...The Fire Within...

racism, sexism, and homophobia are usually pretty easy to spot and address, but its surprising how subtle bigotries based on age, body image, and life experiences can be - and how easy it is to engage in them without even realizing it simply because our culture constantly reinforces them on a dai...

your fourth key doesn't sound so much like 'giving up' as it does 'giving in' or 'going with the flow'. not so much a lack of belief but a release of the need to believe... i call it 'creative apathy', and think it is as important to cultivate as insight and compassion. i think the human body u...

what an intriguing point of view, thanks for sharing. its easy to forget that so much of 'life' is not sexualized; especially when, for many of us, our spirituality is primarily concerned with sexual dichotomy.

...with that being said, can someone please explain to me what primordial compulsion...

[part 2] - i would say the biggest problem with leadership in the greater pagan community is one of participation; getting leaders of private groups to encourage their memberships to actually participate in public events. in my area we've had some limited success with pagan pride days (which my ...

interesting video, though i can't help but feel there's more to the backstory then can be explained in a few minutes of summary. in terms of self-deification, it has been my experience that this is used primarily as justification for being a douchebag to others rather then any real spiritual gro...

wait a minute... did you just say that our fellow pagans and even our covenmates aren't all enlightened buddhas?! i'm shocked. it has been my observation that within the pagan community, the more drama that appears in someone's life, the more 'love and light' they tend to become; almost as if t...

taking it one step further... turn your positive word into an active mantra, grab a set of beads (like rosaries or mala) and run them through your fingers chanting your word for each bead. you can't help but feel good after spending a few minutes chanting 'love', or 'god', 'health', or 'happines...

@fleurdelacour5787 when you teach wicca you are facilitating and helping to establish the relationship between your students and the mighty ones. you are not just imparting knowledge, you are setting up an opportunity for them to reach the student through you. it is more then simply using a gift...

to be blunt, you are perceived the way you are because you are very quick to tell people 'you can't do this!' or 'you can't be that!' or 'you can't call yourself such and such!'- yesterday's vid is a good example. being part of a community is a little 'give and take' and a little 'live and let ...

both pieces are truly awesome, thanks for show-and-telling. i've been wondering about that statue for a few videos now... i figured it was 'budd-ish' but couldn't quite place the look-and-feel to a particular buddhist cultural style. peaceful, indeed.

vlog request.. could we get a better look at that marvelous statue behind you please? and also the frosted-glass-on-stone thingamabob?

one other thought i had while watching your vid, have you considered placing a dorje on your altar to go with that bell? i know its not a typical wiccan pairing, but the feminine wisdom principle embodied by that type of bell almost cries out for its masculine action principle counterpart. i've...

i am intrigued by the graphic at 1:37 - i've never seen the elements associated with the cardinal directions in that configuration before. is there a reason behind those particular placements, or am i just reading too much into an illustrative doodle?

namaste,

lq

i don't much get atheistic wicca, either. it seems that all of the symbolism, deeper spirituality, holidays, and ritual actions of our religion are geared toward some concrete concept of divinity and our relationship to that divinity. but... i certainly wouldn't want to cast anyone out of the w...

'year and a day' study has relevance for solitaries, too. as a poetic time marker, a measure of personal commitment, and also that same purpose of getting to experience an entire cycle of craft practice. and while they may not be looking to fit in to the coven dynamic, it gives one time to fin...

i think one of the benefits of using traditional correspondences and elemental assignments is that you tap into the shared magickal energy that has built over literally thousands of years of practitioners working the western hermetic tradition. 'going with the flow' tends to be easier then 'rein...

the site looks great, you can tell you've really put a lot of work into it. good timing, too, as i'm sitting down this week to write the volusia county pagan pride ritual, so i'm sure i'll find something inspiring. i look forward to seeing the video of your workshop.

-lq

personally, i think the old laws should be transmitted as a historical snapshot - part of our collective culture - and as inspiration for our own guiding rule sets tempered by our own situations. but not as unbendable, literal 'laws' of conduct. i've come to believe that secrecy where necessary...

SP very much wants to insulate itself from liability for 2008; this is a warning shot over dodd-frank which puts them in the crosshairs of SEC. moodys is just biding its time hoping the govt takes its wrath out on sp.

it wont be MIC that gets 'triggered' it will be the VA, look at what is on t...

@blackberrydreaming - because the 'deeper personal inquiry' doesn't seem to happen... people jump directly to either the 'do no harrm, EVAR!' extreme or the 'do whatever you want, cuz that's your will' extreme without any further introspection. most people (not just wiccans) tend to be lazy thin...

is there much of a gurdjieffian/wiccan community overlap to begin with (asks a wiccan with only surface knowledge of gurdjieff, his teachings, and following)? i have never been able to shake a feeling of forced 'cerebral'ness to what i've read about and from gurdjieff - 'true lore' (as opposed t...

i think that with the opportunities of online communication and the wider exposure to all the various flavors of wicca within society (partly through tv and popular portrayal), being 'solitary' no longer carries the burdens of isolationism and disconnect that it might once have. its a renewing o...

@cutewitch772 - its a good feeling to be able to say 'i am this because i made an informed choice to be this, not by arbitrary default'. it makes it a little easier to maintain one's confidence and poise when faced with someone making claims of 'wicca is this...' or 'wicca is not that...'

over...

'we have everything we need at the altar'... hahahahahhaha... riiiiight. i could prepare for a month, have a checklist to consult, and run through a whole dress rehearsal beforehand and STILL there would be something missing from the altar once ritual begins. i've got skillz.

thanks for demo-i...

'chinese buffet... its why we're not skinny...'

yep, that was the diet-killer for me too. it was bad enough alone, but soon it joined forces with indian buffet. and forget it, war was over. i lost.

namaste,

lq

what awesome timing... chakra energy work is exactly what i'm focusing on for my circle's solstice ritual this year, so i'm looking forward to hearing all of the pagan perspective opinions on this subject. as you mentioned, the study of chakras and kundalini-yoga in general is a vast field of kn...

book of pagan rituals is by herman slater. and is worth every penny for the highly amusing and snarky introduction alone... (the rites are good, too, of course).

namaste,

lq

omg an incense joint ;)... that's actually a terrific idea. have you tried tobacco rolling paper, rather then copy paper? (from my experience in public circles, writing little prayers on paper, then burning them to send them up to gods using paper can be an eye watering, caustic experience.) o...