The Lessons of Professor Snape Mama Bear sits here looking at the 2” of snow that was dumped upon us last night without warning, and at the pile of cats holding me here in my chair. How on earth am I supposed to get a blog written? Do you know how hard it is to type with paws and claws and purring motors everywhere? I shan’t write a long entry this month, however, I did want to speak on something that has affected us all; the death of Alan Rickman. I know, why aren’t I writing about Lenny or David or any myriad of stars that have passed to Elysium…

What Goes on in Putting Together a Pagan Festival Mama Bear hopes you all had a wonderful Yule. Now that everything has settled down, with the holiday season, I hope you’re enjoying a calm, restful time of the year. Most people I know enjoy the winter months as a time for drawing inward, introspection, and self-work. Not this Mama Bear! Between classes and festival preparation, it seems as if every day is a new and magical adventure! Someone asked me what it takes to put on a pagan festival, so… What goes on in producing a Pagan festival: time, money, blood, sweat, tears and a lot of coffee. (Hail Caffinea!)…

I had been working in a small community within the larger Pagan community when I received a very insidious Facebook message that began with, “You’re too emotional when it comes to this community. It’s not all about you, nor is it all that important”. The sender then began to question my skills as a community leader, because I was still “new” (after 10 years) and told me that the pagan community as a whole, the one I worked tirelessly for, “wasn’t that big of a deal.” It ended with a smiley face emoticon and a message of “You know I’m only saying this because I love you right?” It was…

Take a look around the Pagan community these days, we have some amazing philosophers and some wicked intelligence. People like Raven Grimassi, who is so grounded and well versed (beyond well versed) in his craft and Jason Pitzl-Waters who founded the Wild Hunt. These people never cease to amaze me by the things they write, the ideas they inspire and sometimes even by the way they make me research something just to learn a little more. While writers and practitioners are amazing, we are in dire need of community leaders, in order to help our communities and causes move forward. Paganism is amazing. The freedom, the whole antiauthoritarianism vibe really…