Column: Conjuring the Magic of Pagan Study Groups

A few words from Steven Posch have stood out in my mind since the summer that I heard him utter them at a large Pagan festival many years ago: “Pagans are the people of the library.”

Those words resonated with me because our communities hunger for knowledge and the wisdom to use that knowledge well. Many Pagans descend upon their local bookstore or favorite online purveyor of word-wares enthusiastically and often. Most are striving to better understand the philosophies, cultures, histories, signs, symbols, religious practices, and magical procedures, past and present, that constitute our chosen path. Some of us pursue our studies solo, while others join groups; a significant number of us have a mixture of individual and collective pursuits. Our groups have a variety of foci that we explore within various organizational structures guided by a range of principles.

Column: Twilight in Deity and Spirit Relationships

In the Midwestern region of the United States, deep winter has arrived and settled in. Two blankets of snow are hugging the land and much of nature has slowed to a crawl or fallen silent. In the period between Yule and Imbolc, I often notice myself reflecting broadly on the gods and spirits whose influence recedes at this point in the wheel’s turning and those thoughts necessarily draw my mind to the gods and spirits in my own practice who have fallen silent. The stillness of this season seems to amplify pauses and silences in communications. The relationships that we had, have, and wish we had come into full relief in the cold stillness of winter and we feel the challenges within those relationships a little more deeply than we might in the hustle and bustle of busier seasons.

Column: Honoring Differences in Energy Perception

Energy is all around us and pervades all things. In my opinion, the vast majority of us are born with some ability to sense and work with that energy on a magical level. Among many magical practitioners, there is great emphasis placed on one’s ability to “see” energy. As a community, we tend to value and favor those who can “see” the circle of energy raised to protect those gathered. We tend to seek out those who perceive the abundant energy around us in technicolor and hear the voices of deities and spirits as clearly as most humans hear one another.

Column: Memory, Prophecy, and Social Justice, Would You Know Yet More?

[ Today we welcome once again guest writer Tamilia Reed. Reed is a devotional polytheist, spirit-worker, mystic, rune reader, Witch, and traveler of the otherworlds. Her spiritual work centers on building strong relationships with the denizens of this and other worlds, while seeking an intimate understanding of the magical ties that join all beings. You can find Reed’s writing on her personal blog at Wandering Woman Wondering, at Wayfaring Woman via Agora, or at Daughters of Eve: Pagan Women of Color Speak.]

The Völuspá (the Wise-Woman’s Prophecy) is the first poem in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda along with the Prose Edda and multiple sagas form the main body of Norse mythology.

Column: Reflections from the Edge

[Today, the final day of 2016, we welcome guest contributor Tamilia Reed. Reed is a devotional polytheist, spirit-worker, mystic, rune reader, Witch, and traveler of the Otherworlds. Her spiritual work centers on building strong relationships with the denizens of this and other worlds, while seeking an intimate understanding of the magical ties that join all beings. You can find Reed’s writing on her personal blog at Wandering Woman Wondering, at Wayfaring Woman via Agora, or at Daughters of Eve: Pagan Women of Color Speak.]

Story is beautiful in that it grows, transforms, and evolves with us and through us, and there is great power in telling our own story on our own terms. The story of my spiritual path began in northeast Florida on a cool morning as the light of dawn rushed over my grandmother’s brown skin. I was about 8 years old.