They may be against plagiarism, but they sure aren’t against censoring! I no longer recommend that people join that group. They’re paranoid and overbearing jerks.
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
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
Rose petals
Heat-resistant glass bowl with lid
Spring water
Cheesecloth/ something to strain the water with..
Glass bottle to put the water in.
Instructions
- Gather your roses. If possible, harvest pesticide-free roses from your own garden; however, if you must buy roses from your local florist, rinse the petals in cool water to remove any chemicals.
- Pluck enough petals to firmly pack 1 cup. Place the roses in a heat-resistant glass bowl.
- Boil 2 cups of spring water and pour the hot water over the rose petals. Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and allow the rose petals to steep for 30 minutes.
- Cover a wide-mouthed jar with a piece of cheesecloth and pour the rosewater into the jar. Discard the rose petals.
This will last a little over a week in the refrigerator, add a mall amount of vodka and it will last longer, closer to a month.
Today in the world of fluffy bunnies, our society has been gripped by a frightful and catastrophic pandemic: The Realistic Witch.
Having thought to be extinct years ago with the rise of Christianity and monotheism, Witches have made a resurgence and their numbers are vast. This alone is not a problem, but with the resurgence of witches comes the most frightful of their species, the Realistic Witch. Commonly known to have legitimate knowledge in witchcraft and pagan belief systems, the Realistic Witch can and will debate the validity of Fluffy Bunny religion with surprising ease and strength. They do not yeild, and will attack over and over regardless of our own stubbornness or ignorance.
The Realistic Witch claims it is perfectly natural to debate and disagree with others beliefs, and vehemently refuses to accept that there are some among us who are reincarnations of Mythical creatures and Goddesses, or the Lovers of Gods. They also refuse to acknowledge our powers of being able to transform objects, shape shift into animals, teleport, or otherwise physically change our surroundings on a whim.
The Realistic Witch is the most feared enemy of us, the Fluffy Bunnies, and should be avoided at all costs. If you happen to encounter a Realistic Witch unknowingly in real life, do one of the following:
- Defend yourself with made-up stories of family-lineaged witchcraft.
- Threaten to file a police report for slander against your reputable image.
- Run away and hide (possibly the safest option), or
- Threaten to turn her into some kind of inanimate object, or otherwise a harmless animal (always a popular option)
If you happen to encounter a Realistic Witch online or in another non-physical manner, do one of the following:
- Use run-on sentences with bad puncuation and grammar to confuse her
- Use the same defensive statement repeatedly, but phrase it differently so it seems like you have a legitimate standing (and also to confuse her)
- Twist her words to fit your own agenda, and refuse to acknowledge your lack of experience and knowledge
- Remove/block her (and any known associates) from any email lists, Facebook groups, twitter pages, and any other such things, or
- Spread rumors that she is pretending to be enlightened when in reality, she knows nothing (a popular option used immediately following the tip before this).
Combining any/all of the above strategies from their respective grouppings, in conjunction with calling the Realistic Witch a fluffy bunny (a great insult to most Realistic Witches) for flair, will ensure that she will do one of two things. First, she may be angry enough to never speak to you again, or second, she may decide you are no longer worth her time. In the event that the second outcome should occure, feel secure in the knowledge that you have won your struggle against the Realistic Witch because hey, if she was really threatened by you, she’d continue pointlessly arguing.
This is Lady IsisMoonRose NightWaterDragon reporting from Calgary, Alberta.
Love and Light, Blessed be, and May the Moon Goddess watch over you all your days.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL NO, STOP
YOU ARE ALL OF THE WRONG
(Source: thewitchescauldron)
Fellow Fluffy Bunnies, this is breaking news. A new philosophy is sweeping our ranks and revolutionizing the way we think and choose our leaders. It calls to the Whitelighter in each of us and is something I believe we are destined to have discovered and must pass on.
This glorious event is known as “Love and Light”.
Much more than a simple blessing, which it may possibly be accepted as by Realistic Witches, Love and Light is sweeping our society and casting out darkness for good! What does this mean for you and your families?
