not secretive about their spirituality.

There are now many open celebrations held throughout the year all over the USA and Canada as well as open circles for full and new moon services.  Pagans of all stripes are now adopting forms very much like the Judeo-Christian religious organizations that dominate North America.  They are forming churches that interact with the greater society in nearly exactly the same way as their much larger spiritual cousins.

It’s almost inevitable once an organization begins to seek legitimacy and legal protection within the social order that they adopt the form and appearance that makes it easiest to receive those benefits.  Ironically, the harassment of many Pagan groups during the eighties helped to cause those same groups to come out of the broom closet and demand the legal rights guarantied to them by the laws of the society that sought to persecute them.  The institutions developed in this more open setting are often held back by two problems:  There aren’t a great many qualified leaders, people who have the skills necessary to run an organized religious group.  And there is not, as yet, the acceptance of the people who would use such an organization sufficient to support it.

No religious movement, and that is what modern Paganism is, ever starts out as an organized religion.  It always develops as small groups and then grows.  That growth is always beset with problems and disagreements among the groups but eventually some sort of common ground is reached and then the growth continues on a sporadic and somewhat confused basis for some time.  Paganism has pretty much gotten over the ‘witch wars’ that seemed to dominate the nineties and now must face the challenges of the more conservative assimilation processes of becoming legitimate in the eyes of society.

I well remember the hue and cry set up by the secretive covens over the concept of self-initiation.  The issue was not only the controversy of the idea but the impact it would have on the authenticity of lineage.  It was feared, and rightly so, that the uncontrolled growth it would foster would destroy the coven system altogether.  While it hasn’t destroyed it, it has made a change in the direction and focus of our religious practices.  Modern institutionalized Paganism has created a whole new demand for qualified leadership and a material commitment from those who are to be its members.

It’s impossible to know where Paganism will be and what it will look like in another thirty years, but it’s probable that the next ten years will either drive it back underground or make it an important social voice in western society.  It is up to everyone who seeks a balance within themselves between the dynamics of being human and the need for greater personal involvement with Spirit to determine what it will be like.  Remember that gods are within each of us and how we worship them will be the deciding factor in how our world will survive.

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Being Bad

Blacksun December, 2009

NOTE:  Parts of this article are quoted from or based on Blacksun’s yet-to-be published book, B e ALL! – The book of Pagan Spirituality, © 2007.

Some people have problems with Paganism because we didn’t have anybody come down from a mountain with a couple of stone tablets and tell us what being bad really meant.  The charge is leveled that we don’t have any morality system.  Once that statement is made, it’s an easy jump to thinking we don’t have any morals.  But just because we didn’t have somebody write it on rocks doesn’t mean we don’t have a morality system.  We are, by and large, a very moral group of people.  Of course, the same can be said of most of the people of the world.  Pagans usually aren’t any more or less moral than anybody else.  But we still don’t have a couple of rocks telling us what’s right and what’s wrong.  What we do have is a few guidelines that can help us decide if something is right or wrong, good or bad.  For the most part, these guidelines talk about what it means to be good.  Very little is centered on being bad.

Probably the most powerful of these guidelines is also one of the most subtle.  It’s expressed in a variety of ways but it all comes down to a very simple three-sentence statement:

    1. Everything we do with intent is magic.
    2. Everything is connected.
    3. All magic produces like-consequences for the magician.

In Wicca, this is usually expressed as The Law of Three-Fold Return.  According to that notion, whatever you ‘put out’ comes back to you three times more powerfully.  It doesn’t take an accounting degree to figure out that this can be either a carrot or a stick.  The Three-Fold ‘Law’ is either somebody telling you that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or that you’ll get a really bad ‘beating’ when your dad gets home!  Other traditions have similar notions and also express this idea that our magical acts have good or bad consequences dependant on whether the magic is good or bad.  Now we arrive at the issue central to all morality systems:  What is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad?”  When discussing theological issues, ‘good and bad’ usually is phrased ‘good and evil.’ It doesn’t actually change the question but it does make it sound more cosmic.

The western idea of ‘good-and-evil’ is that they are polar opposites and that there is some sort of exacting standard by which we (or some omnipotent deity) can make a judgment call about them.  For anyone who has lived more than a few seconds can tell you, this ain’t always so.  Most of life is way too complicated to know whether some action is all ‘good’ or all ‘evil.’ As mere mortals, we have a hard time knowing what all the ramifications of an action may be.  And, just to make it harder, a lot of what we do is based upon a hastily formulated prediction of what might happen when we put something into action.  They usually call that an accident waiting to happen.

Knowing if something is good or evil depends a lot on the circumstances surrounding the action or thought.  Is swinging the bat good or evil?  It’s good if you hit the ball over the fence.  (Well, it’s good if you’re not on the opposing team.)  But it’s downright evil if you’re taking a swing at your neighbor!  In this example, neither the bat nor the act of swinging it can be called good or evil.  It is only the intent behind the swinging of the bat that can be judged in this way.  Any similarity between this example and the old argument that, ‘guns don’t kill people; people kill people,’ is purely coincidental.

