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 I Rose (from a  Hekate Meditation):  My rose was blue I stepped beneath the arch My rose was gold Or peach Softness incarnate Never crimson Never bold Tentative like my Steps. I rose beneath the arch To meet four faces Framed with snake With sea With sinister teeth With chains With all the keys I need To break free. I rose and took The proffered seaweed Tiny bladders ready To pop with salty sweetness A shoreline promise Of things to come. I rose, hands out Filled with light; Stepping into darkness My rose was black Ashen; withered Suddenly alive again! Gold and glowing Snakebite antidote Starlight flowing I rose; I…

As winter approaches in our hemisphere, there is a tendency to take a little more time for reflection. The sense of wonder and anticipation which Springtime brings to us is long past. For many of us it will begin again after Yule,- when are thoughts are once more drawn to the year ahead. Summer, with all its moots, rituals and events is still a warm memory. Autumn, with its riot of colours and chaotic weather, is slowly slipping into Winter. Opportunities for being out in nature are reduced for many people and modern civilisation tends to loom much larger in our lives. With the coming of Christmas, – western commercialism…

Meet the Gods: Odin Merry meet. “You teach best what you most need to learn.” Reading that in Richard Bach’s 1977 book, “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah,” made me realize a long time ago we are all teachers and we are all students. The women I’ve circled with for nine years honor only the Goddess, so my work with gods has fallen by the wayside. That’s precisely why I volunteered to begin writing a column about gods. Each month I plan to research another one and present a small biography, hopefully leaving some links to additional information. I am partially of German descent, so the first god I…

Anxiety vs Meditation I’m getting back into meditation this month. I’m fortunate enough to be involved with groups of spiritually minded people who are far more organised than I and can arrange structured workings. Without this kick in the butt I struggle to grant myself the time needed to clear and de-clutter my messy mind space. It’s strange, isn’t it, how we can work so much harder for others, than we can work solely for ourselves… Or is that just me?   Anyhoo, I’ve done my first, proper meditation in months and it was wild, intense, and full of vivid imagery that almost immediately led to poetry. This makes me…

November Amulet Guidance from the Council of Elders with NanLT     Welcome to this new monthly feature for The Pagan Pages. The Amulets of the Goddess are an oracle system created by artist Nancy Blair. I have been reading and interpreting their messages for myself and others for 20 years. Ask your question and stand before the Council of Elders as they guide and advise you with their accumulated wisdom. Today, I ask the question: What messages for the coming month do you have for readers of The Pagan Pages? Triple Spiral – Barriers, Boundaries, and Possibilities   Life seems uncertain and chaotic right now. This is the chaos…

Kiara, Episode 14   The moment that Kiara touched the daisy, Moira became aware of her. She watched as she changed the daisy symbol she had given to her and hung it on her ear. The long corridor seemed dark and much too quiet. Moira could sense the servants huddled in the kitchen. She felt their uncertainty and drifted into the kitchen. Although they were unaware of her, they seemed to brighten a little under the influence of her presence. Cook was sitting at the big old wooden table in the centre of the room. The servants were all sitting around the table. Jed, the gardener, sat at her right,…

Back to the Minors this month; let’s talk about the Five of Wands. The typical image on this card shows five men, each holding a long and unwieldy wand at a different angle, as if each man was saying, “no, do it my way!” I always smile when I see this card, and think about the many times I’ve gone camping and the difficulties just my husband and I have when putting up our tent. I then imagine how it would be if three other people, each with their own way of doing the job, were to try to help us. The Five of Wands is a Minor Arcana card,…

YOGA, MEDITATION & WISDOM (Formerly *A Moment for Meditation*) THE FIVE PATHS OF WISDOM While there are four paths of yoga (Karma, Bhakti, Raja, Gyana), which will be discussed in a future column, today I will be talking about the “Five Paths of Wisdom” as taught within Kundalini Yoga. As with all important things, connecting to the path to wisdom is a much longer journey than you might think upon undertaking it. It is filled with obstacles; frustration; deep inner work, which is almost always painful, and strange twists and turns in the road. In brief, the stages or “pads” are: Saram Pad – Novice Karam Pad – Apprentice Shakti…

Book review The Witches’ Almanac, Issue 36 Water: Our Primal Source Published by the Witches’ Almanac Ltd. This almanac, founded in 1971, has become a traditional pagan reference. It starts with the beginning of the astrological year, running from Spring 2016-17. Its theme is water; the current year’s theme is air. One of the parts I find most useful is the moon calendar noting the moon’s phases and place in the zodiac. I also enjoy the year’s astrological forecasts for each zodiac sign, beginning with the vernal equinox. Each two-page spread touches on highlights for the year, health, love, spirituality and finance. Other reference information includes astrological keys, eclipses, retrograde…

Plant Wands Merry meet. As the wheel turns to the third harvest, I was moved to harvest some of the energies from the world around me, inspired by the Botanical Spirt Wands made by Rosemari Roast of Walk in the Woods, located in Winsted, Connecticut. Cleaning up my community garden plot at the end of the season, I gathered a selection of plants, living and dead, adding to it from outside my back door. o how-to Making an assorted bouquet of about eight pieces, I wrapped the stems together with fibers. One I wound with twine. For the other, I tied a scrap of novelty yarn at the top and…