I love winter, especially when it involves snow, frost, and sunshine.
Winter in Ontario is (mostly) crisp and dry, unlike the British winter where the damp gets into your bones even when it’s only minus 2 Celsius.
What makes you a priest/ess?
Michael asked, Am I a real priest?
Short answer, if you feel a calling to be one, then you probably are one, even if you’re on the beginner slopes.
My working definition of a priest or priestess is a person who can facilitate contact between the other-than-human and the human, and/or who can create meaning, community, and a sense of connectedness for others. Note that this definition includes atheists and animists.
Reblog: Where do your stones come from?
Where do your stones come from?
There is a deep irony in this. Pagan-y type folk often use stones and crystals to connect with the earth, to honour the spiritus mundi, the world-soul. Yet, frequently these stones themselves have been industrially yanked out of the earth without any consideration of the spirit of the place where they were mined, and often without any consideration of the humanity of the exploited workers toiling in hellish conditions.
Read on at wrycrow.com
Please read this very important post from Ryan Cronin, on sourcing your crystals ethically.
Books I’ve read in January
At the end of 2018, I decided that I needed to read more books on Wicca and witchcraft, and magic in general. I also have an ongoing intention to read more books by women, queer people, Black people, Indigenous people, and people of colour. Here are the books I have read in January.
Can belief in deities be compatible with science?
Some have argued that any form of theism is incompatible with science. Which is odd when so many scientists are theistic in some form or other.
Photography, embodiment, and memory
It’s a curious thing, but when you’re behind a camera, especially one where you have to put your eye close to the viewfinder to see the field of view, you sometimes forget to really look at things and take them in properly. It starts to feel like the camera will do the remembering for you.
First footing
How to make a New Year luck bag for first footing.
Rite of farewell (for leaving a coven)
I wrote this ritual more than a decade ago, so I can’t remember if we used it in this exact form, but I think it’s important to have rituals to mark changes in your group. Just as you welcome new people with initiations and other commitment ceremonies, it makes sense to offer some sort of closure when they leave. Continue reading
Plants of Mexico
Today we went on a Hidden Mexico tour to El Tuito, taking in a botanical garden, a village, a wood turning workshop, a bakery with an adobe oven, an artists’ cooperative, a graveyard, some ancient petroglyphs, and lunch in a stream.
Books I’ve read in 2018
I’ve read a lot of books in 2018, so this will be a list of the ones I can remember, or that I listed as having read on Goodreads. I got the idea for this post from a post by James at A Tolkienist’s Perspective. The links in this post go to my reviews of the books listed.
