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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…

Bardic Song of the Month – July 2015 This month’s Bardic Song is called “Element Song”. It is a simple tune that has a nice poetic feeling to it for easier repetition and the melody line is rather easy. Keep repeating the tune over as often as you wish. As the Energy of the Song reaches a peak, the leader should hold their hands up high and bring them down on the last word of “Peace!” I wrote it in 3/4 Timing to give it a waltz feeling. Each line echoes the direction and ends with its corresponding Element. The verb offers a simple action for each Element. The song is intended to be…

I live in Westerville, Ohio. In the past weeks, big things have happened that have reminded me that I was a historic tour guide and am the daughter of a cemetery worker. My understanding of the dead and the past is unusual due to these things. First off, as to the cemeteries, mom sold cemetery property and directed funerals for over twenty years. I went along for appointments in people’s homes while they were discussing grave markers, caskets, what type granite they preferred, what size urn or vase they preferred, etc. I knew how to behave at a funeral and how to be a comfort to strangers mourning the death…

  Divining by Pendulum Recently, I received a beautiful pendulum from our generous editor, Jenn. I have used pendulums in the past but they were homemade ones of braided embroidery floss & crystal buttons. This is a really nice one! It felt really good in my hand and it was weighted perfectly. And I loved the pentacle etched into it! Although I have used pendulums in spell work in the past, I naturally had to pull out my books and do some research on using one. I was rather dismayed at what I found, or what I didn’t find. But perhaps that’s because of my own preconceived notions and I…