Category: Religion

THE WILD, WITCHY RIDE: How to Create and Conduct Elaborate, Popular, Public Sabbats

by Administrator, posted in Events, Guest Authors, Organizations, Religion, Wiccan/Pagan

By Lady Passion, High Priestess, Coven Oldenwilde, Asheville, NC

Twelve years ago, in 1995, I resolutely determined to reinstitute the olde, free, sacred Sabbats rites entire towns enjoyed for centuries on end. I took a bold (and, in the South, unprecedented) leap of faith in this regard, as I had no roadmap, no guide, no mentor, and no predecessor, for the trail I intended to blaze.

Since then, though, my annual, free, public Witch ritual has become a cherished tradition for Asheville-area townies, families, and tens of thousands of Pagans and Witches nationwide. Indeed, I’ve become infamous for NEVER doing the same rite twice, and each Sabbat’s unique theme has emboldened Witches to do the same in such far away continents as Australia.I’ve done this in the buckle of "the Bible Belt" — the very town where Billy Graham has his international ‘The Cove’ training center. Most audacious of all, I chose to revivify, to re-sacritize, the scariest and most misunderstood Sabbat of all the Witches’ yearly eight — Samhain (what mundanes call Hallow’een).

Make no mistake — creating and conducting huge, free, public Sabbats takes nerves of steel, spiritual vision, media savvy, and a wicked balance between tenacity and flexibility that few folks seem to ever stretch themselves to achieve. Every year when the going gets rough (money’s tight, or committed volunteers seem too few to properly pull it off), my Coven and I loudly vow to never attempt it again. But they are SO worth it, for every year without fail, we see everyone arrive en mass from far reaches, pitch in with all their might, and make things come together so hauntingly beautiful, everyone leaves the rite revivified — passionately invigorated to stop at nothing to somehow top ourselves yet again the next year!

Over the years I’ve learned many secret keys to ensuring a huge, public Sabbats’ success. While many of my tips and past Samhain Sabbats’ info and pix are posted on my web site (www.oldenwilde.org), I feel most urgently that doing these rites is such a crucial component to Wiccans’ public acceptance, our increasing numbers, and Paganism’s religious longevity, that I want to share some of my secrets with you about how to conduct similar rites wherever you may bide.

The first few years a Coven or Craft Community holds a public rite are the hardest, as whoever’s organizing it not only has to manage a million details, but must also educate townies about what Witchcraft is and isn’t, in endless TV, radio, and newspaper interviews. This takes great juggling, aplomb, articulateness, perfected "sound bites", makeup, Witchy dress, and the certainty that you can handle instant interviews by phone at the drop of your Witch hat, while answering e-mail from excited attendees wanting more info on the ritual…

I recommend that you stop debunking typical, negative, Hollywood lucidity, Christian propaganda, and general Witch myths after year 2, and from then on, focus your pre-rite public relations and publicity on the upcoming year’s theme meaning related to whatever Sabbat you’re hosting, and whatever particular publicity "hook" you’re using to drum up enthusiasm for it.

Develop a rather "thick skin" when it comes to self-styled posers, braggarts, and local magical rivals, who are sadly, all-too-often needlessly envious of your success, and are wont to pump themselves up at your expense, making catty remarks or spreading outright, vicious lies about you, your Coven, and your rites. This is a measure of your success at reaching people, and has nothing to do with reality or your personality.

ESSENTIAL TIPS TO ENSURE A GLORIOUS RITETHAT FOLKS WILL REMEMBER FOREVER

* Pick one Sabbat and do it every year on the same date and nighttime. 8 to 10 PM is optimal, for this gives parents time to trick-or-treat with their wee ones, then attend the Sabbat afterwards. You can float your ritual’s venue (where you have the rite) every few years or so, just let folks know the new location.
My daughter-Coven Highlandwilde does Beltane complete with a traditional Maypole dance each year, so folks have at least 2 major Sabbats they can attend every 6 months.

* Visualize your Sabbat from the God/desses’ eye-view. Conceive of your rite in terms of "How will the God/desses see this from above, around, and throughout?” and "How will THEY feel about my plan/design/idea?"
This is why we often feature long processions, intricate mazes, Spiral dances, and light our rites to be pleasing to the eyes and hearts of both human attendees, AND the Gods.

* Think BIG. Don’t drape a cloth or two and call the Sabbat decor "done" — imagine the most elaborate, Witchy rite of your dreams, then work for months to make your vision manifest.
As long as you’re going to do a rite, do it so hundreds and thousands — not a mere handful of folks — can fully participate in it and duly take heart from your magical gathering.
Though the idea of leading thousands in a hand-to-hand dance may seem daunting, doing so touches attendees’ hearts in a very deep way and gives everyone a sense of accomplishment and hope for our religion.

