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The woman at the door is trying to push a pamphlet into my hand. I deftly avoid this and politely ask her what it’s about. ‘It’s your personal invitation to the memorial of Jesus Christ’s death.’ Genuinely, for a brief moment, I think ‘Gosh, an anti-Christian group!’ Then I remember Easter, and that it starts with a dead body. I’ve always found Easter a bit morbid. Yes, I know the main celebration is about Jesus coming back to life, but we take a bank holiday to celebrate a good man being mocked, spat on, tortured and crucified. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, the story can’t help but make…

March 2019 for Celebrating The Old Ways in New Times March 2019 for Celebrating The Old Ways in New Times Bright Blessings! I cannot tell you how excited I am that it is almost the Spring Equinox! To prepare, I assembled a precut garden box today, and have been diligently bagging up the dead leaves from last fall I spread over the garden beds I already have. I never buy mulch that way! Once the thaw starts, I dig out the leaves, and just throw them away. While I joyously begin celebrating Spring at Imbolc, the fact I can see the green fingers of garden bulbs pushing up out of…

Packing Up To Move It’s still only February as I write this but in ten days it’ll be the first Monday of March and I will be moving into a new apartment. I am so excited but I have to admit that I am just a bit overwhelmed! I have all of my books packed and most of my fine china and collectibles. I still have to pack up my kitchen – except for what I’ll need on a daily basis until moving day. And all my pictures will have to come off the walls here. There were lots of holes punched in the walls in this place I’m in…

(Oh-star-ah) – Lesser Sabbat – Spring/Vernal Equinox, March 20-21st – when the Sun enters Ares Other Names: Ostre, Oestre, Eostre, Rites of Spring, Eostra’s Day, Lady Day, First Day of Spring, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, Alban Eiler, Bacchanalia, Mean Earraigh, Pasch, Caisg, Pess Date: Spring Equinox (March 20-22 in Northern Hemisphere) or when the Sun is 1 degree Aries. Symbolism: The beginning of spring, new life and rebirth, the God and Goddess in Their youth, balance, fertility Goddesses: all love, virgin, and fertility Goddesses; Anna Perenna (Roman), Aphrodite (Greek), Astarte (Canaanite, Persia, GrecoRoman), Athena (Greek), Cybele (Greco-Roman), Blodeuwedd, Eostre (Saxon Goddess of Fertility), Flidais (Irish), Gaia (Greek), Hera, Ishtar (Assyro-Babylonian),…

Akhilanda (artwork by Pieter Weltevrede) Akhilanda is the Hindu Goddess of Never Not Broken. Her formal name is Akhilandeswari Ma, and is known informally as Khodiyar Ma, a form of the Great Mother Goddess. In Sanskrit, Akhilanda means “never not broken” and Ishwari is Goddess or female power. She is one of India’s oldest depictions of the Goddess. She is said to be originally a Vedic Goddess, the Vedas being the oldest layer of Sanskrit scripture. She is also known as the Goddess of the “agamas”, the texts known as tantra. She has been described as a form of the Goddess Parvati and as associated with Goddess Durga. She carries…

Cover artist: Lhox is an illustrator and a gardener, based in the UK, currently writing and illustrating a children’s book. Mythology is important to Lhox because she believes it holds the key to the ancient wisdom of our ancestors. Wisdom that we need today more than ever. To see more of Lhox’s work visit her gallery HERE. Free coloring page: This month author & artist Amy Cesari creator of the Coloring Book of Shadows: Planner for a Magical 2019 has blessed our readers with a free coloring page! Just hit the button to download. We Hope Everyone Had a Safe and Wonderful Imbolc & This Month is Filled With Nothing…

Book Review Besom, Stang & Sword A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape by Christopher Orapello and Tara Love Maguire *A Special Opportunity: Christopher and Tara will be teaching at Delmarva Pagan Pride Day on April 28th. Location: The Green in front of Legislative hall in Dover Delaware Info: FB page- https://www.facebook.com/groups/DelmarvaPaganPrideFestival/ There is a stirring within the community of those who identify as witches as what was old has been lovingly and carefully made new again by those who stand at the gates of modern witchcraft. Besom, Stang and Sword is a guide of practice that evolved from the reweaving of Traditional Witchcraft and…

Imbolc Planned and Explored February is the month of Brigid, the hearth fires are tended, the seeds are readied for planting, and spell work done in February focuses on purification, growth, and healing. Loving the self is the theme throughout the month of February; after all, how you love your self will teach everyone in your sphere of influence how to love you. This is a time for kindness to be extended inward. In addition, the energies in February are peek for accepting responsibility for past mistakes and forgiving yourself while you make plans for the future. This month, I focus on spell crafting and making sigils. A sigil is…

Chapter 9 Candle Meditation Candle meditation and candle ‘magic’ have a wide application in modern paganism. There are many variations on this method. One can use different colour candles to focus on different aspects of our life and our intention. There are many ‘tables of correspondences’ which link various coloured candles to different intentions. The most effective colour correspondences are to be found in any book on colour psychology. For example, focusing on the colour red will raise our blood pressure, and perhaps, help to build our determination for a particular task. Red is the colour of action and passion. Try wearing red if you feel a little fatigued or…

Book Review Shaman Express by Beretta Rousseau Short review: I hated this book. Let me say right off the bat that I am the wrong person to be reviewing this book. I am going to be fifty-nine this year; I am a die-hard radical feminist; I have been in recovery for almost thirty years now; I read the entire canon of Carlos Castanedas over forty years ago; I grew out of this kind of “using drugs to find spiritual enlightenment” bullshit before the age of THIRTY. To be honest, I might have liked this book – a whole lot – when I was twenty-one or so – but that was…