Wicca

My Path

Merry met! I'm a semi-traditional (aren't we all?) witch who converted in 2017, after which I undertook an almost-traditional three (*four) years of study from a couple who have been practicing since approxmiately 1975. I'm an active priestess always learning more about the craft.

I consider myself a priestess of the Goddess, I earnestly believe that "all faces of divinity are equal representations of divinity." Lore is secondary... though I do love me some lore.

My Practice

Book of Shadows

My personal Book of Shadows, being my collected knowlege about the craft including ethics, tools, ritual format, holidays, and practices. My BoS is concise and somewhat spare as I practiced Wicca for years without writing much at all down. It is still a work in progress because I find I don't much enjoy writing it all down. I do enjoy html, though, so oddly I am not having an easier time writing up the BoS than I ever did before.

Rituals

These are accounts of specific rituals I have participated in. Some are summaries, some are memories, some are full or partial scripts. The list and formatting are both eclectic, but so are my memories and records of the events described.

Resources

Links out to other places with good learning online.

Wiccan and Pagan Resources

Specifically websites and resources written by and for people on the Pagan path.

• Living Liminally, the personal blog of author and priestess Morgan Daimler. Daimler is one of my favorite wiccan authors alive today. Her blog provides both fine bites of scholarship at no cost and glimpses into the life of a working priestess.


• Check out Cei Serith's Page. It's WILD. The webmaster here is for sure a pagan, they're reinventing PIE paganism. This website is an endless source of fascinating pagan info and ideas. We've got classic wicca, Mathraism, some Thelema, the ADF, anything you like.


• (That reminds me, also check out this unbelievably cool article about the ash tree, mead, honey, the world-tree, and sacred visions in PIE cultures.)


• Obsidian Magazine was an old-school pagan-published variety magazine that is now fully online! I initially ran into it when I wanted to know more about a single incredibly specific Irish late-antiquity mystical text but the whole site is just endless fun and surprises.


• I don't believe that Ragnar (RIP) considered himself a pagan, but nonethless his is one of the most useful pages for Norse pagans I know. His page on the runes especially stands out as being better than 90% of books about the Futhark. Do please follow through that little link about the 'meanings of the runes' after reading the rune poems.

Folklore

Resources about pagan practice and divinity from days gone by.

• The Internet Sacred Text Archive is an invaluable source of legend, lore, and scripture. They can only publish things not under copyright, but they still have phenomenal archives of wiccan works (like Uncle Jerry's original Book of Shadows or the IBOS, a fantastic collection of otherwise lost early wiccan musings) as well as pagan writings (like the Finnish Kalevala, the Norse Eddas, and various tales of the Ancient Near East.


• Will Parker's fantastic translation of and scholarship about the Mabinogion, an interconnected medieval tale about pagan gods, sorcerers, bards, and beasts. Highly reccomended reading both for study and pleasure.


• Irish Sagas Online, an excellent collection of both pre- and post-Christian Irish storytelling, including some great legends about Irish gods and witches.


• Similarily, the full text of the Tain bo Cuanlge, the Cattle-Raid of Cooley, one of the finest of Irish sagas, detailing life in the court of pre-Christian Irish Queens, Kings, and Heroes, specifically the life of Cuchulainn Mac Lugh. Lugh and an Morrigan both make great cameo apperances. Naturally the CELT Studies website overall is worth perusing.


• I don't know if the author is pagan, but the humble blog titled Writing in Margins contains endless, well-rsearched, fascinating folklore. Especially good if you like fairies and fairy tales. I initially found this blog because it had the only good information about the 'tithe to hell' I had ever found and I've been following it since.

Music!

To quote the phenomenal S. J. Tucker, "You don't have to speak, you can do it in the dance."

Pagan/wiccan musicians! I have been ammassing a collection of good pagan music over the years and am now delighted to present my hoard.

• There weren't (and aren't) many like Gwyddion Pendderwen. Gone before his time, Gwydion made wiccan music in the 1970s. You can listen to his only two albums Songs for the Old Religion and The Faerie Shaman online, though not easily, and Faerie Shaman keeps going down. (The YT channel I linked to for Old Religion, however, is a fantastic channel that uploads great folk music all the time.)


• As for living musicians, there's no bard like Damh the Bard. With a decades-old backcatalog and home concerts streamed live every month, there is just no one doing it like him. Also, the music's really good. Try 'Thundersbarrow Hill' or 'The Mabon' for some personal favorites of mine!


• S. J. Tucker is a similar powerhouse of active practice paganism and good music. Her Blessings album is a pagan classic, but she has a vast and varied backcatalog with gems like this hypnotic recording of Tam Lin or the short saga Valkyrie Daughter.


• Faun is an old favorite of mine! They're a German band unafraid of multiple languages and multiple traditions, so on an album you'll get German songs about Greek or Celtic deities, English Poems, old Norse, Latin songs about old Gods, absolutely what have you. I think my favorite albums are the older Eden which has a lot of medeival influence and the newer Pagan which is stacked with solid tracks.


• Daemonia Nymphe was a Greek pagan band that made music honoring Greek deities and spirits using mostly traditional instrumentation. They're fine musicians, singers, artists; it's good, evocative stuff. You can feel the whole ritual in some of their albums. I reccomend Krataia Asterope and The Bacchic Dance.


• Seidhlaeti has a single album that is well worth your time. Thagnarthulur is a devotional album with songs devoted to every names Norse goddes (including some very obscure ones). The singer's voice is just beautiful. Give at least Freya or Bil a try.


• Kellianna is also an established bard who has been a pagan priestess and musician for a long time! She writes incredible devotional music, try her Lugh on Lughnasadh and Brigid on Imbolc.


• Ginger Ackley is in my opinion a hidden pagan gem! I can't tell you how many times I've listened through the Elf King's Horn album. Her lyricism and skill with the harp are both incredible.


• I know very little about Woodland, but I do know I've listened to the Heritage album a lot a lot. Their music has an ethereal, magical, dreamy quality I have not seen matched elsewhere. My favorite tracks in the album is The Dragon, The Well, and Morgana Moon, but it's damn hard to pick favorites when everything sounds like a ring of Aos Sidhe singing in chorus, heard on the wind.


• Roehind counts if I want them to count. Fantastic, gorgeous semi-traditional folk music from different Celtic languages and traditions. Maybe it's not exactly pagan, but listen to Yr Adar Gwylltion and tell me you don't feel pagan.


• Spiral Dance has also been in the game for a long time, and they do good work. Thirteen Notes and its gorgeous array of narrative story-songs is what made me fall but they have a great backcatalog to explore.

Booklist?

Oof, sure, eventually. I've read a lot of books.

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