Family Winter Wellness The dark phase of the year often brings with it lower immune systems and colds and flus.   As a new parent (only three years in) I often forget to prevent illness and backtrack when my little guy comes down with something.  I’ve assembled a quick guide to keeping your family healthy in the winter focusing on prevention since we’d rather not deal with getting sick if possible.  Of course if we do get ill we know that it is a message from our body that slowing down and resting is in order.  Since January is post-holiday craziness time it is hopefully a great time to make some…

Are you cyclically confused? In a ceremonial quandary? Completely clueless? Wonder no more. *Ask Your Mama™ Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Spirituality and Didn’t Know Who to Ask™ by ©Mama Donna Henes, Urban Shaman A Question of Mercury in Retrograde Dear Mama Donna, For years I have been hearing warnings about Mercury in Retrograde, but I am not sure I understand what that means or why I should be careful. All I know is that all sorts of weird, awful things are supposed to happen. Can you please explain this phenomenon to this astrology neophyte? Confused and wary in Wisconsin Dear Confused, Mercury, the planet of communication enters…

In Praise of Snow Ó Susun S Weed Winter is my favorite season. And where I live, winter brings cold and snow. Do you like snow? I do. I like to play in the snow. I admire snow’s beauty. I’m thankful that snow protects the animals and the plants. But what impresses me the most about snow is its country name: “poor person’s fertilizer.” What fun to sled in the snow (screaming), to ski across the snow (silently), to ride a snowboard in the snow (grinning), to ice skate (laughing), to make snow angels (shivering), to bring a snow person to life (cooperating), to have a snowball fight (competing), to…

A Powerful Spell of Magick for Weight Loss Regardless of your belief in the Witch’s Wheel or when the start of the New Year begins, come January we all feel a bit…well, bloated. After several helpings of everything on the dinner table, I can feel the stretch in my clothes. This is the time of year, when losing 5-20 pounds seems like a necessity. I know I wasn’t alone, eating all those pies, homemade candies and heavy meals, right? Asking for the Goddess’s assistance is a sure way to receive guidance and love as you whittle away the pounds. Magick spells are a way to connect to your desires and…

Double-feature review of Isaac Bonewits’ Real Magic and Real Energy Bonewits, Philip Emmons Isaac. Real Magic: an introductory treatise on the principles of yellow magic. First published 1971. Revised edition, 1978, Weiser Books. Paperback, 282 pages. Bonewits, Phaedra and Isaac. Real Energy: systems, spirits, and substances to heal, change, and grow. New Page Books, 2007. Paperback, 287 pages. These works represent, in some ways, the bookends of Isaac Bonewits’ life writing for the Pagan community at large. His impressive bibliography is filled with works on specific topics, and his biography with work on the ADF, which he founded and shaped, among many other efforts. But these books are the most…

Spot – Our Magical Cat: The Story She Wants Me to Share Spot was our very special pet.  She came to us from out of the wild in the spring of 1995 when she was about a year old.  We decided that May 1st was her birthday.  She had a very playful and inquisitive nature.  For a couple of months when my husband, Mack, and I would walk to the nearby restaurant down our street, often on the way there and back we would become aware of the presence of a little black cat following us.  We would turn to look and she would scamper into the shadows of trees…

January is Hot Tea Month Tea time is a good way to draw back in your energy after the rush of the day. The simple act of sipping a hot drink forces us to pay attention to what we are doing in the moment. (Basically, trying not to burn ourselves!) You can chug down a soda while walking from one place to another, but you won’t find it easy with a hot cup in your hand! There are many wonderful books on the subject of medicinal/magical herbs and teas. Even Peter Rabbit’s mother knew a bit of chamomile tea was in order after Peter’s encounter in Mr. McGreggor’s garden. All…

Sonnets Last month, we wrote rhyming couplets and quatrains. We will be building off of that skill this month as we explore sonnets. There are two types of sonnets, the Elizabethan Sonnet and the Italian Sonnet. They have different rhyme schemes and different numbers of lines. The sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, but we will not concern ourselves with something that technical. The first sonnet we will tackle is the Elizabethan Sonnet (aka Shakespearean Sonnet). It has fourteen lines made up of three quatrains and one couplet. The whole poem is to set a scene or tell a story; each quatrain should be able to stand alone, but must…

January Assignment During a group astral travel exercise, we were all instructed to meet at a picnic table in the mountains. The table was made of red wood and there was a small creek nearby. The sun was shinning and the arm was comfortably warm. Most of the group made it and we were pleasantly surprised to see a parrot, two cats, and three dogs. The next day when we all reported our experiences, everyone mentioned the animals that were there. Two of the dogs were mine and the parrot’s name was Marley. The other animals went unclaimed but were, of course, completely welcome. Many of us speculated that the…

At a time when sport, which can be HIGHLY over-rated, is paying its so-called ‘stars’ a FORTUNE every week, and fashion, which is NOT necessary, despite what designers say, is doing the same for its ‘supermodels’, young men and women are fighting for other people, and for their own lives. HOW have we permitted our exquisite planet to become so FAR out of balance? I am sitting in front of my computer, in a reasonably warm, lit room, and, somewhere, a mother or a father is scrabbling in parched earth to try and find something on which to feed their children. You and I can turn on our taps and…