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  Mabon Blessings     (Mabon Table)   Merry meet.   As the second harvest, Mabon is the pagan’s version of Thanksgiving. It’s also the autumn equinox when day and night are equal before we begin slipping into the dark half of the year.   What follows is a collection of blessings and inspiration you might use as you celebrate the sabbath and welcome the dark half of the year.   “Prayer to the Dark Mother” by Patti Wigington on thoughtco.com Day turns to night, and life turns to death, and the Dark Mother teaches us to dance. Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Nemesis, Morrighan, Tiamet, bringers of destruction, you who embody the Crone, I honor you as…

Ancient Strategies for Cultivating Inner Peace   “A trigger is something that sets off a memory tape or flashback transporting the person back to the event of her/his original trauma.” -from psychcentral.com   By now, most of you know about the ancient practice of meditation as a way of developing a state of inner peace. This is a useful practice of engaging “not doing” or the feminine aspect of ourselves.  The ancient ones also saw a need to activate the “doing” or masculine aspect of ourselves in some instances where we are emotionally triggered by someone or something in order to gain self-mastery.  This is best epitomized in the “Serenity…

  ElectraChic is a German based band who released their debut album, ImPassionnément, in November of 2016. They find their influences & themes in Shamanism and through the Sacred Feminine.     When it was time for ElectraChic to set out to make a video for the first song, Erde/Terre, off their new album, ImPassionnément, they did not have very far to look. Singer Annick Moerman & Musician Rike Casper turned to Annick’s son, 25 year old Thomas Govaerts, a recent graduate of the School of Media.   We asked Thomas to share his thoughts with us on the making of the video for Erde/Terre and here is what he…

(Menstrual Night. Original art by Emily Balivet, may be found on her etsy site EmilyBalivet.) Welcome to “A Woman’s Place……”, Pagan Pages’ new feminist column. As some may have noticed, with the election to the US presidency of a man who is a racist, misogynist, homophobic, narcissistic bully, incidents of racism, anti-semitism, homophopia and misogyny are rising at a massive rate, all of which are distressing and disturbing. This column will address each of these issues, as feminism, for many of us, goes beyond just equal rights for women, but equal rights and social justice for all. Recently, while scrolling through my Facebook feed, I came upon this article –…

  Review of WitchBox     (WitchBox Logo)     What is a WitchBox exactly? According to WitchBox it is:   “A subscription service for pagan witches based on the Wheel of the Year. A box ships every 6 weeks, 10-12 days before the sabbat.”   What this means is that every 6 weeks you will pay a recurring fee of $85 + $10 shipping and you will receive a new Sabbat Box to help you celebrate the upcoming holiday.   There are two versions of these boxes. The $85 WitchBox is called the Major Arcana and is filled with all the Bells & Whistles. They do, however, have a lesser…

Opening to the Anima Mundi – The Gift of the Equinox     The Great Wheel has turned once again and we find ourselves at the time of the Autumnal Equinox. The air is cooler, the leaves are turning and beginning to fall from brittle branches and all of life is giving pause to prepare for what changes lay ahead. This is the second of the three harvests and the fields are already beginning to brown as the day’s light gently wanes and we are enveloped in the quickening darkness of the setting sun. It is at this time we begin to gather our stores of ripened summer foods and…

Meet the Gods: Tyr         Merry meet.   This month we get to know Tyr (pronounced like “tier” or “tear”). Despite being the god of honor and justice, and showing courage by sacrificing his hand to save the gods and uphold the law, he came to be considered one of the lesser gods.   According to “Norse Mythology for Smart People,” more than any other god, Tyr presided over matters of law and justice, but was also a Norse god of war. At one time, he is thought to have been one of the three most important gods, along with Odin and Thor.   Mars, the Roman’s…

Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times Mabon 2017 Bright Blessings!   The harvest is in full force now. It is hard to believe it was just Lammas, and already, it is nearly Mabon!   Some of you are hard at work, gathering the fruits of your labor from your gardens, others, reflecting upon the fruits of your labors in your lives.   At my garden, we’ve had a very small harvest so far this year, but it’s not over yet.   We got six zucchinis, and three cucumbers. One cucumber is left on the vine, and then I think I will be pulling them out of the ground, as…

(Original graphic by: Violscraper) _____________________________________________________________________   Welcome to the August, Lughnasadh/Lammas Issue of PaganPagesOrg.  This issue is sure to please with features, such as …       A Book Review of “The Crane Bag,”by Joanna van der Hoeven. This book is not actually about cranes though it does start with a Celtic crane myth. It is really a brief introduction to ritual tools and practices from the Druid tradition.       We’re not always good, and for those times, we have “The Bad Witch’s Guide” to look forward to.  This month, Lucy Drake covers hexing herbs.  Using herbs and spices, from your garden, or kitchen cupboard, for their left-hand…

  This year I was asked to appear on the Shamanism Global Summit, July 2017. The Shift Network requested especially that I speak about my shamanic work with young people again, as I did last year. My shamanic group for children, The Time Travellers, has grown “older and wiser” since 2012, when we started this work. They are all teenagers now and acutely concerned about what is happening in our world One thing is clear: young people MIND not being asked for their opinions and visions. They will outlive us and inherit the consequences of many decisions we are making right now. Decisions about the environment and global warming, political…