Lord is an Australian heavy metal band that is really a mix of styles from all over the world with their own unique spin on it that’s hard to quantify exactly. I would say more than anything you can hear a hunger and a drive in Australian metal because the scene there is so small, and to be a cut above anyone else and to make a real go of it you need to be up there with the best in the world or you have no hope of making the leap from small bar band to international touring act. That hunger trickles down from the top tier of international…

Warm tones glazing over wharves of receding lands, join the procession of men in saffron robes. Dragon’s fire, knotted roots, whispers of sandals through leaf-molded earth, chant, chant, chant against all darkness opposing. Silas has come to die today, in that ditch by the meadow, thirteen miles in where the woods wind into the semi-circle of a dark green grove. With silent lips by huddled masses, the priest weeps, hungry for the low lisp of a cricket’s call. White animal bones, ritually placed under the thick fog of a winter’s moon, reflect the light of sudden frost. Oh Magus martyr, sleep! Cernunnos blesses you with solace as nature holds up…

The wind grows cooler As I grow older The Earth grows distant From the sun I seek balance Night to the day Everything around me Falling In shades As I grow grey Shadows shifting, moving and lifting Revealing the Moon Yielding To the Underworld And I learn How apples become stars Lighting the night with Promises Full of life

A lot of what goes on in our faith group seems at first glance to have little to do with religion or magic; it most often is a social activity.  It’s not uncommon to call a meeting for no reason other than to get together with people we enjoy being around.  In fact, this sort of thing is usually where newcomers get interested in Paganism.  For those who have taken on the mantle of the priesthood, this may seem almost frivolous.  Why waste time with coffee hours when there’s ‘real work’ to be done? Well, let’s see… First off, these ‘coffee hours’ are where most of our growth comes from. …

Your Own Faery Garden Faeries aren’t as cute and innocent as authors like Shakespeare has made them out to be. Granted, there are good faeries but with the good, you always have to expect the dark side :o) If you believe and love faeries, then you may want to attract them into your home at times other than Midsummer.  A good way to attract faeries to you is to give them their own little garden.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate (keep in mind they don’t like metals, iron, etc.). As a matter of fact, a small container garden would do just fine. Here’s a list of flowers that are…

Recently our oldest daughter had a double balloon valvuloplasty on her ventricular heart valve. She was born with this heart defect, where two of the three leaflets in her heart valve were fused together; this procedure inserts a tiny balloon catheter into her artery in her leg, runs it up to her heart, and very gently blows it up to help ease the two leaflets apart. With all the technical mumbo-jumbo aside, let me get to the real issue here. Leading up to the surgery, my main worries were ones of allergic reactions, recovery time…the fact that my baby was going under the “knife” even though she had no open…

Merry meet and Blessings all Mabon, the Autumn Equinox, September 21, is coming up, no longer will the day rule the night. The time for the second harvest is upon us. The fields are becoming very full and soon there will be a hint of yellow in the green leaves. The geese in our neck of the woods are going south. The fruits and vegetables at the farmers market are no longer the sweet, small offerings of summer but are now full, ripen gifts of Fall.. This is a wonderful time of year for food ; The feast is upon us. It is a time for bread and baked goods.…

**ADULT CONTENT** Taboo and Sexual Energy Of all areas of one’s life there is no area as enmeshed with Prohibition and Taboo as one’s Sexuality. Sexual impulse and energy was the basis of the modern Psychoanalytical movement as propagated by Sigmund Freud. Freud was able to identify many dysfunctional patterns within humanity’s social structure as being the result of repression of sexual impulses… particularly as advocated by (but not the exclusive property of) the Orthodox Monotheistic Faiths. At the same time it is important to recognize that the modern revival of various Pagan and Neo-Pagan Faiths is in part a reaction to the restrictions (on perfectly Natural Behaviors) that are…

You’d never want a friend who’s obsessed with scoring chicks, drinks all your booze, & usually leaves an almighty mess for you to clean up, right? Wrong. I was ‘introduced’  to Pan by my partner early on in our relationship. When he 1st told me he considered Pan to be the closest thing he had to a patron Deity, I got a little worried. What? Was my would-be sweetie going to snap one day & turn into some sort of ravenous beast devouring every female in sight? It was a case, perhaps, of guilt by association. In our time together there have only been a couple of incidents involving the…