Youth

 

I am turning 33 at the end of the month. So, this may very well be my last “stop being such assholes to us young Pagans and Witches” post ever. Rather than write something angst ridden, I have decided to offer some food for thought. Also some ammunition for those young-uns coming up behind me. Next time some “Elder” starts treating you like a mentally challenged toddler for being in your twenties, throw some of these factoids at them.

  • Starhawk was 28 when “The Spiral Path” was first published.
  • Janet Farrar was 21 when she received her 3rd degree initiation.
  • Margot Adler was 33 when she published “Drawing Down the Moon”.
  • Maxine Sanders was 18 when she was initiated in Alex Sander’s coven.
  • Doreen Valiente was 31 when she was initiated into Gardner’s coven and shortly after re-wrote the Book of Shadows.
  • Robert Cochrane was 35 when he died.
  • Isaac Bonewits was 23 when he published “Real Magic”.
  • Chas S. Clifton was 35 when he started writing the column “Letter from Hardscrabble Creek”.
  • Dion Fortune was 29 when she was initiated into the London Temple of the Alpha et Omega.
  • Vivianne Crowley was 18 when she was initiated into the coven of Alex Sanders.
  • Selena Fox was 22 when she started leading public rituals.
  • Oberon Zell-Ravenheart was 26 when he started the “Green Egg” magazine.

And that’s only to name a few.

Registration for the Sabbat is now open!

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The purpose of the Sabbat is to provide a forum where practitioners and other interested persons can come together to learn and share information relating to non-Wiccan witchcraft and its associated practices. This is achieved in part by performing rituals and workings to facilitate each individual’s personal experience of these practices, be they newcomers or experienced witches. This is also facilitated by discussion, story telling, and teaching each other.

An “intensive weekend” is slightly different from a typical festival or gathering, just as a witches’ sabbat (or sabbath) can be different from a typical neo-pagan ritual. Here, we focus on ritual, magickal working, spirit work and the sharing of knowledge. While there will be some free time to socialize and relax, it is not the purpose of this intensive weekend to celebrate late into the night, to dress up in costumes, or to tell tall tales about dragons. This weekend is for the serious practice and study of witchcraft and to provide a thoughtful and thorough introduction to witchcraft for newcomers. The time is also meant to provide a place where experienced practitioners can seek what lies beyond “Witchcraft 101.”

At the Witches’ Sabbat at Raven’s Knoll, all paths and traditions are automatically valid and we welcome all comers. We encourage you to come as a student, teacher, priest/ess, shaman, witch, or seeker. The only requirement is that you be open-minded, thoughtful, and serious.

Reading Feedback

This is the follow up and feedback from:

Casting & Reading for a Client (Feb 2013)

Feel free to share all the feedback I give! I am an open book :) This is super long, apologies.

1. As I said, the first note (about the poison path being utterly wrong) really startled me with its immediate accuracy. I had been going back and forth with the idea of buying some of Sarah Lawless’ Aves Ointment from the Poisoner’s Apothecary for ages, and a post on her Facebook about being low in stock made me decide to order it. But as soon as it arrived, I was TERRIFIED to even touch the container – it is currently in my room, still wrapped up in the packaging, because I don’t know what to do with it (do you want some Aves Ointment…?) The fear is completely inexplicable but makes me 100% certain that this isn’t the right way for me.

2. I’ve been part of a group for a long time now that teaches a mixture of traditional Wicca, new-agey Law of Attraction/manifestation type stuff and Native American spirituality. It was a good way to start off learning some of the basics – the basics you mentioned, like calling the corners, elemental work, crystals and spells, associations, and all that. I’ve stayed part of the group because of the lovely friendships I’ve made. But the sweetness-and-light attitude leaves me feeling bogged down and guilty. I am not a sweetness-and-light person. I am a bones and dirt and mess and smoke and blood person. It isn’t fair on the group nor on myself to be there. I have no real passion for the work they do. So everything you’ve said about lack of drive, about committing, about the trappings that don’t fit anymore, all of that came at the perfect time and verbalised things I already knew but hadn’t had the heart to face.

3. I do a lot of hands-on arty things, but I always neglect to make things for my spirits. I do tend to compare myself to others and put things off because of it – I’ve wanted to make a crow fetish for ages but let myself get intimidated by other people’s talents and the expectations I’ve placed on myself.

4. Fear is a big inhibitor of my practice. Fear of saying the wrong things, doing the wrong things, being unworthy or unacceptable. It’s bollocks and it prevents me from doing the things I need to do. “Pick a line and commit” says it all really.

All in all, the reading was better than I could have hoped for in every way – not overly mystical, more like being bitch-slapped by a really good friend who knows me well and knows all the ways I tend to bullshit myself. Thank you so, so much.

-

UPDATE:

Everything I said here still holds true – I have started the process of paring down what I do and the way I do it, what I use and what I say, and finding a way to smash more of myself into my practice. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be! But I can truly feel that it is what needs to be done. And I have been gifted with some important and very clear responses from my spirits since I’ve been doing so. Right now there is water and tequila on my altar for the ancestors and spirits, there is dirt on my feet, and there is a new crow fetish made and waiting to be consecrated and offered as a home. And all of these things have been helped along by the advice you gave me.