Paganism
I'm working on it, I'm working on it... hang on boys and girls, there will be things here soon. Really. Let me get my specifics worked out and before you can say "So mote it be" I'll have this looking all nice and pretty and informative.
Okay, here we go. It looks pretty now, doesn't it?
I'm starting off slowly here, and this page will probably grow by leaps and bounds. I want this page to be something special. I don't want it to be like every other Paganism webpage on geocities with links and correspondances stolen from other websites. I want this to be different. I want it to be represenative of my journey through paganism. So things may go a little slowly with this. But just remember, Stonehenge was not constructed in a day.
"You're a what?"
All those frequently asked questions
So how did you get into this thing anyway?
Just what is this Pagan thing?
What's with the k?
So you do spells?
Well what about love spells?
Paganism
I am a Pagan. I practice a form of spirituality that draws on several preChristian faiths and some new ones as well. I am not a Satanist. I do not sacrifice cats or babies (I happen to love cats and wish I could have one. I love my little nephews - aged 1 and 4 - and take care of them whenever possible). I don't go dancing around naked under the full moon (which is probably a good thing since my rituals are in a public park). I am a Pagan. But as you read this, you need to remember that it is not the only thing I am, it is a part of who I am, just like your faith is a part of you. Remember, I'm just like you. I'm the girl next door, your coworker's daughter, the kid who makes your double tall latte, the one who cut you off in traffic, the one who loaned you an umbrella in a downpour, the one you saw on the news.
So with that aside (it always has to be said, doesn't it?), I'll get on to what I think Paganism is. First off, here's the thing about Paganism. This religion is as unique as the person who practices it. I think that's part of the beauty of this faith. There is no one high dogma, no one leader, no set in stone "This is how it must be!" rules. It is highly personal and intensely spiritual. But it sometimes makes things a little difficult when you get large groups of Pagans together ("Oh you did not just call Air like that, did you?" "No, no, deosil, not widdershins!" "Um...what are we doing again?"). This is why if you ask four Pagans a question, you'll get six different answers. Somewhere along the line, someone will change their mind and someone will want to add in something new that they just thought of. It can get confusing sometimes, but then again, it also provides a lot of room for thought and self interpretation. Besides, listening to a bunch of Pagans going at it is just a lot of fun sometimes. :)
So I'll start off with my version of Paganism (since I can't really talk about others with any kind of accuracy). For me, Paganism is the most natural (no puns!) faith I have ever found. When I finally learned about Wicca and witchcraft and all these lovely things, it felt like the most simple and self explanatory thing in the world. "Of course! This is how it is supposed to be. Just look at the world." As above, so below. From the moment I opened my first book, it all started to make sense. It made complete sense that there ought to be a balance in all things. Christianity had always bothered me with the one all powerful male deity. It just did not work for me. But with Paganism, there was a God and a Goddess and neither was placed above the other (or at least not in my book. Some are different, but that's Paganism for you). It chimed in completely with the way the world worked. Male and female, light and dark, day and night, right and wrong, fire and water, earth and air, sun and moon. If everything is a polar opposite with all the gradiations in between, why shouldn't the gods be that way too?
How did I get here, you ask? Okay, let's look at where I started. I was raised in a Southern Baptist church, in a Southern Baptist family. This worked fine for me until I was about 15. Then things started to fall apart. The basic faiths that I had grown up with just did not make sense anymore. Why should it be wrong to be gay? Why should people go to hell if they're basically good? Why would an all-loving God throw people into lakes of fire? What about these contradictions? It just didn't work for me. For awhile I drifted into Atheism because I basically had no other alternative. I knew Christianity was not for me, but at the time I knew of no other faith out there (sheltered life, what can I say?). But this did not work for me. Deep down, I knew there was something out there. I could feel it. I knew. So I slid uneasily back into Christianity for another year.
Enter my Sophmore year of high school. Enter my now-best-friend-in-the-whole-world (whose name will not be mentioned for closet-privacy reasons, but she knows who she is). One day we were sitting around, working on a project, watching "The Craft" (and I can hear the groans now - I am not a Craft-Pagan, dagnabbit!). After awhile, the conversation drifted away from Algebra and on to magic. She basically introduced me to Paganism, showed me some books to start off with and the rest is history.
We still practice together from time to time, though not as much as we (and the rest of the circle) used to. Schedule conflicts and all that. But I still owe her alot for getting me here. I really don't know where I would be if she had not come along when she did. Thanks babe
So you do spells?
Er...well...sort of. I don't do the whole sparks of lightning flying out of my fingertips Hollywood version of magick. Take everything you've seen on Charmed and Sabrina and Buffy TVS and the Craft and throw it out the window right now, boys and girls. That's silly. Magick is not computer animated puffs of smoke and laser beams. In fact, magick is a lot like prayer and meditation if you get right down to it.
