Another of Those “About Me” Posts
What’s your Path?
I am a Hedgewitch. Meaning I am a shamanic practitioner of folk magick (that’s the short explanation). My spirituality is Celtic/Anglo-Saxon Paganism. I started in Wicca like many do, but have moved further away from it more and more of time. I am not however a Wicca-basher like many non-Wiccan Witches are.
Do you have an altar?
Sometimes I use an altar and sometimes not. An altar is simply a workspace to me. I have laid out elaborate altars on tables, simple altars in dirt, and none at all. Sometimes I use my stang as a kind of portable altar, but that is not its only purpose.
A shrine?
I have shrines, many in fact. I like them. One in each room of the house, some simple and small. The main one in the living room is the largest and has the most “stuff”, it also receives the most attention. Right now I have no shrines outdoors, partly due to it being winter and partly due to being trapped in an apartment. Which I hate, I miss the country life so very much!
Do you believe in deities?
I believe in the gods as surely as believe… Continue reading
An Open Letter to the Pagan Community
Dear Everyone,
You may or may not know me, Juniper from the Hedge.
I was born in 1980. I will be thirty in the Spring. I went to high school with a girl whose mother had been in a Coven for almost as long as she could remember, since about ’85 or ’86.
I grew up watching many of our now Pagan Elders, or at least Notorious Pagans, on Discovery Channel or the BBC at least every October talking about how Witchcraft is a religion not evil yada yada yada … I grew up on the X-files and Oprah interviewing ex-Satanists and all that jazz.
I don’t remember a time before OBOD, ADF or Circle Sanctuary. They’ve always been there from my perspective.
Watching Paganism grow on the web, and helping it do so, seemed to be the most natural thing in the world to me.
I was twelve when my Mom’s then boyfriend took us to a “hippy farm” for Summer Solstice, to join the small gathering there. I still remember the children’s play was about Pan and Gaia inspiring the owners of the land to build a hedge labyrinth. I grew bored and wandered off with another girl… Continue reading
Some differences between Traditional, and Contemporary, Witchcraft and Wicca
Some differences between Traditional, and Contemporary, Witchcraft and Wicca
The Wiccan Rede is not used in Witchcraft.
There is no Threefold Law, though there is something like the concept of the Law of Return or the Law of Attraction.
Knives and such are NOT used during any invocations or summonings. Why would you hold a weapon in your hand when inviting someone or something to your ritual?
Circles in the Wiccan or Ceremonial sense are not cast.
Witches do not create sacred space as in Wicca. Witches believe that all space is sacred; as such they acknowledge the sacredness of a space, and the spirits that reside there. Some different methods are used such as Compass Round, Digging the Bloody Acre, Laying or Raising the Hedge.
There is no Lord or Lady in the Wiccan sense. Witches know and understand that some deities are archetypes, some are part of some greater universal spirit, and others are separate individuals in their own right. Some are older, some are younger, and some are “stronger”. A few are primal (going back to creation, or being a part of creation). Some gods may have once been ancestral heroes as well. While sometimes other spirits… Continue reading
What is a Mystery?
What is a Mystery?
So what are these Mysteries Pagans, especially Wiccans, are always talking about? Why does the word get a capitol “M”?
A Mystery is a “Divine Secret” or spiritual truth. It is the very moment of enlightenment. A Mystery is something that causes one of those earth shattering, life changing, spiritual moments that changes who you are as a person. Basically, a Mystery is when something happens that causes you to take a leap or sprint ahead on that development of your soul. The Mystery is the wisdom, knowledge, realization, inspiration etc that comes from those moments in time.
You do not have to be Wiccan to experience such things, nor do they have to occur during an initiation. Mystery is simply the word Wiccans (and most modern Pagans) use to describe a very old thing. A great example of this is the “Shamanic death” it in itself is an initiation of a different sort (and horrifically traumatic), it is certainly not Wiccan, but it is a Mystery that has been part of the human spiritual experience since we lived in caves.
And it’s simply that such things tend to occur during (or shortly before or after)… Continue reading
To Fly By Night
Hoofprints in the Wildwood
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