One 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…
One of the first spells I learned as a young witch was the Triple Ring. When my teacher, a spry old crone named Susan, realized that my go-to shielding spell was making me oblivious to all sorts of things in my surroundings — which made perfect sense as I was visualizing a thick, red brick…
“Nine woods in the Cauldron go — burn them quick an’ burn them slow.” Thus goes the couplet from “The Rede of the Wiccae” by Lady Gwen Thompson. In this poem, originally published in Green Egg in 1975, Lady Gwen doesn’t specify which woods are the nine that should go in the ritual fire, only…
Wiccan practice is based on eight solar observances, called Sabbats and known collectively as the Wheel of the Year, and 26 lunar observances, called Esbats, each year. Some people hold very strictly to celebrating the moment, or at least the day, of the observance. Others are more relaxed about the time of the gathering, factoring…
The Four Words of the Magus — to know, to dare, to will, to keep silence — were first written by Eliphas Levi, a 19th Century French occultist. Aleister Crowley added a fifth word later on — to go — and the basis of the Witches’ Pyramid was formed. The Witches’ Pyramid wasn’t referred to…