Some folks may have noticed that while the address of the blog is the same, the subtitle is now “One Pagan’s Journey”

I am still a Witch, I am just acknowledging my growth as a Pagan and my persuit of Hellenic and Greco-Egyptian Polytheism.

My thoughts today are focusing on domestic worship.

We really no next to nothing of everyday Paganism in the ancient world only the ‘High Church’ Paganism associated with Temples and official Cults.  In many cases those with direct access to the temple would have, even in Ancient Athens or Rome, numbered in the dozens… not hundreds.

In the ancient world of the Mediterranean, and possibly throughout europe (any Heathen or archeologically minded readers please chime in!) it was quite common to have an altar of some sort in the home where the members of the family, perhaps represented by the Man or Lady of the House, would make small personal offerings and prayers to the Gods.

I have recently had the epiphany that this style of worship is one that I have been attracted to for years.  Long before I thought of expanding my Paganism beyond Religous Witchcraft.

Frankly, for me, as a Solitary Pagan there is not the need for the complex bells and whistles.  As a Witch I am glad for knowing how to perform the Circle, and am glad to take part in or share and perform this rite with/for others; but if it is just myself and the Lady and Lord I really don’t have to go through all the effort.

NOT that They are not worth the effort!  But I mean seriously, having established my relationship with Them and with the Elements… Why do I need to use the Circle?  The Witches Circle is a wonderful ritual and does it’s job marvelously, but it was specifically designed for certain circumces.  Having performed that rite on more than a few occasions I have learned and internalized some of it’s lessons.

I will admit as a Witch though I am still drawn toward the Witches Circle as a ritual format and will continue to use it a few times a year, but for now I think I need to focus more on the substance of my relating to the divine than the style.

Then I look at my relationship with Hecate, and Dionysus, and the other Gods of the Greek and Greco-Egyptian Pantheons.

Even many of the personal or private rituals that I find seem so full of.. well,. STUFF!  Statues and dishes and plates and censers and thises and that’s… not that I would MIND having more stuff, it’s just that I am lacking in the cash and physical space department these days.

Even if I had the room and the money though, I think that I would still be keeping it fairly simple.  A lot of religious rituals for groups, including the ritual models we have from the Ancient World and too  the Witches Circle, are designed for groups of varying sizes.  Part of what makes a group ritual successful is the symbolic acts and images that help to focus the minds and spirits and energies of the participants on the rite at hand.  This is what the complexity of Ancient, and indeed Modern, ritual is all about.

After so many years studying and practicing magic and ritual and theurgy, when it is just myself and my Deities, I don’t need all the triggering outer stuff.  I just need my Will, my connection with the Gods, and a few simple spiritual practices.  Me and the Gods, offering up a libation of water or some sweet-smelling incense; the simple reaching out to Them and offering them some of what I have.  Offering up prayers to Them to thank Them for the blessings in my life.

Dear Pagans,

There is an interesting meta-discussion going on right now about the nature of Fame withing the Pagan Community.   Cat Chapin-Bishop over at Quaker Pagan Reflections started it with her own musings on fame, Pagan authors, and her own yearnings and ambivalence regarding fame within the Pagan community.

This has gotten a few others writing and thinking about this topic, including Jason over at The Wild Hunt, and Yewtree over at The Stroppy Rabbit.  Several fabulous, and even a few ‘famous’, folks have also been commenting at the various blogs.

So having this bully little pulpit, I have decided to put in my two cents…

First off let me just admit, up front, the full and delicious irony of a bunch of Pagan Bloggers discussing their observations and concerns of the status that we in the Pagan Community seem to place on Fame and Authors and Big Name Pagans!

(ok, I feel better now)

So for myself, I have always dreamed of being an author, even as a kid.  I was thrilled to be asked to write a column for Thorn magazine.  I cried tears of joy when I got my check from them… I was officially a proffessional writer… dreams really can come true.. for me too!  I am always pleased to get comments on my blog, and happy to see others citing my posts elsewhere.  I would like to think that these are all the normal human desire to be noticed and acknowledged; combined with a certain delight in finding others who also deeply care about the issues and ideas I think are important.

I have learned to question my own motives though… there is still a part of me that is the kid who desperately wanted to be liked and to be poplar and didn’t really have either.

In fact, though, when I’ve gotten notoriety within my local communities I’ve been a little weirded out.

I can remember years ago now when I had just started hosting monthly Pagan community socials in the Anchorage , AK, area.  I had been hosting them for a few months, and started an email-list for the local community.  I was greeting folks at the start of one of these events and I introduced myself to a couple of new faces.  These two young ladies eyes widened and the smiled brightly and in thrilled voices said

“Oh, wow!  Your Pax!!!  It’s so cool to finally meet you!”

