Notable and quotable 22

This week’s absolute belter of a post was Christopher Penczak’s article Holding the door open.

Don’t miss Julian Vayne’s series of interviews, Our Magical Things.

And a lovely post on egg healing in Slavic magic on the Divine Multiplicity blog.

Really great post on being in mythological time from Kiya Nicoll (how was I not following Kiya’s blog before now?)

And a guest post by Ing Venning on Nimue Brown’s blog.

Holding the door open

I see so many witches online (both Wiccans and other witches) talking about how witchcraft and Wicca have lost their mystery by being public. This awesome article pushes back on that idea and explains why we should have a public presence. He draws some excellent parallels with the LGBTQ2SIA community and our interactions with the overculture.

Showing up to the interfaith council or town meeting is like the wicked queen of the fairy tale showing up at the wedding or baby blessing to remind the community they are still a part of the community, even when shunned. We often have to say what is necessary but not wanted, sometimes simply by our presence alone. We are like the questing knight who claims the empty seat at the round table, the Siege Perilous.

Every Wiccan and witch, and anyone who claims that we shouldn’t bother with interfaith dialogue, should read this.

Our magical things

A series of interviews on YouTube with various Pagans, magicians, and witches, including Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, Jake Stratton-Kent, and other well known people.

Julian Vayne explains:

Objects can be the anchors for our stories. Museums and gallery spaces are full of such objects which, depending on the skill of their curators, are intended to help enrich us by discovering new narratives about the world. By engaging with objects and their stories, from the past and present, we are able to set our own ideas and practices within a broader context.

I’m very much looking forward to watching these interviews.

Kat Stonich at Divine Multiplicity has written a lovely post on the tradition of using eggs for healing in Slavic magic:

Traditionally, Shamans will instill within decorated eggs (called pysanky) blessings, healing powers, and protection charms. The egg will then be used in these healing ceremonies or as a talisman. Sometimes the eggs are rolled over the body and used to pull out fears and other dark energies from within the body.

For a bit more detail on why egg healing is so powerful, I think Itzhak Beery puts it best when he says: “Eggs are excellent tools for healing…[t]he egg absorbs energy though the seven thousand pores of its mostly calcium shell…[a]ll life begins with an egg. Bird eggs are the largest single living cells in nature and are a metaphor for the universal life structure” (Shamanic Healing: Traditional Medicine for the Modern World). In short, the egg is the perfect symbol to represent the life force that started us all, and, because of its physical structure, it becomes an absorbent force for different energies.

Kiya Nicoll has written a brilliant post about how during the pandemic lockdown, we are in mythological time.

This moment, this time, is the extended space between before and after. The patterns are suspended, the cycles are suspended. Here we are, in Blursday, in the space where the gods make their stories. All times are now; now is no time at all.

When were the gods born? A time like this.

When was the world made? A time like this.

When was light divided from darkness? A time like this.

This is the space of ritual, of mythology, the space so many of us strive to step into, breathe into, so that we can change the world, so that we can affirm the world, so that we can be remade.

So glad to see more LGBTQ2SIA / Pagan fiction and poetry. Ing Venning writes both, and is featured in a guest post on Druid Life.

When presented with beige folding,
when gifted with pale pinkness,
do you argue that white
is the take-charge pigment
or that red has always been
the more supportive hue?

» Read the rest of the poem

Want to try a sampler of his work or his first novel for free? Visit ingvenning.com