The Web is more than the natural connections between all beings, be they animal, vegetable, or mineral. It also incorporates concepts of wyrd, karma, and mana.
The Way, at least as I currently understand it, is a practice that emphasizes the sorts of universal truths that underpin many of the world’s religions and philosophies-of-life: love one another, harm none, honor the divine, exercise compassion, help those in need, defend those who cannot defend themselves, safeguard all children, respect your elders, enjoy…
In Traditional Initiatory Wicca, there are working rituals and celebratory occasions that have a distinct pattern, symbolism, and lore attached to them. And then, there is the other stuff. And the other stuff, at its heart, can really only be defined as purpose-driven and intuitive ecstatic practice.
Wiccan priestesshood is a life-long undertaking, which is why it takes time for the proper person to become properly prepared for initiation.
I was a month shy of seventeen years old when I decided I wanted to be a priestess. In my naïveté, I envisioned that it would consist of singing songs to the Goddess and tending to an altar and leading a coven and making special blends of oils and incenses and teaching people who wanted…
Over the last couple of decades, there has been a widespread push in modern Paganism to look at our history — our real history, not the mythological pseudohistory that tells of a pan-European Goddess cult and nine million women dying in the Burning Times. This push has led to increased scholarship in Pagan Studies and…
In Paganism, we’ve come a long way from “gay people mess up the energy in circle”. There are a variety of traditions who are open to working with Queer folks. But we’re still largely in the stage of accepting Queer people. Encouragingly, there’s movement toward affirming Queer people, but it’s still working its way through…
I see it all the time on Tumblr. I’m a storm witch. I’m a death witch. I’m a forest witch. I’m a crystal witch. And for the inexperienced ones, I’m a baby witch. And it seems like there’s the expectation that if you draw your power from a certain major source or if you have…
I can hear the detractors already: “Wicca doesn’t have beliefs!” Well, that’s true and it’s also not. Wicca doesn’t have a single, unified set of beliefs that practitioners are required to adhere to in order to practice. Attempts have been made for a variety of reasons, most of them having to do with codifying the…
My parents were very observant of the Episcopal faith when I was growing up. My father was a lay minister, my mother was a leader in our congregation’s St. Anne’s Guild, I was an acolyte and later a crucifer. The kids all went to Sunday School and Children’s Chapel. As we got older, we took…