{"id":831,"date":"2008-12-01T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T05:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=784"},"modified":"2008-12-01T01:54:40","modified_gmt":"2008-12-01T06:54:40","slug":"interview-with-gail-wood-the-shamanic-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2008\/12\/01\/interview-with-gail-wood-the-shamanic-witch\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Gail Wood The Shamanic Witch"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gail adroitly spins a guide that presents the reader the ability to shape shift and navigate through time, thought, and space. The basic foundations of Shamanism and witchcraft in Gail\u2019s book, \u201cThe Shamanic Witch\u201d go beyond the fundamental concepts we have become accustomed to. Reminding one of their own inherent abilities in the Shamanic tradition and edifies just how to put these abilities into practice in Shamanic Witchcraft. Gail has fashioned a powerful practice that once embraced opens up the path between the worlds which leads to affirmative changes in all who follow it.<\/p>\n

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Photo by: Dawn Van Hall<\/em>
\nGail was gracious enough to allow us this wonderful interview probing into her personal journey throughout her life and her work. The past few weeks that I have spent talking with Gail have been not only spiritually educational but very exciting to say the least.<\/p>\n

Interview with Gail Woods The Shamanic Witch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pagan Pages\u00a0 (PP):<\/strong> Gail could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?<\/p>\n

Gail Wood (Gail):<\/em> I live in rural Central New York in a house that’s more than 125 years old; we live on nearly two beautiful acres.\u00a0 Mouse, my partner, is the high priest of our coven and we have two very old dogs.\u00a0 I’m a college library director at a state school. I love being a librarian.<\/p>\n

I went to college and graduate school at the University of Maryland.\u00a0 We moved around a lot as a kid but where we always ended up was in Maryland where my mother is from; and that is where I will live when I retire.\u00a0 I love the Atlantic Ocean beaches especially Assateague Island. I love to read and research and I do all sorts of needlework and sewing.\u00a0 I love things that glitter!<\/p>\n

I’ve been a Witch before I knew it was called Wicca and I discovered that over twenty-five years ago.\u00a0 I love Tarot and all sorts of divination, I love to teach.\u00a0 I’m a Reiki Master, as well as a shamanic practitioner.<\/p>\n

PP: <\/strong>Gail do you consider yourselves to be a Witch or Shaman?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> Interesting question and the short answer are both.\u00a0 I consider myself a shamanic witch.\u00a0 It\u2019s really difficult to get shamanic training that integrates witchcraft or Wicca into it.\u00a0 Most shamanic teachers are not Wiccans or witches.\u00a0 I wrote the book to demonstrate not only can it be done but also that the practice of witchcraft is very shamanic in nature.\u00a0 My personal practice and identity is both shamanic and witchy.\u00a0 I can\u2019t separate them out anymore!<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> Who, would you say inspired you the most in your own path through the Mysteries?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> There\u2019s not a one-person answer to that question!\u00a0 My teacher, SunRaven, was one who taught me the basics of shamanic practice and then how to further and deepen the work.\u00a0 My High Priestess in the RavenMyst tradition, Lady Hawke was the one that made me conscious that my shamanic practice is truly integrated into my Wiccan practice.\u00a0 Kristin Madden is a great inspiration; she\u2019s fun, funny, and a powerful journeyer.\u00a0 I\u2019m a great reader and taker of workshops, so there are a lot of writers, teachers, and workshop leaders to whom I owe a lot for inspiration.\u00a0 I\u2019m a member of an online writing witchy group and those authors give me lots of encouragement, insight, and inspiration.\u00a0 If I start naming all the writers and teachers, the list would be long\u2014plus I\u2019d be afraid I\u2019d leave someone out.\u00a0 These days, too, I gather a lot of strength, creativity, and inspiration from my students both inside and outside the Craft, and of course, my partner Mouse and my dogs.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> Gail how do you feel your work to date was influenced by Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone?<\/p>\n