But for us to judge anything ‘good’ or ‘evil,’ we need to have some kind of yardstick.  We need to be able to identify what those two words mean and how we might be able to establish whether some act, thing, or thought is or is not good or evil.  This has been the work of philosophers, theologians, and lawyers since around the time of writing on rocks.  It is also what we mere mortals try to figure out every minute of every day.  Everything we do is somehow connected to our judgment about good and evil.  And if that isn’t reason enough for studying the subject a little more closely, I don’t know what is.

Your browser may not support display of this image. I’m going to give you my thoughts about this subject but I don’t expect you to adopt them for yourself.  I’m sharing my way of judging good and evil in the hope that it will spur you into thinking about your own way of judging these matters.  As I mentioned above, this subject has been worked over by all sorts of people for a long time.  Obviously, nobody has come up with a foolproof way of deciding the whole thing (that’s because fools are so clever!) and this is quite probably another one of those so-called ‘mysteries’ that are entirely a personal matter.  Nevertheless, I’ll attempt to explain my method so you will have some starting point for discovering your own.

I should first tell you this system is built upon my concept of what Spirit is and how it works.  To me, Spirit (with a capital S) is the ultimate template for all existence… including its own existence.  I make a distinction between spirit (all lower case) and Spirit (capitalized).  The all lower case ‘spirit’ is a template for some specific thing’s existence and the capitalized ‘Spirit’ is reserved for what amounts to Deity, the ‘master template’ that serves as the source for all the rest of the spirits of discreet things.  It’s easiest to think of spirit as a kind of information packet that determines all of the characteristics of that thing.  This information packet gets new information by interacting with other spirits (everything is connected).  It also shares some of itself during these interactions.  Thus, the ‘spirit of the party’ can have an influence on the spirit of a person.  This way of defining spirit allows us to use the word in all the ways we do without changing its core meaning.

Everything has a spirit in this system (even stone tablets) and all spirits are part of, and originate from one Great Spirit, denoted by capitalizing the word (‘Spirit’).  Although it might be an oversimplification (the matter is much more complicated than it looks), ‘good’ is defined as any ‘movement’ by a spirit that puts it closer to this so-called Great Spirit and ‘evil’ is any movement away from it.  In other words, to do good one must become closer to this source of spirit, this Spirit.

Of course, knowing what constitutes movement in the right direction is the key element in this system.  How can we know what spiritual influences will put us and our actions ‘closer’ to this divine Spirit?  This question bothered me for several years and prevented me from completing my book on the subject of the fifth Element (Spirit).  The answer that finally satisfied all of the arguments that I had with previous solutions was so simple, I wondered if I wasn’t fooling myself.  But it has withstood the test of lots of discussions with other theologians and I now find its simplicity a sign of its strength.

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ is a saying I’ve heard all my life.  A quick explanation of it would be to say that what might appear beautiful to one person may not seem beautiful to another.  Even though we might not agree on what is beautiful, we all have this sense of some things being beautiful and others not.  Trying to describe why we say this-or-that is beautiful always comes down to the fact that we find it so; we’re attracted to it but repulsed by other things, some of which are considered beautiful by others.  We are influenced by our culture or our friends and family to find certain things beautiful.  Our sense of beauty is influenced by everything around us.  But even those who have grown up in the same family and lived in the same culture have different ideas about what is beautiful.

We say our ‘taste’  of beauty is different from another person’s, which goes back to the beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder aphorism.  But the choice of the term, ‘taste,’ is telling in this case.  We know that certain foods will taste better to us one time than they do another (except chocolate, of course… that tastes good all the time!).  And it’s been proven that the reason for that phenomenon is that our bodies need the nutrients in those foods more at one time than another.  We will even say, “I have a taste for (something).” Our taste for beauty is much like our taste for foods.  But instead of our bodies needing something, our taste for beauty is a hunger of our soul, our spirit.  In other words, what we find beautiful nourishes our spirit. We say we are ‘attracted’ to beauty.  That means we will be likely to move closer to it.  Are you beginning to see what this means?

    1. ‘Good’ is movement closer to Spirit (note the capitalization).
    2. Beauty nourishes our spirit.
    3. We are likely to move closer to that which we find beautiful.

For the moment, consider beauty to be like a radiation sent off by the spirit of a thing.  We might consider this like light or other forms of radiation in that it will be radiated in waves.  All waves have frequency and amplitude.  Some of us are sensitive to certain wavelengths of beauty and some aren’t.  What we find beautiful depends on our sensitivity to the wavelengths sent out by the spirits of the things in our world.  Since our spirit is the defining force of us and is constantly changing (spirits influence spirits), our sensitivity to particular wavelengths will probably change over time.

