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Herbs For A Merry Yule! Blessed Thistle   Common names: St. Benedict Thistle Botanical names: Cnicus benedictus Parts Used & Where Grown Although native to Europe and Asia, blessed thistle is now cultivated in many areas of the world, including the United States. The leaves, stems, and flowers are all used in herbal preparations. How It Works The sesquiterpene lactones, such as cnicin, provide the main beneficial effects of blessed thistle in the treatment of indigestion. The bitterness of these compounds stimulates digestive activity, including the flow of saliva and secretion of gastric juice, which leads to improved appetite and digestion.4 Some pharmacological evidence suggests that blessed thistle may also…

The Order of Scáthach is an Order of Wiccan knighthood founded in 2007 by Wiccan author Kerr Cuhulain, embracing Warrior philosophies as outlined in his books Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick and Magickal Self Defense. It is now a registered religious society in the province of British Columbia and on the Steering Committee of the Surrey Interfaith Council. We are the sponsors of Vancouver Pagan Pride and are the chaplains for area hospitals. The Order of Scáthach focuses on empowerment and effective magick, developing new rituals and magick associated to our warrior path. The Order of Scáthach has preceptories throughout North America and conducts on line training for members. Members…

Simplicity Love Order Faith Joy Respect Beauty Gratitude Self Dicipline and Self Reliance Peace Charity Courage Our turn on the wheel as brought us to December and Courage.  As I look back over the past calendar year I  see twelve simple words.  Twelve ideas that seem so easy to practice.  On paper and in my mind, I easily handle every virtue in my day to day life. Yet, when I got “out of my head” and into the real world to live each word, I quickly learned that turning a vague word into a verb was not easy.  It took energy.  It took planning.  It took commitment. The first quarter…

Vampire & Victim         The Gentleman Yvonne M. (Glasgow) Stegall is filled with creative bones. She is a writer, poet, published author, crafter and artist. Her muse varies depending on her mood. Yvonne’s Day of the Dead art collection was inspired by her love of sugar skull art and Halloween. She did a series of 16 different skulls using mixed media (coffee, colored sugar, marker, crayon, colored pencil and water colors). She plans to do more Day of the Dead art in the future, and possibly some with acrylics. Her website and FB pages- (art/writing/photography) http://www.thetorndress.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheTornDress?ref=hl (holistic life coaching and spiritual therapy) http://www.holismcoach.org/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holism-Coach/123832694392880   Silly…

Vibration of Oneness In the wind and the rain the suggestion of old and new thoughts is ever-present. These subtle suggestions are everywhere and in everything. It is simply a matter of opening the eyes to see the obvious indication of what is to come and what role each person is to play. The secret to recognising these signs is within the vibration, unique to each element and each individual however, completely clear once vibrationally aligned.   Each thought is a vibration; each feeling, each emotion and the very existence of being is a vibration; an energetic vibration with an individual signature printed on the DNA but yet, not limited…

*Hack* It is that time of year again, dear readers. The time where people start carrying around bottles of hand sanitizer and tissues. It is the time of year that some start to think, “Would I really look all that funny with that face mask on?” That’s right. It is flu-season. To me, as a medical professional by trade, I have seen all manners of fluids and solids come from a person’s body and nothing is as bad as mucus. Whether from sneeze or just the gross drippings of a child who doesn’t know how to wipe there nose, there is nothing that will make me loose my appetite for…

Enlightenment   I recently had a conversation with a friend concerning another’s opinion of me which centered around the observation of my state of enlightenment or more precisely my lack there of. Although I disagree with the general assessment and personal bias the individual held against me, it did motivate a personal introspection and consideration of what I defined as enlightenment. What was my definition of the word? And how did my comprehension align or misalign with others’ perception? Where did I get to this understanding from? Was it my own or did I adopt it from another source?   When researching enlightenment I began with finding the basic definition.…

A Haunted Man        Without a doubt politics is a passionate subject, and where there is passion there is always a chance for ghosts.  One of the most famous political spirits is that of our 16th president Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln was known for his great leadership during the Civil War though the anxiety from which he suffered at the time may have carried on even after his passing.      Mr. Lincoln was known to have an interest in the supernatural; he even had prophetic dreams and visions including one of his own assassination.  His wife Mary Todd also supported his beliefs, especially after the death of their son Willie…

Merry Meet and Welcome to the November Issue of PaganPages We hope that all our readers came out from Sandy Safe and Sound.           

Charity As our year of examining virtues as applied to our pagan path moves forward, we come to November and Charity.  Generosity and helpfulness is a definition of this virtue.  How can we manifest this virtue in our daily walk? Here in the States the celebration of Thanksgiving is upon us.  What a great way to “walk the talk” .   My city of Atlanta has an amazing event called Hosea’s Feed the Hungry which is a nonprofit program that operates under the umbrella of the Martin Luther King Jr. People’s Church of Love.  It takes place at Turner Field, our baseball stadium.  Incredible numbers of people give of their…