* Save something for the sequel. Don’t put ALL your ideas into one rite — remember that you’re going to be conducting this Sabbat every year for years to come, so save many other aspects and mythos about the Sabbat you’ve chosen to highlight, so you’ll have endless themes to use in following years.
Samhain, for example, has millennia of history to select from, and some themes we’ve used in previous years have been: Bones & Roses, Haunted Woods, Black Masquerade, Gypsy Revel, Dumb Supper, and Creatures of the Night…

* Make land and attendee safety priority one. Don’t make any permanent changes to the land site. Set tiki-torches deeply and shim them at their base with small termite wood stakes to prevent tilt and grass fire. Put tea lights in glass jars purchased cheaply from a local thrift store.
Prominently display a fully stocked med kit on site. Provide water, cups, and candy to help dancers get their sugar level up as needed.  Use hundreds of snapstix and glo-bracelets to help light participants’ way. Fill in potholes and remove briars well in advance of the rite.

* Trust no one, but keep everyone "in the loop". Words are cheap, but deeds are dear, so disregard all volunteers’ promises to help you with this or that, for they often flake out. (Musicians are especially prone to promising they’ll come, and then simply don’t show.)Whenever someone actually delivers on his or her promises, hug them hard and thank them profusely. Send out constant e-mails asking for donations of prop items, money to help defray event costs, equipment needed, prep and setup meeting dates, times, and locations, etc.

* Screw pride — when you need something to make the rite successful, ASK FOR IT. Use all your e-contacts and friends or relatives or whomever. Beg them to donate tables, chairs, whatever you need, just for the night, label them with masking tape, and have them pick up their stuff the week after the Sabbat.
Ask that people play parts or roles during the rite. Tell them what you want, how they should dress, and work with them so they get it right, make the Craft look goodly, and please the God/desses.

* Throw everything at it but the kitchen sink. What often looks a tad "trashy" in daylight looks gorgeous in moonlight or torchlight. If it’s black, silver, red, or blue, it’ll be beautiful. Green and orange are alternative colors, but purple doesn’t fare so well by candlelight.

* Use the best ingredients possible. Use real tumbled stones, collected herbs in jars, food coloring, and other Witchy things more than store-bought, plastic Halloween decor.
If you’re super poor, search the Net for easy, cool, Witchy options. For example, we vertically cut black trash bags into one inch strips still connected at the bag’s top, then stretch them out and knot them in places to create fabo fluttery curtains…

* Think outside the box. When we realized during setup this year that we’d have trouble seeing in the dark the double spiral maze 3 football fields long we’d made for adults to trance dance on, we solved the problem by stringing $32.00 worth of metallic red wire garland along the entire route.Years ago we draped bolts of black garden cloth from the ceiling to the floor to create a huge maze in a pavilion. During year one when we wanted to weave a massive dreamcatcher using attendees’ hands, we used undyed cotton clothesline that worked beautifully on site.

* Publicize your Sabbat early and often. Tout your event via every free media outlet or event you can, such as the religion or lifestyle sections in newspapers, radio stations, online events calendars, and annual events like Pagan Pride Day. Include helpful info such as nearby hostels, hotels, or camping sites’ locations and contact info in case attendees want to spend the night before hitting the road home the next day.
Our posting about Samhain 12 this year got 11,000 hits on a rather obscure page on Witchvox.com because we’ve learned how to: link our event to current controversies or news stories; entice attendees with tantalizing promises about what we’re going to provide them at the rite; and all the facts they need to know to travel to it, as well as a map to the site.

* Stay on top of everything, all the time. For us, Samhain starts right after Litha (Summer Solstice). It takes us a full 6 months to gather all components, fix and recycle all materials from previous years, make new stuff, publicize the event widely, do pre-rite interviews, organize volunteers and rite roles, devise the rite itself, burn the music, and a million other details.
The only way we’ve ever seen that works is to make written lists, talk often, share ideas, brain-storm options, locate land venues quickly, and generally, stay on top of all of it from start to frickin’ finish…

* The High Priestess rules. Micro-manage all details yourself. Sabbats like mine are attended by hundreds and thousands and take months of prep to ensure their success.
The High Priestess should consider the merits of all possibilities coming from her High Priest, Initiates, and volunteers, but has the final say in all matters of dispute regarding the ritual.