Gail: <\/em> Another interesting question.\u00a0 Not consciously.\u00a0 I have read every book by Janet and Stewart Farrar, and then the ones co-authored by Gavin Bone.\u00a0 I liked Progressive Witchcraft a lot and remember thinking that this book will help me deepen my understanding.\u00a0 Now I will go back and take a look at it again.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> What advice would you give to someone newly interested in Paganism or Witchcraft?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> Find the path and the practice that resonates with your authentic self and don\u2019t let others tell you it MUST be this way or that way.\u00a0 Find what works for you.\u00a0 I usually tell people to be as smart about their spirituality as they are with the other choices in their lives.\u00a0 There are many paths and many ways to experience Spirit and what you owe to yourself is to find the one that resonates deeply with your own internal, eternal divine light.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> Gail, how do you think that public opinion of Witchcraft and Paganism has changed over the last few decades?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> It\u2019s been a very interesting transition.\u00a0 When I started, there was very little information about Paganism.\u00a0 You had to work very hard to find out how to practice and how to make it knowable to yourself.\u00a0 I\u2019m very grateful to the work of Scott Cunningham, Starhawk, Raymond Buckland, and the fictional work of Katherine Kurtz from those early days, and then later, Dorothy Morrison, Marion Green, and Caitlin and John Matthews.\u00a0 Then, it seemed, that the information exploded and spilled out into the mainstream and lots of wonderful writers came into the foreground.\u00a0 I think the controversies surrounding Silver Ravenwolf\u2019s Teen Witch created awareness, both good and bad, outside the rather private pagan community.\u00a0 Around that time, academics started publishing works and analyses on the pagan community.\u00a0 Then good and dumb portrayals of Wicca and Witches started showing up in the media including episodes of sitcoms;\u00a0 the long running show, Charmed, brought even more awareness, both correct and incorrect.\u00a0 All sorts of things, factual and fictional, inspire us to move into more spiritual questing, so in some ways having a more real portrayal of Witches show up in the media is part of human nature.<\/p>\n

I think more and more people are looking at the values of pagan life and resonating with them.\u00a0 They don\u2019t necessarily want to be priests or priestesses, but they want to live as if all life is sacred and in harmony with nature.\u00a0 Others want to live in the counter-culture and be iconoclastic and the pagan community offers that lifestyle as well.\u00a0 I do see a growth in the Wiccan and pagan laity, to borrow a phrase from the mainstream religions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare nowadays that I have to explain that Wicca and witchcraft is not Satanism.\u00a0 Most people seem to have a smattering of knowledge.\u00a0 This is not to imply that people do not have a lot of wrong assumptions but there is usually awareness, though that awareness isn\u2019t really deep or very factual.\u00a0 Lately, I\u2019ve been treated in some odd ways \u2013 as if I am weird-in-a-good-way, a curiosity, or as part of a chic, cool thing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t usually get treated as evil anymore and that is a blessing!<\/p>\n

PP: <\/strong>If you could go back in time and change one thing you did, what would it be?
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\nGail:<\/em> Personally and frankly, I would not spend so much time worrying, and specifically not spend so much time agonizing over how fat I was or was not; am or am not.\u00a0 I would have danced more!\u00a0 So I dance now\u2026<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> What do you consider the highlights of your own writing careers to be?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> The Shamanic Witch has me very, very excited.\u00a0 I reconnected with SunRaven and I think my writing has improved a great deal.\u00a0 All the writing that I\u2019ve had published has always made me very pleased and proud.\u00a0 The writing I do is a result of the things I teach, so it\u2019s wonderful to see my teaching take a different and new life in print.\u00a0 It has also connected me with a lot of people I would not have known otherwise.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> What are your views on sex, and sexual symbolism in the Craft? Does it, in your opinion, play an important role?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> Where to start?\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to separate out the sexual symbolism of the beliefs of the Craft, such as creation stories and the Great Rite, from the sexual behavior of members of the Craft and the pagan community.<\/p>\n

The latter, sexual behavior, in all its permutations, orientations, encounters, coupling, poly-loving and more, is an important part of our counter-culture community.\u00a0 As long as I have a choice and can choose in harmony with my own heart, then so should everyone else.\u00a0 We all live in a long complex gender continuum and there aren\u2019t many safe places for people to go outside the male-female polarity and discover who we are and what gives us joy.\u00a0 I always hope everyone can find a space of safety and an absence of judgment.\u00a0 With luck all of us can find not only tolerance but also acceptance and love.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit I was shocked at my first festival years ago, but then I got over myself; and as long as I have choices of how far I will or will not go, then it\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

