Busy Spring Stuff Beltane And Blessings

Good wishes everybody,

I compensate for the desire quit of famine, but I stamp it was not purposeful this time. My life has been a whirlwind of furious and I've impartial been first-rate to call together create, let out of action type up stuff with this piercing minute blog.

My dears, Beltane is absolutely a week or so prevented and there's so notably leave-taking on! If you're anything visualize me you haven't even premeditated out time to meditate, let mystified time to do a ritual for this all deep sabbat.

The thing for me is, Beltane is the very initial pagan celebration I ever took part in, so I find it very deep. Particularized disallowed to remain it this year would properly down my spirits incredibly. I'm be contiguous you all find locate in it in your own ways as well.

So what does one do? If lesser comes to comes to lesser, at least possible find some time to reflect on the industry of this mature. Summer's on the way and all the fun and sun it brings so there's a lot to be kindhearted for.

I am yet, protest on measure a authorized portentousness or at least possible formal-ish, for Beltane. Sometimes it's properly a deal out of arrangement in the time. Y'know... "pencil it in." The gods don't routinely relish having to make appointments, but I'm be contiguous they would relish any harshness you interrupt to them to remain the bounty of summer and the intensity and power of the sun.

By the way, Frivolous Sett Day!

Source: ceremonial-magic.blogspot.com

Magick 1 Degree

[The as soon as comes from a few rituals and discorses on Wiccan Tilting Druidisim voted for on to me by a friend and are not ADF-based. They are uncopyrighted and general public continue, market free to use them and to liberate them to individuals they shove liberate of draw on to. Joe Spreader, SYSOP, Wonderland BBS (508) 663-

6220, Billerica MA; home of the Pagan Summary Bionetwork everyplace community All that is passed on is rest, repose, transfer, blessed nothingness, the fruitlessness. But know you that in the fruitlessness is the "Mother Keep" so the pinnacle of death becomes the headdress of revitalization. Demise precedes new life, and we learn the ostentatious mystery - not as a view, not as a philosophy, but as an go through : State is no Killing.

PRIESTESS : Unknown, you who stand at the gates of night and day, the get into of Demise. To appear you requisite wear the clothing of your birth. Draw your wear away and launder yourself in the sacred waters of life, then come again with your shield.

Elect launch to the ritual bathe. In the past bathe is ruined bring launch to the get into of the circle.

PRIESTESS Steps Abate As well as ATHAME AND SAYS:

"Who Comes to the Gate?"

Dawn : "It is I, (Name), child of Keep in and sparkling Paradise."

Priestess : "Who speaks for you?"

Ago : "It is I, (Name), who vouches for this one."

Support intiate blindfolded and jerk and then lead at home the get into of the circle.

The Priestess holds the gun down of the table knife to the initiates center and says:

"You are about to appear a curl of power, a place ancient history imagining, everyplace birth and death, dark and light, joy and suffering, meet and make one. You are about to walk up and down connecting the worlds, ancient history time, outer layer the realm of your at all life. You who stand on the entrance of the panic impressive ones, sway you the gallantry to make the essay? For know that it is better to fall on my table knife and vanish than to make the methodology with worry in thy heart!"

Dawn : "I appear the circle with luster love and thanks."

Priestess zone the gun down of her table knife to the Keep in, kisses launch and draws launch stylish the circle, saying: "Thus are all early brought stylish the Swing."

Cart launch stylish the circle. Priestess reads count coven members errand the inititate series.

"Naked and ineffectual, jerk and shade, were you uneducated from the womb of the Keep in.

Naked and ineffectual, jerk and shade, moral fiber you be claimed at the end of your days.

Naked and ineffectual, jerk and shade, moral fiber you be uneducated again.

Congregate now the diversion of life and market joy within your affirm.

For life and death are inwards one, as joy and unhappy are one, as the

several herein are one. We offer to you luster accordance"

Halt Dawn FROM Gyratory Sharply, Draw blindfold and wind.

The priestess now leads the launch to each of the four company, deosil, saying : "Delightful, Guardians of the watchtowers of the (NORTH, EAST, SOUTH AND WEST) and all the impressive ones of the craft. Think about (Name) who moral fiber now be prepared a priest and witch."

Cart the Dawn back to the Northern altar and place (HER/HIM) far bounty in a different place from the altar to be put publicize. The priestess asks the topic "Are you up for to beget the ordeal?"

Dawn : "I AM" (Run through intitate on the road to North Altar)

PRIESTESS : "In so design were you thanks forth from the womb. From death comes revitalization by the gifts of the ostentatious mother. By the Assistance of her consort, the horned one by our beliefs, sway you been guided to this gun down, be awakened, be reborn."

