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Croning : miscellaneous Merry meet! This month is the last of a six-part series on croning – a feminine rite-of-passage ritual for those reclaiming the power and wisdom of the old woman, the crone. As we prepare to enter the dark half of year on Mabon, I wanted to offer some final thought about the celebration of croning. In the world of muggles, the crone is an old, ugly, unproductive woman. Her proximity to death makes her dark and scary. In the pagan community, she is the wise woman who is respected. She is a teacher and a mentor. Her proximity to death makes her powerful and able to walk…

Soaring- A Teen’s Guide to Spirit & Spirituality by Deneen Vukelic Print Length: 209 pages Publisher: Soul Rocks Books (March 27, 2015) Publication Date: March 27, 2015 Language: English This was my first time reading a teen spirituality book. As a 27 year old, I am out of the age range, so I tried to go back to when I was younger, and also tried to view this book as I would have when I was that age. I also looked at it as if I were referring it to some of my younger friends, and overall, just how I liked it. There were some aspects of the book I…

Start Where You Are: A Journal for Self-Exploration   By: Meera Lee Patel Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Perigee Books (August 11, 2015) Language: English New on the shelves this August past is Meera Lee Patel’s book Start Where You Are. Start Where You Are is a skillful combination of beautiful and playful watercolors, inspirational quotes, and exercises or prompts to help express yourself. The art is cute and kept simple, working perfectly in combination with the selection of quotes. Ranging from Ayn Rand to Yogananda, I found some of the quotes to be rather bland, but even then Ms. Patel’s brushwork succeeded in elevating the words to the height of their sentiment. It is in…

THE MAGIC OF A SONG AND A BISCUIT! Hi my lovelies! September, ahhh, I love it! Crisp autumnal walks in the fading sunshine, crunching of leaves and nut husks underfoot and the hedgerows bedecked with scarlet berries. This is my all-time favourite time of the year. Of course this has absolutely nothing to do with the peace that descends over the land as the children are once again contained by the walls of the school, yay! The colours of autumn can quite take your breath away, here in magical Wiltshire it is glorious as the fields are stripped bare and the chaff is singed down, the trees explode into a…

Burden Baskets Merry meet. One of the joys of being pagan is that there are no rules; another is that drawing from an eclectic array of traditions is not only acceptable, it the norm. One from which I’ve drawn several customs is Native American, including using a burden basket, which is the topic of this column. Apache women wove cone-shaped baskets to hold the wild foods and useful things gathered during the day. The baskets had a carrying strap that was worn around the head or the shoulders, leaving the arms and hands free. Baskets were decorated with cone jingles, animal skin, symbols and other objects. Upon arriving home, the…

Mrs. B’s Guide to Household Witchery Everyday Magic, Spells, and Recipes By: Kris Bradley     Mrs. B’s Guide to Household Witchery by Kris Bradley is a concise guide to Domestic Witchcraft. Kris Bradley describes Domestic Witchery as “…a magical practice based on bringing magic and deity into the mundane of everyday domestic life. It’s the realization that even the simplest household chores can be transformed to influence the energies in our homes and lives…” Within the pages can be found spells and rituals for the Cottage Witch as well as recipes for many magical concoctions. I found the down to earth manner of this book to be both refreshing…

Dream Pillows Merry meet. As we approach the second harvest, one thing you might consider doing with nature’s gifts is to use them to make a dream pillow. They cost about $9 retail, but you can make them for much less if you have access to some of the herbs. Another reason for making them yourself is so you can customize the blend to your liking. There’s also a variation that requires no sewing. First select a small piece of fabric – a favorite shirt that no longer fits, vintage handkerchiefs, the silk pajamas you never wear, scarves or bandanas – and some thread. Wash and dry the fabric. Cut…

                                    Welcome   __________________________________________________________________   In This Issue…   An interview with the incredibly talented artist Cristina McAllister: Beautiful Connections.  She opens up to PaganPages about her artwork and her life.     New Series ‘Project Afterlife’ Premieres a  Six-Part Original Series Sunday, August 9 at 10/9c Only on Destination America.  Read about it and our review of it.     Learn to make a Lavender Wand for yourself in Witchcrafting: crafts for Witches.     We premeire the first part of a Short Story this month: Kiara, Episode One   __________________________________________________________________     We are…

Lughnasadh on the Mountain Some years ago my Druid sister, RhosynTan and I combined our two training groups to celebrate a Lughnasadh camp out on the mountain. Our theme was the funerary games for Lugh’s foster mother. We secured the site for the weekend and charged our grove members $25 per adult (14 and under Free). This covered the campsite, fees, munchies, dinner and dessert for Saturday night and breakfast, lunch, dinner and more munchies for Sunday. RhosynTan and I worked on the “games” that the men would participate in for over a month. The fun part was taking some traditional games (boar hunt, axe throw, horserace) and modifying them…

  Spiralled Edges – The Narrow Life Path Think about being on your life path for a moment. What does it look like? When I thought about my own life path, for some reason I always pictured myself on a tight rope, carefully balancing my life on that thin rope and avoiding the extremes of leaning too far either direction. I didn’t want to fall off my path! I’ve been working on changing this narrow view of my own life path over the past few years. I had a first clue that perhaps I wasn’t seeing things as they were when I did a shamanic journey for the purpose of discovering…