So then we get into the sexual symbolism in the practice of the Craft and the stories of the Great Rite.\u00a0 It can make the Craft seem lurid and sensational.\u00a0 The symbolism itself is beautiful and powerful because it helps us understand the fluid, flowing energy of the Universe.\u00a0 That energy of ebb and flow, in and out, receiving and giving is made understandable in the performance of the Great Rite.\u00a0 The challenge in ritual for the symbolic Great Rite in ritual is to be inclusive to all sexual orientations and gender identities.\u00a0 The Great Rite becomes lurid when people think it\u2019s only about the human male-female sex act.<\/p>\n

PP: <\/strong> How do you deal with people who criticize you for your views and practices?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> I work in academe and in our community, research, argument, skepticism, and discussion are part of life and I\u2019m well trained in discussion and mental argument.\u00a0 I am also very good at \u201cagreeing to disagree.\u201d When the criticism gets personal and mean-spirited, then I get my feelings hurt just like everyone else.\u00a0 I have safe places to kvetch, vent, and process.\u00a0\u00a0 I have a good sense of humor, so I can often deflect some remarks that way.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to tell you that I\u2019m always wise, erudite, articulate, and meet every criticism with the perfect words, but I\u2019m human and I get tired, cranky, and vulnerable too.\u00a0 I try to keep it all in balance and try not to return nasty for nasty.<\/p>\n

I had a funny experience when I found a Dark Moon community on the internet.\u00a0 I was really excited.\u00a0 And they were discussing my book, Rituals of the Dark Moon.\u00a0 I thought this would really enrich my ongoing work with the Dark Moon.\u00a0 The first thing I read was that someone really did not care for the book at all because the guided meditations didn\u2019t have much detail.\u00a0 As I make a stabbed in the heart motion, I also had to laugh remembering my grandmother\u2019s expression of an eavesdropper never hearing any good about herself.\u00a0 And to answer that criticism, I deliberately kept the meditation sparse so their own journeys could fill in the details.\u00a0 Talk about your good intentions going awry!<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> What are the differences and similarities between Shamanic Witch craft and the Wiccan Tradition?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> It\u2019s hard to put into words because it is so experiential.\u00a0 The greatest example of difference in practice is that in my tradition and in my personal practice is that we open Center ritual.\u00a0 When we open center, we call in the energies of above and below and open the gates to the Upper and Lower Worlds.\u00a0 The connection between these worlds is ourselves, the Witch, who is rooted in the Lower world through the roots of the World Tree, and we spread our branches up into the Upper World.\u00a0 The connection between those worlds is here, in the Middle World, with our bodies as the trunk and the tree.\u00a0 I think in shamanic witchcraft we work deliberately with the totems, power animals, and spirit guides in the cosmology (Upper World, Middle World, and Lower World) of the shamanic practitioner.<\/p>\n

The traditional difference stated in some writing is that the shamanic practitioner sends his\/her soul out of the body and journeys between the worlds while the Wiccan calls the spirits into the circle and works with them there.\u00a0 I find this statement arguable.\u00a0 One of my sister High Priestesses said once about a ritual that calls in the directions of North, East, South and West but does not open Center, that it was more witchy than shamanic.\u00a0 I guess it was the nuance and texture of the experience in circle, rather than anything that I can articulate well.<\/p>\n

