Month: January 2008

Words of Power? Words are Power!

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Creativity, everydayLeave a comment

Words and Language are on my mind recently…

Since we’ve moved to a town south of Orlando I now commute from home to work along Interstate 4. Westbound, even though I-4 runs more of a North / South through Orlando itself. This new daily commute is rather an invigorating experience for someone who grew up in a town with two State Highways out of town!

It gives me time to think about things, when I remember to relax my near bloodless grip on the steering wheel… still adjusting to the Interstate experience I guess. Anyway someone had passed me on I-4 from behind me they switched lanes sped up, and then switched lanes in front of me, all without using their turn signal.

“Curse you…” I muttered, (or something a little less publishable…) and then I thought about it.

As a Witch, a Pagan, someone who believes that our thoughts and words and actions can create change in ourselves and in the world around us…. shouldn’t I be more careful?

On the one hand I don’t imagine myself somehow so connected to the Divine or Magick that my slightest casual utterance is going to cause someone to burst into flames or anything. Focus and Will are necessary ingredients in Magick. Besides the Gods are a part of every atom and cell of creation so on some level the Universe knows when we are placing our Wills behind our words.

And yet, words have power….

Recently I was standing in line at work in the wardrobe department and heard a young lady behind me in discussion with a couple of other employees make the comment that “That’s so gay!”

I had had a rough day, I turned around to face her, and firmly yet politely said…

“Excuse me, as someone who IS gay, I would really appreciate it if you would, please, NOT use that word as a synonym for something bad, stupid or lame?”

“Uh… Ok.” She looked a little stunned.

“Thank you.” I turned back aroud and waited for the line to move.

Words have power, over us and on those around us.

I will often have to calm myself when I see someone write “alter” instead of “altar”, unless they meant it humorously, but they seldom do. On another hand despite knowing the popular rhyme I sometimes STILL have trouble with “ie” vs. “ei”!

I am an avid reader and someone who dreams of, if not making a living from my own words, then making a difference with them. Shouldn’t I be more careful with how I express myself, even in the privacy of my car on I-4? Heavens know I try to express myself well in other arena’s.

In the realm of my own words and writing, I am still formulating my thoughts on that piece about economics in the Pagan community, and on a few other potiential articles.

——-

On a more personal level I am working out my thoughts on my religious calendar and how to honor the Gods of my heart…. I am still contemplating some ideas I got from the Religio Americana list about Pagan ways of honoring the U.S. Civic Holidays such at July 4th and Memorial Day… more about that later.

Peace,
Pax

An update, and see~you~another~time, to a voice I love

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, everyday, Great Writers, Pagan Evangelical, Pagans of NoteLeave a comment

I have updated the list of Pagan Community Links. I am also in the process of thinking about writing a number of pieces about the Pagan Community and my thoughts upon it. I like to, and try to, commit thought before I commit my words to the Internet. It is a virtual vault of the ages after all.

I am also trying to find words as eloquent as those of Sara Sutterfield Winn.

Sara is an author and fellow Pagani whose blog Pagan Godspell was invaluable help to me in rekindling my spirit and creativity and faith. She has inspired me, and her blog is a part of the inspiration for this blog. Her personal website’s discussion of the concept of Pagan Evangelism helped me to identify an important part of my own philosophy of faith and of Pagan Pride.

She has set aside the blog and is working on other projects, but I must encourage each of you to read her rich words and the powerful and sensual descriptions of this wonderfully vast world of ours…

…nope still trying.

Peace,
Pax

Figuring out my Liturgical Callendar

On By PaxIn everyday, Reinventing the Wheel1 Comment

So having recently embraced Hecate and Dionysus into my heart and life as a Witch, I am presented with the dilemma of how to integrate them into my recently renewed liturgical life; and how to integrate honoring them with my duties to the Horned God and Moon Goddess of the Witches – who I have given myself to oh so many years ago…

I am still sorting the second issue out for myself, but as for the first I had thought I had settled it for myself but I am beginning to realize that the Gods are not easily fit into ones life or schedule. (You’d think I would have grasped this already, after 17 or so years of study and practice, but we can all be a little slow sometimes…)

I have signed up onto some Hellenistic (Greek Recon Pagan) Lists and have been having a few good conversations with folks and trying to learn all I can about the ways in which Dionysus and Hecate, and the rest of the Gods, were honored in the ancient days. This has been helpful not only in figuring out HOW to honor the Gods, but also WHEN to do so. At the same time though I am a modern Pagan, and I don’t know if adopting an ancient Greco-Roman Calendar makes sense for me.

After all, I am neither an Ancient Greek, nor an Ancient Celt or Norseman; I am a modern Pagan! (if your confused as to where the Celts and Norse come into it, those cultures are the ones that contributed the most to the modern Pagan Wheel of the Year) For Me, for now, I think keeping to the Gregorian Calendar and adopting some of the modern ways of thinking to my Pagan theo/thea-logy will work. As a modern Pagan I will Honor the Gods as appropriate and in line with how they are rightly approached and the times and tides of the world around me.

For example…

Hecate was traditionally honored on the New Moon, which is something I can definitely work with.

Dionysus, as appropriate to His nature, will not be so easily fit into a regularly scheduled program… (why is it I am attracted to challenging men and gods?) I will strive to honor and celebrate him at Sabbats, especially in the Spring and Harvest times… and whenever I feel led to.