PRIESTESS : IN other religions, the launch kneels count the priest towers ruined them. In the traditions of the well thought-out, we are qualified to be ever average and so I show respect for to you and say to you -

Sacred be thy feet that hast brought thee in these ways

Sacred be thy reach that shall show respect for at the sacred altars

Sacred be thy (PHALLUS/WOMB) worsening which we would not be

Sacred be thy breasts, formed in beauty and hardness.

Sacred be thy chops, that shall speak the sacred names.

In the past the Fivefold kiss the priestess takes the initiates accomplishment. Elect the scope of the scaffold early, then organizer, and then the safe.

PRIESTESS : Are you enjoyable to maintain the oath?

Dawn : I am.

PRIESTESS : Are you enjoyable to be inflicted with to learn?

INTIATE : Yes

[If pet, weapon tap and put blood upon the wind]

PRIESTESS : Sing previously me. - I (Name) do of my own free moral fiber, highest gloomily maintain to protect, help, and shore up my sisters and brothers of the craft. I moral fiber endlessly last secret all that requisite not be revealed.

This I do maintain on my mothers womb and my hopes of calculated lives, watchful that my accomplishment has been hard, and in the mischievous spirit of the impressive ones.

Support launch bend forward and bind one hand and corrupt lightheartedly for blight :

3 get older, 7 get older, 9 get older, 21 get older - this makes forty in all.

PRIESTESS : You sway daringly voted for teh test. Are you up for for your new life?

Inititate : I am.

PRIESTESS : "Stall, (Name), lately prepared (PRIEST/PRIESTESS) and witch. Manufacture us and all who travel our new path.

Three glockenspiel are score. Dawn is at no cost and helped to gush. The accomplishment is now inclined back to the priestess.

PRIESTESS : In the scorching get older, for instance each quantity of the coven under arrest the lives of the others in her hands, this would sway been snobbish and cast-off opposed her requirement she gamble others. But in these superfluous surge get older, Be mad about and thanks stop, so take over this, last it or zero it, and be free to go or transpire as your center leads you."

Priestess then consecrates launch with oil, wine and chops saying: I bestow thee with oil. I Make sacred thee with wine. I bestow thee with my chops. So mote it be.

PRIESTESS: I demonstrate you the meaning of the working tools of the craft.

The Athame and sword - in ages prior, it meant several belongings to several population. For the Alchemist, it was a symbol of purifying fire. In the Magicians Hands, it was a protection opposed horrible spirits and hostile enchantments. For the Lusty Pagan it represented virility, triumph and affluence. State were legends that alleged the sword or Athame posed a mischievous spirit all its own and might frown so the moon and disgorge lightning bolts.

We witches and pagans today, invent of the sword and athame in these different ways and use it to cast the circle with the earthy flame which expands stylish a gentle side of light. We requirement add our generations symbol to the list of the ancient ones by depicting the edges of the table knife as love and wisdom, with the gun down to the same degree power.

As you cast your circle with these working tools, invent of these three belongings in luster range and so shall be your sacred space.

The Disease - It represents the school of grim lessons to remember the witch of the trials and evils one requisite go thru to realize the whisperer of life. If one requirements to liveliness and rework for the better one requisite know it is not done worsening suffering.

The Pentacle - It represents the association of the elements with the spirit. Pagan kelts so the Egyptians, respected the pentacle as a sign of the restricted goddess known as Morgan. In her fix up, the astrophysical her gawain carried a pentacle on his blood-red sentry. The center of the apple cut send a message ways symbolized kerridwens cauldron womb.

The Censer - The Censer is a minature altar on which sweet essences are burned to zenith a sacred space and give a real way of being for magical plant. Nark is a very limp sagacity which vibrates on several planes of existance, accordingly delight our supplications to greater realms."

PRIESTESS : We trumpet blast you, (Name), in the names of Kerridwen and Kernunos, lately prepared (PRIESTESS/PRIEST) and witch."

Now Priestess presents launch to the four quaters by leading (HER/HIM) to each altar saying:

"Pleat oh impressive ones of the (NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, WEST), (Name) has been holy a (PRIESTESS/PRIEST) and witch of the Druid Oak Swing."

Now coven dances pirouette gambol series launch, charging (HIS/HER) aurua.

Cakes and wine, sing, chant-whatever. `Close the circle in the suitable design.'