I find the Wiccan practices of aspecting, Drawing Down the Moon, and possession-like meditations, to be very shamanic in nature.\u00a0 By inviting Deity into your body, you are journeying to gain wisdom and power and in service to the community, the essence of the definition and purpose of shamanism.
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\nPP:<\/strong> You hold the titles of Teacher, High Priestess, and clergy on your website.\u00a0\u00a0 You said that you are the High Priestess of the Coven of the Heron of RavenMyst Circle. Can you tell us more about this?
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\nGail:<\/em> I will start with RavenMyst Circle; we are a tradition, a group of several covens.\u00a0 We are a degree-granting tradition, which is not a rank but rather a measure of progress in our studies and our service to our tradition and the larger community.\u00a0 I was honored to enter RavenMyst as a Dedicant and progressed through my studies and challenges until I became a third degree High Priestess.\u00a0 The wonderful thing about RavenMyst was that they honored the work I had done before I entered the tradition.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, this book is an expansion of a challenge my High Priestess gave me to write a shamanic lesson for our tradition.\u00a0 In our tradition, the mark of a third degree High Priestess is that she sees with the eyes of Spirit, and the union of my inner divine with that of the transcendent Divine, what we know of as Goddess and God, is kept clear and alive through consistent practice, service to community, and thorough an honest understanding of myself.\u00a0 It is not a static title but more of a statement of ongoing practice.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s my experience of the High Priestess gig.<\/p>\n

Our tradition also offers ordination as legal clergy, as an option, and I went through the process to become ordained.\u00a0 I can perform legal weddings and help facilitate other life passage ceremonies, as well as offer an open heart and listening ear.<\/p>\n

On my website, I said I was a teacher, too.\u00a0 I believe that the call we hear to walk this path means that we work in harmony with our best talents and our burning passions.\u00a0 Mine is to guide people to find the spiritual path that suits them in their soul.\u00a0 That is what a Teacher is to me and as a result, not every one of my students has followed \u201cmy\u201d path, but end up following the path of their calling.\u00a0 I characterize it as, \u201cI know stuff and I like to share.\u201d I love what I teach.\u00a0 I teach Tarot, shamanic practice, Wicca, and other fun things like tea-leaf reading, pendulums, and different ways of looking at the Goddesses and Gods (think chocolate!).\u00a0 I recently retired from teaching Reiki because I felt that Spirit was telling me to leave that path for others to teach.\u00a0 What I teach is strong, fluid, fun, and interests me, heart and soul.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> Could you tell us more about the Basic journeys of the Shamanic Student?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> When you get down to it, the basic skills are what keep a practice going and going.\u00a0 There are three overlapping worlds, the Upper World, the Middle World, and the Lower World.\u00a0 We journey to these worlds to gather information, wisdom, and power; and we use those things to change ourselves and to help our community change and grow.\u00a0 The Lower World is the home of our totems, power guides, and creatures who work with us in our journeywork purpose.\u00a0 The Upper World is where our teachers reside and appear to us in human form as Gods, Goddesses, and revered heroes and humans.\u00a0 The Middle World is this world of the material and includes the hidden realms of magic.<\/p>\n

The first journeys that form the basis of our shamanic practice are:\u00a0 journey to the lower world to find your power animal; and journey to the upper world to find your teacher.\u00a0 Another basic journey is to dance your power animal here in the Middle World.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> In chapter three of your book Shamanic Witchcraft \u201cWalking between the Worlds: Developing a Shamanic Practice\u201d you talk about \u2018Guided Visualization\u2019 and Finding your Inner Shaman\u2019 could you please elaborate on this further?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> The people I encounter come to meditation and trance work with expectations and fears gathered from the media and other sources but with little personal experience, or so they think.\u00a0 In the media, they see images of monks, priests, and other holy people who are very disciplined in some methods of meditation and seekers think they have to emulate those behaviors to \u201cbe good at meditation.\u201d What people don\u2019t always realize is that we instinctually use guided visualization and trance work in our daily lives.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s instinctual, we aren\u2019t doing it consciously or with discipline.\u00a0 I use guided visualization to demonstrate that those of us who were raised in a media-enriched world can find a personal meditation practice that works for us.<\/p>\n

The \u201cFinding Your Inner Shaman\u201d guided visualization rocks!\u00a0 One of my friends, Lady Phoenix Medusa in Rochester, NY introduced me to this meditation.\u00a0 Because some form of shamanism was practiced in all the cultures of the world, I believe it is part of our heritage, part of our blood, bone, and sinew.\u00a0 Modern folk, such as us, have to consciously reawaken our inner shamanic instinct.\u00a0 The guided meditation in the book is one way to do that.\u00a0 Once your inner shaman is discovered or reawakened, he or she becomes part of your active inner divine nature.\u00a0 Once again!<\/p>\n

