If you can only afford to buy one rune book I recommend Taking Up the Runes by Diana Paxson. Not only because the author includes a wide variety of valuable information and suggestions, but because she extensively quotes and references many of the other most often recommended rune authors including Aswynn and Gundarsson. Because of this through buying this book you get …
Category Archives: Random pagan and recon. ramblings
Essense – A poem
This is a poem I wrote back in ’99 or ’00 and was published in the anthology the Pagan’s Muse in 2003 under the pen name Seabhacgeal. I have been thinking about it lately as I contemplate daily practices and devotions and decided I wanted to share it here.
Essense
I strike a match, the headFlares, incandescent, red to black,As …
Celtic Folk Magic: Food part 1
It’s pretty much common knowledge that I have a strong interest in folk magic, particulalry Irish and Celtic, although I also study other types like Pow-wow and Hoodoo (I’m not sure I’d categorize seidhr as folk magic). My interest is not purely academic; while I am interested in it from that perspective as well my main focus is learning how to use it, both the traditional material and creating new charms that are in the same spirit. I have found the Camrina Gadelica to be a treasure trove of Celtic …
Catching up…
So I have been offline now for a while thanks to hurricane Irene. We were very fortunate in that we didn’t lose power or water but our phone and internet were out. Being forcibly unplugged was a distinctly odd experience – I didn’t realize how much time I had been spending online, both with my college classwork and my random socializing. That is something I do want to address and cut down on…
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Iwqr9cR5Wtw/TmdsGxM6TKI/AAAAAAAAABA/d3V3KRxSm9E/s1600/7.jpg" …
Hurricane Irene
So I am sitting here preparing to head out to Connecticut’s pagan pride day, a great event that I think it’s important to support. This year I am teaching a couple workshops at PPD as well as helping out by making posters of four of the neopagan wheel of the year holidays and an intro to Druidism poster. And you can’t even imagine how hard it is to try to describe what Druidism is in a single poster, especially in a fair and objective manner, but that can wait for another blog…as I’m sitting …
"Ní chaitheann an chaint an t-éadach."
”Ní chaitheann an chaint an t-éadach.”
The talk doesn’t wear the clothes.
– Traditional Irish proverb
I’ve talked a lot about community, what it is for pagans and recons, how we build it and define it. One thing I haven’t talked about yet is how the inidual fits into the community structure and that’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, between different online …
Book review – The 21 Lessons of Merlin
I’ve decided to dedicate Monday’s blog to book reviews. These will be fairly short and to the point, and try to focus on books relating to CR Paganism, Druidism, and Heathenry.
To start, here is a basic book review of the (notorious) 21 Lessons of Merlin by Douglas Monroe:
21 Lessons is allegedly based on the secret teachings of Merlin, as revealed through the Welsh Book of Pheryllt; however this is nothing but a ploy to draw the reader in – the Book of …
Living reconstruction
I’ve been talking lately with a couple friends about recon. and, in the course of the conversation, we end up sharing stories of past experiences. Somehow the conversation had turned to the way that people often misunderstand what recon. is and the funny and frustrating discussions that result and that got me thinking about how many people really don’t understand what recon. is all about. So the following is my attempt to clarify a couple things and my own impression of what reconstructionist …
Leaping off the edge…
I’m taking a break from the more spiritual discussion topics and going personal today.
I’ve always been a very self-sufficient person. I pretty much took care of myself from about age 12 on, and I knew that if I didn’t no one else would, at least not consistently. I had what you might call a difficult childhood that way, but it made me a strong person. I moved out of my parents house when I was 18 and was married by 19, working 3 part time jobs and handling all the …
Familiars and why I don’t believe in them
This is from a response I wrote to a question on an email group.
Do Wiccans and neopagan witches have familiars? It really depends on who you ask. There are plenty of people that will say that a familiar is an animal who is bonded in some way with the witch and that helps them with their magic. Familiars are often beloved pets, are said to choose the witch, and seem drawn to magical workings. It seems like everyone has a familiar these days …