Daily Pagan News

“Pagan” Beliefs

witchcuntt:

My grandmother (Mamaw) is surrounded by angels. Well…statues of angels, anyway. Resin angels, porcelain angels, ceramic angels—I think we might’ve even unpacked a crystal angel or two during the move. There are angels inscribed with blessings of home, angels guarding the preparation of food in the kitchen kitchen, an angel bedecked in glimmering seashells perched on the lapping foam of tides rolling in. There’s an angel for every possible occasion.

The angel outside in the site of Mamaw’s future garden once stood next to my grandfather’s (Pop) gravestone. It kept getting knocked over and it’s so brittle we decided to take it back home to keep it from getting ruined.

There’s a small resin statue of a farmer holding rabbits that sits by her new back door. She’s named him Dan the Man and gave him the specific task of watching over that part of the house.

A photo of Pop is hung up in the living room, and underneath it, a certificate from the military that was given to us after his death. The specially folded flag is in a shadow box near by. Mamaw dusts these lovingly each day, and—when she’s feeling emotionally strong enough—talks to Pop as she does it.

Unwittingly, my Christian grandmother—the daughter of a Baptist preacher— has filled her house with things that closely resemble fetishes as well as created a space to interact with and venerate her dead husband.

And that’s the problem.

These things make her no more pagan than my first aid kit makes me a doctor. Just like my work with (some) Saints doesn’t make me a Christian, her unknowing foray into slightly ‘mystical’ shit doesn’t change the fact that Christ is her Savior.

Which is why I get so goddamned irked when I see these lists of shit “Real Paganz” (tm) do/should do. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that needs to be on that list is “educate yourself”.

So let’s just stop it, aigh’t? Instead of trying to paint a large, diverse group of people with a broad stroke in a color you’re comfortable with, look inwards and figure out what it is that you believe. That will be much more helpful for you to know than it is for me to know that I’m not a Real Paganz (tm) to you because I don’t work with crystals or follow the three fold law or whatever is in vogue right now. 

Shove and Blight,

Zee

Pagan Deism: Three Views

Bridger presents a very interesting conceptual model of deism within Contemporary Paganism. In its simplest  design, Bridger presents the model of a triangle with a red, blue, and yellow side. The triangle is situated with the red side on top and the blue and yellow sides at the left and right of the base.  Each of these sides represents a unique view of deism.

Red: This is the “orthodox deist position” in which the gods are personal, individual, and objectively verifiable. They exist beyond human comprehension, but communicate with us. In keeping with the orthodox position, these are people of faith who do not queston the existence of deity. “They believe the many gods are facts of the universe, impossible to question or doubt without doubting one’s own version of reality. Belief is not a question, it is a cornerstone from which all else of religion springs.”

Blue: These people posit that deity exists, but as an ineffable mystery, which we cannot comprehend. As a result, they anthropomorphize deity into “human-like metaphors and masks upon the faceless Face of the Ultimate.” This is the mystic of the group who views the universe in a holistic manner “where all things are part of one great pattern.”  Life, and the individual by extension, has meaning and purpose and ritual is deigned to allow one to more consciously participate in the rhythms of the universe. “The purpose of a religion is to explore, and more actively participate in, the pattern which is the sum of these many parts.”

Yellow: These people view deity as abstractions of truth with no verifiable objective existence. The utility of the deities lies in “the valid ways of making sense of human thought and experience, personifications of abstracts that might be too slippery for the human mind to grasp. They enrich our lives and are worth believing in.” This individual is naturelyskeptical and has an innate need to know the truth. “This person cannot believe without doubting and cannot reconcile belief without doubt. They usually view deity as symbolic and as a chief metaphor in the quest for self-knowledge.

Read more at The Pagan Perspective

A Look at Interfaith Marriages

There’s a nice little feel-good piece from the Shreveport Times, taking a look at how a Christian and a Wiccan can still manage to find the balance required for a happy marriage. The article profiles Michael and Cindy Diaczynsky. She’s a Christian, and when they married, he was too - but eventually he began studying Wicca, and realized that his spiritual journey was leading him away from his Christian roots.

Cindy says her friends and family have come to accept that she’s married to a practicing witch - Michael is an ordained high priest in his local coven - but what I find really telling are the comments made by the couple themselves. Michael says, “I always tell people, I’ve never met a better Christian than my wife… She is what true Christianity was meant to be.”

Read more at About.com

List of the posts about the greek gods, goddesses and daimones!

lonelyspelltoconjureyou:

I accept requests and please don’t remove the credits. Every new post I’ll update this list.

