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The Eloquence of Calliope This month I offer a look at one of my favorite muses, Calliope. Enjoy! The Muse, Calliope is the oldest of the Muses and according to the Theogony of Hesiod was foremost of the muses. Holding this preeminence, suggested her creative gifts were many with specific association with music and song and is often depicted playing the harp in early art work. In many mythological tales, Calliope is the mother of the Bard and player of the lyre, Orpheus. Calliope’s gifts of eloquence and music moved through her child Orpheus, considered to be the greatest musician and poet of Greek mythology having the ability to stir…

Venus still Retro in Leo– 29 degrees Saturday, August 1, 2015 – 12:01 am EDT Goes Direct on Saturday, September 5, 2015 – 6:17 pm EDT The Planet of love and adoration is still going against the grain preparing to trek across the face of the Sun. Affections at this time will seem to be awry in family-oriented Leo. Not to worry, though. Venus is strong-willed and has the capacity to overcome this obstacle. She allows her love and affection to come and go as needed or wanted, sometimes to a fault.     Saturn still Retro in Scorpio – 28 degrees Saturday, August 1, 2015 – 12:01 am EDT…

Spiders, and the path to a wider understanding of the world. Thanks to a growing interest in shamanism in New Age and Pagan circles, many people now speak about their animal guides and totems. An increasing number of people have had personal experiences of meeting some of their animal guides in meditations or simply bumping into their totem animals. Even those among us who are more attracted to mainstream culture, and perhaps are less interested in the wider aspects of spirituality, have been enchanted by “Aesop’s Fable” and the tales of Beatrix Potter. Stories like “Jungle Book” and “Call of the wild” have charmed readers since the last century. Many…

July was a Blue Moon month (in fact, the Blue Moon, the second full moon in a calendar month, was yesterday, the 31st of July), so it is only fitting that we look at the Major Arcana card known as The Moon. We will compare The Moon to last month’s card, The Sun. First, we should quickly define and describe some terms. There are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot deck, with numbers from 0 to 21; the Majors usually deal 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. An archetype…

                                                 Welcome     ________________________________________________   Front Page art Courtesy of… Alexis Money of Southern California. She is currently working towards a career in the tattooing industry.  She loves drawing, reading, painting her nails, martial arts, chocolate and good Irish whiskey.    _________________________________________________________________________   In This Issue…   Mabh Savage Interviews Halo Quin to find out a bit more about the Faery world, and about Halo herself.   A Spell A Day: for health, wealth, love, and more by Cassandray Eason is reviewed this month.   In our Apothecary this month you…

Cats generally are content to do whatever they are doing at the time, whether that is stalking, eating, or simply sitting and going to sleep. They do not feel guilty that they are not doing something else instead. This is the frame of mind in which the witch should enter the circle; for if he or she feels the sort of conflict that cats do not feel, part of the witch’s spirit will be continually moving across the circle to someplace else, and this will disrupt and weaken it. It is because cats feel content to be where they are and to do what they are doing in the moment…

Blue Moon I thought I would share what we did for our 2012 Blue Moon ritual to help spark some ideas for the up coming 2015 Blue Moon (the second full moon in one month) on July 31st. At the Blue Moon we set energies into motion that will manifest our long-term goals (house, business, travel, debt free…) to be fulfilled by the next Blue Moon (approx. 30 +/- months) Everyone invited for the ritual was asked to wear either blue or white and to bring a potluck dish to share. They were asked to bring foods that were blue, white or purple (we needed another option). The exception to…

(Loo-nas-ah) Major Sabbat (High Holiday) – Fire Festival August 1, 2 Other Names: Lunasa (meaning August), Lughnasaad, Lughnasa Celtic),First Harvest, August Eve, Feast of Cardenas, Feast of Bread, Tailltean Games(Irish), Teltain Cornucopia (Strega), Ceresalia (Ancient Roman) Harvest Home, Thingtide (Teutonic), Lammas (Christian). Laa Luanys, Elembious, Festival of Green Corn (Native American) Animals and Mythical beings: Griffins, Basilisks, Roosters, Calves, Centaurs, Phoenix Gemstones: aventurine, citrine, peridot, sardonyx, yellow diamonds, citrine Incense and Oils: wood aloes, rose, rose hips, rosemary, chamomile, eucalyptus, safflower, corn, passionflower, frankincense, sandalwood Colors: red, orange, golden yellow, green, light brown, gold, bronze, gray Tools, Symbols, and Decorations: corn, cornucopias, red, yellow flowers, sheaves of grain (wheat, barley,…

Healing “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a *person* changes *their* own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards *them*. … We need not wait to see what others do.” ~~ Ghandi (Pronouns changed from gender specific to gender neutral by me) I am going to be taking a break from the chakras this month; we will return to the 2nd chakra with next month’s column. While I realize that many people who read PaganPages are international, I also know that many of us are from the U.S. This past week, another tragedy occurred in yet another violent mass…

Up to now I have dwelt on many of the positive aspects of Paganism, but every lifestyle has its downsides. Many of the negatives aspects of various forms of paganism come from ideas that are carried over from mainstream religious backgrounds,- particularly from the more fundamentalist groups. I believe that Aleister Crowley is a particularly good example of this. Most of his emotional problems, and his deliberately shocking behaviour, seem to have stemmed from a reaction to his upbringing as a member of the Plymouth Brethren. Paganism is a very wide term, covering many beliefs. Some belief systems are variations on older religions, some are attempts to come to terms…