Elementals

In the world of magick, the five elements are often utilized and integrated into our rituals depending on the nature of the ritual that is about to be done. To each of the four non-Akasha elements (all of them belong to Akasha, because all of them are spiritual beings), there are "guardians" or, elementals. These are beings that have been talked about in a lot of folklore (usually called "fairytales") and that most people today believe to be fictitious. There are a lot of different stories about each of them, including their mannerisms or external appearance, but take into account that elementals, like people, each have an individual mindset or personality. So, while some may be benign, others may be mischevious or even evil. Here is a list of a few elementals from the different elements:

Air Elementals




Faeries

Sylphs (usually the name of the broad category of Air elementals, but considered an individual being on its own by others.)

Unicorns. (This may be debated, but I've often seen them portrayed as elementals of the Air element.)

Zephyrs




Fire Elementals

Salamanders

Dragons

Phoenix


Water Elementals

Nymphs

Undines

Mer-people

Sea serpents (Although, this may be debated, as well.)


Earth Elementals

Gnomes

Dwarves

Elves

Trolls


These are just a few of them and these are just human depictions, mostly those which come second-hand or third-hand, by people who've never seen elementals before, but who have seen them in pictures and art.



Wicca

Wicca is probably the most prominently followed religious tradition in the Neopagan family. It's a recent religion that was first developed and conceptualized by Margaret Murray in the 1930's. Like most Neopagan traditions, Wicca gleans the beliefs which ancient Pagan religions held and makes it fit for following in today's society. There are many forms of Wicca, including Gardnerian and Celtic Wicca, but they all adhere to essentially the same principles. Wiccans believe in a Mother Goddess and a Father God (and while they're both very important, it is the reverence for the Goddess that is expressed more often.) They use witchcraft, a magickal system outside of the religion. They believe in reincarnation and karma, like most Eastern traditions. And even though Wicca has it's own set of beliefs, they are still open to the exploration of other religious traditions and practices.



I must absolutely stress, even though Wiccans all around the world say it already...Wiccans do NOT worship the devil. There is no concept of a Christian devil in Wicca, let alone the reverence for one. The Pentacle is NOT a symbol of Satanism or evil. Satanists have used this symbol upside-down (which is considered extremely disrespectful to Wiccans.) But, just because Satanists use the upside-down cross as their symbol, does it mean that a right-side up cross is devilish? Same thing with the right-side up Pentacle. The Pentacle represents the five elements essential in the use of witchcraft: Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Akasha (spirit). The circle is a very important symbol to Wiccans, who use it to draw a protective circle around themselves when they are about to conduct a ritual or a spell.




This is the Triple Goddess symbol. It symbolizes the different stages of the Goddess' life throughout the year using different phases of the Moon. The first crescent is a waxing moon, which represents the Maiden aspect of the Goddess. The middle moon is the Full Moon, which represents the Mother aspect of the Goddess, when she is pregnant with the God. (Will shortly explain this in a while.) The last crescent is the waxing Moon which represents the Goddess in her Crone aspect, when she is aging and coming to the end of her cycle.





This symbol represents the Horned God, the God of the Wiccans. (Which has absolutely nothing to do with Satan. He is usally depicted with antlers, not horns, anyways!) The God is the Goddess' child and consort. He is born, He grows into a lusty young man who impregnates the Goddess, He dies, then He is born of the Goddess again. It's all rather a lot to absorb at first, but aren't all mythologies strange in some way? :)



How To Deal With A Proselytizer

Despite the fact that Pagans and Wiccans are free to believe and practice the faith and the Craft in any way we choose, there are still certain social mores that we all agree to adhere to, whether we're solitary or in covens. One of those mores is that we agree to not proselytize, or preach, our gospel (from the Old English "god-spell", strangely enough) to others in an attempt to "convert" them to our religion. We value adherents to our religion for their quality and their intelligence, not to increase our numbers of obedient drones. If anything, we need to keep quiet as much as possible about our practices, because we need to stay out the evil eye of people who demonize our ways. (Read "The Witch's Creed". It's different from "The Witch's Rede".)
But, we recognize that we live in a pluralistic society where our's is not the only path of faith. (Yeah, we can definitely see that because we are a minority.) And in that society, people of other religions do incorporate proselytization as the bread and butter of their practice. What with stories of an impending doomsday where certain "enlightened" individuals are responsible for souls of the stubborn and ignorant "nonbelievers", they are all running for cover and trying to shield the rest of us with a book of their doctrine, even though everything is fine and nothing is going wrong. (Or at least substantially abnormal than usual.) It can be frustrating, depending on the approach that the proselytizer takes. (Nobody likes to be woken up at 7 in the morning to be told that they're a dirty sinner and that their beliefs are all wrong, even if they don't even know you and have no basis for judging you.) Of course, it also depends on how you feel about proselytization and how much of a tolerance you have for it. So, I will list different approaches here:

