Greetings my beloved brother’s and sisters.  In the course of writing a solitary Lammas to share with you it became more and more clear, through my guides, as well as funny “coincidences” there are lots of Sabbat celebrations to be found but very few rituals to rid us of the useless baggage we carry.  So dear ones, rather than directions for a solitary Sabbat, which comes only once a year, I will instead share a ritual to shed those unwanted items every one of us carry one way or another. In the interest of honesty and fair play I’ll go first, guilt.  Not just you’re run of the mill ”…

We have all had it at one point in time where we are doing something and all of a sudden we feel paralyzed with being overwhelmed, fear, trepidation, etc. That over all anxiety for some situation that makes us not wish to go any further in the direction we had chosen. Sometimes, it is so overpowering, that we lock ourselves up in our homes and wish that we don’t ever have to leave again. Anxiety is the number one mental illness in America, even surpassing depression now. So many people are scared to leave their homes because of the “chance” something detrimental will happen to them. Over forty million people…

A Little Bag of Happy No matter how positive we try to be, it’s only human to have “off” days where we are lethargic, depressed or angry.  Contrarily we all have times where we feel so good, we wish we could hang on to that uncomplicated happiness forever.    On those nasty dark days, wouldn’t it be convenient if we could have saved a little piece of this brightness – peace, joy, relaxation, humour, and love – to draw on later on when we really needed it?  I believe we can, by making a crafty, simple charm that I like to call “A Little Bag of Happy”.  It’s sort of like…

Harvest – Abundance – Aprons! This is the month of Lammas or Lughnasadh. In the deep south of the U.S. the most abundant thing surrounding us is heat! Not my favorite kind of abundance. I prefer the cold. But with the searing heat comes the realization that the wheel of the year is indeed moving and the hours of daylight are shortening. The farms and fields are busting with the ripe fullness of harvest. Wheat and corn are in their glory and it is this that we focus on in August. Abundance is found in the farmer’s market and the side of the road stands. The act of preserving and…

Séances The word séance is French and literally translates to seat, sitting, or session. When we hear the word séance we think of people sitting around a table in a dimly lit room, while a spirit medium attempts to contact the deceased. Usually these experiences are sought by those in mourning who need closure. One of the first widely documented accounts of a séance was in 1848 with Kate and Margaret Fox. These sisters were frightened by loud knocking and banging sounds in their New York home. One day Kate decided to ask the source of these noises to knock in response when she snapped her fingers. This test was…

What’s the Difference? Dreaming, lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, and astral traveling. All, in my opinion, are in the same family. The same subconscious cluster that is hard to define, difficult to explain, and even harder to prove. So what is the difference between these four? As a OBE group moderator for the past 9 years and astral travel course teacher I’ve been asked this question many times, and the truth is that I still can’t fully explain how one can tell when they are out of body rather than lucid dreaming other than saying “you’ll know when you’re experiencing it.” This is, of course, the worst possible answer for the…

Shaman idealisms Chapter 2        The Journey Taking the steps to find out if you are meant to live as a Shaman can be daunting at best. You will spend years lost and confused, trying to understand why you don’t follow the idealisms of the people around you. Some times you have problems with anger, energy, and just a knowing of things that you really don’t want to know about. The journey of the Shaman is the hardest part of the hole path, and yet it’s the most rewording. You will find your self wanting to understand everything, and yet being ok with knowing nothing. The paradox of Wisdom +…

Keeping Silence Witches avoid careless talking for several reasons.  During the Burning Times, secrecy was necessary for survival.  Whatever was said in circle had to stay in circle.  Though we are no longer burnt (the last witch burning on record took place in Mexico in the 1940’s), indiscretion of this sort can lead to people losing jobs, child custody battles, and various forms of social persecution, especially in ‘the Bible Belt’. Secondly, although knowledge is air, and like air should be shared freely, esoteric knowledge taught to initiates and candidates for initiation needs to be kept confined within the teacher-student relationship.  It was a rule in the groups being taught…

Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Weiser Books (December 1, 2010) Author: Judith Joyce A Paranormal Spectacular [Fail] Last month I got to review an absolutely amazing book, The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon as edited by Joseph Peterson.  While that was an interesting and illuminating experience, its far more fun to take on a popular book where I don’t have to worry about dusting off 18th century references and doing what passes for fact checking in my columns.  Fortunately I’ll have none of those tasks this month as I’m reviewing the Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal [1]. The short review:  don’t…

The Burning Times The Burning Times, or Witch Craze is a dark time in history. What really got it going were two main things. In 1320 Pope John XXII authorized the Inquisition and then of course the publication of the Witch’s Hammer (Malleus Maleficarum). This book was written by two Dominicans named Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer.  They  were inquisitors of the Catholic Church and worked in the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The purpose of this office was to defend the Catholic and trial other religions. The Holy Office was one of the most feared in Europe. The Burning Times lasted almost four Centuries, but the presence of the…