* Don’t allow vendors, and issue no disclaimers. This keeps the rite spiritually oriented, and won’t be viewed as yet another clever fundraiser in disguise. Allow Pagan businesses to post business cards or pamphlets on a table, but not their products. Insist that diviners charge attendees nothing for reading for them after the main rite.
Don’t be a buzz-kill by posting endless, legalese-type "disclaimers" forbidding drugs, dogs, and such from your rites. No, we don’t allow dogs, but that is the extent of it, and only because they could bite someone. Otherwise, we encourage everything and the free expression of each attendee’s spiritual bliss…

* Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Have backup plans for all rite components. For instance, pray that live musicians DO show up — just know that musicians tend to be a flaky lot, so pre-burn the music you want onto CDs and have a skilled music-spinner play it using amps, etc.
Perform many weather-working spells in advance to ensure the best weather for your outdoor rites (our mantra is "No wind, no rain, no cold, no snow, on Samhain).
Run through the rite often in your mind and ask "What if" this or that happens questions. Think of all conceivable problems and try hard to conceive of things you’d never even consider that could spell the ruin your rite or cause you, the Craft, or your Craft Community any kind of embarrassment. Then, devise contingency plans "just in case", and let everyone know in detail what to do in case such problems arise.

* Insist on your religious rights. Each state’s different, but it’s illegal to disrupt any religious rite in North Carolina, so be prepared to press charges if some fundie makes verbal, "terrorist" threats at attendees.
Oppositely, cops have no right to attend, much less interfere, with Sabbats, but they’re quite adept with spouting excuses for why their presence is "necessary", such as traffic control, etc. Their mere presence often intimidates attendees, so resist them verbally and in Letters to the Editor in newspapers to make your point.

* Have your own internal security armed with walkie-talkies. Deal with trustworthy folks, and have them dressed in costume like every else (not with any obvious "badge" on their breast), roaming from the parking area throughout the rite site acreage, deftly, quietly handling any problems as they arise.Their purpose is to be so goodly, that no one ever knows there was any problem…

* Keep up your strength Witch-wise. Eat early and often, feed your help, take Echinacea before the rite, and slurp up tons of fruit juice throughout preparation time. Take tinctures and such if you’ve a cough or cold.
Wear tons of layers of clothes you can discard as it gets cold or you sweat during the dance. Dress for both comfort AND stunning beauty. Avoid high heels — instead, opt for flat boots with sole traction.

* Protect your Covenstead while you do the God/desses’ work. Everyone knows where you’re gonna’ be during your annual rite, so wire your Covenstead for security if you can, with motion-detecting, night-vision cameras on each floor, VCR recording capability, and put alarms on every door and window.
Failing that, have someone sit on your front porch passing out candy to trick-or-treaters, with a cordless phone nearby to call 911 in case anyone tries to burn the place down.

* Differentiate between when you should stress for success, and when it’s time to revel in the rite itself. Work hard, well, and fast during setup, then quit fussin’ over minor details, change into your costume, and start fairly levitating as you walk, dance, and cavort in the beauty of what you’ve created.

* Welcome attendees who’ve braved much to come from hither and yon to your rite. It’s nice to be welcomed to the rite from the parking lot to the circling site. Do this with torchlight to light pathways, stick incense, glow-sticks color-coordinated to support and set your rite’s theme mood, and props, etc.
Prior to each rite, we station dozens of costumed attendees to line the "admit path", and give them fairy dust to sprinkle on arrivals, feathers to smudge them with incense, roses to sprinkle scented water on them (splurging), and to pass out glo-bracelets or ritual mementos for them to wear. This reduces their nervousness or travel fatigue, and increases their rite anticipation.

* Set a high tone for the event, and all will follow suit. If you’re in the spiritual zone for all to see, no one will be telling tacky jokes or acting undignified.
Your confidence in your ability to pull off the Sabbat with grace and aplomb will radiate and attendees will feel safe, excited, expectant, and reverent.

* Use a wireless, headset mic. Do sound and equipment checks well in advance.When you’re dealing with thousands, wireless mics help all hear you explain the meaning of the Sabbat, the spell’s purpose, and your planned activities.

* Wear clothing or a costume that makes you — the rite leader — easily visible from far away.Sure, we all favor dress blacks and capes, etc., but when everyone wears one, the HPS can blend in and become invisible, causing needless confusion and preventing rite helpers from finding her if need be.
A polished, sparkling silver crown, glo-bracelets at the wrist, and similar items make you stand out, and all know where they are in line in relation to the High Priestess or rite leader.

* Keep ’em moving and mum’s the word. The biggest magical mistake many gathering organizers too often make when planning rites is to have everyone stay overlong, still and freezing or bored, while someone preaches, reads poetry, or does an elaborate altar rite that attendees can’t see well, hear well, or participate in. This is an automatic buzz-kill, and the origin of many a needless complaint about Craft rites.
We avoid this by circling folks hand-to-hand briefly, called Quarters quickly, taking five minutes or so to explain the meaning of the Sabbat and the upcoming rite’s magical purpose. Then we get right to the dance or other plan that gets everyone moving, smiling, and immediately invested in ensuring the rite’s success.