Of course, this is all metaphorical.  I’m not proposing that we attempt to build a beauty meter to measure the spirits of things.  But in a way, it could be said that is what religion tries to do.  The teachings of any religion try to influence us to move in the general direction of Spirit.  For the most part, religion (ANY religion!) helps us to be ‘good.’  Paganism teaches us to be good through its mysteries.  Many other religions teach morality in the same way (in fact, the largest faith group in the world, Buddhism, is a mystery religion).  For us, these mysteries center on the observable nature of the world around us.  For that reason, we are often called a ‘nature religion’ or sometimes an ‘Earth religion.’ Our holy days are set up to put us in tune with (translate: to be influenced by) the cycles of our physical environment.  This influence is to make us more sensitive to the beauty of Nature and (hopefully) cause us to move closer to the spiritual nourishment available by becoming more harmonious (here we go with the wavelength language again) with our environment.

So how come some people use religion to justify doings bad/evil things?  Simply because they are looking for justification for their ways and find it possible to blame it on a religion.  Religion is not to blame for anyone’s actions.  Even if it’s possible to use its teachings to promote or justify evil deeds, religion does not initiate action; people do.

Knowing good from bad isn’t always easy.  But we each have a sense of what is beautiful to us and we should follow the attraction of the beautiful things in our world to keep us morally healthy.  We might not always be righteously good but we will at least be headed in the right direction.  If we purposely go out each morning with the intent of finding beauty, we will not only nourish our own soul but quite possibly influence others to find their own beauty.

And that’s a good thing.

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Great Mother, Great Father, hear my prayer of Love:  Open my heart and my inner vision to the Beauty of your works.  Teach me the wonders and lessons of your Spirit and give me the strength and courage to face you each day with gratitude for the struggles that are presented to me.

Guide me in your ways.  I know not where my Path may lead, but I could not bear it if it were to take me away from you.

Help me keep my spirit whole and growing so that it may light the way others may take.  Keep me from the folly of false pride and vainglory.  Remind my heart of the peace and wonder of being myself… without a mask to impress others.

Take my Spirit quest as my gift to you.  I only wish it to be in harmony with your truths.  Remind me daily of Spirit.  Let me never forget my quest or stray too far from its Path.  For I am sworn to your Priesthood and my hands and heart are dedicated to Perfect Love and Perfect Truth, which are your gifts and promise.

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Dispensing the Sacraments

Blacksun November, 2009

I’ve been happily involved in Paganism for over 30 years and witnessed a lot of rituals in my time.  It was in 1982 that I began studying the subject of ritual making and my book on that subject, The Spell of Making, was published in 1995.  I continue to learn more every day and have had a wonderful time integrating that material into my workshops on ritual construction.  The book is focused on how to build rituals that are powerful and effective but there isn’t a great deal in it about the presentation of those rituals.  That will be what this article will discuss.  So there isn’t any confusion, let me explain why the title of this article is “Dispensing the Sacraments” but I begin by saying the article is about presenting rituals.Wicca (and modern Paganism in general) is classified as a ‘mystery religion.’ That means that we don’t have a book of scripture that delineates the spiritual truth for us.  We don’t require that you adhere to a firm belief system dictated by an ordained priesthood charged with interpreting holy writ.  Instead, we expect and allow each person to find their own spiritual truths and to interpret and apply them as part of their journey through life.  Our faith group believes that each person, no matter their abilities or way of life, will have their own unique experiences and therefore their own distinctive spiritual truths.  This we call ‘the mysteries,’ for they are only known to the one who experiences them.  We can’t teach others our mysteries; we can only provide opportunities for them to experience their own.  Such opportunities, presented in sacred space, are known as sacraments.  To ‘dispense the sacraments’ is to provide an opportunity to directly experience an ineffable connection to the gods. Every sacrament is for that purpose.  Any act or experience that purposely provides an opportunity to make or increase our connection to the Divine is a sacrament.  It is the role of the priesthood to present the sacraments.

Many (but not all) sacraments are produced (or ‘dispensed’) under ritual conditions.  Rituals present them in symbolic form that speaks directly to the unconscious.  And because the unconscious mind is what integrates all the information that comes to us and provides us with a model for understanding our world, this is an excellent place for the sacraments to take hold and work their magic.

There is no guarantee that a sacrament will actually result in greater spiritual understanding for any particular person.  Everyone will respond to them in different ways.  What might be a wondrous and moving experience for one might be no big deal for the person next to them.  And what may have a profound effect on us at one time could leave us feeling nothing at another.  It’s impossible to predict exactly how a sacrament will impact a person; we are all different from one another and even from the person we were yesterday.  To be a good ritual presenter means you must understand that the sacrament is the ritual’s goal and hone your abilities with this in mind.  In doing this work, you will be exposed to the energies of these presentations many more times than those who only attend them once.  So every time you rehearse or present the rituals that are the vehicles for these sacraments, you will have the opportunity to increase your own spiritual truth.  And every time you see the rite work its magic on another, you will have a better perspective on your own mysteries.

There are (at least) three good reasons for becoming a ritual presenter:  The personal spiritual insights that one gains by participating as a sacrament dispenser are enormous.  No words can describe the wonder of being party to this kind of work.  Everyone who actively presents the opportunity for others to become closer to and in greater harmony with the Divine will find themselves growing in spirit as well.  All of the energy you put into the rites you present for others will return to you as incredible beauty that fills your spirit.

