PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.
There is a way that the desert breaks me down to my essential self
a way the desert wind tears away that which is no longer necessary
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It's 1966. A little tow-headed boy is sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, reading the Sunday supplement of the Pittsburgh Press.
He doesn't know that his life is about to change forever.
There are real witches! There are real witches right here in Pittsburgh! Real witches doing real magic!
One detail from the article hit hard enough to stay with me 50-some years later.
“I was born a wild girl…
cradled tight in mountain arms…
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By making this video Im ultimately inviting the scorn of all internet Pagans to rise up and object. Etymology is a touchy subject for some Pagans, which is exactly what this chapter of Her Hidden Children explores. Some will defend the proposed ideas that certain words mean certain things, and you know what?
That's totally ok.
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Objects can hold power, and collect energy. In "The Magick of Making", we explored how magick can be instilled into artwork by the maker. But what if you're not an artist/maker? And what about items that weren't originally made with magical intent but take on meaning for you?
Even if you don't consider yourself a "material" person, there is undoubtedly some sort of token that means more than the sum of its parts to you: your grandmother's thimble, a book from your father, the feather you found on the street on that really rough day, the rock from the hike you went on during that vacation, your "lucky" sweater.
Whether an item is made by humans, manufactured by machine, or created by nature, it has the potential for meaning, and meaning can be acquired most typically via association or by function.
Sometimes knowing where to start is the hardest part. Discovering the most effective ingredients to always have on hand, can be tricky. After all, there are thousands of ingredients available.
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Wicca certainly has its share of critics in the pagan community these days. Much of that criticism seems to me justified; some of it, frankly, stems from Wicca Envy pure and simple.
In the English-speaking world, Wicca is far and away the largest and most successful of the new pagan religions. For those both within and without, it's well worth asking why.
Skyclad and the Great Rite. Face it, sex and nudity sell. We're human beings, and we find them inherently interesting.
