This is the second part in an ongoing experience titled – Entity The latest experience I’ve had with our entity was early December 2009. I had awoken on a snowy Sunday morning with a headache and a general ill feeling. After feeding the family lunch and setting up a DVD in the living room for the children I returned upstairs to rest hoping to take a short nap and rid myself of the headache. I requested that my husband wake me in an hour as dinner still needed to be prepared before it was put in the oven. He agreed to wake me but lay with me for a short…

Book Review ~ Simple Wicca Simple Wicca by Michele Morgan is easy and fun to read, informative collection of the basics, a great beginners book. It is an excellent how to for the solitary or coven witch and a take along for daily practices for all persons interested in broadening their thinking. Michele Morgan has gathered a concise collection of ritual and earth based spirituality that anyone would be refreshed to read. Her chapter on the Gods and Goddesses of Wicca is a needed, added, basic overview that most handbooks for beginners forget to add. A feel-like I’m home type of handbook.

Myths and Legends: Journeys Through Time The Cat Mysterious, intelligent, independent, needy, curious, adorable, cunning and whimsical. These are a few of many adjectives used to describe an animal. Particularly an animal that thousands millions even, own or are owned by worldwide. That animal is the closely watched and regarded with great suspicion sometimes. None other than feline domesticus, the common cat. Cats are most often accused of being a witch’s familiar or too darn smart for their own good. Aside from that black cats especially are thought to bring about bad luck and ill news. Some cultures believe that if a cat goes near a corpse or jumps over…

These Holy Days Yesterday morning, I woke up to Christmas. Four in the morning, I was warm and buzzing nestled between soft pillows and a billowy comforter, the holiday songs from my dreams still echoing in my sleepy memory. What had I been dreaming? A tiled sauna and a room full of hot cascading showers, a shuffling choir, long curtains of fabric draped in folds and shifting gently in a warm breeze… My bedroom was cool and dark, utterly quiet, as sun, steam and bright colors wound ribbons of anticipation and giddy joy through my mind. Some days just feel like Christmas. Another hour of light dozing and my alarm…

Welcome to the Dark Side As the infamous Star Wars villain Darth Vader once said, “Do not underestimate the power of the dark side.” Do we underestimate the power of the dark side? In Paganism what does the “dark side” mean? Why do we call some goddesses “dark” goddesses? From my experience we refer to some goddesses as dark, when they do not represent things like love, compassion, or other happy emotions. The goddesses who represent things like death, hate, revenge, or jealousy are the ones we tend to fear and brush aside in our rituals. Why do we fear the dark Goddesses though? I think our fear comes from…

Look. There… a touch of pink, a golden splash… you can just see it over the top of that tree. It won’t be long now. In this early-morning stillness, I am reminded that I am not alone in waiting. We stand poised in a between-time at the edge of spring. The equinox brings us to a point of equilibrium where light & darkness are in balance, but light is steadily growing stronger. Just as my day is blooming into being. I watch as gem-bright hues stain the sky a little more & consider the season. The Sabbat’s very name comes to us from an Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn. Being…

*The Hedgewitch lives in the space between the Village and the Forest. Between the mundane and the magical. S/He lives with a foot in both worlds. This column is dedicated to the Hedgewitches of the planet earth. The Dormant Season or A Survival Guide to Life in Limbo Spring is just around the corner, and new life is beginning to manifest itself everywhere. Even in snow-covered places, the crocus and other bulbs begin to emerge from their long slumber. Flowering tree buds swell and begin to defy the cold with their colorful, hope- and cheer-inducing blossoms. It is easy to see the parallels between the cycles of Nature and the…

Mother Nature preening, Doing her spring cleaning by washing with pounding rains, scrubbing the earth; preparing the plains. Snow melts and the colors bloom underneath the silvery moon. Lifting of the winter gloom, as the birds sing a cheerful tune. She bustles in on windy feet, and sweeps my yard and down my street. Goddess walks through the new green grass, winters over….Spring is here at last. By The Hearthkeeper Spring cleaning… everyone is talking about getting ready for it… but what are we planning on cleaning?? Our homes, garages, altars, selves, spirits?  Well we should be thinking of all of them… but we rarely think of spring cleaning our…

Ishtar – Goddess of Love and Sex Today we are going to discuss Ishtar, the Babylonian Goddess of Fertility, Love, War and Sex. She was likened to Venus, Aphrodite and Inanna.   Ishtar and her cult are associated with sexuality including sacred sex and prostitution.  Her symbol is the eight pointed star. Ishtar was known to have many lovers, however, she treated them cruelly.  Her love was known to tame wild animals and could be trouble for even the gods she consorted with in her travels.   Ishtar is known to be cruel and a punisher, not caring who she destroyed in her path to get what she wanted. One of…

In This Month’s Issue: High Priestess Regan artist Erin Martinez The Facts on Carnelian The continuation of our Newest Column on the Magick of Colors: Featuring Burgandy As always we are constantly looking for new talent.  If you are interested in submitting some of your work send it to [email protected] Don’t forget to check out our Etsy shop at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/paganpagesorg Monthly Horoscope Aquarius 2010 Horoscope (20 Jan – 18 February) Aquarians you will see exciting trends not only in finance but within your work as well, but hold off on any new ventures until after the end of May 2010. Your Cognitive capabilities will be on the rise through the…