PP: <\/strong> Could you explain to the readers the differences between \u2018Creatures and Spirits of the other realms?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> Nice catch!\u00a0 I always wonder if someone is going to question that.\u00a0 It\u2019s a phrase I use in ritual to call in the \u2018creatures and spirits\u2019 of the directions, above and below.\u00a0 I believe that that we humans see the world of spirit within our own human limitations.\u00a0 The Animals and others appear to us in ways that we can understand them, so they might be a cartoon character, an animal we like, or a creature we encounter in our daily lives.\u00a0 In circle, I want to allow the possibility of limitlessness so I tried to pick a phrase that would allow me to call in more than I could imagine into our circle \u2013 in perfect love and perfect trust, of course!<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> What system of initiation is used in your coven and in Shamanic Witch Craft?<\/p>\n

Gail: <\/em> Much of the initiatory work in my coven and tradition is oathbound, meaning that I have taken oaths not to reveal parts of our practices including initiation.\u00a0 We do that to continue our practices in safety and also to make each threshold ritual the best possible experience for the Witch.\u00a0 Keeping parts of the practice secret is not to exclude people but to intensify the experience.\u00a0 Truly, initiation comes from Spirit and we Witches are witnesses and facilitators of the experience.\u00a0 Understanding comes from the experience of the initiation and not in the reading or telling of it!<\/p>\n

PP: <\/strong>How do you see Witchcraft being passed on in the future? Will there be more worship circles led by priests and priestesses or will there always be covens? Will there always be the goal of a universal priesthood within Witchcraft, or will people content to be congregants?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> I think there already is a pagan laity.\u00a0 There are people who want to live in harmony with the sacred world and to live as a pagan but don\u2019t want to write, facilitate or actively create their own worship.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard people identify themselves as pagan agnostics and pagan atheists, saying they question or disbelieve in the existence of many gods, rather than just one.\u00a0 What they really want to do is live life according to the values of sacred life and in harmony with nature and maybe a lot of the counter-culture activities as well, but they are not religious.<\/p>\n

How will Witchcraft be facilitated in the future?\u00a0 I think the variety and diversity already exists and that will not only continue but flourish in keeping with individual need and desire.\u00a0 I believe there will always be covens just as there will be open circles, public circles, groups that meet together in large and small numbers.\u00a0 It\u2019s up to the individuals how they want to meet together and the human imagination is enormously creative.\u00a0 I think there will be more diversity in how people identify themselves both individually and as groups.<\/p>\n

PP: <\/strong>What are the biggest changes in the Wiccan or Pagan community that you have seen over the past twenty years? What are the challenges we face in the years to come?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> There is much more awareness in the general population about Wicca and by extension, paganism.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s much depth to that awareness but most people are generally aware that Wicca is a growing religion.\u00a0 People make their own judgments about Wicca and often without a lot of information.\u00a0 Seekers will come at all levels of dedication from curiosity and thrill-seekers, to people wanting to criticize and harm, to the dedicated and earnest.<\/p>\n

Some of the challenges we currently deal with are similar social issues everyone in society has to deal with, is how to function within a dominant culture with little sympathy or understanding of our lack of structure, money, and organization.\u00a0 As examples, I think various pagan groups are facing decisions about non-profit status, money, insurance, and meeting places all the time.\u00a0 As we grow larger than our living rooms and groves, where do we go, how do we worship, and how do we make it happen in consistent and effective ways.<\/p>\n

As we grow as a community, we need to think about children\u2019s education and growth and organizations such as Spiral Scouts are great ways to help.\u00a0 At the other end of the spectrum, how are we going to deal with our aged ones?\u00a0 Nursing homes, hospitals, funeral homes, and all the services concerned with aging and illness do not usually encompass an ecumenical understanding of pagan religions.<\/p>\n

And, as the population in prisons continues to grow there are many incarcerated pagans un-served by the free world pagans.\u00a0 I had a pagan prison ministry for more than five years.\u00a0 My correspondence courses grew exponentially and the need for my services left me emotionally burnt out; it consumed so much of my time and resources, I finally had to stop.\u00a0 In my experience, most free world pagans do not want anything to do with incarcerated pagans.\u00a0 It is hard work and the few people who do the work are dedicated and honored folk, but they do toil alone often without support or understanding.<\/p>\n

