PaganPages.org

Notes from the Apothecary: Self Heal     Prunella vulgaris; prunel, brunell, carpenter’s herb, hook heal, sickle-wort; a common herb in the British isles, and indeed most places in the Northern Hemisphere; currently creeping its way across my lawn, unapologetically purple. I was delighted to find this magical little plant as a ‘freebie’; we didn’t cultivate it, it’s completely made its own way in and it is most welcome. The plant has a long history of medical use, being commented upon by Gerard, Culpeper and many other renowned herbalists and botanists, for its wide-ranging uses, which we will examine further below.   Although useful as a magical plant, we don’t…

Meet the Gods: Barleycorn Merry meet. Lughnasadh is celebrated this month – traditionally on the 1st, astrologically on the 7th. It is the first harvest, a festival of grain. While traditionally in Europe, corn meant grain, many Americans have come to think of corn only as maize. Because I know of no fields of rye, oats or barley here in Connecticut, maize has been my go-to grain. While it’s found its way into my rituals as corn muffins, corn dollies and fry bread – to go with the bounty from my garden – I had never sought to welcome the corn god to my circle. This year I will. Most…

Creativity and Teaching     This month’s offering is short and sweet. Creativity and teaching are my passion, so I’ve spent much of my 61 years of life as a teacher in one way or another. Teaching my ballet, until we could afford formal classes. Teaching ballet to others. Teaching Sunday school. Teaching my five beautiful children. Teaching my coveners. Teaching in the broader community, and more.   All of these pursuits were fueled by creativity and the passion I’ve offered up to these pursuits has out pictured in multiple venues and formats. Technology has provided a wonderful resource.   This month I am providing access to a 3-wk. course…

    The Bad Witch’s Guide to Hexing Herbs   I am a bad witch. There are a long list of reasons why I am a bad witch. Having been out of the broom closet for some considerable number of years I would on occasion get asked “but you’re a good witch though?” My response to that depending on the person asking but I found I started to say “yes, a very, very good witch” rather darkly as it usually got the point across. I have been an amateur herbalist all my life. From hedgerows and fields running barefoot I knew more than most well-read folks by the time I…

  Spirit & Life by American artist Tom Fleming   _____________________________________________________________________________   Welcome to the July Issue of PaganPages.  What do we have in-store for you this month???  Many of our great articles and reviews, such as…     A Book Review of the Tarot by Design Workbook:  Color and Learn Your Way into the Cards by Diane Heyne.     The Bad Witch’s Guide discusses love spells this month and even offers up one!       Jennifer Engrácio shares an amazing  excerpt from her book The Magic Circle: Shamanic Ceremonies for the Child and the Child Within on the importance of Children and Ceremony with our Readers.    …

The Page of Cups (The Page of Cups Card is from the artist Ciro Marchetti http://www.ciromarchetti.com/)** Back to the Court Cards! This time, we will revisit the Tarot “Royals” by examining the Page of Cups. We haven’t talked about Court Cards in a little while, so first we will review some basic information. A Tarot deck has 78 cards. There are 22 Major Arcana cards dealing with broader and more far-reaching life experience issues, archetypes that are easy for us to identify with and connect with at some point in our lives. There are 56 Minor Arcana cards that are customarily grouped into four categories or suits that represent the four elements…

Meet the Gods: Thor     (art by Samantha Sullivan)   Merry meet. Thor is the hammer-welding Norse God of Thunder. He is the son of Odin, the primary god of all the Nordic gods, and the earth goddess Jord (also reported as Fyorgyn). He is one of the most important and well-known gods in the Norse pantheon, also said to be a sun god, the god of stormy weather, and a fertility god. His wife is also associated with fertility: the goddess Sif. Together they live in Thrudheim (“Place of Might”), the largest house in Asgard with more than 500 rooms. They have two children. Thor also adopted a…

The Eight Limbs of Yoga This month’s column will wrap up The Eight Limbs of Yoga, as we focus on Dhyana and Samadhi. (Photo Credit: anandashram.org) Dhyana = worship. It is contemplation, focus and concentration; the ability to find the truth about something – an object, a thought – with perfect meditation. As our minds become clearer, our perceptions do as well. We can readily discern what is, and what is not, reality. “Maya” is illusion. It is our perceptions, our judgements, our thoughts and feelings based on our lives, that color and filter all that we do and think. “Moksha” is the freedom to see and perceive things clearly,…

Children and Ceremony In many cultures in the world, rituals are built into daily life as a continual way of renewing the individual and community spirit: celebrating, giving gratitude, grieving, and letting go of that which no longer serves the health and well-being of the village. Ritual is a kind of glue that helps us to remember who we are and how we are related to everything in the universe–something we humans tend to forget unless we build times to experience this connection consciously into our busy lives. Each of us authors noticed several years ago that many children we met wanted and needed ritual in their lives. The children…

Full Moon Rise       Merry meet. An eclectic group of women in my area have been getting together for as many full moons as possible these past two year. One of our favorite traditions grew out of our coven – to gather at a small public beach that does not close at sunset. We bring blankets, camp chairs and food, and set up where we see the sun set behind the cottages and then watch the moon rise in the east over the water.       We do it as often as possible when the full moon falls on a weekend during warm weather. The most recent…