Although I won’t bother to explain why here, your magical abilities will also grow.  Many people don’t give enough credit to the fact that all internal growth makes for greater magical ability.  But it’s an indisputable fact that the more ability you gain in being a good ritualist will also manifest in your magic.

True leadership is through service.  When you become part of a group that serves others in your community, you give a boost to your own social standing.  There’s nothing wrong with enjoying that benefit; we all crave positive interaction with others and this is definitely a good way to accomplish it.  Becoming a ritual presenter is a wonderful way to serve your community.  It will also serve you with more rewards than you can imagine.

Presentation of a ritual is much more than learning the words and what prop to wave about while saying them.  The bottom line about being a good ritualist is that you must be a good actor.  That doesn’t mean you must pretend anything; it means you must feel what you act.  If I were to single out the most important thing I’ve learned from my spiritual studies, it would be summed up in one sentence:

How it feels is what it means.

Try this exercise:  Take a page out of a magazine, an advertisement that features a large face shot where the model is looking out at you through the camera.  Pin it up on the wall next to a mirror.  Stand looking at the picture and say (out loud), “I love you.”  Look at your face in the mirror.  Now turn back to the picture and think of what you mean and feel when you say those words to somebody you really do love deeply.  Form in your mind an image of that person’s face as they look at you when you say the words and how they respond.  Wait for just the right moment to say the words, just as you would wait for the right moment with the person you truly love.  When your heart bursts with love, say “I love you” again to that picture on the wall.  Immediately turn and look at yourself in the mirror once more.  Do you see the difference?

That is acting.

Acting isn’t easy; it takes a tremendous amount of personal discipline.  And it takes a great deal of emotional strength.  Stop and think about a movie and how the actors made you believe in their characters, how they made you feel their emotions and the situations they were in.  You knew it was just a movie, just a story, but you got caught up in that story because of the actors and their ability to convince you they were actually living the story.

There is a cliché joke where an actor is told he is to do something quite common or simple (like pick up a coffee cup) and he turns to the director and asks, “What is my motivation?”  While this certainly might seem like overkill, it also could be an important question.  After all, if you pick up a cup to throw it in anger at someone, you would do it differently than if you just wanted to go get some coffee.  A good ritualist must provide an experience for all of the people in attendance that is real and believable.  That is not possible without the ritualist putting themselves in a real state of feeling.

The use of imagination by ritual actors is key to their ability in presenting the sacrament within the ritual.  Each ritualist must draw from within themselves the feelings that are necessary to make what they do and say have real meaning.  When that happens, each ritualist will convey that reality of meaning in every inflection of voice, each tiny change of expression, and every movement of their body.  Just as in our experiment with the picture next to the mirror: your whole demeanor was changed when you could say, “I love you,” to it and feel it.  Anyone watching at that moment would have been able to believe the picture was of somebody you loved deeply.

One of the criticisms I’ve received about my book goes something like this:  “All that structure and planning in making a ritual kills the spontaneity that makes our rites such magical events.”  I fully understand where that is coming from.  And, although I still strongly believe a ritual should be well thought out and scripted, I also know that it is not the scripted words and directions that gives it life; it is the feelings of the people who present it.

If we are to provide real meaning in ritual form, we must produce emotional connections through our presentations.  So, here we are back in acting class: learning how to emote.  Now, “What’s my (e)motivation?” becomes less of a joke and more like an important consideration.  The emotional impact of a ritual is generated by the ritualists, not the script.  That is why spontaneity on circle can produce such wonderful results.  I’m all for spontaneity; I just think that it should have structure behind it.  The two are not mutually exclusive.

When presenting a ritual, making every movement, every word, and every expression into a reality for those attending is the real work.  It requires a great deal of self-discipline on the part of each ritualist as well as ‘the right chemistry’ between all the people presenting the rite. Taking classes on acting and improvisational theater is a very good idea for anyone intending to do this kind of work.  When practicing a ritual, the person in charge should keep a critical eye on the feelings that are generated by the ritual presenters.  More than any other aspect, this will determine the ultimate success of the ritual for those who attend.  There is a vast difference between pretending and acting a part.

Think back to when you were a child and you and your friends played at being somebody other than yourselves.  Most likely you were grownups: parents or workers, soldiers or bank robbers.  In your imagination, you were these characters and not little children.  Dolls, toy figures, even pets became real companions that assisted you in your imaginings.  Your friends played along with the fantasy and everyone got caught up in what was – for that moment – real to you all.  When a friend pointed a finger-gun at you and said, “Bang, bang,” you didn’t have to think about your response; you either fell over or you dodged the bullet and hid behind the bush/rock/car/ asteroid/force-field/ hapless hostage and fired back!  You might have children of your own now and can see this same kind of play-acting done by them.  Isn’t it magical how a child can produce all the necessary reality they need for moments like this?

It most certainly is; that’s real magic!

