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The Dark Night of the Soul
A reader asks, “I don’t know what to do. I was really active and excited about my spiritual practice, but lately I’m just feeling lost. I feel like nothing I do is working, I don’t have any motivation, nothing matters to me, I’m doubting my gods, and it’s hard for me to even care anymore. I don’t want to just give up, because my beliefs are important to me, but I feel like I’ve hit a wall. What do I do?” The first thing you do is relax a little bit, because I’m going to let you in on a secret. Ready? This happens a lot. Honest, it does. While…
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The Magic of Chocolate Santas
Everyone loves Santa Claus, and everyone loves chocolate. Put them together, and you’ve got a delicious holiday treat. But what inspired this idea in the first place? Who came up with the idea of chocolate Santas? And is it really nothing more than ritualized cannibalism? Chocolate is known as an aphrodisiac the world over today, but until fairly recently, it was mostly the domain of the Aztecs, the Mayans, and European royalty. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Industrial revolution brought equipment that mixed dried cocoa powder with cocoa butter. This resulted in a form of chocolate that was not only pourable, but easy to mold. Most likely, the Germans can…
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How I Avoid the Yule Fat Pants
Okay, y’all, I make no secret of the fact that I’ve struggled with my weight all of my adult life. I’m pretty healthy and strong these days, but I know I’ll never be skinny. Regardless, because I love to cook, the holiday season can be a real challenge for me – but I’ve figured out over the years that if I set a few basic rules for myself, I can keep things under control during December. This way I don’t spend January through April hating the way my ass looks in a pair of yoga pants. Watch Your Portions One of the biggest mistakes you can make during Yule is…
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Words Matter: A Magical Cautionary Tale
One of the things I always try to stress to people when they’re working magic is that words matter – and by this, I mean you’ve got to be REALLY specific. As an illustration, let me share with you a story from my own checkered magical history. Way back when, in the days when I was too young to know any better, I decided that a recent speeding ticket would be the target of my witchy wisdom. I had gotten the ticket quite justifiably, because I was flying down the highway well over the legal limit when I got popped. I’d been traveling from Ohio to South Carolina, and there’s…
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Spellwork Basics: Break a Curse
In general, most of us go our entire lives without encountering anyone who has the skill set or level of motivation required to hex or curse us. In fact, if things are going badly for you, it could be that you’re NOT cursed or hexed, but simply (1) having a run of bad luck or (2) making really shitty life choices. However, it’s always POSSIBLE that bad things in your life are a result of some sort of magical attack. Before you go assuming this is the case, though, ask yourself a few questions: Did you seriously piss someone off in some way? If so, does that person have the…
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Stuff to Read for NeoWiccan Practice
Are you interested in some of the popular NeoWiccan texts? There are a variety of documents available to explore if you’re interested in following a NeoWiccan path, and you can read nearly all of them online via these links. The Gardnerian Book of Shadows This is the text of the Book of Shadows composed and handed down by Gerald Gardner. In one sense, this is the central sacred text of the Wiccan religion. However, there is no ‘official’ Book of Shadows, and each coven usually has a hand-written copy of a Book of Shadows, sometimes in cypher or code, which reflects its own practices and knowledge. The Golden Bough The…
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Confidentiality and Pagan Clergy
A reader asks, “What guidelines are there in Pagan religions for clergy in matters of confidentiality? I am an ordained Pagan priest, and a member of the community has come to me with a problem. If I get involved, someone will end up in jail. However, if I don’t speak out, someone else will continue to be victimized. I don’t want to violate anyone’s trust, but I can’t stand by and see someone hurt. How do you think I should proceed?” You know, this is a slippery slope that clergy of all religions have walked for centuries. There is certainly a need for confidentiality with any religious leader. After all,…
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Water Magic
I keep different kinds of water on hand, for a variety of magical purposes, and I thought this would be a good time to share some of the types I have handy. First, it’s important to keep in mind that water in general, as an element, has some pretty specific connotations – it’s associated with healing, cleansing, and purification, just for starters. In most traditions, it also corresponds to goddess magic, and to the direction of West when you start looking at the four classical elements and their related directions. All of that said, you can use different types of water for different things. For me, I’m a bit obsessive…
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Halloweenery: Trick or Treat, Y’all
Got Candy?: While many of us Pagans celebrate the holiday called Samhain, for some of us, it’s also the secular event of Halloween. The tradition of trick-or-treating isn’t quite as old as the holiday itself, but it’s certainly been around for a while. Let’s look at how this unique custom evolved. All Soul’s Night: In Britain, people celebrated All Soul’s Day for many years. Poor people went begging, and the middle-class wives handed out special treats known as Soul Cakes. When a beggar was given a Soul Cake, he promised to say a prayer for the dead. This practice was known as going “a-souling”. In Ireland, rather than begging for…
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The Tradition of Nut Crack Night
For modern Pagans today, divination is something for which we have practically unlimited tools. We have Tarot cards, scrying mirrors, runes, and all kinds of other goodies. However, for our ancestors, things weren’t quite so simple. Early divination was often done using only the items at hand — sticks, vegetable peels, cloud formations, etc. Around the end of the harvest season, there wasn’t often much left in the fields. However, nuts were often plentiful. Pecans, chestnuts, filberts and more would have been gathered up in baskets and stored, which made them the perfect medium for late fall divination. This is a similar celebration to Nutting Day, which falls in mid-September.…
