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Saturday Spellwork: Get Your Mojo Back
We’ve all experienced it – especially those of us who work in a creative field like writing, art, music, and so forth. Sometimes, the muse just goes away. Whether it’s writer’s block or whatever, we occasionally feel like we JUST CAN’T EVEN, because we’re not motivated, we question our skills, or we have lost our mojo. This spell is designed to help restore that creative spark and get you back on track. Keep in mind that this is a spell that’s fairly freeform, and so there’s a lot of wiggle room here. Consider it a basic template, and tweak as needed – I originally wrote it for someone who was…
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Are You Ready to Be a Pagan Teacher?
At some point in your spiritual journey, you may feel that you’ve learned enough to share your knowledge with others. Perhaps other people have approached you and asked you to teach a class or lead a group. It’s indeed possible that your life experience and studying has put you in a position where you can take on this responsibility. Perhaps you’re even thinking about forming your own coven. However, before you commit to such a big undertaking, you may need to take a few things into consideration. First, think about whether the knowledge you have is enough to teach a class or lead a group. Do you understand basic ritual…
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Wicca Practical Magic Reviews Are Coming In!
I am humbled and awed by the outpouring of kind words from y’all. Reviews are starting to come in for Wicca Practical Magic, and people have had such nice things to say! Remember, the digital version is available now, and you can pre-order the print edition, which will be released on June 6, now through Amazon! Here’s what Angie Kunschmann had to say: I have often been accused of being a bit harsh about the saturation of 101 style books in the past. It’s true, I wish more books were published that go deeper into spiritual practices, rather than focusing on the beginning of a path. However. Patti has been…
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Gerald Gardner and the Ardanes
In the 1950s, when Gerald Gardner was writing what eventually become the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, one of the items he included was a list of guidelines called the Ardanes. The word “ardane” is a variant on “ordain,” or law. Gardner claimed that the Ardanes were ancient knowledge that had been passed down to him by way of the New Forest coven of witches. However, it’s entirely possible that Gardner wrote them himself; there was some disagreement in scholarly circles about the language contained within the Ardanes, in that some of the phrasing was archaic while some was more modern. This led a number of people – including Gardner’s High…
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Saturday Spellwork: Words Matter
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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Book Review: Wicca, Plain & Simple
I periodically open my mailbox and find copies of nifty stuff from publishers asking me to review new and upcoming titles. A lot of times I don’t get a chance to do it, because I’m writing my own stuff, and I have a personal policy of never reviewing someone else’s material when I’m working my own. However, right now I’m in the middle of a very brief lull, and so I thought I’d share a few reviews with you over the next couple of weeks. I’m going to begin with Wicca, Plain and Simple by Leanna Greenaway, because I really like it. Wicca, Plain and Simple, from Red Wheel/Weiser, is just…
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Epona, the Gaulish Horse Goddess
Many times, when people hear the word Celtic, there is an automatic assumption that we’re referring to things related to Ireland and/or Great Britain. This is not technically accurate, because in academic terms, Celtic actually refers to a language group. The Celtic languages were present not only on the island of what is now Great Britain, but also in several areas within the European mainland. One of the most influential groups of the pre-Roman era was the Gauls. This group, which was not a single unified culture but rather a collection of hundreds of tribes, inhabited the areas that are now France, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of Germany and the…
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Basic Sigil Construction
Sigils are a great way to identify your intent when you’re working magic. A sigil is simply a symbol of your purpose – for instance, you could use a heart to identify love, or a dollar sign to indicate money. Those are the easy ones – and certainly, there are a floppity-million other symbols you can use. If you want to do the standard issue symbols, pick up a copy of Raymond Buckland’s Signs, Symbols, and Omens – it’s chock full of great suggestions. That being said, one way to connect your intent to your working even more effectively is to create a unique symbol of your own. This sort…
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The History of the Sheela na Gig
Although the Sheela-na-Gig is technically the name applied to the carvings of women with exaggerated vulvas that have been found in Ireland and England, there’s a theory that the carvings are representative of a lost pre-Christian goddess. Typically, the sheela-na-gig adorns buildings in areas of Ireland that were part of the Anglo-Norman conquests in the 12th century. She is shown as a homely woman with a giant yoni, which is spread wide to accept the seed of the male. Sheela na Gig image by Amanda Slater / Flickr / Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) Folkloric evidence indicates a long-standing theory that the figures were part of a fertility rite, similar…
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Saturday Spellwork: The Speed Bump Saga
I’m a big fan of using mundane stuff in spellwork, because there are always things around your house that you can finagle into a magical application. If you’re a parent, especially, I guarantee you that there are plenty of kids’ toys that are going to come in very useful at some point. To illustrate this, I’d like to share a tale from about fifteen years ago, when my twins (who are now high school juniors) were toddlers, and we had a fairly impressive collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. At the time, I lived on a one-way street in a residential area, and because it was the connector between…