1. An incident with an aggressive proselytizer and an aggressive listener:
Two words: Walk...away. When two people with this personality and two different intents clash, it is never pretty. Walk away, ignore what they say (as frustrating as it is to listen to someone babbling nonsense) and whatever you do, don't use your athame for reasons other than ritual, if you know what I mean. Obviously, neither of you are willing to listen to each other and neither of you are willing to gain insight from each other.

2. An incident with an aggressive proselytizer and a passive listener:
In this situation, if you aren't brave enough to tell the proselytizer to just shut their yap and go away (in a more polite way, of course), then just listen. If you are brave enough, speak up whenever you can. Whenever the person preaching at you comes up with certain talking points or arguments, respectfully refute them with a logical answer. Try to debunk their theories and corner them, so to speak. (It's fun watching them get angry. :D) If you just don't want to listen anymore, just tell them so. Just say, "Listen, friend. You have all the right to tell me what you believe. I likewise have all the right to tell you that I don't believe in that. You won't convince me and I won't convince you, so would you mind calling it quits and agree to disagree?" But, if you can't reason with them or tell them to just go away, just make yourself some tea and cookies (but don't invite them in, of course) and pretend to listen. Nod and say "uh-huh" and wait until they tire themselves out with talking. After that, ask them "Is that all?", say goodbye and let them go.

3. An incident with a passive proselytizer and an aggressive listener:
Don't be rude. One of the virtues that we Pagans hold dear is to "Speak little, listen much." If someone is offering you their wisdom in a respectful and non-judgemental manner (meaning that they didn't start off calling you a dirty sinner or damning you to hell) and came to you in love, then return the favor, no matter how much you don't believe in their doctrine. Refute the arguments you don't agree with respectfully, but don't forget to also point out which you areas you agree with them in. Never assume that you have nothing to learn from someone, no matter what they believe in. Of course, if you just don't want to listen, just say...respectfully.

4. An incident with a passive proselytizer and a passive listener:
In this case, both of you are approaching each other with kindness and respect and it will likely turn out an easy discourse. If you have the time, take that time to not only teach, but to learn as well.

The most important thing about this kind of exchange is that both parties end up parting with food for thought. If neither are willing to do so, then neither should engage in that discourse. Use your good judgement and decide who you are...

