CRYSTALS AND SACRED SITES BY JUDY HALL It was with great pleasure that I received this book for review. I am a great believer in the efficacy of crystals, as well as being a fan of Judy Hall, having two of her other books. I found this book extremely interesting. After a brief discussion of how landscape affects us – “our minds are shaped by the landscape around us”, and how most sacred sites are built on land which is a combination of “geological, geomagnetic, symbolic, astronomical, mythological and shamanic factors”, she touches upon the choosing, purifying and awakening of your crystals. The bulk of the book revolves around sacred…

Handfasting   I recently got married, and while I was planning my wedding I decided to look into the tradition of Handfasting. I remember attending one a few years ago and thought it was beautiful. I had heard of them, but that was the first one I’d ever been to. I decided to look more into it to see if it was something my husband and I would want to incorporate into our day.   The first thing I wanted to find out was obviously the meaning behind it and the history. When the tradition was in its prime it was generally set for a year and a day. If…

  Bad Witch’s Guide to Crystals I am a bad witch. There are a long list of reasons why I am a bad witch. Having been out of the broom closet for some considerable number of years I would on occasion get asked “but you’re a good witch though?” My response to that depending on the person asking but I found I started to say “yes, a very, very good witch” rather darkly as it usually got the point across. I used to have a rock collection as a kid. I always wanted to “take a piece” of special places I visited home with me. I was particularly fond of…

Notes from the Apothecary: Aconite     What a wide range of marvellously maleficent names this poisonous plant boasts: Monkshood, Devil’s Helmet, Queen of Poisons, and my favourite, Wolf’s Bane, to name but a few. Unlike most of the plants and herbs we have discussed on this column, this herb is not to be trifled with. DO NOT PICK OR EAT as this plant can be deadly. However, this plant has potent magical power, and a history in folklore to be envied.   The Kitchen Garden   This is not a plant for your kitchen garden, that needs to be said from the outset! Although beautiful, with blue to violet…

  Mabon Blessings     (Mabon Table)   Merry meet.   As the second harvest, Mabon is the pagan’s version of Thanksgiving. It’s also the autumn equinox when day and night are equal before we begin slipping into the dark half of the year.   What follows is a collection of blessings and inspiration you might use as you celebrate the sabbath and welcome the dark half of the year.   “Prayer to the Dark Mother” by Patti Wigington on thoughtco.com Day turns to night, and life turns to death, and the Dark Mother teaches us to dance. Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Nemesis, Morrighan, Tiamet, bringers of destruction, you who embody the Crone, I honor you as…

  MAY-bon, MAY-bun, MAY-bone, MAH-boon or MAH-bawn, – Lesser Sabbat Fall/Autumn Equinox, September 21-23 Michaelmas (September 25th, Christian), Second Harvest Festival, Witches’ Thanksgiving, Harvest Home (Anglo-Celtic), Feast of Avalon, Wine Harvest, Festival of Dionysus, Cornucopia, Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Chung Chiu (China), Night of the Hunter, Alban Elfed “The Light of the Water”(Caledonii/ Druidic-celebrates Lord of the Mysteries), Winter Finding (Teutonic, from Equinox ’til Winter Night or Nordic New Year, Oct 15th.) Mabon is considered a time of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World. Considered a time of balance, it is when we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our…

THE FOUNDATION OF CONJURE Despite all the information out there on Conjure, no one to my knowledge has ever written about its foundation. You see plenty of works, or “spells” as outsiders call the work, but there is no mention of the foundation of this work. Is it because folks don’t think it’s important? Is it because they really don’t know? Or is it something else? It really is food for thought. It is one of the first lessons I learned as a young worker and one of the most important. I have found in today’s conjure world that it isn’t enough for folks to know the work; they want…

Ancient Strategies for Cultivating Inner Peace   “A trigger is something that sets off a memory tape or flashback transporting the person back to the event of her/his original trauma.” -from psychcentral.com   By now, most of you know about the ancient practice of meditation as a way of developing a state of inner peace. This is a useful practice of engaging “not doing” or the feminine aspect of ourselves.  The ancient ones also saw a need to activate the “doing” or masculine aspect of ourselves in some instances where we are emotionally triggered by someone or something in order to gain self-mastery.  This is best epitomized in the “Serenity…

  ElectraChic is a German based band who released their debut album, ImPassionnément, in November of 2016. They find their influences & themes in Shamanism and through the Sacred Feminine.     When it was time for ElectraChic to set out to make a video for the first song, Erde/Terre, off their new album, ImPassionnément, they did not have very far to look. Singer Annick Moerman & Musician Rike Casper turned to Annick’s son, 25 year old Thomas Govaerts, a recent graduate of the School of Media.   We asked Thomas to share his thoughts with us on the making of the video for Erde/Terre and here is what he…

(Menstrual Night. Original art by Emily Balivet, may be found on her etsy site EmilyBalivet.) Welcome to “A Woman’s Place……”, Pagan Pages’ new feminist column. As some may have noticed, with the election to the US presidency of a man who is a racist, misogynist, homophobic, narcissistic bully, incidents of racism, anti-semitism, homophopia and misogyny are rising at a massive rate, all of which are distressing and disturbing. This column will address each of these issues, as feminism, for many of us, goes beyond just equal rights for women, but equal rights and social justice for all. Recently, while scrolling through my Facebook feed, I came upon this article –…