Well, it means that anything negative, dark, depressing, sad or otherwise unpleasant about your life as miraculously ceased to exist! All that exists in the world is Love and Light. Now, some of you may wondering “But Lady IsisMoonRose NightWaterDragon, how can this be?” The answer is simple.
By refusing to accept the balance of light and dark in the world, and irrationally associating darkness only with evil and maelovence, we can simply refuse to accept and deal with that part of our lives, and anyone in our ranks who believe otherwise. Now this will require some Kool-Aid and alot of mind-trickery, but it is achievable, I promise you. After all, death in our world can now simply stop, so can the famine, poverty, war and disease that we all ignore anyway, because let’s face it, none of do charity voluntarily for any other reason than to look good in our society. It also presents the perfect solution to political differences and religious discord.
Who knew that three short words could change our lives so much!
Of course, there are going to be those who will scoff at us in our endeavor to live life in Love and Light, not to mention forcing only Love and Light upon anyone we meet, but there are ways around this that work both online and in person.
- Firstly, claim that the Goddess is a nurturing Mother. Ignoring her Crone aspect will instantly eliminates the darker side and leave non-believers with nothing to stand on.
- Next, state as loudly as possible (preferably in run-on sentances) that anyone who acknowledges the dark, the Yang or the negative in any way other than associating them with Evil is an Evil witch who wishes only harm on everyone. After all, someone who willingly accepts death as a Natural part of life MUST be evil.
- Thirdly, publically announce that through Love and Light, you and all other believers will be granted special keys to the gateway of Pagan Heaven, and anyone who believes in anything else will instantly be thrown to Hell (even though you don’t believe in hell, because you’re a Wiccan after all).
- Lastly, anyone who does not share your philosophy of Love and Light should be banned/blocked from all Facebook groups and Twitter pages, de-friended, defamed and generally picked upon (but in a loving way with light filled words, lest you be cast out of this movement as well).
It goes without saying that blind following of Love and Light is necessary to its success, as is lack of knowledge in real Pagan/Wiccan beliefs and no in-depth knowledge of the God and Goddess. If you have these characteristics, you can become an advocate for Love and Light today! Together, we will change the world from a place of balance into a place of unreasonable and unachievable happiness, goodness and all around Love and Light!
For more information on the Love and Light Phenomenon, please contact the local Fluffy Bunny branch in your city.
This is Lady IsisMoonRose NightWaterDragon reporting from Calgary, Alberta.
Love and Light, Blessed be, and May the Moon Goddess watch over you all your days.
This spell is one I saw on tumblr as an incantation, without much description to go with it, so I adapted it into a full spell.
1) Take a small tea light(one of those tiny disc-like candles) and light it.
2) Draw on energy from wherever. Yourself, the Earth, The Moon, The Sun, your patron god or goddess, whatever works best for you.
3) Charge the lit candle with this energy, and recite the following (I did NOT come up with this part):
“By this candle I do sleep,
hidden from the day, in the night so deep
O Lady Moon, guide my dreams,
cover me with your beautiful beams
As the candle flame dies,
please close my eyes
Allow me to wake
in the warmth of The Sun”
4) Once you’ve finished charging the candle and chanting, imagine your request being sent away with the flickering flame.
5) Place the candle somewhere where it won’t be at risk for falling and starting a fire (I placed mine in my “cauldron”, which is a small clay pot with raised edges).
6) Get into bed, and you should find it much easier to fall asleep. It will also wake you up earlier than usual once the sun is up, or at least it did in my case.
I kept waking up whenever the clouds parted and the sun shone in my window. If you don’t want to be woken up after dawn, I’d suggest you try leaving out the last two lines of the chant. I also found it much easier to recall my dreams with this, so this spell could be used as a dream memory booster as well. Good luck!
I got a question recently from a follower asking a question I’ve heard many times before. This person has converted to Christianity after having been a Pagan for some time, and wondered if and how they could incorporate their past practices into Christianity.
