Happy Pride

June 3, 2021 / Yvonne Aburrow / 4 Comments

Happy Pride everyone.

❤️ Here are three of my favourite LGBTQ+ movies: Pride, about Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. Torch Song Trilogy, which I saw in my first few weeks at university because the Gay Society did a screening (yes folks, in the 1980s the Lesbian and Gay societies at uni were two separate things). And The Birdcage (which I prefer over the French film it was based on) in which gayness eventually wins over the stiff straights.

More reflections on queerness and intersectionality after the cut. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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If your coven is inclusive, say so

January 22, 2021 / Yvonne Aburrow / 5 Comments

Recently I was contacted by someone from the USA looking for an inclusive coven. Having ascertained what state they’re in, we started trawling through the coven listings on Mandragora Magika. It’s hard to figure out from the listings which covens are inclusive.

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Fear and Bigotry

June 12, 2020 / Yvonne Aburrow / 2 Comments

Excellent article by Diane Morrison in response to that transphobic article by JK Rowling.

Fear does not justify bigotry. Trans rights are human rights. This article deconstructs the arguments J.K. Rowling set forth in her opinion piece.

Fear and Bigotry:

Using the inclusive Wicca symbol

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020 / Yvonne Aburrow

The inclusive Wicca symbol was devised by me, but other people are welcome, and encouraged, to use it. I would prefer it if people used it to represent genuinely inclusive Wicca. To that end, I am licensing it under Creative Commons.

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A Queer Pagan Reading List (2020)

February 5, 2020September 22, 2020 / Yvonne Aburrow / 4 Comments

An update on my 2018 post and my 2015 post. Please add your recommendations in the comments.

I have reorganized the list by author and added topic tags; if you prefer a list by topic, have a look at my 2018 post.

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Beltane is coming

April 14, 2019August 1, 2020 / Yvonne Aburrow / 5 Comments

Everyone’s getting ready for Beltane. In the face of climate change, the Anthropocene, mass extinction, and all the scary stuff, it feels important to celebrate Nature and all its diversity. That does not imply to me in any way that we should focus only on heterosexual fecundity. Nature is diverse, and that includes humans. All acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals.

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Sex, gender, and deities

March 30, 2019August 1, 2020 / Yvonne Aburrow / 8 Comments

Do deities have gender? What about sexual characteristics? As non-physical (and some might say, metaphorical) beings, they can manifest in whatever form they want.

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Notable and quotable 5

March 22, 2019May 10, 2019 / Yvonne Aburrow

This week I have been mostly reading The Guardian with great sadness over the horrific murder of 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, and growing incredulity at the self-inflicted wound of Brexit. So I have not been keeping up with what’s going on in the blogosphere.

However, I just spotted this excellent post about queer magic by Julian Vayne.

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Creating inclusive rituals

January 7, 2018January 8, 2018 / Yvonne Aburrow

It is a useful magical and intellectual exercise to examine each segment of your ritual structure, and ask yourself why you do it in the particular way that you do. Why do we sweep the circle, consecrate it with water, salt, and incense, cast it with a sword, and so on? What is the function and symbolism of each of these actions? Can they be improved – either in the sense of making them more magically effective, more reflective of reality, or more inclusive?

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Polarity, gender, and fertility

January 1, 2018September 22, 2020 / Yvonne Aburrow / 5 Comments

Wiccan ritual often uses the concepts of polarity and fertility to make magic and symbolism. These can be viewed in an exclusively heterocentric way, or in a more inclusive and diverse way. The reality of gender, sexuality, and magic suggests that the inclusive way is more reflective of the true complexity of human nature.

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