All it took was imagination and a willingness to suspend disbelief (another way of saying that you temporarily believed).  ‘Play’ is the word we use for this time when our reality is no longer constrained by what our five senses report to us.  It is also the word used for live theater… such as ritual.  When we ‘play,’ we willfully project and receive a reality that surpasses what normally is perceived by us and the people around us.  In other words, to play is to do magic!

Remember what a sacrament is: a means by which a person may make and/or intensify their personal connection to the Divine… however and whatever they might envision that to be.  There is no way to force this connection but there are many ways to increase the chances for people to experience it.  Becoming better at acting is one of them; pretending is never enough.  Taking on the job of the priesthood demands nothing less of us.

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New Moon Ethics – Musings on the Morals of Paganism

Meghan KaLeen Darrah Widdison August, 2009

ABRACADABRA!

Well hello again my fellow pagans. Summer has greeted us finally, and, as is normal in many a pagan life, the magic of life is awake and stirring. With the celebrations and sacred rituals of Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lugnasadh and much more, summer is without a doubt an eventful time of year. In light of this integral part of pagan way, I felt that the topic of magic was an interesting one for this article.

Many people, upon hearing the word pagan, immediately reflect upon thoughts of magic. Why is that? Yes magic is an integral part of pagan life, but the magic that people view related to those who use it is sometimes a far cry from what it really is. With all of the flying around on broomsticks and turning people into toads, we have our work cut out for us! However, much of the tales of magic is far from the truth and sadly often misunderstood.

I was having a discussion with a woman a few weeks ago who spoke to me about a girl who believed that magic was simply a form of power. While magic itself can be very powerful, it is not used as a funnel for ones personal power, or at least, it shouldn’t be. The majority of pagans hold a belief of magic being something much more sacred and special than just a lead to personal power. It is a connection between you and the mother goddess, evident in the mystical as well as the mundane. But more on that in a little bit. For now lets focus on a few facts.

Wikipedia describes magic as being documented as early as the fourteenth century in Greek  and old French culture. In a generalized statement, magic is defined as the workings of someone to achieve a certain outcome. Scholars have tried to define it, scientists have tried to find answers explaining it, and many people have viewed it as a benevolent force not to be toyed with. Magic leaves many people in awe, both good and bad, because there is something within magic that cannot be put into words, much as the relationship between a person and their divine. To read more on what wikipedia describes as magic, follow this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(paranormal)

Two words that always pop into a persons mind when they think of magic is the all famous Abracadabra and Hocus Pocus. But why are these two phrases so internationally known and related to magic itself? In days of old, as it is told by dictionary.com, abracadabra was a magical word that was not spoken but worn as an amulet around the neck to protect the wearer from disease or trouble. It was arranged in the shape of a pyramid. Now Abracadabra has taken on the meaning of gibberish, or unintelligible talk, often believed to be a word used in incantations.

Hocus Pocus is defined as a phrase used to describe trickery or deception. It also takes on the interesting meaning of a jugglers trick, or sleight of hand.

Now that we have the meaning of those two words put to sleep, lets talk about the Hollywood style magic. We all have been reading on magic since young children. Cinderella had a fairy godmother who transformed a pumpkin into a carriage, mice into horse, and even conjured up glass slippers. Snow white had to fight the forces of Maleficent,  an evil sorceress who would stop at nothing to have the girl destroyed. Other depictions of magic lay within movies such as Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, The mists of Avalon, and so many more. A great addition to add mystique to a movie, without a doubt. But what is “real” magic?

When  confronted with the question, what is magic, a moment to collect our thoughts is normally called for. Although we use it, know what it means to us, describing it can often be a much more difficult task. I think one of the simplest and yet most descriptive quotes on magic is Lord Byrons saying, “The power of thought, the magic of the mind!” This quote can often be found through any search engine, such as google. This quote points out one very powerful point, that magic is within the power of one persons individual thoughts. You cannot recreate one persons magic exactly the same, because each individual has their own connection the nature, to the mother goddess, or to their own divine. Their thoughts focus around the needs in their life, giving magic a very personal characteristic. Magic, for many a pagan, is the mundane, and the mundane is magical.

When watching  sunset, or listening to the gulls sing their song, or even watching flowers bloom, this is all magical. Life is magic. Watching our children play in the summer sun, learning to swim for the first time, this is magic. And when the need arises and we must perform magic to attain the greater good, this is a personal magic. It is much like a prayer is to many people, powerful thought, strong emotions and energy which are channeled at the specific need of the person, and a release of that energy. I would like to leave you with a poem that I found, beautiful and relevant to our discussion.

There’s Magic in the Telling

There’s magic in the telling
Watch your secrets closely
There’s magic in the telling
Choose your words carefully
There’s magic in the telling

Don’t crush the hopes and dreams of others
For they all hold a piece of you
Live life through rose-colored glasses
Seeing beyond what you see or do
There’s magic in the telling
What’s your magic telling about you?