And the bigger question about all these social issues seems to be, how do we address them and still maintain the free-wheeling, iconoclastic, counter-culture attitude that brought most of us to paganism in the first place.<\/p>\n

PP:<\/strong> Are you currently working on any new exciting projects that you would like to share with the readers of Pagan Pages?<\/p>\n

Gail:<\/em> I have an idea percolating to do a book on the shamanic visions of the 21st century goddess called The Rowdy Goddess.\u00a0 To take the understanding of various Goddesses, well-known and obscure, and approach her shamanically and see what happens!\u00a0 I\u2019ve done bits and pieces of that and would like to put that together.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been working on a Tarot book for pagans; it\u2019s designed as a year-and-a-day study course and incorporates the holidays and other interesting tid-bits.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also wanted to write an advanced book on shamanic witchcraft called The Well-prepared Witch.\u00a0 How to be a magical worker, a journeyer, and a spell-caster\u2026..<\/p>\n

Bountiful Blessings and thank you Gail, for your mesmerizing insights into Shamanic Witchcrafts past, present and future<\/p>\n

Works of Gail Wood Include:<\/em><\/p>\n

Shamanic Witchcraft<\/em><\/p>\n

The Wild God: Rituals And Meditations on the Sacred Masculine<\/a><\/p>\n

Rituals of the Dark Moon: 13 Lunar Rites for a Magical Path<\/a><\/p>\n

Short Essays and Poetry<\/em><\/p>\n

“Sweet Dreams” in Cakes and Ale for the Pagan Soul.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Llewellyn Witches Calendar, various years including 2007-010<\/em><\/p>\n

