Many witches carry a pendulum with them at all times to help make the right decisions. I sometimes see pendulums twirling over herbs and produce at the farmers market or hovering over restaurant menus. They have recently become available at most metaphysical stores, but a lovingly handmade pendulum is imbued with more personal energy. An easy DIY way to make your own pendulum is to take a strong string or length of leather and tie a ring, gemstone, or crystal to the end. By the light of the new moon, take a bundle of sage, light one end and pass the smoke over your pendulum, “smudging” and purifying your space.
Wear the pendulum around your neck for seven days. Each night, light black candles on your altar to absorb negative energy and, holding the pendulum still, chant:
Guide me to the path of truth, O goddess hear my song. This pendulum I charge with my energy, to judge right from wrong.
So mote it be.
On the seventh day, you can begin using your new tool. Any time you need advice before making a decision, dangle the pendulum and observe its movement—swaying from front to back means yes, left to right means no.
I'm a witch; it's one of the many terms I use to describe my religious and spiritual nature. For me being a witch is inextricably connected to being a practitioner of magick and communing with spirits both great and small. I also identify as Pagan, a Polytheist, a Wiccan, a magician, and a whole list of other terms that is longer than is needed for the purpose of this blog. I'd like to talk about the reality of magick and of nonphysical beings. Rather than engage in debate about the terms, the tenets, or the tribulations of the various communities that are wrestling with these topics, I will speak from my direct experience of them. I've had many spiritual and overtly supernatural experiences. I have selected a few of them, that from my perspective, are all the proof that I need for myself. These vignettes are brief but I hope that they contain enough detail for you to understand why I considered them a confirmation of my sense of the universe.
In Black Rose we celebrate the longest day by honoring Lucifer the Witch King. In our tradition’s mythology Lucifer is the bringer of light and is personified by the brilliant shining sun. This Midsummer we will be invoking the spirit of Lucifer through an adaptation of one of our most treasured practices known as Kala. During Kala we gather energetic blockages and purify them with the power of our own light. We finish this ritual by consuming this energy, now instead of it being a toxic blockage it is nutritious power that can fuel us.
I walked in along the front driveway, past the lawn where we had once had an entire Aztec Empire, through the kindergarten section that looks tiny though I remember it as a whole world and round the corner to what I think of as the main part of the school. In the buildings I saw what I would have said I never noticed; hexagonal buildings, open plan classes, exposed beams, different levels. These are the buildings that framed my learning, my engagement with life, ideas and other people. This is the setting in which I learnt to think, to act and to become.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
