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Come present in this moment. The edge of sacred emergence is right here, right here now. It’s present in anything you do. Find the edge by fully becoming present. Include whatever there is. Feel you are always, always being met. Maybe not by everyone in the way you would wish. But who’s always there, and always meeting , is earth. And space. Will you be the one who disappoints them? Or will you show up fully? If so, from this connection energy will start to shine. It will invite others to become more present too. Start moving from this connection, from this energy. It’s a place where you don’t know if the movement started in you or in the other. That’s emergence happening. 

I recently attended the joint Between the Worlds and Sacred Space conference that occurred in Maryland from the 5th through the 8th of March. Between the Worlds is a conference which occurs every few years, dependent on the right astrological circumstances, while Sacred Space is an annual conference. I'd never attended either, but I had been invited to be a presenter for Between the Worlds by Ivo Dominguez Jr (And a hearty thank you to him for doing so). Thursday was the start of the event, and I attended the opening ritual, which was a powerful awakening of the Sacred Space egregore. I liked how everyone got involved in the ritual...It was quite moving in its intensity. Later on I attended a talk by Literata on Modernity and Occultism and how different people had specific visions of what they wanted to manifest and how what they manifested didn't quite turn out the way they expected, but nonetheless built a current of sorts that we can look back on in history.

On the second day of the event I attended a panel on alliances with the spirit world, with Diana Paxson, Dorothy Morrison, Kirk Thomas, Aeptha, and Michael Smith sharing their perspectives on working with the spirits. I enjoyed the various perspectives they shared, all of which showed a depth of experience that was meaningful to anyone listening to the panel. Then I presented my class on the Alchemy of Breath, which seemed well received. As a presenter, it is always nice to have a room full of people who are genuinely engaged in what you are sharing. After that we attended the ritual prep class for the main ritual. What I liked about it is that they provided people the necessary background information to get the most out of the ritual scheduled for that evening. Later I went to Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki's class on Astral Doorways. This was a fascinating class, where she presented information on the second road/world. A lot of what she presented fit in with what I've been learning from R. J. Stewart (no surprise given their respective lineages), but it also gave me food for through about my own practices in relationship to imagination. Finally I attended the main ritual, which was a syncretic mix of five different traditions, woven together quite nicely to create a ritual which spoke to the importance of being present and participative in the changing times, to represent your cause during those times and know that others were also there. Following all that I had some conversation with people I've met and people I already know.

Sometimes one has to retreat from the world, in order to better understand it.  Finding sanctuary, a sacred space where we can open our souls without fear, where we can simply be, is a glorious experience. It happens a lot less than we need in our lives, in my opinion.

A goddess of sanctuary, Nemetona is an elusive deity.  Not much is written or recorded about her in Classical texts or history.  Just the barest hints and place names, some tribe names and a couple of inscriptions.  Who is this goddess to whom we can bare our souls, in complete soul truth, knowing that we are held?

It's Monday here at the PaganNewsBeagle, the day we celebrate the Element of Air. Today we have academic research on Harry Potter, the linguistics of sacred space, how culture influences auditory hallucinations, and a grisly discovery that's attributed to ancient Germanic rituals. Enjoy!

Does reading Harry Potter books make kids less prejudiced about immigrants? This article details recent social science research that suggests the answer.

Be advised that I will have no photos to illustrate anything that goes on inside the prison walls unless I happen to come across them on the Web.  Needless to say, we volunteers are not permitted to bring cameras inside.

Neither will I be revealing any names or personal descriptions that might indicate the identity of anyone other than our supervising chaplain and myself.

Let's face it: our modern lifestyles are filled with frenetic energy. Between gadgets, appliances, wifi, sirens, car alarms, and the frantic pace that often defines the average day, many of us find that our everyday consciousness has strayed far from the silence and stillness of the sacred grove.

In the past, I did my best not to fret about the challenging effects of electronics in interior spaces (which include but are not limited to challenges to the immune system, brain wave interference, insomnia, increased anxiety, and radiation exposure), just because I felt that there was nothing to be done about them anyway, other than moving off the grid. Then, the other day, while dowsing, I discovered that I was actually able to significantly reduce the negative effects of electromagnetic stress simply by setting the intention to do so while clearing the space energetically. Afterwards, my city apartment felt notably more still, nourishing, and serene.

How do we want to present ourselves to the world? How does the world at large view the Pagan community, and are we happy with the way people see us?

These questions have circulating for years, and often the answer is something like, “Why should we care what they think? All they’re going to do is judge us anyway - and they’ve already made up their minds.”