Category: Gods, Spirits & Magic
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Embracing The Darkness of Yule and Winter
The shortest day of the year is drawing to a close as I write this. Yule is a time of darkness as much as it is a celebration of returning light. A time to draw in, to germinate. And, I’m beginning to realize, a time when darkness is not to be defeated but embraced. Have…
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The Goddess Áine and Sexual Trauma
CW: Sexual Assault Áine (pronounced awn-ya) is a powerful Sovereignty Goddess centered in Co. Limerick, Ireland. She’s celebrated at the summer solstice, when farmers would (and sometimes still do) light torches from the sacred fire atop her hill – Knockainey – and patrol the borders of their fields with her fire. She’s a Goddess of…
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Preparing For Magic
My parents have finally gone too far. I am, for the first time, going to hex them. Obviously they’ve done a lifetime’s worth of damage to me. But one week ago my 102 year old grandmother passed away. Grandma spent the last 2 years of her life in a horrible nursing home which she hated.…
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Self Care Magic: A Heathen Healing Spell
I’m currently reading Elves, Witches and Gods by Cat Heath (Review coming soon, but spoiler: It’s fantastic and you should buy it now) and I cannot stop thinking about one particular exercise Heath describes in the book. It’s a spell Heath created specifically for the “aftermath of attack or traumatic situations,” which puts it right…
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When Ancestors Did Horrible Things
In 1622, the colonists at Jamestown in what is now Virginia were outgrowing the boundaries of the original settlement. Relations with the local Powhatan tribe had thus far been good, but the colonists weren’t being good neighbors. Feeling entitled, they routinely stole food stores and ruined crops planted by the Powhatans. Finally, a colonist murdered…
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Practical Polytheism: a Week’s Worth of Gods and Spirits
One of the things I found most confusing as I was first developing my pagan practice was how to incorporate multiple deities and spirits without offending any particular one. Especially since I was coming out of Fundamentalist Christianity, where the deity is notoriously jealous and demanding. I don’t seem to be alone in this as…
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The Mòrrìgan and Mental Health
I was in a very deep pit. Surrounded by fog and darkness, weighed down by heavy stones. Chunks of time were missing from my memory. For days on end I slept nearly round the clock, waking up in the evenings long enough to get drunk and send my husband (who works overseas) long, desperate texts…
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Self Care Magic: Creeks & Streams
A few minutes beside a stream can calm the most persistent anxiety, at least for a while. There is some scientific backing for this. According to the book Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do, being…
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Meeting Manannan Mac Lir
Originally appeared on Pentecostal to Pagan 18 April 2017 After coming home from the Women’s March, I reached the point where depression and anxiety made it impossible to do more than put one foot in front of the other each day. I did plant a garden – but that’s been about the only productive thing I’ve…
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Stopping By Woods On A Sunny Morning
First published on Pentecostal to Pagan October, 2017 With a nod to Mr. Frost… Dappled light through leaves mostly greenPioneers in death Just beginning to fallOne by oneSpiraling, floating to the forest floor. Who’s Forest this is I knowIt’s Spirit is it’s ownThis Spirit knows me and this Spirit I know A year has passed…
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Lillian Mardöllsdarttir on Ancestors
By Lillian Mardöllsdarttir, original post found here. Here is your reminder that humans have been humaning for 200,000 years (probably) and we’ve only written about it for the last 5,000. That’s not even counting the other branches of the Homo tree who were close enough to be cousins or ancestors. Your Ancestors don’t have to…
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Twice Motherless; Adopted by The Great Queen
On a cold night in December, 1970, a barely 18-year-old girl was dropped off at an unwed mother’s clinic just over the state line from where she lived. Her father watched her get out of the car and then drove away. She was in labor, and nobody other than her parents knew it. Nobody –…
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How The Ancestors Help Us Heal
My ancestors have been speaking to me for a while now. Two years ago author John Beckett wrote a blog about the then-current situation here in America. Mr. Beckett had been saying for a while that his Gods (especially The Morrigan, whom we both have a relationship with) were saying a storm was coming, and more recently…
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Lugh’s Response To Family Trauma
Lugh is a fairly famous fellow, as Irish Gods go. He features pretty prominently in the old Irish sagas, from leading the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Battle of Moytura to being Cúchulainn’s father. According to Ye Olde Wikipedia, “Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a savior. He is…