Llewellyn’s Tarot Annual 2007 and 2008<\/em><\/p>\n

The Magical Almanac 2006 – 2010<\/em><\/p>\n

We’Moon Datebook and We’Moon on the Wall 2007 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gail adroitly spins a guide that presents the reader the ability to shape shift and navigate through time, thought, and space. The basic foundations of Shamanism and witchcraft in Gail\u2019s book, \u201cThe Shamanic Witch\u201d go beyond the fundamental concepts we have become accustomed to. Reminding one of their own inherent abilities in the Shamanic tradition and edifies just how to put these abilities into practice in Shamanic Witchcraft. Gail has fashioned a powerful practice that once embraced opens up the path between the worlds which leads to affirmative changes in all who follow it. Photo by: Dawn Van Hall Gail was gracious enough to allow us this wonderful interview probing into her personal journey throughout her life and her work. The past few weeks that I have spent talking with Gail have been not only spiritually educational but very exciting to say the least. Interview with Gail Woods The Shamanic Witch Pagan Pages\u00a0 (PP): Gail could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? Gail Wood (Gail): I live in rural Central New York in a house that’s more than 125 years old; we live on nearly two beautiful acres.\u00a0 Mouse, my partner, is the high priest of our coven and we have two very old dogs.\u00a0 I’m a college library director at a state school. I love being a librarian. I went to college and graduate school at the University of Maryland.\u00a0 We moved around a lot as a kid but where we always ended up was in Maryland where my mother is from; and that is where I will live when I retire.\u00a0 I love the Atlantic Ocean beaches especially Assateague Island. I love to read and research and I do all sorts of needlework and sewing.\u00a0 I love things that glitter! I’ve been a Witch before I knew it was called Wicca and I discovered that over twenty-five years ago.\u00a0 I love Tarot and all sorts of divination, I love to teach.\u00a0 I’m a Reiki Master, as well as a shamanic practitioner. PP: Gail do you consider yourselves to be a Witch or Shaman? Gail: Interesting question and the short answer are both.\u00a0 I consider myself a shamanic witch.\u00a0 It\u2019s really difficult to get shamanic training that integrates witchcraft or Wicca into it.\u00a0 Most shamanic teachers are not Wiccans or witches.\u00a0 I wrote the book to demonstrate not only can it be done but also that the practice of witchcraft is very shamanic in nature.\u00a0 My personal practice and identity is both shamanic and witchy.\u00a0 I can\u2019t separate them out anymore! PP: Who, would you say inspired you the most in your own path through the Mysteries? Gail: There\u2019s not a one-person answer to that question!\u00a0 My teacher, SunRaven, was one who taught me the basics of shamanic practice and then how to further and deepen the work.\u00a0 My High Priestess in the RavenMyst tradition, Lady Hawke was the one that made me conscious that my shamanic practice is truly integrated into my Wiccan practice.\u00a0 Kristin Madden is a great inspiration; she\u2019s fun, funny, and a powerful journeyer.\u00a0 I\u2019m a great reader and taker of workshops, so there are a lot of writers, teachers, and workshop leaders to whom I owe a lot for inspiration.\u00a0 I\u2019m a member of an online writing witchy group and those authors give me lots of encouragement, insight, and inspiration.\u00a0 If I start naming all the writers and teachers, the list would be long\u2014plus I\u2019d be afraid I\u2019d leave someone out.\u00a0 These days, too, I gather a lot of strength, creativity, and inspiration from my students both inside and outside the Craft, and of course, my partner Mouse and my dogs. PP: Gail how do you feel your work to date was influenced by Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone? Gail: Another interesting question.\u00a0 Not consciously.\u00a0 I have read every book by Janet and Stewart Farrar, and then the ones co-authored by Gavin Bone.\u00a0 I liked Progressive Witchcraft a lot and remember thinking that this book will help me deepen my understanding.\u00a0 Now I will go back and take a look at it again. PP: What advice would you give to someone newly interested in Paganism or Witchcraft? Gail: Find the path and the practice that resonates with your authentic self and don\u2019t let others tell you it MUST be this way or that way.\u00a0 Find what works for you.\u00a0 I usually tell people to be as smart about their spirituality as they are with the other choices in their lives.\u00a0 There are many paths and many ways to experience Spirit and what you owe to yourself is to find the one that resonates deeply with your own internal, eternal divine light. PP: Gail, how do you think that public opinion of Witchcraft and Paganism has changed over the last few decades? Gail: It\u2019s been a very interesting transition.\u00a0 When I started, there was very little information about Paganism.\u00a0 You had to work very hard to find out how to practice and how to make it knowable to yourself.\u00a0 I\u2019m very grateful to the work of Scott Cunningham, Starhawk, Raymond Buckland, and the fictional work of Katherine Kurtz from those early days, and then later, Dorothy Morrison, Marion Green, and Caitlin and John Matthews.\u00a0 Then, it seemed, that the information exploded and spilled out into the mainstream and lots of wonderful writers came into the foreground.\u00a0 I think the controversies surrounding Silver Ravenwolf\u2019s Teen Witch created awareness, both good and bad, outside the rather private pagan community.\u00a0 Around that time, academics started publishing works and analyses on the pagan community.\u00a0 Then good and dumb portrayals of Wicca and Witches started showing up in the media including episodes of sitcoms;\u00a0 the long running show, Charmed, brought even more awareness, both correct and incorrect.