Beltane and May Celebrations Merry Meet Beltane is April 30th – May 1st in the Western Hemisphere. This is one of the 8 Sabbats of the year. This is said to be the beginning of Spring. The Goddess throws off her maiden robes and takes on the robes of the Mother, with her Consort and mate, the Green Man standing by her side. It is also said to be the celebration of Persephone returning from the Underworld to her mother in our world, allowing the re-awakening of the land. It is the historically celebrated half-year mark, the counterpoint of Samhain, which is the end of the year, November 1st. May…

The Good, Bad and the Ugly of relationships. If you find yourself in the same type of relationship time after time, you might enjoy this little exercise. Take three sheets of paper, at the top of the first write Good. At the top of the second sheet write Bad. At the top of the third sheet write Ugly. With your candles lit and soft healing music playing in the background you are ready to look at and learn from your last relationship. You can also do this exercise for each relationship you have been in, including the one with your parents. Take a few deep breaths and sit with the…

In this months Paganpages, I’m taking a bit of a different direction. Whether we are LHP or RHP, we have totem animals. I was curious as to whether the type of totems we have go along with our path. But, I’m not so sure that holds true. I have thought about what mine are and the different ones seem to encompass all traits of myself. One I would consider a darker totem is the raven/crow. Now, that one has been mine since childhood. A lot of people do not have a fondness for this particular bird, but i have always loved them. Another one close to me, is a wolf.…

Everyone finds their path to the divine in different ways and at different times. The pagan path can mean so many different things to each individual. Where do we start in learning to live by a spiritual code or a spiritual life no matter what pagan path you follow? So often people are conditioned to work inside the box and never venture outside of those walls. But when talking about living a spiritual path, not a “religious” path, we are looking at not only living outside of the box, but realizing that there is no box. We are conditioned to create these boxes because it gives us a sense of…

If you have trouble pronouncing any chemical found in any household product you are currently using, then it usually has an environmental impact. Think of all the stuff you are rinsing and flushing down the drain into your septic tank. Your septic tank has to have its own healthy ecology (bacteria and such) to breakdown waste products. Disinfectants kill bacteria. So will bleach, ammonia, and lots of other commonly used components of household products. If you are on a sewer line, water treatment plants have to deal with that stuff you have used. The following ‘recipes’ are environmentally safe alternatives to modern household cleaning products. Using these recipes will help…

April 5th Delphinia. Festival honoring Apollon Delphinios. A procession of girls carrying olive branches with wool affixed to them went to Apollon’s temple, the Delphinion in Athens. The act is believed to commemorate a similar offering Theseus made to Apollon before setting out to kill the Minotaur, according to mythology. Unfortunately we don’t know any more about this festival. April 15th Mounukhia. Festival honoring Artemis in a combination of two of her aspects. One, in which she is called Pótnia Therôn, or “Mistress of Animals,” honors her as goddess of the hunt, and of wild animals. The other aspect is Artemis Fosfóros (“Light-bringer”) which celebrates her as a lunar goddess.…

Are we mere flesh and blood, or something more? Many believe that we have both a spiritual as well as a physical existence. Call it a soul, an aura, whatever – we are energy linked to a physical shell. If this is true for us, can it also be true for the strange little life forms we call diseases? Medicine works on the physical; it attacks an illness on a material level. An example of this is an antibiotic which attacks the microscopic “bodies” of the invading disease. But in addition to medicine, many people use a variety of healing techniques which employ magical energies. Perhaps this magic works with…

Lilia Lilia is a new witch (she is only 4 months old, of course she is a new witch!) but very talented. She has mastered the spell of hair growth and likes to show it off. She is very fond of chanting, though some may say it sounds more like crying, however, we witches know better! She knows the secret chants to make bottles of milk appear out of nowhere. She has just begun to learn about conjuring. She is starting with conjuring her hands and feet into her mouth. So far so good! Her levitation skills are beyond anyone’s fondest dreams. A simple chant and the Lord and Lady…

Dear PaganPages, I do enjoy your magazine, however, I have noticed that you are a wiccan magazine, why then do you call yourselves PaganPages and not WiccanPages? -Curious Merry Meet Curious, Thank you for writing us. We are not a Wiccan magazine. There are many writers with us who are not Wiccan. Look through the articles again, look at the profiles as well. We may have a large amount of Wiccan writers, but that is only because many Wiccans are more open to writing about their paths. We would like to have a large variety of paths covered, but it is not so easy finding those who are willing to…

Advice Column featuring Sage Dear Sage: Hi. I am an initiate in the lukumi and brillumba congo religions. Latley I have had a curiosity in wicca. Not sure if it’s b/c im so hooked on the TNT show “Charmed”. My question is, “How relevant is Wicca the practice to that show?” Mind me that i know that’s a tv show and thus some things are overly not true. But could you please maybe give more of what is wicca really about. Or perhaps you can direct me to a website. Thank you much for your kindness. -jes jes Merry Meet jes jes, Different people are attracted to Wicca for different…