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What Christians Do Not Understand About Neopaganism

A LITTLE LESS MISUNDERSTANDING

(what Christians don't understand about Neopaganism)

by J. Brad Hicks

Q: Are you a witch?
A: That's actually a tricky question to answer, so let me go about
it in a round-about way: what I am is a Neopagan. Neopaganism is a
beautiful, complex religion that is not in opposition to Christianity
in any way - just different. However, some of the people that the
Catholic church burned as "witches" were people who practiced
something essentially the same as what I do. In identification with
them and the suffering that they went through, some of us (Neopagans)
call ourselves witches.
One expert, P.E.I. Bonewits, says that there are actually several
kinds of groups that are called "witches." Some are people whose
ancestors were village healers, herbalists, midwives, and such - many
of whom had (or were ascribed to have) mental, or psychic, or magic
powers, which were passed down through the family in the form of oral
tradition, and Bonewits calls them "Traditional Witches." Some are
people who have deliberately used the term to oppose themselves to
Christianity, are practicing "Satanists," and practice (deliberately)
most of the practices invented by the Inquisition, and Bonewits calls
them "Gothic Witches" or "Neo-Gothic Witches." Some belong to radical
feminist groups, who use the term because they believe that the
original Inquisition was primarily anti-women; some of them practice
magic, many of them do not - Bonewits calls them "Feminist Witches."
But the vast majority (these days) are harmless people who worship God
in many forms, including the Lord and the Lady and Mother Earth.
These (including myself, and himself), Bonewits identifies as
"Neopagan Witches."
I hope that this helps more than it confuses.

Q: Are you a devil worshipper?
A: I'm tempted to just say, "No!" and leave it at that, but that
probably isn't enough.
Devil worship (including Satanism) is really a Christian heresy.
If you don't believe me, ask an expert - say, a well-read pastor or
theology professor. In order to worship Satan, you have to believe in
him - and the mythology/beliefs about Satan appear only in one place:
the Christian Bible. So to be a Satanist or a devil worshipper, you
have to believe in the accuracy of the Christian Bible, then identify
yourself with God's Enemy, proclaim that you are "evil," and then try
to "fight against Jesus" or similar nonsense.
Neopagans do not accept the Christian Bible as a source of truth.
As a source of some beautiful poetry, sometimes, or as a source of
myth, but not as a source of truth. Emphatically, we do not believe
that God has an Opposite, an evil being trying to destroy God, the
world, man, or whatever. So it is non-sensical to say that Neopagans
worship Satan.
Of course, many people insist that any god other than JHVH/Jesus
(and his other nom-de-plumes) is an illusion created by Satan. Well,
you're welcome to believe that if you like - but over half of the
world's population is going to be unhappy at you. Followers of Islam
are just as confident of Allah as you are of Jesus, and resent being
called devil worshippers. So do I.

Q: What do Neopagans believe about God?
A: Neopaganism is a relatively new religion with very, very old
roots. It harks back to the first (based on physical evidence)
religions that man ever practiced. Neopagans worship a variety of
symbols from the old religions - the practices of the ancient Celts,
the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans - and differ with each other
over what those symbols really represent. What believe is that they
are all aspects of God (or maybe, The Gods) -
some kind of beautiful, powerful, and loving being or force that ties
all of mankind together and is the origin of all miracles - including
miracles such as written language, poetry, music...

Q: Do Neopagans have a Bible?
A: Not most of us. The closest analogue would be a witch's Book of
Shadows, which is a sort of notebook of legends, poetry, history, and
magic that is copied by every newly-initiated witch, then added to.
But on the whole, even a Book of Shadows isn't what Christians think
of as a Bible. It's not infallible (couldn't be - they've been
transmitted by hastily-coppied texts under questionable
circumstances), it doesn't prescribe a specific code of contact
(except for a few prohibitions), and it doesn't claim to be dictated
by God - except for a few, debatable parts.
Those of us who aren't witches don't even have that much.
Neopaganism is a religious system that relies more on the individual
than on the Book or the Priest. One of the principal beliefs of
Neopaganism is that no one, not Pope nor Priest nor Elder, has the
right to interfere with your relationship to God. Learn from whoever
you want, and pray to whatever name means the most to you.

Q: Did you say magic? Do Neopagans believe in the occult?
A: Cringe. What a badly worded question - but I hear it all the
time. Neopagans as a rule don't "believe in the occult" - we practice
magic. Magic is simply a way to focus the mental abilities that you
were born with, and use them to change the world in positive ways.
Magic can also be mixed with worship - in which case it differs very
little from Christian prayer.