Overall, that felt, SO weird.  I really wasn’t sure how to deal with it at the time.  Some folks acted like I was some type of important big deal because I was just doing things anyone could do to try and encourage some in person Pagan community in Anchorage.

Years later, after having a period of burnout and withdrawal in the wake of a drama storm, I started getting back involved.

Then I encountered a a couple of folks running some local events who were always playing these very cliquish and high-school games with folks.   The sort of….

“Well, your idea is good dear, and we should give it some considerationg but We have a bit more experience in these things so why don’t we do it our way and you don’t need to worry about it?”

and

“I don’t want to say something bad about ___ but,…”  (this tactic is now and forever known in some Pagan social circles back in Anchorage as “But-comma fever” and mercilessly mocked.)

Their leader actually referred to herself as a “published Pagan author” in an effort to lend herself authority in her efforts to wield Power Over!

(This too has led to some ferocious mockery, especially as the book in question was self-published by the author on a print-on-demand site.  If you must try playing THAT game, at least have your blessed book on the shelves of the stores!)

They even actively sought ways to derail other peoples efforts at building community!  Luckily there were some hardworking, passionate, and intelligent Pagan folk around town who were NOT impressed by them and their games and Anchorage has some active pockets of Pagan community to this day.

I decided a long time ago that there are just some things I don’t care about.

I really don’t care if you are famous, an author, a blogger, or podcaster, or some other species of Big Name Pagan.  I don’t care how long you’ve been a Pagan or involved in the movement.  I don’t give a whit who initiated you or how many  downlines you may have.  I don’t care if you are called an Elder.  I don’t care if you founded  a group, a grove, a kindred, a non-profit, or a church.

What DO I care about?

How do you treat seekers and newbies, and their questions or ideas?  How do you talk about other Pagan and non-Pagan paths?  How do you represent us in the presence of others?   How do you treat yourself?  How do you treat your family, your friends,  and the waitress or the busboy?  How do you choose to live and embody the ideals and values and virtues of your Paganism?

“Oh, wow!  Your Pax!!!”

At the time that happened I felt like I really wasn’t doing anything all THAT special.  I was just organizing some socials and trying to encourage some face to face community.

I now realize that inside the modern Pagan movement even small actions can make huge differences in the lives of our fellow Pagans.  Most of us, if we are lucky, have a coven or grove or kindred or group of some sort to celebrate some of the seasons.  In a few of the largest cities we have many active groups and outlets for the movement to blossom into community.  For a lot of us though Paganism is a solitary persuit.  We may have some community activity but, either due to external or internal barriers, we do not take part.  So Authors and Podcasters and Bloggers and other species of Big Name Pagan become important to us.

It is no longer enough to write a book, or publish a blog, or produce a podcast.   As the modern Pagan movement enters the 21st Century C.E. we Pagans need to ask the question…

What are you doing with your power, your authority, your fame?

Peace,

Pax

PS- some aspects of this post owe a debt of inspiration to the excellent post Witch Please by Dianne Sylvan

Dear Friends and Pagani,

So this morning I spent a few small moments staring into a candle flame, trying to meditate.  I cannot honestly say if I achieved a meditative state but I felt good about having taken the plunge and feeling as if I am  making progress.

I worked one of the part time jobs today, at the theme park.  I was at an outside bottled beverage stand.  I tried to breathe, and remain open to the Numinous… colors seemed brighter and it seemed as if folks were more receptive to my friendly greetings as they walked by…

An unexpected benefit of all this proper breathing…

In through the nose, out through the mouth.  Deep breaths filling up the lungs, imagining I am breathing as much from the base of the spine,  and the top of my skull and my privates (flexing those muscles on the inhalation) as from my nose.  Breathing in and imagining it filling my body from the base of my spine to the top of my skull.  Breathing in the Breath of Life, Breathing out my connection to the world and to all living things… even the atoms and cells as all is touched by the Numinous.

…anyways I was standing much straighter and using much better posture than usual and my feet and ankles hurt less today than they have at the end of some of my other long days.

The colors are so much more vivid, the shapes are clearer, and I am more aware of my surroundings.  In some ways it is a little spiritually exhausting to always be so connected and aware of the Holiness within all of Creation.  Exhausting and yet oh so delicious….

Much to learn,

Peace,

Pax

Dear Pagans,

Happy Beltaine (all of them), and Floralia, and May Day, and Anthesteria (for some of our more Northern Hellenist’s anyways it was traditionally much earlier, but then too so is Spring in that part of Greece…)

Jason at the Wild Hunt posted some wonderful Beltaine info on Beltaine Eve day, and I already shared some thoughts on Beltaine and related festivals… (here and here)

Today, after visiting The Big Guy in the hospital (he’s ok, and will be home soon.  Just a skin infection the doctors thought might be a more serious skin infection so a hospital stay and iv antibiotics were the order of his day for a few days.), I went to a few places and filled out some applications in the hopes of finding one full-time job, rather than the two part times jobs I work now.  Then I came home and poured a simple soup kettle of water libation to The Mother, and The Horned God, and to the Powers of Earth and Fertility and Plenty in our little garden today.

