Category: Articles
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Witchcraft: The Recourse of the Oppressed
Categories: ArticlesTags: personal experienceWitchcraft is the recourse of the oppressed, and it always has been. It is subversive, countercultural, revolutionary. It breaks unjust bonds. It uplifts the downtrodden. It punishes the wicked. And the real danger for the Craft in the 21st Century is that mainstreaming it and becoming respectable in the eyes of the overculture — which…
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Calling the Quarters: Unlocking the Power of the Elements
Some people regard the quarter calling ritual as rote memorization to get through before the ‘real’ part of the ritual begins. Nothing could be further from the truth. In a quarters-cast circle, inviting the Mighty Forces of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth into the circle builds power for both the circle itself and the power…
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The Vocation of Priestesshood: Discerning a Clergy Calling
Categories: ArticlesTags: priestesshoodIn Wicca, it seems like everyone wants to be the High Priestess. There’s a level of prestige implied in the title, harkening back to The Mists of Avalon and Vivienne with her commanding presence as she ruled benevolently over the Holy Isle. Some people are more impressed with the title than they are with anything…
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Pagan Monasticism: Dreaming of Community
Categories: ArticlesTags: pagan monasticismAs a child I was fascinated with Gregorian chants. I thought it was so cool that there were people who dressed in robes and sang all day. Now, of course, I realize that there’s far more to the monastic life than that, but I can’t help but want to capture that experience of ordered and…
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Understanding the Planetary Hours: What They Are, How to Calculate Them, and Why to Use Them
The planetary hours are an ancient magickal tool that arises from Hellenistic and Babylonian astrology. It operates on the premise that each magickal hour of the day (that is, one-twelfth the time between sunrise and sunset, or sunset and sunrise) is ruled by one of the seven classical planets, and that the energies of this…