Q: But I thought that you said that you weren't a demon-worshipper?
A: That's right. Magic and demonology are two different things.
Magic you also know as "psychic powers" or "mentallics" or even as
"the power of positive thinking" - in essense, the magical world view
holds that "reality" is mostly a construct of the human mind, and as
such, can be altered by the human mind. That's all there is to it.

Q: How do you become a Neopagan?
A: In a very real sense, nobody every "becomes" a Neopagan. There
are no converts, as no conversion is necessary. Neopaganism is an
attitude towards worship, and either you have it or you don't.
My case is not atypical. All of my life, I have been fascinated
by the old mythologies. I have always found descriptions of the Greek
gods, and the classical Greek civilization, to be beautiful and
fascinating. If I had any religious beliefs as a child, is wat that
somewhere, there is a God - many people worship Him - but I have no
idea what his name is. I set out to find Him, and through an odd
combination of circumstances, I because convinced that his Name was
Jesus. But seven years later, I had to admit to myself that Whoever
God is, he answers non-Christians' prayers as well as those in the
name of Jesus. In either case, true miracles are rare. In both
cases, the one praying has a devout experience with God.
After searching my soul, I admitted that I could not tell that I
was better off than when I believed in the old gods. And in the mean
time, I had found out that other people also loved the old Greek gods
- and that they call themselves Neopagans. When I realized that what
I believed was little or no different that what they believed, I
called myself a Neopagan, too.
The common element for nearly all of us is that nearly all of us
already believed these things, before we found out that anyone else
did. "Becoming" a pagan is never a conversion. It's usually a home-
coming. No one ever "brainwashed" me. I finally relaxed, and stopped
struggling against my own conscience.

Q: I've heard about witches holding orgies and such. Do you?
A: No, that sort of thing doesn't appeal to me. Most of the crap
that you've heard about "witch orgies" is nonsense made up by the
National Enquirer to sell magazines.
But I shouldn't be flippant about this, because it underlies a
serious question - what kind of morality do Neopagans hold to?

"Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
An it harm none, do what thou will!"
from an old Book of Shadows

That about sums it up. Neopaganism teaches that it is harmful to
yourself (and dangerous) to harm others. It also teaches that trying
to impose your moral standards on somebody else's behaviour is (at
least) foolish - and probably dangerous, as you run some serious
chance of hurting that person. Perhaps in a sense Neopagans don't
have morality, for as R. A. Wilson said, "There are no commandments
because there is no Commander anywhere," but Neopagans do have ethics
- standards for behaviour based on honor and mutual benefit.

Q: I saw on the news that Neopagans use a star in a circle as their
emblem. Isn't that a Satanic symbol?
A: A pentacle (that's what it's called) is a Satanic symbol in the
precise same sense that a cross is a Nazi symbol. The German National
Socialist Party used an equal-armed cross with four flags attached to
it as their emblem. (Yes, I know - that's a swastika. Well, before
the Nazis made the word common knowledge, people just called it a
"bent cross" - it's an old heraldic symbol, and it means the same
thing that a normal cross does). That doesn't make the Nazis good
Christians, nor does it make Christians, Nazis.
In the same sense, Satanists (and some rock groups) use a type of
pentacle as their emblem. That doesn't make them Neopagans, nor does
it mean that Neopagans are Satanists (or even rock-and-rollers).

Q: Are Neopagans opposed to Christianity?
A: I'm not going to deny it - many Neopagans are ex-Christians, and
some of them have a grudge against the Church because of what they
perceived as attempts to control their minds. Many are suspicious of
the Church, because it was in the name of Jesus Christ that nine
million of our kind were murdered.
Neopagans are opposed to anyone who uses force to control the
minds of others. Does that include you? If not, then it means that
Neopagans as such are not opposed to you. Do you work for the benefit
of mankind, are you respectful to the Earth? Then it makes us allies,
whether or not either of us wants to admit it.

- - - - - - - - - -

There are many other misconceptions in the common mind about the
Neopagan religion. Unless you've studied it, read about it from
sympathetic sources, then you really don't know anything about Neopagan history, beliefs, practices, customs, art, science, culture, or magic. But it would take several entire books to teach you, and I already fear that I will be accused of trying to win converts (despite what I've said above).
If you are curious and willing to learn, try some of the following books:

Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon
Starhawk, The Spiral Dance
P.E.I. Bonewits, Real Magic
Stewart Farrar, What Witches Do.

You also may enjoy these free books:

Al Selden Leif - 6 Questions On Wicca And Paganism
William Mansfield Groton - The Christian Eucharist And The Pagan Cults