* Assume nothing. If a parent swears blindly their kid is missing, don’t panic and call 911 — you WILL find them — dancing and having the time of their lives!

* Follow the money. If you put a donation bowl out, take steps, like cementing it down on a table or some such with duct tape, to make sure no one runs off with it.

* Delicate "take down" of props after the rite is AS IMPORTANT as setting up fragile, packed props before the rite. Everyone who helped for months, weeks, or days to make the rite a success will be thoroughly exhausted when the rite’s done.
So do yourself a favor ahead of time by insisting that some people do nothing but show up the next day to help you take down the props you used, or they’ll be hopelessly ruined, and unusable next year.

* Don’t reinvent the wheel next year. Recycle all the props you can in creative ways depending on the theme you set next year.Store Sabbat stuff in large plastic bins, and collect donated items throughout the year to use when the time comes for the next year’s Sabbat.

Lady Passion is a co-author of The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems, a registered nurse, and gifted psychic. She lives with her mate in a rambling 3-story Covenstead in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She may be contacted at: oldenwilde@aol.com or www.oldenwilde.org.

Magical Buffet Mythology: Kuan Yin

by Administrator, posted in Buddhism, Mythology, Religion

by Rebecca

Who is Kuan Yin?  Simple answer is the Goddess of Compassion.  You may not have heard of her, but I assure you, the people of China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Buddhists, and Goddess worshipers know all about her.  Kuan Yin is She Who Hears the Cries of the World.  She is generally depicted as a beautiful white robed woman who instead of entering heaven, refused to go until the suffering on Earth has ended.

Kuan Yin (who is known by many, many alternate spellings: Quan Yin, Kannon, Kuan-shih Yin, and more) began her existence as a man.  He was (and is) the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in the Buddhist faith.  The unique sex change occurred when the Bodhisattva came to China.  When this particular Bodhisattva began their incorporation with the Chinese Buddhists, he became a she!  Needless to say, this caused much confusion within the Buddhist community so at this point it has been decided, thanks to the Lotus Sutra, that Kuan Yin can take on any form necessary to help in her missions of compassion and mercy.  That is good because there are stories about Kuan Yin that do not use any of the names previously mentioned in this article.  For instance, the one I chose to use!

This story describes Kuan Yin as the daughter of a cruel king.  (In this particular legend Kuan Yin is referred to as Miao Shan, a princess who is believed to have had a religious following that has since been transferred to Kuan Yin.)

Okay, so Miao Shan’s father, the King, wanted Miao Shan to marry.  You see, the king never had any sons, only daughters, so he was determined to see them all married to wealthy important men.  But despite being a princess Miao Shan was more into the praying and less into the marrying.  She made a fuss that she would not marry unless it could ease three misfortunes.  Unfortunately for the King, marriage, although good, cannot alleviate the suffering people endure as they get older in age, ease the suffering people endure when they fall ill, or ease the suffering caused by death.  This was not your average princess!  Since marriage couldn’t take care of any of those, Miao Shan wanted permission to retire to a religious life at the temple.

The King finally allowed Miao Shan to enter the temple, but he had spoken to the monks and told them to make life there unbearable for her.  You see, he had this military man all lined up for Miao Shan once she gave up at the temple.  The monks tried to make it hard for her.  Miao Shan was forced to work day and night with little food or water and no help.  But that plucky Miao Shan was just such a good person that she didn’t complain and soon the animals there took to helping her.

Now here is where the story branches into a million different variations.  In some versions, the King has the temple burned down.  Miao Shan puts out the fire with her bare hands and suffered no burns.  This totally freaks out the King and he goes from wanting to marry her off, to putting her to death!  Some stories say she was taken away by a supernatural tiger to one of the Hell-like realms of the dead, where she freed many of the souls there.  Other versions say Miao Shan was unable to be killed.  That axe and sword alike broke into thousands of pieces when they tried to take her head!  Another is that she allowed herself to be killed, took on the guilt from her executioner so he would have none, and thusly descended into one of the Hells.  Once there she let loose with all that good karma she had accumulated and freed many souls that were there.  This is just like the movie “Clue”, that’s how it could have ended, but here is my personal favorite ending.

In this ending the King falls ill with a jaundice that no doctor can cure.  A monk arrives and explains that the only way he can be cured is with a special medicine made from the eye and the arm of one without anger.  It just so happens that the monk knows where to find such a person, one lives on Fragrant Mountain.  Miao Shan (of course it’s Miao Shan…it’s her story, right?) when asked gives up her eye and arm willingly.

