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The Summerland: Understanding the Wiccan Afterlife
Paganism in general isn’t concerned with the afterlife. We know there is a life after death, and another, and another, in the cycle of reincarnation. But Wiccans have the concept of a place of rest between lives, called the Summerland. But what is the Summerland, and how can you rest there and also reincarnate? Body,…
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Pagan Prayer: Offerings of Praise, Gratitude, and Hope
Categories: ArticlesI’ve heard people scoff and say they don’t kneel down to their gods, that they stand tall and proud with them. And that’s all well and good. You should have a cordial relationship with your deities, be comfortable around them, be proud to do their work on earth. But don’t you think occasionally you should…
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Empty Womb and Dead Seed: Reconciling Infertility in a Fertility Religion
So much of Wicca is bound up in the idea of fertility — fertility of the land, of the animals, and of humanity. As a religion, we understand this fertility to mean the ongoing survival of the planet and the life that lives on it, but often the first thing that comes to mind when…
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Oaths and Why Not To Make Them (Unless You’re Ready)
Categories: ArticlesA witch is only as good as their word. It’s a lesson I try to teach each of my students. Maintaining good boundaries is an important exercise in living — not just living magickally, but living in general. So are being reliable and appropriately committed. As people, witchy people and just people, we are judged…
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The Wiccan Rede: The Supreme Ethic of the Craft
Categories: ArticlesHigh Priestess Judy Harrow wrote Exegesis on the Rede in 1984. As an advancing student, my teacher Susan Stoddard recommended this essay to me to help me better understand what the Wiccan Rede was and what it did — and did not — tell Wiccans to do with our lives. What it taught me was…