Do you sit on mountains high
Or walk through valleys low?
Is there time enough for the song of birds
Or doing time on a sentence of what’s been sowed?
Do you feel the love of kin
Or backstabbing knives in your skin?
Does your money grow on trees
Or always begging on your knees?
There’s magic in the telling

See yourself upon the throne, spreading joy across the land
Share hope with others, allowing each to do all they can
Build castles in the sand together
Cheering as the ocean washes them away
Know there is time enough to build together on another day
Watch the nature of creatures for they have so much to tell
The wisdom of the ages has been passed down to you as well

You see there is magic in the telling
A story of power, love and might
There’s magic in the telling
Create beauty out of light
There’s magic in the telling
Stop thinking yee be so small
There’s magic in the telling
Know inside your words that you can have it all

Written by Priscilla Parham

This poem spoke to me because it is honest and simple, yet it speaks of life in various stages. Magic is life, within our own words, actions, thoughts and emotions. So, fellow pagans and faithful readers, lets gather our broomsticks and fly into the rest of the summer!

Most fervent blessings until we speak again,

Naiyeetu

If you are looking for advice on pagan matters write to Naiyeetu at Naiyeetu@email.com

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Can Being Pagan Hurt Our Kids

Lynn OBrien January, 2009

Our lives are centered around our two active, inquisitive daughters. They are always wanting to know what “this” is or what “that” does, or why I wear a pentacle. They love to touch my everyday altar items, eager to see what they feel like or what they do. Our youngest especially likes to touch these things, they are fun for her. I try to use things that are kid friendly just for this reason.

Recently I decided to start introducing and teaching our children about some of the basics. Our youngest will not be learning much since she is only two. The oldest, who is eight, already knows her directions, and what the elements are, but she doesn’t quite understand the significance of them. Even though I put a lot of thought into teaching them, I have some trepidations about what the logical reasons could be for teaching her and the possible shockwaves are weighing heavily on my mind.

Our town is fairly small, and with this small town size comes a small town mentality to match. Adults, as well as children, are often bigoted and fearful of things that they don’t understand. And with her being only eight, will she be able to understand the importance and necessity of keeping private matters private?

I have always believed in giving my children the freedom to choose whatever path they want to follow. I had a parent who believed it was his duty to “instruct me in the ways of the Lord”, and who believes that because I was not raised in going to church, my children will forever be damned. He invites them down for the summer and I dread saying “no”, but I know that he will insist on taking them to church every Sunday and enrolling them in Sunday School while they are there. Then I would have to explain what they experienced, and then potentially deprogram them.

How can we, as parents of impressionable and sensitive children, open their eyes and minds to our beliefs and ways without putting them at risk for ridicule and wrongful assumptions from others? Our school system would be all a-twitter if they knew that at least two families who have children there are Pagan. How can I explain other religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and others without being totally knowledgeable about them? I wish our school system did events that promoted the cultural diversity instead of being “politically correct” and making everything so bland and boring. No one can learn and be mindful of others’ beliefs if the school system hides it from view.

Assumption…..such a dangerous word in the minds of the uninformed and narrow-minded. People often “assume” that they know everything about you just because you wear a “pentacle” or say “blessed be” or have a bumper sticker that says “magic happens”. Not once do they ask you anything, they just assume they understand.

I have found myself holding in my usual rhetoric and quips for fear of being misunderstood; I hide my pentacle for people always associate it with Satanism, even though theirs is an inverted pentacle. I do all of this because I fear what others will think of me and my family. I have even received some opposition from knowing family members because they fear what others will think of THEM.

Watching “Secret Lives of Women” on WE T.V. the one night (Sept. 16, ‘08), the episode was about women of “new age” religions like vampirism, Satanism, Wicca, and general witchcraft. It was good to see people of like mind and experiences as myself. It was nice to see them be able to interact with others and be open about their beliefs, even with the  usual misunderstandings from others. I found myself how do they deal with everyday problems, and then I realized that they have people with them and around them who believed as they do. In our town, if you believe different than the mainstream society, you keep quiet. Oh sure, some have bumper stickers and stuff, and generally people pass it off as something funny, like a joke. But deep down I know that these people are closeting their beliefs because of how those people will behave.

Being a solitary witch, I also find it rather daunting to teach my kids my beliefs. Being rather new to my path myself, I don’t feel experienced enough to properly impart any knowledge to them, with what little I have learned and all that remains. I don’t have anyone close by to learn from, and but I do have some highly recommended books that I am trying to read and learn from in this little venture.

Lord and Lady, be my guides!!

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Helgrind: Letters From a Sorcerer

Robin Artisson October, 2008

Thoughts on the Future of Revived Paganism

Okay, I’ve decided to write a series of letters to discuss the future of revived Paganism. Understand that I have to make a distinction here between “Witchcraft” in the traditional sense- which is really a wide-ranging term including many forms of sorcery, all of which can (and do) exist despite the culture that surrounds them. Some cultures make it hard to be a sorcerer or practice occult/sorcerous arts, but still, they persist. Traditional Witchcraft, in the true modern sense, is a phenomenon that existed during Christian times, and now exists in the skeptical/scientific post-Christian era.

