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HIPPOLYTA (Photo Credit: brooklynmuseum.org) While there may be those who would argue that Hippolyta was not a Goddess, I feel that, since most of her legends describe Her as being the daughter of Ares, She is, indeed, a Goddess. Hippolyta was the greatest of all of the Amazon Queens. Fathered by Ares, the God of War, who was himself born of Zeus and Hera, She was beautiful and strong, skilled in endurance and weapons. She was a formidable Warrior Woman. It is quite possible that She was trained in combat moves by Ares himself. Hippolyta and her Amazons lives in Themiscyra, and kept largely to themselves. While they would mate…

Book Review “Sacred Herbs: Your Guide to 40 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them for Healing and Well-Being” by Opal Streisand Publisher: Sterling Ethos Published: Hardcover, February 2018 Pages: 128 This book has beautiful, large, color photos of 40 medicinal plants. That is the best thing about “Sacred Herbs: Your Guide to 40 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them for Healing and Well-Being.” It makes for a wonderful identification and reference for those in the earlier stages of learning about herbs. For each, Opal Streisand gives the Latin name, an interesting note, the parts of the plant used, and information about the herb and its benefits, along with…

____________________________________________________________ Cover art: Voodoo Priestess original watercolor painting by artist Tara Reynolds of TaraFineArt Etsy shop. About the artist: Tara Reynolds creates beautiful art that transports the viewer into another world. She believes art should serve as an escape from the ordinary & the mundane. That it should spark imagination & creativity. Tara gets her inspiration from nature, myth & her own personal spirituality. All of her art is created with love in her studio in sunny Orlando, Florida. To see more of Tara’s art, please visit her on her etsy shop, her Facebook, or her Instagram: tarareynoldsart. ____________________________________________________________ Welcome Readers to the April Issue of PaganPagesOrg!  From reviews &…

YMIR AND ORION First Ancestor, First Shaman   During a sunset walk in the snow, one afternoon in Sweden, the star constellation Orion appearing gave me a powerful vision that involved the primordial giant of Norse mythology: frost giant Ymir. (In truth I had never before assumed any connection between them!) Ymir was the First Ancestor and First Shaman. The gods dismembered him and created the world from his body parts. Therefore Ymir was the first person to die and he became the Lord of the Dead. The word root of the name Ymir means “twins”. A profound mystery involving twins resides in both the night sky and world mythology.…

Book Review: Natural Born Shamans – A Spiritual Toolkit for Life: Using Shamanism Creatively with Young People of All Ages by Imelda Almqvist In 2008 when I set out with my co-authors to write a book about doing shamanic ceremony with children and families, there was almost no literature on the topic–save Starhawk’s landmark “Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions.” Since our book was published in 2012, many more authors have been responding to the immense need for these resources, thankfully. When I discovered Imelda’s book “Natural Born Shamans,” I was thrilled to see another shamanic practitioner working with children and youth who was also dedicated to adding to…

Meet the Gods: Dian Cécht (art by Jane Brideson) Merry meet. With so many people around me sick, it was probably no coincidence I came across Dian Cécht, the Irish god of healing. It so happens a story told about him is the same as the one told about Credne, one of the three craft gods, last month. He was described as a craftsman who worked mostly in bronze and when the High King lost his arm in battle, he fashioned a functioning replacement arm from silver. In “Pagan Portals: Gods and Goddesses of Ireland: A Guide to Irish Deities,” Morgan Daimler also tells the same story, adding that Dian…

“The person we choose to be … automatically creates a dark double — the person we choose not to be.” – Thomas Moore in The Care of the Soul I was the presenter for the Super Blue Blood Moon on Year of Ceremony with Sounds True recently. One of my missions for years has been creating opportunities for the voices and visions of young people to be heard by the world. On the Big Night I was joined by a “surprise co-presenter”: my 13-year old son Brendan, who took the global audience on a journey to a very special place on the The Dark Side of the Moon! Right now the theme of…

  In his latest book, Michael H. Hughes brings together activism and magic as tools for the resistance. “What I’ve discovered doing research for this book is witchcraft, in particular magic, has always been the tool of oppressed people. When you are out of other means of getting something done, you still do what you have to do, and in many cases that involves magic,” he said. Enslaved Africans used hoodoo and root work. Voodoo was instrumental in the uprising against Haiti’s white class. In medieval Europe, there were poppets and wax figures used against royalty. “The more you dig into the history of magic used as a tool against…

BOOK REVIEW HOW TO READ YOUR HOROSCOPE IN 5 EASY STEPS – Stop Reading Books (Except This One…) and Start Reading Charts By Chrissie Blaze Chrissie Blaze has created a deceptively simple “introduction” to astrological chart reading. Yes, the book covers the basics of chart interpretation and how to work with each factor as an entry point into chart analysis. But Blaze takes us into advanced “seeing” by moving past these individual factors into what I call “the blend” – she teaches us to weave the parts into a greater whole that reflects the creation story written in each birth chart. If you have ever looked at your birth chart…

There are a few cows Jason Miller does not consider sacred, including the reverence for the do-it-yourself approach and the notion that magick should only be used in emergencies. A sorcerer from New Jersey who practices and teaches magick professionally, his latest book, “The Elements of Spellcrafting: 21 Keys to Successful Sorcery,” is a magickal manual to go deeper and get more out of witchcraft. Miller was given the name Inominandum, which means “he who cannot be named” by a spirit in the 27th Athyr. “It fits my attitude towards magic,” he wrote in his strategicsorcery.blogspot.com, “the moment you and your work can be completely described by an ‘ism’ or…