I know that many Priests, Reverends, Fathers…whatever the leader of your particular denomination may be called, may see Paganism and its practices as Heathenistic, or Satanistic, but I have a different outlook on it. Now this is obviously biased because of my personal beliefs but none the less…
If you believe in God, believe in the Catholic or Christian faith, there is no reason you can’t continue your practices from when you were Pagan, or incorporate new ideals into it. The particular questions usually pertain to worshiping the earth and its elements. What I would like to say is that if you have chosen to believe in God within the Christian faith, remember that in that ideal, God created the earth, and there is nothing wrong with worshiping his creations and the forces that keep it alive.
Many pagans worship the earth and the elements, the power behind such energies, and the processes they create. That is not an exclusive idea, and many faiths believe the same thing in different ways, and nothing in the bible says you can not worship God by appreciating what he had created.
Religion is a structure. Belief and Faith is personal. Remember that, and know that no one can tell you how to worship, how to belief, or how to feel your faith.
Blessed Be.
Here’s some tips for an inexpensive way to build your altar.
Tip #1 Walmart is your best friend.
Now some might hate Walmart, but you can get candles of every color you need but black and in most styles. Also, I’ve found they have wonderful small star and circle shaped candle holders for 78 cents. Meijer can also be good, but I’ve found Walmart has better selection. Meijer also carries inexpensive incense, but low quality.
Tip #2 Antique stores/Second-hand stores are also your new best friend.
I found chalices for my entire coven- 8, pewter, 4 inches tall- all for $10. they’re a good place to find chalices, altar bells, athames and sometimes mortars and pestles. But beware! Not everything you find at antique stores is a deal. Sometimes you can find better items for less. Also, antiques and second hand items can have residual energy attached to them from their last owners, so make sure to clean them very well, physically and spiritually.
Tip #3 Not everything you furnish your altar with has to be bought.
Some things you can make. Like your wand (how to below) or you can get things from relative, or garage sales can be surfed (I know this is buying but garage sales are so inexpensive…). Altar tiles can be made your self as well (more how to below).
And remember, simple is best.
Not everything on your altar needs to be fancy. They’re your personal items and no one is going to judge them but you. There are a lot of things you can do without as well. You don’t absolutely need a cauldron, athame, wand or any of the other tools. Candles and your finger can work just fine! Or (see below) you can use representation instead of candles! Do what makes you comfortable, and the Goddess will understand.
How To:
Make a simple wand.
Go out into your yard or a park with trees or a wooded area. Find either a stick that’s already been shed or ask a larger tree for a branch and cut one (see later post for tips for talking to trees). green bark peels easier. You want to peel it that night. For dead wood you might need to peel it off with a knife. Try to only cut off the bark, and not the meat. Then let it dry for a few days to a week then invest in some sandpaper, a medium grain is good for the shaft, a larger-rougher grain for the knots, but you can settle with the medium for both, it’ll just be harder on you. Then, sand it smooth. Once smooth, let sit for a week in the moonlight. Then take veggie oil, just a little on a paper towel, and rub it into the wand. Pick the end you will use for the handle and then wipe toward the end. Once your done it should feel oily, so let it sit again until the next full moon, then bless/dedicate it how you want. The oil is to seal water out. you might have to re-oil it once an a while.Feel free to decorate as you’d like~ Ribbon makes for a nice handle grip.
Make a simple altar tile
Go to a local craft or hardware store and pick up a plain wooden or ceramic disc- or to make an altar tile/offering dish pick up a small flower pot base. You’ll also need some acrylic paint and paint brushes, which are fairly cheap, just simple colors. Then paint what you’d like on it~ For the flower pot base/ceramic-wooden bowl you’ll one with a flat bottom. DO NOT EAT OFF OF THIS. And the paint will run if you pour liquid on this.
Make a simple altar cloth
All you need is some cloth from a fabric store or from anywhere really, and a sewing machine, or someone who has one. Hem the edges so they don’t fray. You can put designs on it if you’d like with fabric pens, or take up embroidery.
About elemental representation instead of candles
You can, in the event you cannot obtain or are not a lot to have candles, use representation for your elements. Shells, blue stones, clear blue glass, sand or a cup of water can represent water. Feathers, clear crystals, yellow glass, or a paper fan even can represent air. A cup of dirt, pebbles, a small potted plant, crystals of most sorts, green glass or a bowl of salt for earth. Charred wood, lava rock, red glass, a cup of ash or a small ‘fake fire’ made of red and yellow tissue paper for fire and you can print out pictures of fire as well. Purple glass, a small trinket close to you or a picture of you works for spirit. Just empower them all and your in business.
