20122011ContraryWise Craft3721Little Circle on the Plain1412Episcopal church617Ancient Order of Druids in America4-I met all my goals for 2012--more ContraryWise and starting the Practicing Modern Pagan Witchcraft course.  My sabbatical from HOCC turned into the decision to let it go ( Read more... )

1. No ritual group can meet all of the spiritual needs of the members.
2. All relationships-including ritual groups-involve communication and compromise.
3. If one is consistently expending more effort toward a ritual group than one is receiving benefit, it is time to consider walking away.

Lots of things, including changing from HOCC to AODA and working semi- ( Read more... )

• To remove soot from votive candle glasses, pour in a little bleach and fill with water.  Soak for 24 hours.  The soot can then be wiped out with a damp paper towel.
• To remove candle wax from carpeting, set an iron on low.  Cover the area of the carpet with paper towel, and iron through the paper towel to melt the wax into the paper towel.  This can ( Read more... )

My usual advice on finding a religious or magical path is:

• Start by reading broadly.
• If possible, meet real life practitioners, and participate in open rituals if they are available to you.
• After a bit, pick something to *do*.  Some discipline. It can be a whole tradition or just a simple practice or anywhere in between.  The point is committing to ( Read more... )

• written as a comment to a post about streamlining altar space in justtamilia's blog.

While I have a ritual room, my shrines to individual Powers are all outside that room.  The ritual room contains: 1) my main altar (ContraryWise Craft); and 2) my shrine to the Three Kindreds (the land spirits, the ancestors and orisa, and the gods), where I do much of my ( Read more... )

My standard advice to novices is ( Read more... )

This is a typical weekday:

getting ready: 

• Mathonwy as Grandmother Moon  [ContraryWise Craft]
  
  • cup of tea
  • light her oil candle for my bath
  • recite Serenity Prayer and blow out oil candle after bath
  • check how I'm doing: body; head; heart; gut

One of the simplest ways to connect with a Power (a god, an ancestor, a local spirit, etc.) is to create and maintain a shrine to that Power.

You mention in one of the comments that you recently had a powerful experience of Luna. So, start by identifying and accumulating some things that remind you of Luna. (Some possibilities off the top of my ( Read more... )

"Retro-paganism" is my own coinage, riffing off of neo-paganism. Retro-paganism certainly includes reconstructionism, but is also inclusive of other approaches that take the historical evidence and practices seriously.

For example, I have had for many years various forms of ancestor shrines in my home. The specific forms of practice are at least as ( Read more... )