~

Amphitrite: 1

Aphrodite: 1 2 3

Apollon: 1 2

Ares: 1

Artemis: 1 2

Asclepius: 1

Asteria: 1

Athene: 1 2 3

Atlas: 1

Cyclopes: 1

Demeter: 1

Dionysus: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Erinyes: 1

Eros (protogenos): 1

Gaia: 1

Ganymede: 1

Hades: 1

Hebe: 1

Hecate: 1 2

Helios: 1

Hemera: 1

Hephaestus: 1

Hera: 1

Herakles: 1 2

Hermes: 1 2

Hestia: 1 2

Hygeia: 1

Hypnos: 1

Iris: 1

Kharon: 1

Mnemosyne: 1

Muses: 1 2² 3³

Nemesis: 1

Nyx: 1

Pan: 1 2

Pandora: 1

Persephone: 1

Poseidon: 1

Priapos: 1

Prometheus: 1

Rhea: 1

Selene: 1

Semele: 1

Silenus: 1

Thanatos: 1

The Moirai: 1

The nymphs: 1 2⁴

The Three Graces: 1

The Titanes: 1 2¹

Typhon: 1

Zeus: 1 2

___

Some hymns (credits to madgastronomer): 1 2

___

⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ⁰

¹Gaia and Ouranos.

²Apollonides

³ Titanides

⁴ Nereids

On Gender Roles and Witchcraft

I want to talk about something that’s been bothering me. 

When we talk about neopaganism, the giant in the room is generally Wicca - it’s the most well known religion under the neopagan umbrella, the one that gets the most positive press, and it dominates the bookshelves in the ‘alternative religions’ section. Thankfully, Wicca and Wiccans tend to be inclusive and welcoming toward other religious traditions such as Asatru, Druidism, Hellenic Polytheism, and so on, so I (loosely a Hellenic Polytheist) have never had a reason to feel marginalized within my own religious community. That’s one of the things I love about being pagan, that I am included even if my beliefs don’t mesh with others’ in the community, that we can meet and agree that the important things - love for deity, love for each other, love for the earth, love for ourselves - are the same between us. 

I do tend to sway heavily toward the Goddess side of the equation as many do, but like most Wiccans, I believe that the balance of God and Goddess is important, and that it does not do to overlook the other half of my personal coin. Thus, I worship Hecate and Hermes. Thus, I pray to Dionysus and Ariadne. Thus I revere Persephone and Hades. And if I skew toward the goddesses in my personal invocations, I trust that the gods understand my reasons.

But when we speak of duality in paganism, when we speak of The God and The Goddess as two sides of the same coin (as I just did), we may be unconsciously participating in a social construction that actually does not suit us.

Read more at Witchvox

My offering bread is in the oven, but let me give you the recipe ;3

skepticalwitch:

1 cup sugar or honey (i use a little of both)

1.5 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoon margarine/butter

4 cups flour

7/8 cup soy milk or water

You mix it up and then put it on a baking sheet and cook it for eight to ten minutes on 400 degrees :3

City Parks, City Witches • Valerie Freseman

Pagans have always lived in cities. The great city-states of the ancient world, from Rome to Athens to Cairo to Babylon and beyond, were places of teeming humanity — places where men, women, and children of all ages came to live within the places and practices that defined their existence. Polytheists, then as now, are not all “pagan” in the old sense of the word as in ”country dweller.” What was true about pagan practice then is just as true now — we make reverence wherever we are — to our ancestors, to the spirits of the land, and to those forces that hold sway over hearth and home.

I have been a city-witch since coming to the Pagan path over twenty years ago, first as a solitaire and then as a member of a Wiccan tradition, Shadowfolk, and a coven leader. I was born, raised, and currently live in New York, and I feel most at home in large cities even though I relish the opportunity to escape elsewhere when I can. Sometimes, if you live in an urban jungle, it can be hard to see the powers of the land bubbling up all around you — but of course, they are unmistakably there. There is nothing so breath-taking as a street tree awakening itself with blossoms. Or the freshness of the air when a short spring rain has come and temporarily washed away the grime of the streets.

My teacher said that to be a witch in New York, you need to cultivate a “zen” attitude towards using public spaces. We are always simultaneously tuning ourselves out of city noises and distractions, but tuning ourselves in to the magick around us at the same time. This is especially true when we do ritual in city parks — one of the main ways we connect with nature — and along the way, I have learned some things about the best way to work within these little urban oases.

Read more at No Unsacred Space

An Open Memo To The NeoWiccan Community

This is the Wiccan Rede.

“An it harm none, do what ye will.”

A simple, but deceptive, statement that doesn’t quite mean what you probably think it means. 