Well, if you need any help, feel free to hit up my ask.
So lately I’ve felt the strong need to tell someone about my paganness. I have a friend in mind and I think she’ll be okay with it. But I’m really scared. What if she tells my mom? Or my boss? Or our friendship suffers?
I’m nervous, but I feel strongly about telling her. I’ve given myself the deadline of May 2nd, Out of the Broom-Closet Day.
Has anyone done this before and has words of wisdom?
I truly love Veiling. I find it empowering and beautiful.
But I also love my long hair.
When I Veil, I feel very matronly and mysterious. I feel that I am channeling The Great Mother (Juno and Hesita come to mind)
When I let my hair down, I feel my feminine powers. I feel myself channeling The Enchantress and The Maiden (think Venus and Diana)
I’ve debated for a while now on whether I should continue Veiling in public, or just reduce it down to headbands and such, and then only fully Veil during ritual. I know many other women that choose to do this, sometimes because they don’t want to deal with the questioning, sometimes because they like their hair down as well.
I will finish out the school year Veiling, and then move to large hair cocoons over the summer.(I have no idea what they’re really called, but it’s basically a long tube of fabric that covers most of your hair, and can be wrapped a multitude of ways) I’m glad that I’ll be rooming with one of my friends in college (with others to come) because she is someone that I am comfortable talking about this with, and she has taken all of my changes in stride.
I also hope to find some other Pagans/Wiccans at college (Veiling or not) so there are people close I can talk to.
We’ll see how it goes, I guess.
It doesn’t have to be either/or. You can veil some days, and not veil others. If your deity is fine with that, and you’re fine with that, then do it. This is your practice and your religion, and you define what your practices are.
I found an excerpt of Wicca: Satan’s Little White Lie this morning. While reading it, I’ve noticed that while Bill Schnoebelen writes as if he’s trying to convert pagans, it seems that what he’s actually trying to do is make his Christian readers who know bupkiss about pagan religion feel smug. His accusations against pagans and pagan religions are largely nothing but straw men.
First Bill Schnoebelen declares that everything except his brand of Christianity is Satanism. Then:
Pagans like to make fun of Catholics because of all the wars they started, but the only difference between the Pagans and the Catholics is that the Pagans never ran a government and had the power to raise armies. I used to read THE GREEN EGG, Tim Zell’s Neo-pagan magazine. Almost every issue contained a vicious feud in the letter columns.
Why? Because you are dealing with sinful, fallen human beings, that’s why! God says the human heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). Without Jesus Christ, people are going to act like spoiled brats! Look around you! How else can you account for all the evil in the world? Killing, bigotry, rape and war — these are the fruits of Satan-worship, under its many guises.
I don’t think Bill Schnoebelen is going to win over many pagan converts by calling them all “spoiled brats” and holding them responsible for rape and war.
Christianity is not a religion! It is anti-religion!! Religion is man’s attempts to do certain things to please his deity. Christianity is a relationship with the Lord of the Universe, Jesus Christ!
Again, Schnoebelen is most likely trying to pander to Christian readers, not win over pagan converts, because as an ex-pagan, he almost certainly knows that this line is a pile of crap and knows that any potential pagan readers would know this, too. However, Christians who know very little about other religions wouldn’t.
Not hope, but “KNOW” that you can have eternal life with God forever! Consider the alternative Wicca offers you, supposedly lifetime after lifetime trying to pick up your mistakes from previous lifetimes.(4) I would not treat a DOG that badly!
And yet, he apparently has no moral issues with billions of people suffering in the Lake of Fire for eternity. I’d take a thousand flawed lifetimes over that, thanks.
Besides, isn’t the prospect of living in resurrected glory with Jesus more appealing than spending a few more hundred lifetimes running around the treadmill of the wheel of karma, chasing a shapeless future?
I find it difficult to believe that Schnoebelen has never heard of the Summerland.