Why I Became A Pagan

My story is pretty standard. I've been indoctrinated by parents, teachers and church leaders into fearing a god who embodied everything I was against. I was always fascinated by astronomy, mythology and nature as a child. I even had a neat little astronomy book for kids with the moon phases in it. I found the moon to be a beautiful, mysterious entity and longed to honor its beauty. So, I would take a cup of grape juice to my room, light some candles and drink to every stage of the moon. One time, my mother discovered me and told me that what I was doing was "devilish". For many years as a child, I longed to be like the other children and go out trick-or-treating during Halloween. But, my mother forbade me and I dared not question her, because I knew it meant punishment from her god. One day, she considered letting me go out if her research on Halloween didn't turn up with anything evil. Unfortunately, she found the page with the ancient Druid practice and of eating babies (which was obviously on a Christian website, but of course, as a child, I didn't question the source and its subjectivity). So, no cigar for me.
I was always convinced that I could go to hell for the simplest things I did. Not even my thoughts were safe in the cruel, cultish beliefs that my mother held. I had nightmares when I was young that the devil was chasing me in a horse and carriage. Some nights, I couldn't even sleep because I was afraid that the devil was under my bed, waiting to take me to hell. My mother instilled even more fear into me by telling me about a time when I was almost attacked at a Brazilian airport. Supposedly, there was a demon-possessed woman who tried to take me and hurt me. And, of course, my mother said her crazy Jesus prayers (the ones where people 'speak in tongues') and the woman left. When she talked to my aunt about the incident (my aunt used to also be a religious fanatic), she surmised that it was my fault that I had been attacked, because I ate a piece of Halloween candy!!!
 The campaing of fear continued in my home and I was kept under God's thumb. I slept with my parents until I was twelve because of these fears.
I used to have a next-door neighbor named Jenny Hawkins. She was my best friend who was of the same age as me and kind of my role model, too. She got straight A's and always behaved very well. But, her family wasn't religious. I don't know how the conversation came about, but my mother told me that Jenny would go to hell because she didn't believe in Jesus. I was in complete and utter shock. I couldn't believe that such a nice girl would just go to hell. I even told my mom, "She's too nice to go to hell." My mother literally responded, "It's not enough to be nice to get into heaven." I was so indoctrinated, that I believed that Christianity was a synonym for "good". (Meaning that whenever somebody attributed good attributes to something, I always assumed that it was because it was Christian.)
There was one stage in my life where I became an Atheist, because the Christian doctrine started to seem illogical to me. My parents quickly remedied that and smited me for straying from the path.
So, for the rest of my teenage and the beginning of my young adult life, I was more and more deeply indoctrinated. I felt dirty and perverse for believing in what I believed. I felt bad about my sexuality and dreaded every moment that I thought a sexual thought. I felt bad whenever I wanted to do things other than reading the Bible or going to church. Of course, being in a small Christian school kept the fear alive in my heart.
When I got to college, I loosened up a bit on my beliefs. I was no longer a die-hard Jesus freak, but just moderately Christian. (I actually chose to embrace Catholicism later on.) I became more open-minded and learned to accept other ways of life. I was really into metal music and had no problem listening to it. And because a substantial amount of metalheads are Pagans, I learned to like them, too. One day, I saw a Pagan metalhead post a comment on a band's MySpace page with the "Wheel of the Year". When I researched it, I became increasingly interested in Wicca. I was bewitched by its doctrine and the more I read, the more I liked, the more I felt parts of my soul reawakening and the more I began to see the ugliness of the Christian doctrine. I felt like the Christian god was like a bad boyfriend who would bitch-slap me one minute, then come back saying that He "only did it because He loves me". Eventually, I shook loose of the bonds of the previous religion and started to embrace a more loving one. I was a free Wiccan woman and nothing in the world kept my spirits down for a while.
Eventually, I started reading more and more about Wicca. My dad barged into my room once while I was not there and saw a book on witchcraft I had bought. He became an Agnostic in his later years, so he didn't make the biggest deal out of it. Even though he is such an educated man, he was also ignorant of witchcraft and assumed just like the rest of the ignorant masses that I was getting into something evil. I took the time to explain to him everything about my new religion and how good it was. However, because of his previous deeply-ingrained prejudices against witchcraft, he didn't buy into and he literally said, "Can't you just like Jesus? Or at least try another religion like Buddhism or something." It was the most imposing, ignorant, judgemental thing I had ever heard him say (especially since he was "agnostic") and I didn't even dignify it with a response.
As the time went on, I learned more and more despite what others thought of it. I learned more than just Wiccan stuff, tho. I learned about everything, because Wicca is a religion of learning and being fully educated. The more I read, the more my blood boiled. I became increasingly more knowledgable and when I saw ignorance and stupidity around me, I wanted to claw those peoples' throats out. But, because of karma, I was scared to do so, so I kept it to myself. I faked that I was at peace, but there was always a storm in my heart.
After an explosion of stress in my life, I couldn't handle the personal responsiblity of Wicca anymore. I sold my soul to the Christian god again and went crawling back to his doctrines. I wanted him to baby me and "have a plan for me" and waive and justify my evil actions or hatred as long as it was "in His name" again, just like He used to. Eventually, I started actually taking it seriously and becoming a Jesus freak again. But, that was short-lived. For you see, I had fasted and prayed for three days. And it was an intense fast, too, where I denied my body all food and scarcely ever drank water. Eventually, I reached the peak of a spiritual experience. (I will go more into this later on, but denying the body of typical carnal experiences brings you closer to intense spiritual experiences.) I had a conversation (or at least hallucinated it) with Jesus Christ. He was a pretty cool guy from what I gathered. Rather humorous and light-hearted. Not at all the serious and somber deity He is depicted as. Basically, He told me that hate is never the answer to anything, that all gods are one God and that my intent of returning to Christianity so that I could be free from personal accountability was petty and made me no better than the Christians who were just plain indoctrinated. So, I searched deep into my heart. It took a lot of thought and it was one of the most difficult dilemmas I had ever faced, but I came through with flying colors. I figured that I like freedom from religion and prefer a spiritual connection, that I like incorporating humor into sacred rituals sometimes, that I value open-mindedness and freedom to express myself however I want (as long as it's at no one's expense) and that I prefer to revere the Earth than to subdue. My new and improved Pagan self was free of animosity towards Christianity or any other religious tradition for that matter and knew how to better deal with the ignorance of others.
That is my story...and I'm sticking to it. :)