\u00a0 All sorts of things, factual and fictional, inspire us to move into more spiritual questing, so in some ways having a more real portrayal of Witches show up in the media is part of human nature. I think more and more people are looking at the values of pagan life and resonating with them.\u00a0 They don\u2019t necessarily want to be priests or priestesses, but they want to live as if all life is sacred and in harmony with nature.\u00a0 Others want to live in the counter-culture and be iconoclastic and the pagan community offers that lifestyle as well.\u00a0 I do see a growth in the Wiccan and pagan laity, to borrow a phrase from the mainstream religions. It\u2019s rare nowadays that I have to explain that Wicca and witchcraft is not Satanism.\u00a0 Most people seem to have a smattering of knowledge.\u00a0 This is not to imply that people do not have a lot of wrong assumptions but there is usually awareness, though that awareness isn\u2019t really deep or very factual.\u00a0 Lately, I\u2019ve been treated in some odd ways \u2013 as if I am weird-in-a-good-way, a curiosity, or as part of a chic, cool thing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t usually get treated as evil anymore and that is a blessing! PP: If you could go back in time and change one thing you did, what would it be? Gail: Personally and frankly, I would not spend so much time worrying, and specifically not spend so much time agonizing over how fat I was or was not; am or am not.\u00a0 I would have danced more!\u00a0 So I dance now\u2026 PP: What do you consider the highlights of your own writing careers to be? Gail: The Shamanic Witch has me very, very excited.\u00a0 I reconnected with SunRaven and I think my writing has improved a great deal.\u00a0 All the writing that I\u2019ve had published has always made me very pleased and proud.\u00a0 The writing I do is a result of the things I teach, so it\u2019s wonderful to see my teaching take a different and new life in print.\u00a0 It has also connected me with a lot of people I would not have known otherwise. PP: What are your views on sex, and sexual symbolism in the Craft? Does it, in your opinion, play an important role? Gail: Where to start?\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to separate out the sexual symbolism of the beliefs of the Craft, such as creation stories and the Great Rite, from the sexual behavior of members of the Craft and the pagan community. The latter, sexual behavior, in all its permutations, orientations, encounters, coupling, poly-loving and more, is an important part of our counter-culture community.\u00a0 As long as I have a choice and can choose in harmony with my own heart, then so should everyone else.\u00a0 We all live in a long complex gender continuum and there aren\u2019t many safe places for people to go outside the male-female polarity and discover who we are and what gives us joy.\u00a0 I always hope everyone can find a space of safety and an absence of judgment.\u00a0 With luck all of us can find not only tolerance but also acceptance and love.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit I was shocked at my first festival years ago, but then I got over myself; and as long as I have choices of how far I will or will not go, then it\u2019s all good. So then we get into the sexual symbolism in the practice of the Craft and the stories of the Great Rite.\u00a0 It can make the Craft seem lurid and sensational.\u00a0 The symbolism itself is beautiful and powerful because it helps us understand the fluid, flowing energy of the Universe.\u00a0 That energy of ebb and flow, in and out, receiving and giving is made understandable in the performance of the Great Rite.\u00a0 The challenge in ritual for the symbolic Great Rite in ritual is to be inclusive to all sexual orientations and gender identities.\u00a0 The Great Rite becomes lurid when people think it\u2019s only about the human male-female sex act. PP: How do you deal with people who criticize you for your views and practices? Gail: I work in academe and in our community, research, argument, skepticism, and discussion are part of life and I\u2019m well trained in discussion and mental argument.\u00a0 I am also very good at \u201cagreeing to disagree.\u201d When the criticism gets personal and mean-spirited, then I get my feelings hurt just like everyone else.\u00a0 I have safe places to kvetch, vent, and process.\u00a0\u00a0 I have a good sense of humor, so I can often deflect some remarks that way.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to tell you that I\u2019m always wise, erudite, articulate, and meet every criticism with the perfect words, but I\u2019m human and I get tired, cranky, and vulnerable too.\u00a0 I try to keep it all in balance and try not to return nasty for nasty. I had a funny experience when I found a Dark Moon community on the internet.\u00a0 I was really excited.\u00a0 And they were discussing my book, Rituals of the Dark Moon.\u00a0 I thought this would really enrich my ongoing work with the Dark Moon.\u00a0 The first thing I read was that someone really did not care for the book at all because the guided meditations didn\u2019t have much detail.\u00a0 As I make a stabbed in the heart motion, I also had to laugh remembering my grandmother\u2019s expression of an eavesdropper never hearing any good about herself.\u00a0 And to answer that criticism, I deliberately kept the meditation sparse so their own journeys could fill in the details.\u00a0 Talk about your good intentions going awry! PP: What are the differences and similarities between Shamanic Witch craft and the Wiccan Tradition? Gail: It\u2019s hard to put into words because it is so experiential.\u00a0 The greatest example of difference in practice is that in my tradition and in my personal practice is that we open Center ritual.\u00a0 When we open center, we call in the energies of above and below and open the gates to the Upper and Lower Worlds.\u00a0 The connection between these worlds is ourselves, the Witch, who is rooted in the Lower world through the roots of the World Tree, and we spread our branches up into the Upper…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}