Jesus makes it so easy for you. All you have to do is lay aside your pride and belief in all those Pagan gods and admit that they cannot save you.
Huh? Save us from what? Bill Schnoebelen certainly knows that salvation from sin isn’t even an issue in pagan religion, any more than removal of body thetans is an issue in Christianity.
It’s that simple! Why put your trust in books and rituals that were written by flawed men and women — especially since much of it is manufactured and made up out of whole cloth? Are people like Alex Sanders or Gerald Gardner worth trusting over Jesus? Who else can redeem you?
Bill probably knows that this is an incredibly clumsy strawman, but he probably also knows that his Christian readers won’t be able to tell. Here, he slyly pats them on the back with the implication that their book is written by a divine hand, unlike the materials pagans use. He probably knows full well that pagans believe that the Bible was written by flawed men.
If you say, as some “white” witches have to me, that you need no redeemer — that you depend on yourself for spiritual salvation; then you are mouthing the creeds of the satanist! Anton LaVey, the head of the Church of Satan, wrote:
Here and now is our day of joy! Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no redeemer liveth. Say unto thine own heart, “I am mine own redeemer.” (5)
You see how far into the enemy’s camp you already are? You are telling Jesus Christ that you don’t need Him! You are saying to Him that He shed His blood on Calvary in vain in your case! Why do you ignore the plain testimony of His resurrection and saving power? Why do you ignore the Bible in favor of religions made up by people? Why do you trust Gerald Gardner more than the most trustworthy book in human history?
Here Bill tries to tell his Christian audience that Wiccans aren’t so different from Satanists because they both don’t accept Christianity. He cannot possibly be aiming this incredible clunker of an argument at Wiccans.
Also, as an ex-pagan, Bill Schnoebelen probably knows damn well why pagans don’t trust “the most trustworthy book in human history,” but he’s probably pretending he doesn’t so he can make his Christian readers feel good about themselves.
Realize, as I did after over a year of study and research, that not one Biblical prophecy has failed to happen exactly as predicted; and that Jesus Himself was the fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies!
This is just more preaching to the choir. If you believe that the Bible was written by fallible men for political and religious purposes (as pagans do), then it’s not a stretch to postulate that the “prophecies” were written after the event, or that writers made up details of Jesus’s life to fit old prophecies.
Furthermore, the Bible contains many failed prophecies, and Jesus didn’t fulfill any 300 prophecies. (Let alone 315 or 365, as some claim.)
Remember, I’ve been there! Wicca, however noble and idealistic it might seem, is a modern, artificial religion created by cleaning up continental satanism a bit. It’s like putting rouge and mascara on a decomposing corpse! The rotten, putrid heart is the same, it just looks nicer.
There are only two kinds of Wiccans, the “higher ups” who know that Satan is their god; and the innocent ones of lower Grade who think they’re worshipping nature deities.
This right here hinges on Bill’s claim that Wicca was secretly created by Satanists to put a pretty front on Satanism and thereby lure Wiccans into “hardcore Satanism. Once again, it seems he’s pretending to address Wiccans while actually writing sensationalism for Christians.
In case you have any thoughts about trying to remain an “innocent” Pagan, just playing in the forest and worshiping the goddess, hear what God’s Word has to say about nature deities:
Professing themselves to be wise (wise ones?), they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Romans 1:22-25This is generally what Christians thinkWiccans are doing. Of course, it’s a gross oversimplification, but who needs to be correct when you don’t plan on Wiccans reading your book anyway?
Come to Jesus! It will be the best decision you ever made!
And there’s the cherry on top of this sundae of condescension and pandering.
I don’t even know if such twitter accounts exist, but I think it’d be neat to get messages about paganism, witchcraft, and/or Wicca on my phone daily. That way I could constantly be learning :)
-S.
Pagan articles and views from around the internet, focusing on helping the Pagan community move forward instead of hang behind in ideals, morals and practices. The articles posted here do not reflect the viewpoints of those who run this Tumblr, as we try to post a wide selection of opinions, thoughts, and traditions.
If something of yours is posted, please email me with a link to the post and the credit you'd like me to put up.
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I need someone to write a story based on black mermaids...
Metallicar?
That’s badass!