The King recovers and goes to the Fragrant Mountain to give thanks to the one who helped cure him.  When he arrives he is shocked to discover that his own daughter made those sacrifices for him.  The King begs her for forgiveness.  This version of the story concludes with Miao Shan being transformed into the Thousand Armed Kuan Yin and the King, Queen and her two sisters build a temple on the mountain for her.

As long as this article is, it barely touches on all the wonderful stories, and wonderful aspects, of Kuan Yin.  I encourage you to take a little time to learn more.  Where should you look?  Well, Wikipedia is always a good start, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuan_yin.  Or you can follow in my foot steps and read the book that got me interested in Kuan Yin, “Kuan Yin: Myths and Prophecies of the Chinese Goddess of Compassion” by Martin Palmer, Jay Ramsay, and Man-Ho Kwok.

10 Questions with a Druid

by Administrator, posted in Interviews, Religion

James W. Maertens holds a doctorate in English literature from the University of Minnesota. He is a freelance writer of fiction and scholarly musings on the subjects of myth, Druidry, magic, and history. He is also a wandmaker and full-time, at-home Dad. He’s a Druid Companion of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, a member of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, and Chancellor of the Avalon Center for Druidic Studies, which he founded. James’s Druidic name is Alferian and his philosophical interests range from Taoism and neoplatonism to alchemy and ceremonial magic.

Avalon Center for Druidic Studies (http://www.avaloncollege.org) was founded in 2004 to be a school of higher education offering courses and study programs inspired by the ancient Druids, Bards, and Ovates. It is intended to become a center for the serious scholarly study of Druidic philosophy and ancient Celtic traditions. ACDS presently is developing a curriculum of online college-level courses and working towards establishing a physical campus offering residential study. For more information and to apply as a student or a teacher, please see their web site.

1. What is a Druid?

Well, that depends on who you ask. The ancient druids are known to us through the contemporary writings of Classical writers such as Julius Caesar who set out to conquer the Gauls in what is now France and who harassed the British in what is now the British Isles. The Romans tended to describe the old druids as priests of the Gauls and Britons, intellectual leaders, doctors, judges, seers and wizards. We have medieval Irish tales that speak of Druids as cultural and political leaders, advisers to kings, sometimes set in opposition to Christian missionaries such as St. Patrick. Merlin, the wizard of King Arthur in the romances has become a classic image for the Druids of old. Sort of the last survivor of the old class of wizards who advised the Celtic kings.

Today the term “druid” refers to people who are inspired by the bits and pieces of the pre-Christian Celtic myths and legends and the hints we have from the Classical historians. These folks are usually members of one of the many Druidic orders, some dating back to the 18th century. The Druid Revival that occurred in England and Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries attempted to emulate the ancient “priests of nature” and revere them as the indigenous British sages and wise men of the oak groves who fought against foreign conquerors. Some of the early antiquarians who started the oldest Druidic orders sincerely thought they were preserving an ancient wisdom older than that of the Christian church. They were seeking a spirituality rooted in their own land and its peoples, not in the Middle East and the Biblical history of Israel and the Abrahamic religions. Equally well, they sought a philosophy that was not Greek and Roman, for that was considered equally foreign. However, hardly
anyone today claims to be preserving the practices and lore of the Iron Age druids. We are all quite interested in the Celts as a kind of silent lost culture from which most Europeans descend one way or another. It is the part of European culture which was largely unknown until the Druid Revival and the Irish Renaissance in the last century because, unlike the Greeks and Romans, the Celts didn’t write down anything and left almost no stone monuments.

In the middle of the twentieth century, there was another surge of interest in the idea of the Druids both in Britain and in America, spurred partly by the boom in academic study of the ancient Celts. So, now there are several branches of what is sometimes called Druidry or Druidism. I myself categorize modern druids into three types.

First, there are political druid groups in England who aim to protect the people’s right to access Neolithic stone circles such as Stonehenge.

Second, there are religious druid groups who pursue Druidism as a Neopagan polytheism. Some of these don’t even focus on Celtic deities but seek to reconstruct a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European religion.

The third category are philosophical druids, whose organizations operate more like traditional magical orders or lodges, pursuing a particular current of initiation with their own individual ceremonies and approaches to meditation, healing, seership, and magic. The three categories obviously blend and are not meant to be mutually exclusive.