Celtic Neopaganism

Celtic Neopaganism is one of the most popular Neopagan traditions. Even tho it's not my absolute favorite, it's one of them and I can appreciate a lot about Celtic culture. The Celtic strain usually includes more Druid traditions and gives us the "Wheel of the Year" model for our Sabbats as well as most of the symbols in Neopaganism, such as:

The Triquetra. For anyone who is Christian, you may recognize this on the first page of the NIV Bible. As you already know, or will soon learn, Christianity tends to borrow a lot from Paganism, including the concept of the Trinity. The Neopagan trinity represents the Goddess in three forms: The Maiden, The Mother and The Crone.

There is also the Triskelion, which is the same Threefold symbol as the Triquetra. Three is a powerful number in the Neopagan tradition and you will soon learn more about it. ;)

Believe it or not, the cross is also a Pagan symbol. (Although, I don't really see why that needs to be explained.) In the Celtic tradition, the cross represents the four cardinal directions of North, East, South and West. (I like to put North first. :) I will always put North first. And soon, you will understand why.)

And of course, there are Celtic knots, which symbolize eternity and the interconnectedness of everything in the universe.

The Celtic strain of Paganism forms a lot of the basic backbone of the Neopaganism which is practiced today. But, as it stands, it is only one facet of our religion. No single strain of Neopaganism is superior to any other and they all have something unique and beneficial to bring to the diverse table of our religion. :)

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is a magickal practice used outside of the deity worship that a lot of Pagans use. It's used mostly by Wiccans, but there are no rules on who can or can't use it. It doesn't have any dark and evil or light and good properties unless the user assigns that property to it. Magick just is. It's a force that can be used like most forces in physics. It doesn't move by itself unless you yourself move it. It also comes with karma attached, meaning that whatever you use it for, that will come back to you three times. Therefore, if you use magick to curse and hex, you will receive that comes curse three times worse. If you use magick to bless and heal someone, then blessings and health will come to you three times good. (It's called The Threefold Law. Some witches believe in it, but some don't.) Karma is also a force that can only give back whatever it's given. It's not subject to opinion and it doesn't have any mercy. Just like inertia or any other physical force will not be forgiving if you fall off of a tall building. It's said that magick usually takes up to 21 days to work. (Source: Dorothy Morrison's The Craft: A Witch's Book of Shadows) If it doesn't happen until then, then it probably isn't meant to be. There are a lot of different traditions in magick, including more arcane ones such as Voodoo, Santeria, Alchemy and more. The magick used all depends on the user. Witchcraft is essentially just a practice, but it is also a periphery in Wicca (kind of like how studying the Bible is a periphery in Christianity). But, anybody of any religion can use magick, including non-religious people and even Christians. (Although, with the basic of tenets of that religion, I don't know how that would work. I guess that's just something I shall have to research.) There are a lot of theories about the practice of witchcraft and the use of magick. I laid out a few basic ones here. Some of it is common knowledge among witches and some of it is what I found in my readings. I'll delve more often into it, post a few spells, discover a few magickal supplies and discuss the basic ones later. But until then, one thing that opponents of the Craft need remember is that:
1.) Most Wiccans, Neopagans and most Western witches in the modern day use magick only for good. We are required by our creed (The Witch's Rede) to do so and we do NOT use magick for evil or cursing.
2.) Even if a few of us are flawed and use it for evil, that doesn't mean that all of us are. (Just like how not all Christians are like Westboro Baptist Church, not all Muslims are terrorists or not all Hindus are like that creepy Hare Krishna offshoot that raped, beat and starved children.) Human nature has many sides to it and sometimes, the worst side makes us act in the worst ways. I've met people, good people, who believed in using hexes for revenge against someone who hurt them or their loved ones first. I personally don't believe in using a hex for any reason, and that brings me to my next point...
3.) You can also use magick to defend yourself. There are a number of things that magick can do, but you always have to think it through first and think, "What will be the consequences of this?" Whatever you do, it will have a consequence somehow and may end up taking from someone else. Use your good judgement when using magick. I personally use it next to never, because sometimes, I either end up resolving the problem or it ends up resolving itself. Magick takes a lot of preparation and needs to be done carefully, or else the spell may not come out right. But, you are perfectly welcome to use it for protection, since that in essence doesn't hurt anyone.