The Lord and Lady of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, to whom I dedicated myself so many years ago, will of course be honored on the Full Moon.

Then we have things like February and April… April was the month of Venus to the Romans, and February is associated in the Modern mind with “Valentine’s” day and celebrations of Love. Do I honor Aphrodite in February, April, both?!? Still sorting some of this out. I suppose February makes some sense since the minds of more than a few million folks will be turned to thoughts of Love… and then perhaps something in April for Dionysus and Aphrodite?

(While not especially involved with the Goddess Aphrodite, She IS {imho} one Goddess whom I think all Pagans could afford to familiarize themselves with!)

Then of course there’s the Wheel of the Year… fitting 2 Gods and 2 Goddesses into the Sabbats… some of this is really easy… Beltaine really seems like an especially good time to Honor Dionysus. At Samhain..well, Hecate IS the Queen of Phantoms… but what about Imbolg?

If your reading this please feel free to post about how you’ve dealt with this sort of question…

Stretching and awakening…

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Seeking, witcheryLeave a comment
“The Gods are many and they are real! They are present in every atom and cell of creation and they are present within each of us. With every breath we have the chance to breathe inspiration.”

I wrote this recently, and have been trying to breathe inspirations whenever I could. There are the moments drinking in the sunlight and stabillity of the earth as I walk into work. There are the quiet times in the back yard, listening the the whispers of wind or the babbling of the fountain.

Watching whispy clouds chase one another across the infinite midnight blue sky as the full moon, mighty Mother of us all, seems to run across the sky as the clouds dance by. Listening to the stangely reassuring echoes of the Interstate traffic…

Sunday was my Patner’s birthday and we spent most of the day at home enjoying the company of friends in our new home. After everyone had gone home I took a ritual bath, drank wine and toasted the Gods underneath the Moons brilliant gleam.

I have talked about my ongoing spiritual reawakening, and now it seems to be bubbling forth. I have sought wisdom and inspiration in the last few months, and found some. Recently though I feel like the watched pot that has begun to boil, or at least simmer.

I have been humming songs and thinking bits of poetry, remembering beloved songs from years gone by and feelling more awake, more alive, more my core self, more Witchy.

Thanks be to the Horned God, and the Mother Goddess,

Thanks be to Hecate, and Dionysus!

I salute these, the Gods and Goddesses, of my heart,

As well as All the Gods, and the Powers and Principalities of the Universe!

Blessed Be!

These are the continuing journeys of a Witch named Pax…

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Cross-roads, Day One, rememberingLeave a comment

(cue nifty broom riding fly-by montage)

So in the last week +, myself, my Partner, and our room mate have moved South of Orlando, about 25 minutes outside the metro area. I am still settling in and still looking forward to my graduation, and still needing to keep up with my writting… a few different things are lingering in my mind of late.

I am at a place in my life where I will now have some time to resume those things that feed my soul. Ritual and Magick, Reading and Writing, Cooking and Gaming.

The more I think about my life before I met my beloved, and before I came to Orlando, the more I realize that I often let myself set important things aside. I let my practice of the Faith of Witchcraft and of Magick fade in the face of a daily grind. I would bog myself down in the daily details and lose sight of the fun in those hobbies or activities I took part in. I also would turn to some pretty dumb and self-destructive behaviors to escape needless fear.

…

At school, in the Restaurant and Hospitality Management program, they emphasized the fact that the Hospitality Industry can be especially tough to work in. You are dealing with unusual schedules a sometimes insane workload and the ever challenging nature of dealing with the public. Several of the classes were keyed to blend in with our focus on Restaurant and Hospitality Management. The Math, English, and Science classes as well as the Hospitality Law, Human Resources Management, and Accounting classes all returned time and again to Hospitality based models.

The Psychology class talked extensively about stress management and the positive and negative ways in which people choose to deal with stress.

Again and again I have seen how I have allowed the stressors of my daily life to overshadow my spiritual practice and those activities that most feed my soul. At the times I most need to touch Spirit and to renew myself, I have been most willing to surrender to the tides of work and the moment.

In this new year and new home, I have the opportunity to begin again. To renew my spiritual and magickal studies, to renew my relationships with the Gods. It is not as if the Lord and Lady of Witchcraft went anywhere… heck, they ARE everywhere! Present in every blessed atom and cell of creation! It only really takes the willingness to open oneself up to Them and to the Wonder and Magick present in all of the world around us for us to touch and be transformed and blessed by Them.

I also have the chance to renew my relationships with the Lord and Lady, as well as build upon my new relationship with Dionysus and Hecate. I will take that chance.

The Gods are many and they are real! They are present in every atom and cell of creation and they are present within each of us. With every breath we have the chance to breathe inspiration.

I do not, in the end, regret the path so far. Every step along the way has been of my choosing, and I have always tried to learn from every moment, each experience.

Now I make more conscious choices, I’d like to think I have done some growing up in the last couple of years.

Later today I will lift a glass of wine to conscious choices, and healthy ones, and to the Lord and Lady of the Witches, and to Hecate and Dionysus, and to the spirits of this new home, and to the coming year.

Blessed be,

Pax / Geoffrey Stewart