So, you see, because there is no single thing called “The Druid Path,” there can be no easy definition of what a Druid is – or indeed what they were two thousand years ago. And that’s really the center of the deal: Each person pursing their own inner druid and what it means for them to be a druid. It may mean practicing magic. It may mean worshiping Brighid and Lugh or Cernunnos and Cerridwen. It may mean being an ecologist with spritual leanings, or even an atheist who just feels a deep reverence and respect for Nature (however that is defined). Some druids today pursue what they see as ancient Celtic shamanism, a kind of religion that is like the sages and medicine workers of many tribal peoples around the world. Others are seeking connection to their own family roots in one or more of the Celtic-speaking cultures — often Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall. Still others, myself included, are drawn to Druidry as a deep calling that cannot be readily explained by any obvious family connections. So, in the broadest terms, a modern druid is someone who feels some affinity
with those ancient wise men of the legends, about whom we know very little for a fact.

Finally, if that wasn’t complicated enough, the ancient Bards of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and elsewhere are considered to have been a part of the Druid order and the only part of it that survived openly in the medieval feudal courts. The Bards were (and are) storytellers, musicians, keepers of history, flatterers and satirists of the powerful.

In the broadest terms, the Bards were the creative artists of their times and understood how, for humans, reality is woven of words, images, and feelings. This also made a bard something of an enchanter.

2. Is being a Druid different from being a Wiccan or a Pagan?

Some modern Druids are Wiccan or eclectic witches, many consider themselves Pagans, but some are
Christians and some are atheists, so there is a definite difference. Modern Druidry in Britain was revived in the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids around the same time that Gerald Gardner was creating Wicca. Of course, some Wiccans will deny that Gerald Gardner invented Wicca as such, but be that as it may, historically, the Druid orders of the British Druid revival contributed a lot of ritual imagery and structure to Wicca. Gardner was a member of the Ancient Druid Order, and the ADO was itself apparently influenced by the ceremonial magical tradition which draws on medieval and ancient Egyptian sources. So, there is a family resemblance among all these threads of philosophy and practice. And, again, the answer to your question all depends on what sort of Druidry one is practicing. Generalizing is hazardous, but from my experience Druid orders and local groves are
much less intimate groups than a witch’s coven.

The object of druid groves is not usually to perform magical rites, however the more polytheistic sort of druids do raise “energy” in group rituals for transformative purposes.

One generalization that is sometimes made is that druids are more cerebral and witches more ecstatic, but I think it’s very hard to generalize about either movement. For me it is more about quiet meditation and communion with trees and animals and plants and about creative endeavors, such as writing and wood-carving. For other druids, it might be about quite different things, but the desire to commune with nature and sacred places seems very common among druids. In America, I suspect the tendency is to want to commune with and connect to wilderness or places of great natural beauty, while in England and Ireland the desire is to connect to places of particular historical significance or places such as Glastonbury Tor and Stonehenge, which are obviously sacred places in the landscape of our British ancestors, even if we can only guess at the details of their practices and beliefs.

3. I’m (insert any religious denomination here). Can I be a Druid?

Yes, as long as your religion is compatible with a philosophy that is completely open to individual conscience, inspiration, and respect for all people and all beings. A lot of Neopagans were raised in Christian or Jewish households and have turned to Neopaganism of one sort or another as a way of finding a religion that was more respectful of Nature, sexuality, women, and which was not steeped in the ideas of sin, punishment, and authoritarianism. Certainly, some ancient European pagan cultures were quite patriarchal and did not take an ecological point of view. But still, the root ideas of these religions of the country folk (the “paganus” in Latin) inspire a religion that returns modern people to a deeper connection with Nature and the cycle of the seasons, instead of the profound alienation that most people experience in modern Western culture.

One can find similar movements within Christianity certainly. The Traditional British Druid orders were founded as fraternal organizations and, like Freemasonry, did not require a member to renounce his or her religious beliefs, whatever they were. Orders such as OBOD and the AODA (Ancient Order of Druids in America) are not constituted as strictly “pagan” organizations. Avalon Center is the same way. While the study programs we offer are often of particular interest to Neopagans, the Center does not promulgate any particular religion,nor is it a religious organization.

4. I have horrible allergies. Seriously, I’m allergic to just about anything that grows outside. Is my destiny as a Druid ruined?

No. While druids do like to carry on outdoors and in the Natural surroundings, there is a side to Druidry,
especially as expressed in orders like the OBOD, which is mainly contemplative and focused on work in one’s “inner grove” within the imagination that is the doorway to the Otherworld.

Study of divination, healing, and the bardic arts are all part of OBOD’s Druidry and certainly the Druidry that Avalon Center embraces. And, of course, many if not most druids today live in cities. My own vision of a center for Druidic learning places our campus in a rural setting and has the students working with gardens, animals, and forestry, as well as learning the arts of sustainable living, but there is such a range of interests and ways of pursuing one’s own sacred expression that it is pretty wide open.