Neotribalism?

So, as I search for new concepts in Neopaganism or magick or any pantheons that I don't know too much about, I came across a worldview that was alarmingly familiar to me.
For a little background story, you all remember the hysteria in September 2008 when the stock market crushed and the world was aware of the recession? Well, my father who was into the trading stocks and what not at the time had put it into my mind that this was going to be devastating. I mustered up memories of the pictures I had seen and stories I had heard about the Great Depression, thinking that I would have to pick the apples in the backyard and sell them for money. Of course, three years later, it's not even as bad as all that (albeit, pretty bad). However, during this time, it dawned on me that human beings were just not meant to live in a failed system like this. At first, it had started jokingly. I told everyone I knew that I was going to be a wild mountain woman living off of the land. Then, one of my friends joined in on the joke and said that we could start a tribe and help each other out, like people in the tribes of old. Although it was a joke, it sounded like a brilliant idea to me. This system in which we live in a mass society, where the few have everything and the rest have close to nothing, started to seem unnatural to me. I had learned in a Cultural Anthropology class that people in Africa and the natives of South America had used the same techniques for survival for thousands of years and passed them on their own children. They lived close to the Earth, in harmony with it, and lived in smaller closely knit clusters where the inhabitants helped each other out. These tribes were forced off of their own land by imperialist leaders who insisted that they should be "taxed" like everyone else. Obviously, people who had known tribalism all their lives wouldn't know anything about living in a mass society, would they?
Now, I know people will argue with me about how living in a mass society is somehow better and more efficient or whatever. But answer me this: Why are the techniques for survival always changing in a mass society? Why is it that whatever was "relevant" in our grandparents' day is no longer relevant in our own? That doesn't happen to such a drastic extent in a tribe. Tribes pass down the same techniques for fishing, hunting and horticulture to many generations and they work just fine for their children. While change is something that occurs in every generation of every society, the change that happens in a tribe is a natural and gradual change, not a rapid change that catches older generations off their guard. But somehow, living in a capitalist mass society, what my parents did to survive will no longer work for me. Somehow, my generation is going to financially suffer because I live in such a dog-eat-dog society. That "somehow" can be answered by the fact that most modern societies are now ruled by corporations and a greedy government. Does a tribe, in theory, concern itself with government or corporate greediness? No. Does it have natural concerns of survival? Yes. And according to most tribal inhabitants, that's how it's supposed to be. Now, I'm not saying this is a lifestyle for everyone and that everyone should abandon their customs and comforts from living in a mass society to live in a tribe. I think that if people want to live in a mass society, they should be allowed to, of course. At the same time, don't deny those who want to live in a tribe that right. Nature belongs to everyone. Land does not belong to anyone inherently just because they put a dollar sign on it.
Some people may think it's weird that I support tribalism, yet I used a computer to write about it and I use all kinds of technologies developed by dwellers of a mass society. But the truth is that if I could live off of nothing but the land without worrying about the government trying to tell me that I can't be there, I would. I would abandon technology and social norms and everything that means living in a mass society. But, there are obviously many constraints about that and there's nothing I can do in the United States.

What I just explained here is not necessarily the view of most Neotribalists and may in fact be a more extreme view of that concept. Neotribalists usually embrace or at least grudginly accept modern living and technology in their lifestyle and put more emphasis on a closely knit community that help each other. But, I see a lot of these devices and beliefs of the modern age to be increasingly destructive and counterproductive to survival. So, in a sense, I may in fact embrace the old tribalism more than Neotribalism. If you wanna know more about them, you can visit this website: http://www.neotribalism.net/about.htm

As strange as it seems to refer you to a website to learn about a more natural lifestyle, you will learn more about how I grudgingly accept these modern evils...at least for now. :)