Myself and the Roommates and a friend visited The Big Guy at the hospital and we played cards and went for a walk now that he’s out of isolation.

Tonight I poured a Libation to Dionysus in honor of a late blooming Anthesteria.  I had to improvise with some rum and fruit punch, as I had no clear cut rights to the one bottle of wine in the house and no money with which to buy a bottle.  I was tempted, as many of the Hellenics are celebrating festivals to Hermes, to ‘borrow’ a bit of the wine; but I really wasn’t sure how the Big Guy or the roommates would feel about that.

Re: Anthesteria

I am still figuring out my Hellenic Polytheism’s relationship with Festivals… slowly moving beyond my altar and the occasional outdoor libations, lacking a clear cut -Spring- in Florida, I decided to go with the Holiday I, as a former Alaskan, most equate with Spring, never mind that Beltane as celebrated by many of us Neo-Pagans has some of the same themes of life and fertility and sex and death as Anthesteria…)

I had though to write something lyrical and thought out on the themes of fertility and plenty and growth and sewing seeds for the future; yet instead of being moved to wrie of these things, I find that there are a couple of things I want to share with you all on these themes.

First is a site my friend AkHeathen/Danielle shared with a couple of the Alaska lists that I am still on.  She had encountered it through a heathen list she’s on…

The Great Sunflower Project

“By watching and recording the bees at sunflowers in your garden, you can help us understand the challenges that bees are facing.”  They even send you the sunflower seeds!  This is a very important and easy project and if you haven’t heard of Colony Collapse Disorder then you really need to research it, because it is already part of the complicated web of causes behind our increasing grocery bills!

~~~

Second up to bat today is this mornings post by Jason at the Wild Hunt requesting folks donate money to Cherry Hill Seminary.

As Jason said…

I think that I was more surprised than anyone when I was invited to participate in envisioning and shaping the future of the preeminent Pagan distance education institution as a member of their board of directors. While there are many online schools, colleges, and seminaries that claim to provide higher education and advanced training to the Pagan community, only Cherry Hill Seminary backs up those claims with a robust and serious-minded curriculum. Their faculty are not only experienced practitioners and clergy, but the majority hold advanced academic degrees in the fields they teach. The school is now engaged in a multi-year plan that will not only see the school start to provide Master’s degrees in Divinity, Counseling, Ministry, and Pagan Studies, but achieve accreditation through the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Their achievements and goals paint a portrait of a school that is avoiding easy shortcuts, or becoming a money-making degree/diploma mill, and is instead heavily invested in making sure our future is filled with well-trained and accomplished leaders.

Naturally, an endeavor like this doesn’t come cheap. We have staff and faculty to pay, infrastructure to build and maintain, and certain benchmarks to meet if we are to achieve our goals. Tuition from students only covers a portion of these costs, and like all higher learning institutions we rely on donors to meet the ever-rising costs of running a learning institution of this type. When I joined the board at Cherry Hill, it was expected that I would take part in fund-raising efforts to show my personal commitment towards making the school as success. While I have no secret contact list of wealthy donors or rich relatives, I do have something of a bully pulpit here at The Wild Hunt. So in this one instance I’m going to briefly stray from news-gathering and editorial pontificating, and ask the thousands of people who read my blog and are invested in institutions like Cherry Hill Seminary succeeding and growing to consider giving a donation during our annual appeal. I understand that times are hard, and that many of you can’t spare much, but if you do have some disposable income, and are interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to help us succeed now is the time.

Like many of you, I’m always deeply skeptical of online endeavours that claim to advance our community. I have aligned myself with Cherry Hill because I trust the people running it, and I respect the people teaching for it. If my goals in life were a bit different, I would not hesitate to pick Cherry Hill as a place to receive advanced skills that would prepare me for a future in aiding and guiding my coreligionists towards a better future. If you agree with my assessment, please choose this time to make a donation, small or large, towards our future. If and when you do, please let them know that The Wild Hunt sent you. You may also, if you want to support this mission but have nothing to give at this time, re-post my message on your own blog or journal. We always ask where the advanced material is, and when we are going to advance beyond “101″ lessons, well here is where that need is answered and fulfilled. I hope you’ll join me in helping Cherry Hill shape our collective future.” ~ Jason Pitzl Waters (c) 2009

Please consider giving some money to this eminently worthy cause!

Peace,

Pax