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Are We All the Same?- Tarot with Lady Saoirse
By Lady Saoirse Bright Blessings, Recently I had an ugly wakeup and reality check. I realize I should have realized this a long time ago! Whether this is doing or getting a reading, or not, this lesson holds true in our pagan communities. A backstory first. In 2004, I had a terrible health scare. At the time, I had not converted to Paganism yet, although I had left Catholicism. I had been attending an Apostolic church for close to a year when I fell ill. The assistant pastor and another man in the congregation had taken me to task just before I got sick. It happened when the assistant…
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News & Notes from the Editor-December 9th-15th, 2024: Reclaiming Paganism
Hello again friends! I hope you’re all doing well, and that your week is getting on without any major issues as we continue to navigate the end of Mercury retrograde this week. I’ve decided to take on an Op-Ed style for this week’s Editorial. Paganism is, and has been, pervasive in history, with its cultures, traditions and folk beliefs influencing everything, from our outlooks, philosophy and our holiday traditions. Different Gods, Goddesses and spirits have taken on similar attributes for each culture, helping explain things like the changing of the seasons, weather events, death, birth and similar, unavoidable aspects of life. For large parts of recent, modern history, Christianity and…
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Toxic Spirituality
I try to keep these articles from being super personal. Avoiding using words like I, or speaking from my personal experience. This will be the opposite. This piece will be 100% gonzo. So, I’ll start my saying, I was always a seeker. A lot of people start their path Christian by default of indoctrination. I was different. I sought after the truth, and it was told to me that it was Christ. I spent much of my time in the church. I saw lots of abuse. I saw people ostracized due to their sexual relationships. I saw people mindlessly brainwashed by the platitudes of the church, even if they…
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Book Review – Seasons of a Magical Life: A Pagan Path of Living by H. Byron Ballard
Book Review Seasons of a Magical Life A Pagan Path of Living by H. Byron Ballard Publisher: Weiser Books 224 Pages Publication Date: August 2021 In “Seasons of a Magical Life,” pagan, witch and farmer H. Byron Ballard extends an invitation to return to a simpler time of earth-based spirituality and ritual living, through essays written from a small forest-farm in the Appalachian Highlands. The first part of the book offers background on the Wheel of the Year. In Part II, chapters are broken into eight sabbats. Each contains traditions, activities, skills, chores, celebrations and opportunities. The final section is a brief overview on physical and spiritual…
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As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Christianity: The Great Misunderstanding Now, in the last entries, I’ve aimed a lot of criticism at the Christian faith. Setting aside the purpose of the religion now, and whether or not Jesus was real or divine, let’s examine the lore with a more open mind. Let us assume that Jesus was very real, and his words were truth. Then with that lens, examine Christianity once again from the perspective of the man with whom the religion places it’s namesake. Jesus’ message was very much different from what we find in the Old Testament. Which seemed to be a collection of lore stories centered around sin and blood. The tribulations…
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As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Christianity: The Doctrine “Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out.” Alan Watts. There is much to be said on the pagan perspective of Christianity. There are many varying opinions within the followers of each…