5. If I become a Druid do I get to have some cool magical name?

You can do that without becoming a Druid. Many druids today follow the tradition of magical lodges and take Druidic names, sometimes at each grade of Druidry (if they have grades in their particular tradition).

My own Druidic name (Alferian Gwydion MacLir) combines three parts that were bestowed on me by my inner guides at the grades of Bard, Ovate, and Druid within OBOD. The three names are actually from three languages — Elvish, Welsh, and Irish — and that triplicity and interweaving of language influences is part of my own peculiar Druidry. The purpose is not to get a “cool” name but to take a name that signifies your self-transformation into something new. Many druids take names from Celtic mythology or one of the Celtic languages, but many also follow the Native American tradition and chose animal names. A magical name is sometimes kept completely secret, like a secret identity, distinct from one’s public face. Many receive their names from their inner guides during meditation.

6. Do I have to be British to be a Druid, or does it just help?

No, you do not have to be British or have Celtic blood ancestry to be a druid in most groups. Very few modern druids consider it to be a matter of nationality. The larger druid organizations draw members from all over the world and the AODA is a specifically American group that has historical connections to the traditional British orders. ADF (Ar n’Draiocht Féin) is a different sort of organization that promulgates religious Druidism and Neopaganism more generally, but has separated itself from the Wiccan traditions. But nevertheless, ADF is primarily an American organization and most of its members are American. Traditional British Druidry does, however, focus a good deal on the sacred landscape of Britain and Ireland and on the languges and concepts of those cultures in their pre-Roman forms. The Arthurian legends also figure prominently in the teachings of orders such as the OBOD. So, if you are an American Anglophile like me its fine, but if you have no interest in the history and culture of Britian and Ireland (or some region of Old Celtic Europe), then your druidry will probably take a somewhat different form. I believe many American druids are influenced strongly by the shamanic spiritual culture and myths of Native American tribal peoples. Indeed, so are many of the British Druids.

7. Your school talks about the “Bardic tradition”. If you would kindly demonstrate this by writing a poem about The Magical Buffet?

There once was a girl named Rebecca
Whose tastes ranged from London to Mecca
She offered up choices
From alchemy to oysters
In a buffet for magical trekkers.

8. Who is your favorite character from The Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Oh, that’s a tough one. Galadriel, I’d say. I quite identify with Bilbo, however.

9. Arthur or Lancelot?

Arthur.

10. Parting shot! Ask us here at The Magical Buffet any one question?

What is the capital of Assyria?

(Ahem, cough) Assyria in earliest historical times referred to a region on the Upper Tigris river, named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur. Later, as a nation and Empire, it also came to include roughly the northern half of Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia) the capital being Nineveh. (thank you www.wikipedia.org!)

High Performance Symbolism: The Jaguar

by Administrator, posted in Creatures, Magic/Occult, Religion, Symbols

By Rebecca
Known for its power and grace it is no wonder that a manufacturer of luxury cars would chose the jaguar as its emblem. Unfortunately for you motoring enthusiasts this month’s column is not about the cars but about the animal. We’re going to discuss the jaguar as a symbol.Jaguar: Master of Cars
Everyone is familiar with the animal, but we’re not talking about a mere mortal animal, we’re talking about the jaguar as something more than flesh; we’re exploring it as a symbol for larger things. Generally, you will find the jaguar being treated as a symbol amongst the native tribes of Central America since they derive most of their traditions from the ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures. Let me tell you, those Mayans and Aztecs respected the jaguar…and for more reasons than it could eat you!

For the Mayans the jaguar was the master of animals and a creature of the underworld. It was said that their eyes were a passage to the underworld, and more so, if you gazed into the eyes of a jaguar your future would be revealed to you. I’m guessing a one-way ticket to the underworld was a common prediction revealed through this practice! For the Aztecs the jaguar was the guardian of the four pathways of the world. To the Toltecs the jaguar represented the moon. (For those of you with inquiring minds, the eagle represented the sun.) The coming of twilight was attributed to a jaguar devouring the sun. You can imagine the Toltecian irony if somehow they stumbled across a jaguar eating an eagle!

The Popol Vuh, a collection of ancient myths of the Quiche Mayans, references the jaguar often. Most notably when they list the symbols one with authority to rule must possess amongst them is the paw of a jaguar. You know, the guy took out a jaguar, are you going to tell him he doesn’t have the authority to rule?
Jaguar: Master of Animals
For modern Central American shamanistic cultures, the jaguar is the premier guide. (Much the way it is the premier vehicle in the world of cars! Man, I should be getting some cash from Jaguar for this column!) Only the strongest, most powerful shaman can claim that he works with the jaguar. If they are truly worthy, they may even take on the form of the animal!

