By Leandra Witchwood Lately some of my students have been asking me questions about Magick. Magick is a great subject because it is so personal and yet so universal. Several people can have the same intent and go about achieving

Known as the "Carnmoney Witch", she was born in Carrickfergus near the scene of an infamous witch trial in Islandmagee the previous century. At an early age she became a practitioner of "white" magic, using herbal and superstitious remedies to

By Yngona Desmond -"In parts of Wales the ashes of the Yule log were kept until the seeds were sown, and then mixed with them and thus scattered on the fields, to bring a good crop."-"There are a number of

by Samantha HollowayWe all know that Pagans have a different view of the world and the way it works than the average mainstream person does-- our myths are different, and our framework is different. Like anything else, mainstream assumptions about

By Ule Alfarrin This song of glory is written for the Ásatrúar who fill the heaths and forests and hills of our wide land, and any land beyond the sea. In the new Pagan era, those of the Heathen troth

By Phil Anderson'Tis the season to be merry, and for some adherents of Pagan and earth-based religions, that means celebrating time-honored traditions that center on the Winter Solstice, which occurs on Monday. "The Winter Solstice, or Yule, has always been

By Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan"GIVE me to drink mandragora... that I might sleep out this great gap of time, my Antony is away," pleaded Cleopatra in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra four centuries ago, when the mandrake root was an

by Jason Pitzl-WatersThe U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, once the poster child of creeping Christian militarism and religious intolerance, has apparently made vast improvement in recent months. So significant are these improvements that even Mikey Weinstein of the

By Patti Wigington For starters, decide what the Solstice means to you and your family. Do you focus on the solar aspect of Yule, or do you see it as a transformation of the Goddess? Perhaps your family has a

By Bill GravelandLong thought to have been full of mainly roots, fruit and nuts, Stone Age man's pantry may also have included wild cereal grains, research suggests.Previously it was believed that prehistoric hunters and gatherers 100,000 years ago didn't make

The many things learned from folklore include: The Faeries, or Fey, live close to nature. Their homes are often hollow hills or mounds, and they dance in rings of mushrooms or stones. They haunt overgrown ruins (Carter Hall) and tangled

By Bob Makransky This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard,"

by Michael BindnerNo, this is not a shout to the motorcycle gang. I am publishing it now for two reasons. I will tell you why at the end. This essay is somewhat of a Christmas tradition for me. It is

By SarahWhat do Robert Cochrane (Roy Bowers), Victor and Cora Anderson, Robert Graves, Gerald Gardner, Manly P. Hall, Johfra Bosschart, Madame Blavatsky, and others all have in common? They were syncretists. Syncretism is the belief that the majority of the

by Jason Pitzl-WatersYou have to love the Unitarian Universalists, they're the only religious denomination that's includes more theological diversity than the modern Pagan movement does. Pagans, Christians, Humanists, Buddhists, and Jews mix and mingle freely at UU churches across the

By Laura SydellCharles Babbage, the man whom many consider to be the father of modern computing, never got to complete any of his life's work. The Victorian gentleman was a brilliant mathematician, but he wasn't very good at politics and

by Patti Wigington This is one of those cases I read about and can just imagine as a Monty Python skit. Okay, a little background. Apparently, in the town of Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, Sharlene Andreyko was charged with stalking another woman.

Reviewed by CelitcScholarThe Modern Construction of Myth is a book that gives a critical account of how myth came to be seen in modernity. It starts in the eighteenth century with the reinvention of the concept of myth and then

Celebrating the return of the Sun God and burning paper aren't often associated with Christmas. It's still more than a week away but one group of people in Lancashire have already held a ritual to mark the occasion. According to

By LynSusun The aroma of winter is wood smoke and evergreen. But winter holidays smell spicy. Herbs that grow only in the tropics - such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, allspice, and vanilla - are called spices. Their aromatic