Alexiel Raynes
Alexiel Raynes is a shaman, philosopher, and musician from Louisville, Ky. He has studied religion and science for over 20 years. His spiritual path focuses on self realization, the liberation of the constraints of the mind on consciousness. He also studies plant medicines and their use in indigenous cultures world wide. He is fascinated with exploring the world beyond the veil of mainstream western science, and postulates at what lies beyond general consensus reality. He, together with his business partner Hallie Walker are the owners of Saol Bandia, a holistic herbal apothecary based in their hometown. They are also very active in raising pagan awareness in their community, and helping give witches the courage to stand up to a world that has forgotten our ways. You can visit their store at Saolbandia.com For contact visit Facebook.com/AlexielRaynes2020 Or email [email protected]
As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Confessions of a Dark Witch 2 Dark Instinct Everyone inherently understands how important the play between the light and dark is. Your shadow is longer when the light is at its highest. If you’ve been to a rave, or have ever experienced Christmas lights, you’ll note that the lights are prettiest in the dark. When the sun is out, you can’t see the stars. And as a witch, we love the moon. If there was no darkness, her splendor would constantly be washed out by the radiance of the sun. The universe doesn’t value light or dark. It values balance. In a cake recipe, each ingredient is…
Tarot Deck Review – The Sasuraibito Tarot by Stasia Burrington
Tarot Deck Review The Sasuraibito Tarot By Stasia Burrington Publisher: Independently Published 78 Card Tarot Deck The Sasuraibito Tarot is the masterful work of Stasia Burrington. Handmade and self printed since 2015, this 78 card deck is a beautiful and complex mixture of ancient Asian reverence, and millennial body positivity. The perfect expression of today’s mystic. Drawing heavily from Japanese as well as Western themes. Paganism encompasses many walks of life. If you believe in any very old, or new age belief system that is NOT Christianity, you might be Pagan. Every habitable land on Earth had some form of paganism. When it comes to tarot, you find…
Book Review – The Good Morning Journal: 5-Minute Guided Reflections to Start Your Day with Inspiration, Purpose, and a Plan by Molly Burford
Book Review The Good Morning Journal: 5-Minute Guided Reflections to Start Your Day with Inspiration, Purpose, and a Plan by Molly Burford Publisher: Adams Media 176 Pages Publication Date: June 1, 2021 I’d like to start with the fact that I approach journals like these with much excitement, but always with a dash of skepticism. With a journal, I hope to see some progression in the prompts, as a journal is usually (as expected) the same page copy and pasted throughout the whole book. I was firstly disappointed by the lack of such a progression in this book. The journal invites you to take 5 minutes each morning…
As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Confessions of a Dark Witch The Bourne I decided to write this in response to many different people suggesting to me that I have a hard life because I call myself a “dark” witch, and many of those same individuals also added that, if they did not fully understand, I should clarify to people what I mean exactly. Also, as is obvious, I’ve returned to narrative format, as when talking about deep personal things like your own inner experiences in relationship to you own spiritual beliefs and practices, it should always be made clear that these are opinions and beliefs, not scientific truths. The realm of spirituality…
As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Christianity: The Great Misunderstanding Now, in the last entries, I’ve aimed a lot of criticism at the Christian faith. Setting aside the purpose of the religion now, and whether or not Jesus was real or divine, let’s examine the lore with a more open mind. Let us assume that Jesus was very real, and his words were truth. Then with that lens, examine Christianity once again from the perspective of the man with whom the religion places it’s namesake. Jesus’ message was very much different from what we find in the Old Testament. Which seemed to be a collection of lore stories centered around sin and blood. The tribulations…
Book Review – The Pagan Book of the Dead: Ancestral Visions of the Afterlife and Other Worlds by Claude Lecouteux
Book Review The Pagan Book of the Dead Ancestral Visions of the Afterlife and Other Worlds By Claude Lecouteux Publisher: Inner Traditions 314 Pages Publication Date: 9/15/2020 The Pagan Book of the Dead: Ancestral Visions of the Afterlife and Other Worlds by Claude Lecouteux is a human’s best attempt at a compendium of all possible sources of astral literature from the ancient world. This book would serve as a Bible book if we witches had such. With such precision, the line between the myriad of pagan folktales, songs, and fables from the Hellenistic, Celtic, and Scandinavian religions, right to the nowadays more accept Christian beliefs of Heaven,…
Oracle Deck & Guide Book Review – The Hearth Path Oracle Cards: Miraculous Messages of Love by Nadine Gordon-Taylor
Oracle Deck & Guidebook Review The Heart Path Oracle Cards Miraculous Messages of Love by Nadine Gordon-Taylor Publisher: Bear & Company 53 Card Deck & 121 Page Guidebook Publication Date: 9/22/20 In this beautiful Oracle Deck and Guidebook, Nadine Gordon-Taylor invites you into the visionary world of mystical archetypes. With riveting art that not only speaks to the mind, but the heart and the soul as one. The use of the word miraculous isn’t in anyway an overstatement with this deck. Many of the cards feature animals and other deep symbols and archetypes in impossible juxtapositions. Many of the images are difficult for the mind to accept when…
As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Christianity: The Regime The main issue with Christianity isn’t it’s present day application. Generally speaking, Christianity is benevolent, and in some cases, even graceful. There are some issues with the doctrine as I discussed in the last installment. Also, I’m not sure if I actually have followers yet, but if I do, you’ll notice I’m speaking from first person, which is not a style I choose often, but I do so with good reason. I am speaking directly to the reader from my own opinion and viewpoint. I feel that’s important as the topics in this article will be a bit touchy. I’ll start by saying, I grew…
As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Christianity: The Doctrine “Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out.” Alan Watts. There is much to be said on the pagan perspective of Christianity. There are many varying opinions within the followers of each…
As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Mastery The air was brisk. A cold mist swept about. The wind kicked up ferociously, turning the mist into a billion freezing daggers. They pierced my flesh all over, burning like fire. A wave crashes below, and I see I am manning a castle wall. I give the signal. They blow the trumpets. As the trumpet blasts fill the air, the sky grows dark. At the tip of the castle, a giant pyramid built into the walls, into the beach. The base of the pyramid, into the sea. And as the trumpets blasted again; I see the monks come out. They sit in perfect rows on the…