Lammas~ Abundance in a Time of Lack Once again, the Wheel turns to a time of abundance and celebration! Visions of tables stacked to the rafters with the bounty of the season fill our minds… …but in so many places, the ground is dry and cracked from having been baked alive. The temps have soared into triple digits and remained so for weeks. The gardens, once lush, have browned, withered and died. Monsoons have washed away towns, and storms loom on the immediate horizon for many. In this time of uncertainty and peril, how can we imagine the abundance of the season, the carefree enjoyment of simple pleasures??? As a…

Goddess Hostility & The Threat of Female Spirituality For those of you who may or may not know I grew up in a religiously abusive and patriarchal household. This is one of the main reasons why as an adult I was so drawn to Wicca, Paganism, and Goddess spirituality. I hated growing up in an environment where I was told I could not be a spiritual leader because I was born a woman. An environment where I was told that my deity, angels, demons, devil, prophets, pastors, disciples of Jesus etc. all were male and male only. I did not enjoy being told I was a second class citizen and…

Stop Spell It’s hot out there!  The nation is under a HUGE heat wave. You combine the heat with the humidity and you have a real mess that makes people grumpy, irritable and out-of-sorts.  This is a normal reaction to things we can’t control AND the effect those things can have on us (i.e., hot + sweaty + no relief + no control = Grumpy…. at the very least!) Some people it can even bring out a nastier darker side when their environment seems to be in control and they are not liking it much.  In addition to the environment making some people and things difficult to deal with, there…

The Face in the Window Tatyana Andrevna is not a beautiful woman… she does not have the “face that launched a thousand ships”… in fact, it is safe to say, that on the “traditional” one to ten scale, that is crassly used, worldwide, to rate beauty in women and good looks in men, she would rate about a one. Getting a zero rating is impossible… Tatyans’s looks are legendary in Mamontovka… As a child, she was burned horribly when a kerosene heater in her parent’s flat exploded and showered her with the burning liquid. Ever after, she was undeniably the most recognizable person in the village. Her scars didn’t matter……

Environmental Factors of Ghost Hunting: The Sun “Morning Glory” (photo taken by R. Wolf Baldassarro) The Sun can provide several states which affect a paranormal investigation, and these must be taken into account when conducting a serious analysis of parapsychological case studies. The Earth is not the only body in our solar system to create a magnetic field; the Sun creates its own magnetic field that is dynamic, and can change location and intensity over time. The Sun also emits X-Rays, which are relatively high-energy photons. A stream of these photons has a very effective penetrating power. When looking for paranormal activity, we know that the relationship between magnetism and…

Merry Meet and welcome to my Kitchen Hearth. Come and sit for a spell while we whip up something yummy. This month we will be looking at some preserves. Fruit and veggie preserves. I am giving the recipes only as I have touched on the canning methods in past articles or you can look online at this link… http://www.pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm Tomato Preserve Ingredients 1 pound yellow pear tomatoes 1 pound sugar 2 ounces chopped or shredded ginger 2 lemons Instructions Peel tomatoes, cover with sugar, and let stand over night. In the morning pour off syrup and boil until quite thick; skim, then add tomatoes, ginger, and lemons which have been…

So this month I wanted to share with you some important tips when reading card for a client.  Well, at least these are things that I do when I am reading for a person.  So I’m just going to go right into it. When I am reading for a person for the first time I remind myself that they might be just a tad anxious and frankly scared about the reading.  Some people show up thinking that you’re going to tell them the exact date and time of death or that you’re going to give them horrible news.  Now although it’s important not to sugar coat your reading and hide…

Creating an Altar Your Altar is sacred space.  It is the center of your focus. That space between the worlds that you create, and where you do magical works. It is apart from the mundane, every day life of your household. In the Ideal world we would all have our personal ritual space where your altar would be set up all the time. But the reality is that we just do not have the space in our homes and apartments to do that. So even if you have to set your altar up on the coffee table and break it back down when you are done it is Sacred to…

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 Blood Rites Dear Mama Donna, I am anticipating my granddaughter celebrating her first menstrual cycle in the not too distant future. I would like to do something special for her in the way of ritual. I don’t know much about creating that kind of ritual, but I want her day to be a special one that she will remember as bringing her into the fabulous sisterhood of women. Can you help…

Wiccan Shadows By: Lori Schiele Stunningly intense… An intriguing tale of suspense, ancient powers, and attraction… Schiele has realistically portrayed every aspect of the story with a conciseness of a seasoned writer.