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If, as they say, belief is a gift, I didn't get much.

Fortunately, I'm a pagan, so it doesn't matter.

Of course, there are believing pagans out there. Well, better an honest believer than a dishonest unbeliever.

But I suspect that most of us straddle that hedge, with one foot in belief and the other in doubt. And that I can respect.

I reached the crisis of faith early on in my pagan career. I loved the Old Gods passionately, but I realized that I couldn't be intellectually honest with myself and say that I actually believed in them.

I was working as a night watchman that summer, so I had many opportunities for dark nights of the soul. Finally, one night, the hag came down and we wrestled.

All night we wrestled.

In the morning, the Sun came up. Out of that struggle, I had won myself a realization.

Belief is moot.

If you suffer from stress-induced symptoms, try these calming crystals: Lapis lazuli has been used to treat headaches for millennia. My dear friend Abby suffers from migraines and cluster headaches. I gave Abby some earrings with lovely blue lapis settings to help her with this chronic condition, and she has reported great success. These headaches can have many causes and triggers; my beloved amber essence oil was one until we figured that out! The main causes are stress, anxiety, and various food triggers. Oddly enough, amber in crystal form alleviated Abby’s heinous headaches, seemingly absorbing the negative energy. Amethyst and turquoise are also good for this. Several stones are good for stomach illness; citrine and moonstone create calm. There is certainly no shortage of stress out there in the world so do yourself a favor and pick up these soothing stones to have at the ready. These crystals are a vital part of your sacred self-care.

One of the more frustrating aspects of practicing Modern Minoan Paganism and studying ancient Minoan culture is that we can't read Linear A, the script the Minoans used to write their native language. So we have to rely on the fragments of Minoan myth and history that have trickled down to us via the Greeks (the Minoans weren't Greek - they were their very own independent Bronze Age culture).

This means we don't even know the words the Minoans used for ordinary objects like cups and bowls. The archaeologists who first excavated Minoan sites had backgrounds in Greek history, myth, and culture, so they simply used the Greek terms for the pottery they unearthed. That's why libation pitchers from ancient Crete are called rhytons (or rhyta, if you want to use the Greek plural); rhyton is the Greek word for this kind of container.

[Image from http://www.literateape.com/blog/2016/12/19/i-fully-acknowledge-my-white-privilege-now-what]

This is Part 2 of my three-part series on race in Paganism

I could no longer stand the hate I felt for people who hate. 

The night of July 5, 2018, I had the strangest dream. Instead of living in my sweet house, I was living in a large apartment, and Donald Trump was my flatmate. We weren’t lovers, we were buddies. The degree to which I have loathed the 45th and everything he stands for makes the dream quite strange, given that he and I got along quite well in the dream.

In the dream, we were talking, and then I accidentally bumped up against him, and it seemed like his little penis was hard, but he didn’t even blink. Of course, Trump would not blink because he is a sly, awful man. He‘d leave me in that oh-so-awful-and-prevalent feminine quandary of endlessly debating with oneself, wondering things like “Am I just imagining things ...?" But I brushed his behavior off because neither his slyness nor anything else about him was bothering me. Remarkable dream for me!

Click Here to Read Part One 

....In preparation for Part Two of the Inner Temple, spend some time thinking about the types of meditation and/or pathworkings you may have already experienced. Knowing what you know now, how would you classify those experiences? Which category would they fall more naturally in to? And, if they were pathworkings are you aware of the underlying keys and the discipline selected (Astrology, Qabalah, Tarot, etc..). This reflection will open you further to the work of creating your Inner Temple as you become more receptive to the keys you are setting within yourself...."