Rescuer

I will take in the unwanted

I will clean the filthy

I will feed the starving

I will love the unloved

I will heal the wounds

I will mend the broken hearts

I will make their pain my own

I will sooth their fears

I will fight to regain trust that has been lost

I will be a custodian of second chances

I will harden my heart to the cruelty of mankind

I will sleep on the concrete floor of a kennel

I will weep for them

I will be brave for them

I will hold my hands steady

I will smile for them

I will rage at what was done

I will bear their burdens

I will be an example of strength

I will be pack leader

I will hold their lives in my gentle hands

I will renew

I will find them loving homes

And if what was done will take their life

I will hold them as they breathe their dying breath

I will lay them to rest

I will pray for their souls

And I will mourn each one

Because there is no one else for them

Juniper, Summer 2008

Where Have All the Happy Witches Gone?

Author: Autumn Heartsong

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ustn&c=words&id=12979

 What a wonderful article, good point!
I am no newbie (something in between Neophyte and Elder I suppose) either but when I attend group rituals and say things with emotion, show any emotion really, do more than just stand there shifting from foot to foot, people think I’m either crazy, fluffy or new.
*sigh*
People, magick, and ritual works better if you actualy do it and say it like you mean it. You should freaking mean it if your going to do it. You’re there in the presence of your gods, ancestors etc and you are half heartedly muttering lines you are reading from a script written by someone else?!
You don’t have to dance or sing if you’re not comfortable with that, but people: move, emote, toss that freaking script out the window and follow your heart. Pour yourself into it.
ITS NOT ABOUT BEING COOL

Misty Acres is 55 acres of mountain side in the Boundary region of British Columbia.

We overlook the stunning Kettle River Valley between Greenwood BC and Grand Forks BC, and have access to the Trans Canada Trail on the property.

Misty Acres has Crown Land on two sides and has a mix of pasture, field and forest.

Our dream is to turn Misty Acres in to a small working and wonderful Ecovillage. We invite you to join us!

Some of our plans include:
A green boarding and rescue facility for dogs, cats and horses. Construction will begin in the Spring!
As well we would like a mix of organic livestock, orchard, vineyard and herb farm.
A farmer’s style market, gift/organic tea and coffee shop, and possibly a eco friendly B&B.
We would also love to see natural and historical crafts such as smith craft, leather work, fibre arts etc.

http://mistyacres.org/ecovillage/

For Parents:

http://www.paganparenting.com/

http://oakdancer.com/

http://barbooch.homestead.com/sitemap.html

For Kids:

http://www.sacredspiralkids.com/story/index.html

http://www.dilsworth.com/serenity/pagankids.html

http://crystalforest3.homestead.com/sabbat.html

http://www.spiralgoddess.com/Kids.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts/

More colouring books:

http://www.magictails.com/cbook.html

http://www.coloring.ws/fantasy.htm

http://crystalforest1.homestead.com/coloringpages.html

http://www.junemoon.com/free.html

http://wheeloftheyear.org/downloads/Downloads.html

(inspired by a topic on the forum)

Concerning three things that hide: an open bag hides nothing, an open door hides little, an open person hides something.

Three things by nature cause their possessor to err: youth, prosperity, and ignorance.

There are three things which move together as quickly the one as the other: lightning , thought , and the help of the Mighty Ones.

Three things not loved without each one it’s companion: day without night, idleness without hunger, and wisdom without reverence.

There are three whose full reward can never be given to them: parents, a good teacher, and the Mighty Ones.

Three slender things that best support the world: the slender stream of milk from the cows dug into the pail; the slender blade of green corn upon the ground; the slender thread over the hand of a skilled woman.

Three things by which excellence is established: Taking all things in moderation with nothing in excess; abidance to oaths; and acceptance of responsibility.

Three things which strengthen a person to stand against the whole world: Seeing the quality and beauty of truth; seeing beneath the cloak of falsehood; and seeing to what ends truth and falsehood come.

Three things it is everyone’s duty to do: listen humbly, answer discreetly, and judge kindly.

Three manifestations of excellence : the honoring of parents, the respecting of the aged, and instructing the young; and to this a fourth, defending of infancy and innocence.

Three reasons for supplicating to the Mighty Ones: because it is a pleasure to you, that you may be a friend of those who are wise, and because your soul is immortal.

Three candles that illume every darkness: truth, nature, and knowledge.

Three companions on the high road to Union with the Void: a patient poor person, a reflective wise person, and a tolerant reformer.

Three who are loved by the Mighty Ones: the strong just person, the brave merciful person, the person generous without regret.

There are three things which the happy will gain: prosperity, honor, and the ease of conscience.
Three things which the humble will gain: plenty, happiness , and the love of their neighbors.
Three things which the sincere will gain: favor, respect, and prosperity.
Three things which the patient will gain: love, tranquility, and succor .
Three things which the merciful will gain: favor, love, and the protection of the Mighty Ones.
Three things which the upright will gain: worldly sufficiency, peace of conscience, and unending happiness.
Three things which the industrious will gain: precedence , wealth , and praise from the Wise.
Three things which the law-abiding will gain: health, success, and honor.
Three things which the careful will gain: respect, plenty, and content.
Three things which the generous of heart will gain: joy from their profit, felicity in giving, and a better life to come.
Three things which the early riser will gain: health, wealth, and happiness.