I don’t worry too much about the “future” of Witchcraft; it will always remain, no matter how small or diffuse it is, because people will always seek out fringe elements of spirituality or the occult, regardless of society or culture’s mainstream beliefs.

But what of “revived” Paganism, such as Asatru, Celtic Reconstructionism, Hellenism, Romuva, and the other revived Indo-European Pagan models? They have adherents, good lore and sources, reasonably strong structure as far as rituals and notions of sacred days and seasons: they have all they need to induct newborns and converts into their communities, and all they need to marry people and bury them, with rites. These revived faiths are pretty much complete faiths, with one exception: they all have pretty small populations of adherents.

So where do they go from here? A small population is bad news, for many reasons, but chiefly because small numbers means “little known”, even in this day and age of the internet. “Little known” means “little or no political and legal recognition”, and that means no support from anyone or anything else other than whatever few people (if any) you have near you that also practice your faith or believe as you do.

The Individual’s Hard Road

Revived Pagan faiths are strongly distinct from “mainstream” Pagan faiths- they cannot enjoy the same sort of “recognition” given to Wiccans, for instance, because most (rightly) don’t want to be associated in the public mind with Wicca or New-Age religious movements. They tend to be more insular and even ornery about their beliefs. Couple these things with the fact that they are all strongly individualistic, on the level of person and their right to believe as they will, and quite defensive at the level of community (assuming that they are lucky enough to have communities) and not willing to even entertain changing their beliefs or ways, even if it means making them closer or stronger with other members of their own revived cultural movement. I’m not saying people should need to change religiously, but an attitude change towards cooperation with others would certainly be a powerfully good thing.

Two Asatruar groups will like one another well enough (sometimes) but will become very annoyed with one another if either side imagines that the other is criticizing how they do things or believe or worship. Within umbrella movements (like say, the Troth) you get certain points that all Troth Hearths agree on- such as their universalist policy towards membership- but beyond that, very little. I’m not saying that such stances as this “radical independence” is bad, but it does expose the Asatru movement as a whole to a special weakness. It makes the Asatru movement unable to spread fast or far, unable to advertise itself or present itself as a cohesive and attractive alternative faith for people.

Individual groups or people may try, in some ways, to display their beliefs, in the hopes that “like minded” others will be attracted to them, but the nature of cultural Pagan revivalism is such that it does not have much of an “evangelical” spirit. They don’t produce missionaries. There is no sense- or very little sense- that the Revivalist Pagan movement as a whole has a greater role to play in the world, or that it could make the world a better place: to be clear, most revivalists/reconstructionists have a more selfish stance on their faith, defensively viewing it as “their own thing” or “their subculture”, and once they have gained some standing within it, they scorn to share it with others.

If they have communities, they either attempt to keep communities small, or watch them break up with selfish in-fighting if they get too large. Even the umbrella organizations have a history of constant fracturing through growth and bad blood. It seems that the egos of the luminary members of all these movements have caused a great deal of trouble- and all the while, the idea that Asatru or Hellenism or any of these reconstructions could provide a very wide audience of people with a positive, life-affirming, nature-reverent, and philosophically sound polytheistic life-path was lost.

The Paradox

There was an interesting occurrence back in the 1800′s, in the United States: man named Joseph Smith claimed that he saw Angels and had the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given to him and two close friends. He made a lot of claims, and a rather devoted cult following sprung up around him. They created their own community- the first Mormons- and after a lot of persecution, fled the settled east of the country, crossed the Great Plains en masse, and settled in Utah. They built a city, and prospered. Today they are well known, and while they are reviled by most mainstream Christians, that doesn’t matter: They have millions upon millions of members, massive stone Temples all over the world, billions of dollars in the bank, and legal protection everywhere in the civilized world.

I don’t like cults, and I especially don’t like Christian cults, but these people set out to live on their terms- they created a community by giving up on their old lives, believing in a shared vision, and striking out to find a new life, just like the Norse settlers of Iceland did.

Where have the days gone wherein people were willing to make radical changes in their lives, in the name of their beliefs? Revived Pagan movements won’t have much of a future until they decide to truly ante up, and do something as radical as say, create a community- a physical community somewhere- for their families. Failing that, the countless splinter groups of people calling themselves “Asatru” or “Hellenist” or what have you can realize that they have a chance to gain the sort of social stability and recognition that will win their children and their grandchildren many freedoms and a better ease in social living than they had, if they could put aside petty squabbles in the name of working together better, wherever they happen to be.

The painful paradox here is evident: only brave, strong, self-willed individuals are going to be attracted to faiths like Asatru or Hellenism or CR, the sorts of people who have the guts to make a clean break from the previous religious or social conditioning they’ve undergone, to take such a radical new stance in life. And those very same people don’t tend to play well with others, suffer fools much, or deal well with seeing the high-quality religious reconstructions they’ve worked so hard on being “diluted” or defamed by lesser individuals.

The very sorts of people you’d want in a Pagan organization are also the sorts of people that don’t do “organization” well! This same population also (lamentably) tends to give us people who are excellent leaders, people of vision, but then, the inevitable happens: good quality followers emerge to follow them, and these “leaders” don’t want to share power or abandon their little fiefs to work with others.