So, what does this all mean? It means that the jaguar is not only a beautiful animal and a fine automobile but a creature that has come to embody something more. The jaguar represents the moon, the underworld, it is the guardian of the pathways; themes that are echoed in the myths and legends of many cultures. It is just another thread in the tapestry that weaves all of humanity together.

On a non-symbolic note, the jaguar was declared an endangered species for the United States on March 28, 1972.
To learn more about this animal and what you can do to help it visit www.fws.gov

Profile: Coven Oldenwilde

by Administrator, posted in Organizations, Religion, Wiccan/Pagan

Article Provided by Coven Oldenwilde

Coven Oldenwilde is a deliciously wicked mix of olde world and new — a wildlife habitat and 3-story Appalachian Covenstead, and a cutting-edge training ground in the Bible belt that teaches Witches worldwide savvy ways to eliminate religious persecution.

Founded on Samhain in 1994, the Coven is a 501(c) (3) religious nonprofit that practices a blend of traditional British Gardnerianism and experiential Italian Strega magic, led by High Priestess Lady Passion and High Priest *Diuvei (authors of the critically acclaimed The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems).

Bold advocates of the antiquity, beauty, and validity of the Olde Religion in everyday life, the pair has garnered extensive coverage of their trail-blazing spiritual activism in print (AP, Washington Post), radio (BBC, NPR), and TV news (CNN, etc.).

“We became politically-adept early on by experience,” explains *Diuvei. “We learned the only way to thrive was to insist on our rights by publicizing the buried laws that upheld them, and to expose bigots’ own words to the light of print. This method evokes public sympathy, and has made Asheville a safe haven for thousands of Witches who move here each year from all over the nation.”

One of many successful examples from their extensive Wiccan web site: their campaign against North Carolina’s anti-divination law forced legislators to repeal it in 2004. International celebrity spokes-Witches, Lady Passion and *Diuvei often work Witchcraft for TV studios (Universal, Sci-Fi), production companies (A. Smith & Co., L.A., Trafford Media, England), and series (Extra!, Finding America).

“Last year we were filmed circling with an Indian family from war-torn Kashmir. Their 16 year-old daughter had made her own black cape and robe and was breath-takingly beautiful. They all danced a Cone of Power with us and played music with all their hearts. It was absolutely inspiring!”

For the past 30 years Lady Passion and *Diuvei have helped thousands of people worldwide solve their medical, magical, and legal problems. Legal clergy, they marry and bury folks, sponsor prison and military Covens nationwide, bless new homes and de-ghost houses prior to re-sale, secure Pagans’ religious rights, give fascinating, empowering talks about their magical adventures, the politics of persecution, and Conscientious Objectorship to War, heal with herbal medicines they brew, and teach the Craft of the Wise to people of all ages and backgrounds — from soccer moms, to cops and Mensa members.

“Probably the most gut-wrenching problem I help with daily is Witches who’ve been repressed to such a degree they don’t feel empowered enough to resist when they’re being blatantly persecuted,” Lady Passion says ruefully. “It strikes me as odd, for Witches have a long, proud history of defying bad laws, leaders, and landlords. But most of the time all they need is support in the form of a reminder: A Witch’s backbone is a bully’s kryptonite. Then they’re off to make their abuser regret it,” she grins.

Rave reviews for their The Goodly Spellbook caused it to be practically sold out of its initial run within four months of its international release. “We’re ecstatic that readers who devour fiction like Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code want to work real ancient, yet easy magic,” smiles Lady Passion.

The book’s mystique is that it reveals never-before-published material about The Secret Language of Witches, Barbarous Words of Power, Magical Alphabets, and the mystical methods politicians and advertisers use to manipulate the masses. Lavishly illustrated and replete with fascinating true tales of the authors magical experiences, the 476 page hardcover book covers healing, protection, attraction, discernment, concealment, and repulsion spells, and teaches Magical Gestures, Witch dance steps, Herbalism, Sacred Music, and much more.

Organized into 3 parts — Scope (magic history); Skills (traditional techniques); and Spells (hundreds of authentic, easy olde charms for all life’s needs) — The Goodly Spellbook lists all its sources and includes helpful Glossaries of Magical & Medicinal Herbs and Common Craft Terms.

The book’s success has raised demand for Lady Passion and *Diuvei’s work to a fever pitch. Indeed, they just returned from an extensive book tour in England where they were featured in a popular BBC London radio interview (hear a snippet or their full interview at: oldenwilde.org).

So what’s next for this revolutionary power-Coven? One thing you can count on, whatever they do, it’ll be unprecedented.