PaganPages.org

Dandelions Merry meet. I think the very first spell I ever did involved a dandelion. I can see myself as a young child, picking dandelions with the dried puffy seed ball, making a wish, and blowing them onto the wind. I would watch as they danced on the wind like whimsical little fairies. Someone later told me if I got all the seeds off with one breath, my wish would come true. Magic doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. Just as simple as tossing a coin into a wishing well and the first star spell, “Starlight, star bright / First star I see tonight / I wish…

    The Bad Witch’s Guide to Beltane   I love Beltane. The flowers are just blooming. The green is just covering the hedgerows. It also happens to be my wedding anniversary! There are huge celebrations all over the place, though not nearby it’s just that this year I am craving something quieter. Something a bit more romantic and I can’t quite put my finger on it. One of the best things we ever did was to do the Hastings East hill drumming and dancing in the dawn. On a hill in the ruins of a castle overlooking the sea we watched the light, a sliver of silver light creep,…

Book Review Confessions of a Bone Woman – Realizing Authentic Wildness in a Civilized World By Lucinda Bakken White This is a “coming of age” tale, the story of one woman’s rediscovery of freedom, joy and ultimately, herself. Lucinda Bakken White excavates her soul from underneath a lifetime of meeting expectations and fulfilling the demands of parents, peers, career, marriage and children and life as a “powerful socialite.” How does she do that? By excavating the bones and feathers of “roadkill” and creating art from them. She finds her life in the death and resurrection of the wilderness animals she roamed among as child. Bakken White tells her tale of…

Chapter 2 in Our New Series (Featuring the inspirational art of Bill Oliver) First steps… What is most urgently needed, in these hectic days is peace and calm. Meditation is not the difficult task that it is often made out to be, – so, for this first exercise, we will use the relaxation technique as a stepping off point. Tense and relax a few times then read the poem and spend some time in looking at the image, before beginning the relaxation technique. After you have totally relaxed, simply allow yourself to remember the images and the moods associated with them. Let them flow through your mind without any judgment…

Book Review One Year Wiser-An Illustrated Guide to Mindfulness by Mike Medaglia Mindfulness has been the buzz word for meditation in recent years and getting people on board with slowing down and living fully present in any given moment has been the challenge of many an author and teacher. One Year Wiser by Mike Medaglia has captured the essence of what a mindfulness practice is and morphed it into an illustrated journey that resonates with the graphic novel approach. He invokes the art of visual stimuli to engage readers in well-founded content. Mike uses his skills as an illustrator to bring the practice of mindfulness into a mindscape filled with…

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…