SPQR

Radical individuality is, as I have pointed out in many writings, not even a perspective of the Ancestral faiths, which were based foremost on the bonds of community, the well-being of city-states and settlements, the honor of families and clans, and the like.

Not everyone in ancient days was a “hero”, a famous “known name” in the bard’s tales, and even heroes had family matters to deal with. A strong sense of “clan ties” or family obligations was first and foremost on the minds of all people of honor. With peoples like the Greeks and Romans, even a sort of “National identity” began to form, as they began to compare the merits of their larger culture-patterns with those of foreign people they came into contact with. Some of the greatest men in the standard canons of western literature and history were honored for what? For sacrificing much in service to Rome- to Rome- the Republic or Empire as a whole, with all its variety and massive population. They were honored for being loyal, in their own ways, to an idea that was much larger than any one person or small community.

And Rome flourished with men like this, driven in this way. Another group that arose in Rome flourished likewise and for similar reasons- the fledgling Christian church had a sense of a goal and a spirit larger than any individual. For the settlers of Iceland, the goal they all bonded together to achieve was freedom from political compulsion and the tyranny of kings that were growing too powerful for the good of the people of their homelands.

It’s certainly noble to honor the Ancestors’ notion that “orthodoxy” should never be forced onto people: I myself couldn’t agree more. The Ancestors, within their communities, were orthorpraxic and very much against “invading the heads” of other people, so long as those people held themselves up to whatever social standard was needed for the good of the community. I think this is a great model for us now- but the implications of the model have changed in our modern day.

You Must Be Worthy To Win

Whether or not many people will see it, we have threats and problems that the world has never seen before. What passes for “spirituality” in the mainstream has become shallow and materialistic, and in response, fringe lunacy has arisen- the politics of fundamentalism- which is just a manifestation of the hysteria one can expect when a movement comes crashing down, or begins to change so much that it is no longer what it was. This is happening to mainstream Christianity, though the process will not be done tomorrow. It will take another few centuries.

Islam will take longer, Gods help us- but all religious movements that are in violation of the basic truths of life cannot last forever. What are those truths? I list them as follows:

-The truth of animism and the need to live in this world of natural resources with wisdom and moderation;

-The truth of sacred reciprocity with self and community and world;

-The truth of qualified struggle between opposites,

-The truth of the natural sacredness and diversity of the spiritual world;

-The truth of the dignity of human life above and beyond what people may believe or what culture they may be born into.

If any religion or movement denies even one of these points, it cannot last. It will not last. It is not enough for an entity to win a culture war and set itself up as a dominant faith in an area of the world; it must be worthy to win, if the victory is to be lasting. How will we know who was worthy? We can see the organic spiritual beliefs of primal peoples all over the world that were NOT washed away in the crimson tide of revealed religions, and see that their beliefs were good and strong from the dawn of history, up till either this very day, or until the time came that they were destroyed. We will know worth in how they last, in how they endure.

And our Ancestral faiths have endured- through a firestorm of radical social change, and historical pogroms of annihilation. Why should we be drawn to them now? Because something of worth still exists, and has been passed down to us, something that was never defeated or forgotten.

We Don’t Inherit the World From Our Parents: We Borrow It From Our Grandchildren

And what is the future of revived Paganism? Its future will be precisely what you see now, if we do not change in some manner- and when I say “change”, I don’t mean a minor change that is washed away in a few days. Something- I myself don’t know quite what- has to change, a “second order” change as cyberneticians say- for our revived Pagan movements to be healthier and larger in the future.

No, an “evangelical” spirit isn’t required, though some Asatruar- one famous umbrella organization- has actually embraced just that. But they are alone; and despite the fact that I am still skeptical of their route to the future, I do agree with them on a few important points- we- all of us modern Pagans- need land and resources at our disposal, social and legal recognition, and education for the public.

If that means appointing boards of people to handle matters, so be it. These sorts of “panels” or “boards” can be non-sectarian; but someone has to break us out of the dark ages of our living rooms and campsites and get us all into phone books, into minutes at town hall meetings and sessions of legislation, and someone has to represent us to the public.

Who is the “us”? It isn’t any one community or another, but a new idea that we will have to embrace if we will have a future of greater religious fulfillment, and life fulfillment. It is the idea (to use an example) of “Asatru” or “Heathenry” which stands above all sects or “types” or communities or Kindreds. The same can be said for the idea of “Hellenism” which stands above this or that church or temple or deme. This idea doesn’t ask for obedience to any doctrine, or for people to do blots or sacrifices one way or another. It doesn’t ask for the worship of any God. It just asks that we work to display, protect, and solidify an identity to the world that can have the recognition and legal protection it deserves, and which our grandchildren will need.

And honestly, I believe the world needs Revived Paganism. It needs alternative spiritualities that can fan the flames of spiritual life higher in people, and which can bring people into a new paradigm of living in this world which is better for the world and all of the living beings in it.

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