There are three things which mislead the world: the promises of masters, the garments of priests, and the seemliness of a daughter.

Three things which do not profit the world by anything they do, whatever their fame for wisdom, art, and piety: a grasping miser, an arrogant poet, and a kept priest.

Three ways to know a person: by their discourse, their conduct, and their companions.

Three measuring-rods of every person: their dreams, their fears, and their unconcern.

Three hatreds which last for ever: between a mate and their step-children, between dogs and swine, and between Cymry and Saxon.

Three diversions which will surely bring trouble: hunting, war, and dallying with one who is younger.

Three occasions for one to speak falsehood without excuse: to save the life of one who is innocent, to keep the peace among neighbors, and to preserve the Wise and their crafts.

hag
c.1225, shortening of O.E. hægtesse “witch, fury” (on assumption that -tesse was a suffix), from P.Gmc. *hagatusjon-, of unknown origin. Similar shortening derived Du. heks, Ger. Hexe “witch” from cognate M.Du. haghetisse, O.H.G. hagzusa. First element is probably cognate with O.E. haga “enclosure” (see hedge). O.N. had tunriða and O.H.G. zunritha, both lit. “hedge-rider,” used of witches and ghosts. Or second element may be connected with Norw. tysja “fairy, crippled woman,” Gaul. dusius “demon,” Lith. dvasia “spirit,” from PIE *dhewes- “to fly about, smoke, be scattered, vanish.” One of the magic words for which there is no male form, suggesting its original meaning was close to “diviner, soothsayer,” which were always female in northern European paganism, and hægtesse seem at one time to have meant “woman of prophetic and oracular powers” (Ælfric uses it to render the Gk. “pythoness,” the source of the Delphic oracle), a figure greatly feared and respected. Later, the word was used of village wise women. Haga is also the haw- in hawthorn, which is a central plant in northern European pagan religion. There may be several layers of folk-etymology here. If the hægtesse was once a powerful supernatural woman (in Norse it is an alternate word for Norns, the three weird sisters, the equivalent of the Fates), it may have originally carried the hawthorn sense. Later, when the pagan magic was reduced to local scatterings, it might have had the sense of “hedge-rider,” or “she who straddles the hedge,” because the hedge was the boundary between the “civilized” world of the village and the wild world beyond. The hægtesse would have a foot in each reality. Even later, when it meant the local healer and root collector, living in the open and moving from village to village, it may have had the mildly pejorative sense of hedge- in M.E. (hedge-priest, etc.), suggesting an itinerant sleeping under bushes, perhaps. The same word could have contained all three senses before being reduced to its modern one.

*
hedge
O.E. hecg, originally any fence, living or artificial, from W.Gmc. *khagja (cf. M.Du. hegge, O.H.G. hegga, Ger. Hecke “hedge”), from PIE. *khagh- “to encompass, enclose” (cf. L. caulae “a sheepfold, enclosure,” Gaul. caio “circumvallation,” Welsh cae “fence, hedge”). Related to O.E. haga “enclosure, hedge” (see haw). Prefixed to any word, it “notes something mean, vile, of the lowest class” [Johnson], from contemptuous attributive sense of “plying one’s trade under a hedge” (hedge-priest, hedge-lawyer, hedge-wench, etc.), a usage attested from c.1530. The verb sense of “dodge, evade” is first recorded 1598; that of “insure oneself against loss,” as in a bet, is from 1672. Hedgehog is c.1450 (replacing O.E. igl), the second element an allusion to its pig-like snout. Hedgerow is O.E. heggeræw.

hex
1830, from Pennsylvania Ger. hexe “to practice witchcraft,” from Ger. hexen “to hex,” related to Hexe “witch,” from M.H.G. hecse, hexse, from O.H.G. hagazussa (see hag). Noun meaning “magic spell” is first recorded 1909.

hawthorn
O.E. hagaþorn, earlier hæguþorn, from obsolete haw “hedge or encompassing fence” (see haw) + thorn (q.v.). Common Gmc., cf. M.Du., Ger. hagedorn, O.N. hagþorn.
From the online etymological dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/

Two translations of an excerpt from Odin’s Song, from the Havamal:

“A tenth I know, | what time I see
House-riders flying on high;
So can I work | that wildly they go,
Showing their true shapes,
Hence to their own homes.”
~ Henry Adams Bellows

***
“If I see the hedge-riders magically flying high,
I can make it so they go astray
Of their own skins, and of their own souls.”
~ N.Pennick

**

“The Saxon word for witch is haegtessa, which means “hedge-rider”;
the hedge being the boundary between this world and the mysterious
Otherworld which lies beyond the parameters of ‘ordinary’ reality and consciousness.”
- Nigel Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper