Category: Archive
Articles that appeared in the previous iteration of this blog, called Mirth and Reverence with Amy Rhea.
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The Work: A Tale of Two Wiccas
Categories: ArchiveIn 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.
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Wiccan Priestesshood: Serving the Gods, Preserving the Craft
Categories: ArchiveWiccan priestesshood is a life-long undertaking, which is why it takes time for the proper person to become properly prepared for initiation.
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The Winding Path: A Reflection on My Path as a Priestess
Categories: ArchiveI 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
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Ancestor Veneration: An Ancient Tradition for Modern Pagans
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
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Affirming Queer Pagans: Radical Love and Compassion
Categories: ArchiveTags: queer witcheryIn 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
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Adjective Witch: Words of Wisdom from the Non-Adjective Witch
Categories: ArchiveTags: personal experienceI 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
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In Her Service: Walking the Goddess Walk
Categories: ArchiveTags: priestesshoodI was a month shy of my seventeenth birthday when I decided I wanted to be a priestess. I envisioned leading rituals, working magick to heal people, and teaching starry-eyed seekers about the Mysteries of the Craft. What I did not envision – not at sixteen and not at twenty-six – was the massive amount
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A Tale of Two Prides: Why I Needed Pagan Pride More Than Gay Pride
Categories: ArchiveTags: queer witcheryMy 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
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Wiccan Belief: One Tradition’s Teachings
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
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The Agency of Spirits: Getting Uncomfortable About Noncorporeal Beings
Categories: ArchiveOne of the questions that I am routinely asked is whether or not a practitioner can be called to the service of a deity outside their cultural context. There’s a lot of concern in the Pagan world these days about cultural appropriation and the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and it is an