• Gods & Goddesses,  Monthly Columns,  This Month's Holiday

    The Modern Merlin’s Corner-December 2024: Saturnalia, Yule and Winter Celebrations

    IO Saturnalia! I hope my readers are having a joyful and blessed Saturnalia and start of the holiday season. Before getting into the subject of this month’s column, I want to take a moment to address some changes coming in 2025 to this column. Rest assured, I will still be contributing this column to our publication, but I will be re-defining it in some ways, excluding certain subject areas, as they will be touched on by other columns I will be writing, and add in other subject areas into this one. This column will still remain fairly eclectic, but I will be expanding it to include more on the subjects…

  • Monthly Columns

    Spiritual First Aid

    Magick for Dealing with the Holidays Last time I went over what to do in one of the many different spiritual emergencies you may find yourself dealing with. In this installment, I want to talk more about how to use magick to deal with the craziness that life throws at you. Since this is the Yule issue, I am going to do a deep dive into how to use magick to cope with what can be the most emotionally charged time of the year- the holidays. Holidays are usually joyous occasions marked by joy, frivolity, and feasting, but for many others the holidays can be extremely emotionally triggering or overloading.…

  • Monthly Columns,  Spells & Rituals

    Peeking in the Shadows: Crafting a Book of Shadows and Light

    A Journey Through the Witch’s Wheel of the Year 2022!   The Witch’s Wheel of the Year In the February Issue we began exploring the Sabbats of the Witch’s Wheel of the Year and beginning a journey of filling our BOS with information about how we celebrated and what we found to be true of our practice. For a review of what the Wheel of the Year is take a look at February’s posting here: Peeking in the Shadows: Crafting A Book of Shadows and Light-February2022   We Continue Our Journey Through the Witch’s Wheel and call to the Light of the Summer Solstice…. THE SUMMER SOLSTICE/LITHA   The King…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – Modern Wicca: Beliefs and Traditions for Contemporary Life by Rowan Morgana

    Book Review Modern Wicca Beliefs and Traditions for Contemporary Life by Rowan Morgana 170 Pages I have never thought of Wicca as “modern”. In fact, back in the mid-to-late 1980’s, when I first began to explore this religion – and its co-religions Paganism, Heathenism, Druidism, and various forms of Witchcraft – it was routinely called “the Old Religion”. After reading books by scholars like Margaret Murray, Merlin Stone and Monica Sj??, among others, it made perfect sense to me that the ancients revered a great goddess over all and the rise of a patriarchal society gradually changed this to where the god ruled alongside the goddess but eventually took over…

  • Monthly Columns

    Celebrating The Old Ways in New Times

    Celebrating The Old Ways in New Times for January 2020   Bright Blessings and Happy January!   By the time you read this, I trust all your holiday celebrations are over, and you are trying to remember to write “2020” instead of “2019” on everything! If you are like me, January is a welcome break from the hubub that started late Fall and lasted until New Years! So, let me say again HAPPY JANUARY. One thing I like a break from is listening to people complain about how something or another holiday related offends them. Now don’t get me wrong, we all complain about something or another, and sometimes, we…

  • Monthly Columns

    Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times

    Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times for December 2019 (Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash) Bright Blessings! The Winter Holidays are upon us, and it seems there are as many different celebrations as there are different kinds of people circle in our Pagan Communities. No matter what you celebrate, though, it is undeniable that Christmas somehow influences you at this time of year. Whether you are like me and get sick to death of it all very quickly, and decry the fact it lasts so long, or you are somebody who enjoys it all, it is very much a part of our culture. One thing that strikes me is…