Yes, I do spells on occasion. It's not something I do everyday because frankly, I don't need to. Besides, it seems like that would be abusing/misusing a power, don't you think? It would be kind of silly to do a spell to get your room clean when you could just as easily do it yourself, don't you think? "Witch, heal thyself." Take care of yourself, babe. Magick should be a backup, not your first line of defense.
Here's the deal on spells. My spells could best be described as Prayer With Props if you get right down to it. Most of my spells have to do with healing, with giving energy to those in need, with helping people. When I do this, I usually end up sitting in the park (or my room depending on weather) with a few candles and some incense going and that's about it. I don't need a half ton of jewelry and crystals and athames to do my work. Now I'm not saying that those things do not have a place in spellwork (I'll get into that in a little bit), I'm just saying it is not nessecary. When I've got my candles and my incense going and I reach the proper state of mind, I reach out. I send positive energy to the people I'm working for. I try to communicate with the gods, with my God and Goddess, my Lord and Lady. If I do it right (and I've yet to do it completely wrong), they hear and things happen. Now I'm not talking about big storms coming up out of nowhere or miraculous healings or sudden peace between fighting factions. This is not Hollywood. I'm talking about people starting to feel better, people starting to heal, situations clearing up, a little rain to ease the drought. These were all possibilities that just needed a little push. It was not me. I'm not that egocentric. I know the gods do what they want. Sometimes they're just nice and acknowledge me.
I do not do many spells for myself. I worry that if I start doing these things for myself, soon I'll be doing it all the time (if I start lighting a candle to get a green light, someone shoot me). And that would be an abuse, IMO. The vast majority of my spells are for friends and family (er..well, my chosen family. My blood relations think I'm going to hell), for the ones that ask me to help out a little. Usually it's for healing or for help in a bad situation when all options have been exhausted and the future seems uncertain. Last summer, I used to do rain spells because we were in the middle of a loooong drought. A whole month of 100+ degree weather motivated me. Usually it worked. But I don't like to do those spells unless I feel like it is absolutely nessecary. Messing with the weather can have some serious consequences. You see, there is a reason for everything that happens, meteorologically. There is a reason why the temperature is high or the humidity is low or the snow is blinding. The world follows a pattern and you really shouldn't mess with something like that. So I don't do that sort of thing anymore.
Sometimes, magick is not just communing with the gods. Some people do not even acknowledge the gods in their spells (though that just does not work for me). In a way, magick is...well...okay, first off, you have to understand that everything in the entire universe is made up of energy. When you get right down to the atomic level of things, we are all just a bunch of vibrations. Sometimes it's hard to grasp, but it is scientifically proven (so there). Everything is made up of energy, right? Right. So magick is a way of reaching into the energy and changing it. Cultures across the world have used energy work to do everything from healing to religious rites. If you could connect into the energy the right way, I truly think you could literally change the world. No one that I can think of has done that yet, and it's probably a good thing. :)
Now back to what I was saying about the props. A lot of people will use many, many, many props for their spells. They have to have their altar arranged just so. They need this athame and this kind of incense and this candleholder and they need to wear these necklaces and this ceremonial robe and so on and so forth. And you know what? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But the thing is, the gods really do not care if you're wearing a robe, bunny slippers, a pair of cutoffs or nothing at all. The purpose of all these props is to put the spellworker in the proper state of mind. The spell itself has nothing to do with what is burning and what is sitting on the altar. Every last bit of a spell is coming directly from the mind of the worker. Some people need no props at all to get into the right state of mind. Others need every bit of ritual regalia known to man. Either way, or any gradiation in between, is perfectly fine. Whatever gets you in the proper state of mind is good.
er...well...except that whole graveyard under a full moon with black candles and your neighbors cat...that's just wrong in so many ways I can't even begin.
But that's magick (well, my magick anyway) in a nutshell.
I spell magick with a k because otherwise it would get mixed up with things like stage magic and Hollywood magic. I'm not sawing someone in half during a ritual so I'm keeping my 'k', thank you much.
No. Nyet. Nein. Non. Nu-uh. I don't have enough ways to say no to this one. Love spells are just not things you want to mess with for several reasons. First off, let's consider love. Do you want someone to love you for who you are or do you want someone to love you because you sprinkled a few herbs around a candle and picture on the right night? Secondly, love spells are just bad juju to begin with. If you're doing a love spell to make someone love you, then that means you are infringing on their free will and that counts (in my opinion anyway) as harm. Harm none, boys and girls. And all the ethical considerations aside, love spells just tend to have bad backlashes in my experience. Want some examples?
"Why I Hate Love" A fictional story based on a true occurance. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Real Life Examples
