TWPT Talks to... 10 Authors of the Pagan Community
The Wiccan/Pagan Times has been on line since March 1999. Over the
years, we have interviewed many of the most notable Authors in the Pagan
Community.
Authors mean a lot to the pagan community. We have
been referenced as the people of the books, and many will start their
path with a book. How the author feels about the pagan community is
important, as we like to think that the information in the books are
practiced as well as printed.
Presented here are some of the many
memorable interviews we have published over the last 13 years. We have taken 10 of these
interviews and put them together with author bios, pictures and weblinks
so you can explore the authors further.
Interviewed are Anna
Frankin, Dorothy Morrison, Edain McCoy, John Michael Greer, Kristin
Madden, M. R. Sellars, Margot Adler, Patricia Telesco, Raymond Buckland
and Yasmine Galenorn. Preserved here is a place in time within the pagan
community when we were still new, but growing. We feel these interviews
convey the flavor and the heart of the pagan community.
Sorita d'Este
TWPT Video
Introduction - Who is the Goddess Hekate? by Sorita d'Este
Here's to a More Natural Holiday Season: from a Christmas Baby by Chris Highland
Trees and turkeys hate this time of year,
especially Christmas. Well, I suppose if you’re an oak tree or a palm or
a sequoia you may not dread the axe before Gratefulness Day. And if
you’re a wild turkey who can shut your gobble long enough to hide in the
hedgerow you may be safe. Nevertheless, it’s not a good time to be an
evergreen or a fat tom. There be fowl play in the air.
Though I was born on December 25th, I don’t
like it much myself anymore. I love the Season but not the
seasonings, Solstice but not the silly Santa and the same-old-Sacred. I
think I’ll celebrate with the forest and the birds.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no desire
to make good will and peace go away. I like a few lights, some cider and
a little more time with family and friends, if they can leave the cellphones in
the car. I enjoy a simple exchange of a few presents. But what I
really celebrate is that wetstuff from the sky with the gifts of greening
hills, the freshness of the air, hikes to the glorious waterfalls, migrating
birds and maybe a bit of wine-tasting by a fire.
Traditionally, Samhain is considered to be the day when the
dead and living can mingle. The veils of the world are at their thinnest and
there is a sense of liminal space in the air. Liminal space is border space,
the in between place, where anything can happen. From Taylor's article called The Samhain Elemental Ritual. Click here to read the entire article.
Katalin Koda is a passionate explorer of earth stories, women’s
mysteries and the mythic expression of our world. A practicing
Vajrayana Buddhist, Koda also works with indigenous wisdom and shamanism
in her healing practice. She is a visionary artist, poet and dreamer
and has been teaching workshops on women’s wisdom and spirituality,
Reiki, shamanic journey and chakra healing for over fifteen years.
Katalin resides in Hawaii.
Who doesn’t like a summer romance? Try these simple spells based on the principles of attraction magick and see what happens! Attraction magick can be carried out with different methods. One technique is to combine the energies of what you wish to attract with your own energies. You simply weave the energies together, entwining them, through visualization, will, and symbolic action. So for a tarot love spell based on this principle, you can choose a card to represent yourself, a card to represent your ideal lover, and a card to represent the feelings you wish to share. Place the Sun card above these cards to amplify the spell with summer’s magick. Imagine all the energies shown in the cards combining. Look at the images and stack the cards on top of one another. You can say an affirmation if you like, a positive statement in your own words such as, “These energies are now entwined, in love, united.”
Adrienne hails from an immigrant family and grew up surrounded by stories and songs from Ireland and the British Isles that were part of every day life, ensuring her love of the music, legends and traditions from these cultures.
She began singing in pub sessions in her late teens and early twenties, then went on to sing in a cappella groups and folk bands. Her interest in the occult and magic led to the creation of the band Spiral Dance - her ‘dream child’- a passionate union of her voice and song writing gifts.
Adrienne has won awards for her vocal talents and wordsmith skills and has written most of the songs that appear on the Spiral Dance albums.
Art of Fantasy, Fairie, and Myth: TWPT Talks to Mickie Mueller
“I decided to make my dreams reality, drawing upon the magic that I grew up with, singing to inchworms with my mother and watching nature create miracles in the sun and under the moon. I love researching the legends of fairies, Goddesses, nature spirits, folklore and history. I feel these themes are a part of us all on a deeper level, so when I have an opportunity to reach into that realm and bring something back, it’s an honor and I feel that I have a certain responsibility to do it with respect to these powerful entities. When I work on a piece, these beings speak with me, and when someone else sees it, and loves it, they get to be a part of that fantastic realm where anything and everything is possible too, and bring that energy into their lives.” -Mickie Mueller
Today Mickie has a growing business with her magical fantasy art. Her work has been seen in magazines and books internationally, including a school textbook in Norway. Her prints are sold in catalogues and on the Internet all over the world. She has two critically acclaimed divination decks published by Llewellyn, The Well Worn Path and The Hidden Path. Mickie’s third deck comes out in 2011 and is her first deck that she created on her own, concept, writing, and art. The Voice of the Trees, A Celtic Ogham Oracle is based on the rich and fantastic Celtic history, myths and legends and the Ogham system of letters used in 4th-6th century.
Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook TWPT talks to Deborah Blake
Deborah Blake is a Wiccan High Priestess who has been leading her current group, Blue Moon Circle, since 2004. When not writing, Deborah runs The Artisans' Guild, a cooperative shop she founded with a friend, and works as a jewelry maker, tarot reader, an ordained minister and an Intuitive Energy Healer. She lives in a 100-year-old farmhouse in rural upstate New York with five cats who supervise all her activities, both magickal and mundane. She is the author of Circle, Coven and Grove: A Year of Magickal Practice, Everyday Witch A to Z, Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook and the forthcoming Witchcraft on a Shoestring (September 2010 Llewellyn). She has written many articles for Pagan publications, and her award-winning short story, "Dead and (Mostly) Gone" is included in the Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction.
Our Mission: Cherry Hill Seminary provides quality higher education and practical training in Pagan ministry.
Our Vision: Cherry Hill Seminary supports Pagans and their communities by — Providing an extensive education in diverse aspects of Pagan philosophy, practice, and skilled ministry; Supplementing existing ritual and magical skills with training for professional ministry and counseling; Serving as an ongoing resource for individual continuing education; and Providing a forum for scholarship and community
Our Values: Cherry Hill Seminary — Honors the sacredness of the Earth Values scholarship Respects diversity Encourages individual and spiritual autonomy Values community Promotes service
Next Holiday: Midsummer/Litha/Summer Solstice June 20, 2012
In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic
year, there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the two equinoxes.
In folklore, these are referred to as the four “quarter days” of the year, and
modern Witches call them the four “Lesser Sabbats”, or the four “Low Holidays”.
The summer solstice is one of them.
Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to
the calendar creep of the leap-year cycle, the date may vary by a few days
depending on the year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the
Tropic of Cancer, and we experience the longest day and the shortest night of
the year. Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun enters the sign of
Cancer.
However, since most European peasants were not accomplished
at reading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain to trot
over toStonehenge and sight down its main avenue,
they celebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24. The slight forward
displacement of the traditional date is the result of multitudinous calendrical
changes down through the ages. It is analogous to the winter solstice
celebration, which is astronomically on or about December 21, but is celebrated
on the traditional date of December 25, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.
For the rest of Mike Nichols' article on Midsummer/Litha/Summer Solstice click here.
Next Holiday Southern Hemisphere: Yule June 20, 2012
For an article on Yule by Mike Nichols click here.
There’s a
village one year’s journey from here.
And in that village lives a woman with four children. Like any family, all four children are
kindred and similar -- yet very, very unique.
One is a feisty child, with brilliant golden hair, and a natural glow
warmer than any other. This child’s name
is Summer.
In an entire
year, perhaps the 91 days (and nights) of Summer seem to fly by the
quickest… When you think of summer, what
comes to mind?
Summer is the
peak, the pinnacle, the realization of what took root during the Spring. One lesson the seasons teach is that many
things in nature grow, mature, and then fade.
Imagine yourself old and gray and wise.
Look back upon your own life as if it were a single turn of the
year. What part of your life was your
high point, your “Summer,” your peak?
Where did you shine your brightest, glow your hottest?
We too change
like the seasons. When Mother Nature
puts on Her Summer wardrobe, so do we.
Except these wardrobes seem quite opposite. In Summer, the forest grows more thickly
covered, while we become less covered.
Summer is a season of short sleeves, short pants, short skirts and bare
toes. While the trees might wear their
thick green coats, we often frolic clad with nothing but the sky! More of our natural selves comes out in the
Summer – arms, legs, skin – what we are beneath all those layers of cold Winter
clothes can shine forth in the Summer.
Maybe we resemble our animal cousins, who also shed much of their fur
and feathers in Summer.
This month Jesse's new article is entitled Pitfalls on the Magical or Spiritual Path.
Otherwise benign New Spiritual practices can suffer from some of the same pitfalls as conventional organized religion. Fortunately, once we’re aware of these diversions we can make the informed choices that reunite us with the inspirited world, rather than contribute to our estrangement.
In my life of pilgrimage the voices of the earthen Anima have repeatedly contradicted what I’ve read, was taught, once thought, and so badly wanted to believe... Thus as I became a teacher myself, I deferred again and again— not to presumed authorities or established traditions, but to the actual Source of every real truth they contain. Our realization of wholeness/holiness begins not in contemplation or conclusion but in a great listening. It begins in a vulnerable condition of openness, with fierce focus, gentle humility, and the overwhelming gratitude that makes us worthy of such gifts.
I enjoyed this book because of the concept. I was surprised at the amount of material that Grimassi covers for this process. The contents of this book puts it all together to show you how it's done.
Tradition is the foundation of our spiritual system. Each person sees the Wiccan path as a personal path. Gardner did it, Buckland did it, even Grimassi did it; establishing a system of spirituality that worked for them, and enabling it to work for others.
Raven Grimassi presents a “system” here to establish your own Tradition. In it he also includes all the trappings and tools and beliefs and reasons to do so. It is a complex method, with all the basics, all the elements and all the workings that we may want to include.
