Category Archives: Esoterica

Sparkling lights, Souls of the Ancestors

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Sometimes I stand on the Sand dunes looking out to sea or up to the heavens to stare at the stars and the glory of the moon as she turns all around me to magic.

On cold, clear night, especially when there is a full moon you can see sparkles dancing around you. They whorl around and at the slightest breath of breeze dance away only to return as if they were curious about you and want to connect with you.

They seem to have a light, and a life, all of their own like tiny fire fly’s glinting and dancing before and around you.

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Posted in Esoterica

What is magic?

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Recently I was talking about Paganism to somebody and was asked about Magic, was it like the bang flash Harry Potter type of magic?
This led me to start thinking about how I see Magik, how it manifests and how I work with it.

So no magic isn’t the wave a wand and turn somebody into a frog neither is it the brash kick in the door type of magic we see in films. Magic is much more subtle than that, so subtle in fact that you won’t even see it working!

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology

Edge Witch

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Today is the autumn equinox, or fall equinox if you live across the water! It is a time of balance and equality when those two great protagonists, day and night are balanced, equal.

In this we see the reflection in the heavens of the Goddess and God, Both very different in nature but equal in stature. Both essential to us and a reminder to us that we, like the universe, need to embrace everything that makes us what we are, as we are, and not try to squeeze ourselves into and limit ourselves by accepting the stereotypes others would foist onto us.

Those of us that call ourselves witches need to particularly remember this, there are a lot who talk of being ‘white witches’ or practicing white magic. The truth is that Magic, or Magik, is a tool we use, just like a hammer, it isn’t good or bad, white or black and it won’t help you with moral decisions.

If you want to truly understand magic then you need to understand both its light and dark, you need to be aware of both the light and dark in you and then you can decide on your actions.

It is this need to stand not in the light or the dark but to stand between them both, understand both and know both the light and dark within that makes a true witch. A true Witch is an ‘Edge Witch’ she or he stands between the shadow and the light being of neither but not scared to look either square on and see it for what it truly is.

Posted in Esoterica, Theology

Full Moon Vision

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Living, as I do, quite close to Glastonbury it is often tempting to go there and join in the full-moon celebrations. These communal celebrations do have a place and perform a useful function in bringing the local Pagan community together.

But I think there is a danger of missing out when we allow community and celebration, important as that is, to take over from reverence and simply standing in the light of the moon and talking to the Goddess, but that is a thought for another time.

I am lucky in that I live near the sea and some quite magnificent sand dunes. In the past I would go there with somebody who was both close to me and my working partner, now sometimes I will go there alone, climb the dunes and just listen to the Goddess as the light of the moon covers me. But it is after this, on the walk back through the dunes that I sometimes see the real Magic.
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Posted in Esoterica

Magic or Pharmacology?

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One of the problems with defining witchcraft is where to start. If we look back into history we see a mixture of superstition, herb lore, psychology and general wisdom as well as what might be called Magic.

All of these things went into what we call the ‘craft’, but can we isolate and consider the ‘magical’ elements of these things? And what do these things look like?

There are aspects of witchcraft that I think most of us would agree are full within the realm of magic, the high magic workings described by Idries Shah [1] But also, and perhaps surprisingly to some, I would include folk charms.

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology

An Astronomical Lammas?

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At Lammas we celebrate the first harvest, obviously this has connotations with agriculture and we shouldn’t ignore or minimise that. It is likely that it is this connection that most preoccupied our ancestors. But they would undoubtedly have also thought about how this ‘First Harvest’ and the “Second Harvest” that it presages was reflected in their own lives.

For modern Pagans we also use this time to reflect on how our lives have developed and look forward to the second harvest which with the Goddesses help and guidance we can row and bring to fruition all that is positive and work with her on those aspects, the weeds in our lives, that are negative and holding us back.

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology

Schrodinger’s Solstice?

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We are now approaching the Summer Solstice, this, along with the Winter Solstice, is a special time for me. For some reason I feel that these two aspects of the wheel of the year are somewhat more important, more special, than the other six points on the wheel.
I feel that at summer and particularly winter solstice the universe stops, hesitates and then reverses direction. These are decision points, points of fragility, when the momentum of existence is at its weakest and most prone to changes in direction and emphasis. They are quite simply balance points where the future is most malleable, most open to our input and most at risk.
It is at these times that I feel in honoring, celebrating and acknowledging we can take our place in the long line of people throughout history that have done their bit to nudge the universe back in the right direction.

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology

To walk the Shadows

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I am tired of this life

Joy has left

Hope has fled

Memories return to give pain in fair measure as they once gave happiness

A decision folds the future, taking what may have been and returning the walk to the edge of the shadows.

The past moulds what is, and what may be. But our actions, choices and omissions take us to where we find ourselves, at the start of the shadows.

The box of secrets is opened, trusted to another, its contents freed for a Time,

But closed tight again as the journey to the edge of the shadow begins.

Enter the shadows and the darkness seems deep, the traveller longs for the light of the past memories which still seemed so sweet

The shadows darken but the eyes and mind adapt, even believing that somehow the shadows might be but a darkening of the light. But the soul knows the truth, and fears the path the travellers must tread,

The soul knows the truth, the terrors of the shadows may be faced, the brave may stand, and the weak run but no man may stand or run from the true terrors, those he brings with him into the path of the shadows. The truth the soul knows wakes.

Even those that enter the shadows with the belief of love at their side are destined to be no more than those who enter alone, the truth the soul knows gathers.

But still hope survives, the memory of the light and the memories still bring some solace. But as the moon traces her path and the wheel turns even the memories turn against hope. And the truth the soul knows, watches.

Signs and portents come and go, we bend them to our dreams and desires, though the truth the soul knows sees through them all and builds its strengths.

The tears when they come water no flowers, quench no fires, but extinguish the light that exists in the shadows, and the truth the soul knows waits

The truth the soul knows, knows its quarry, and at the edge of the shadows it knows it’s time.

I am tired of this life

Joy has left

Hope has fled

And memories return to give pain in fair measure as they once gave happiness

Posted in Esoterica, Life

The Wild Hunt

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The Wild Hunt was a folk myth prevalent in former times across Germany and Britain. The introduction of Christianity also brought this folk myth to Scandinavia. The fundamental premise in all instances is the same: a phantasmal group of huntsmen with the accoutrements of hunting, horses, hounds, etc., in mad pursuit across the skies or along the ground, or just above it. The hunters may be the dead, or the fairies (often in folklore connected with the dead).

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Posted in Esoterica, History

A rag on a poll!

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“Sharpe: Do you really believe men will fight and die for a rag on a pole, sir?

 

 

Hogan: You do, Richard, you do”

 

 

Sharps Rifles.

The quote, for a book by Bernard Cornwall, clearly shows both the power and danger of symbols. Now Shape, a fictional soldier in the British army fighting Napoleon during the peninsular wars, was referring to a flag but one with religious meaning to the local people who it was hoped would rise up if the flag was flown. What that simple quote shows is that symbols, especially those that embody religious meaning, can inspire fanatical loyalty and deep reverence in people. It also shows how difficult we find it to understand why others feel the same way about their symbols.

Part of this dichotomy is probably in the way that symbols, particularly religious ones, are given their meaning. Possibly the most powerful part of religious symbology is that it provides the wearer a way of identifying with the group that they belong to. This feeling of group identity is very powerful, as can be seen with the way that groups will behave in a way totally different to that of any of the individual members. This group dynamic can be seen in the football fans following their team or in the ‘esprit de corps’ developed by military groupings.

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology
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