This is the long form poem The Rede of the Wiccae that was penned by Gwen Thompson. 

Read more at Adventures in Witchery

Nature Is the Best Teacher…

I’ve been feeling a bit “out of sorts” lately. Some of it could be attributed to the seasonal cabin fever that we all tend to get around this time of the year, although in reality this has been a rather mild winter here in the Midwest. I think it’s just that I’ve been a little bored and a lot lazy of late, with the result that I’ve been dawdling around the house, wasting my time on Facebook and snacking on unhealthy food – which of course doesn’t do anything for my health or my waistline.

But yesterday was a beautiful day – the sun was shining, the sky was a bright blue, and the temperature climbed into the 50’s…still on the cool side, but warmer than average. I was determined to get out and get some exercise…and with a large park near my house, I had no excuse. So I donned my exercise clothes, laced up my New Balance sneakers and drove over for a hike.

This particular park is over 700 acres, and is built on a large knob covered with old growth forest. After parking my vehicle, I headed off into the woods.

It turned into one of the best decisions I’ve made recently.

It gave me the chance to do a bunch of RE-ing: rejuvenating, renewing, reconnecting and reaffirming. I was able to rejuvenate my body with some needed exercise; renew my relationship with nature; reconnect with the Goddess in her role as the Earth Mother, and reaffirm my spiritual beliefs.

Sometimes all it takes is a walk in the woods to remind oneself why you are a Pagan.

As I strolled along the trail, my senses took in all that was happening around me. I couldn’t hear the birds, of course…but I could see them fluttering around the branches. I could feel the sun’s rays upon my shoulders, smell the rich fertile earth beneath my feet, see the small green shoots of plants poking up through the soil. Mother Earth is indeed awakening, and we are now witnessing the promise of rebirth, the continuation of the cycle of life that is celebrated in the Wheel of the Year.

Read more at Deaf Pagan Crossroads

Lokasenna, verse 9

witchyways:

9. Loki kvað: 

“Mantu þat, Óðinn, 
er vit í árdaga 
blendum blóði saman? 
Ölvi bergja 
lézktu eigi mundu, 
nema okkr væri báðum borit.”


Auden and Taylor translate L9 thus:

“Remember, Odin, in the olden days
What blood-brothers we were:
You would never have dreamed of drinking ale
Unless it was brought for us both.”

Thorpe offers this interpretation:

“Odin! dost thou remember
when we in early days
blended our blood together?
When to taste beer
thou didst constantly refuse,
unless to both ´twas offered?”

This is Bellows’ take: 

“Remember, Othin, | in olden days
That we both our blood have mixed;
Then didst thou promise | no ale to pour,
Unless it were brought for us both.”

(found on http://burningblood.livejournal.com/10342.html)

Pearl Pentacle (Spiral Dance)

nestoftheredbird:

“Loveis the moving energy of life. It is both blindly erotic and deeply personal, a passionate, prideful,powerful caring for oneself and others. It is the law of the Goddess and the essence of magic.
Wisdom and Knowledge can best be understood together. Knowledge is learning, the power of the mind to understand and decribe the universe. Wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge— and how not to apply it. Knowledge is knowing what to say; wisdom is knowing whether or not to say it. Knowledge gives answers; wisdom asks questions. Knowledge can be taught; wisdom grows out of experience, out of making mistakes.
Law is natural law, not human law. When we break natural laws, we suffer the consequences as a natural result of our actions, not as a punishment. If you break the law of gravity, you will fall. Magic functions within natural law, not outside of it. But natural law may be broader and more complex than we realize.
Power, again, is the power that comes from within, when love, knowledge, wisdom, and law are united. Power, rooted in love and tempered with knowledge, law, and wisdom, brings growth and healing.”
~ Starhawk, The Spiral Dance

Helen Ukpabio Cancels US Visit

The President and founder of the Liberty Gospel Foundation Church, Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio says she has indefinitely cancelled her scheduled visits to the USA which where billed for March and May this year.

Speaking through her attorney, Victor Ukutt, Esq., the Pentecostal Pastor and Nollywood actress, who has her church branches spread all over Africa, said her decision to cancel her trip was based on the series of death threat she received from organisations like Stepping Stones Nigeria a based in the United Kingdom which claimed to work as a charity to protect witch children in Nigeria.

Ukpabio is internationally notorious as a proponent of the belief  - not found anywhere in the Bible – that personal misfortune can be caused by child witches, and that children identified as witches require “deliverance”. While Ukpabio asserts that she cures children afflicted in this way through a harmless ceremony, the doctrine has caused great harm to children and families.

Read more at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion