Something occurred to me recently: it's my quadranscentennial. I've been involved with Wicca for 25 years. Of course, that's not a record by any measure. What do Craft Elders call someone who's been Wiccan for 25 years? Answer: "The new kid." I'm almost overwhelmed by the journey my life has taken: From my first reading of "The…
No, this isn't a Doctor Who post! I've performed seven weddings so far. My rate for starting successful marriages is: Three couples are still together, two marriages ended because one of the partners passed on, and two divorces. That's roughly the national average. Note that, in order to maintain my average, Deborah Lipp is forbidden to die.…
Most of you have probably heard me talk about jewelry shop on Shapeways. Originally I started learning about 3D design and discovered Shapeways as part of a process to recreate a ring, precious to me, that I lost on my 53rd birthday due to my illness. Later I started to design other Wiccan and pagan jewelry and…
Before we get into the fantasy, let’s deal with the reality: Sarah Avery’s book Tales From Rugosa Coven is an excellent description of what life is like in a Wiccan group. There’s the sense of family, the balancing of work and biological family and coven-mates, the bickering and the sharing, the interaction of Wiccans with other Neopagan…
Short version: Read Heretic’s Heart. Now. Long version: Yesterday, in my post on the death of Margot Adler, I mentioned that her book Heretic’s Heart was next on my reading list. Today, I unexpectedly had a free hour between medical appointments. I had the book on my iPad, so I started reading. I was only a few…
On the evening of Tuesday, July 15, 2014, I interviewed Margot Adler over the phone for my research on the biography of Isaac Bonewits. After the interview, I posted on Facebook: “Wow. It was like my interviews with Oberon and Morning Glory: you want to listen to them forever.” I didn’t learn much about Isaac that would…
In the past few years, modern pagans have started to reclaim their history. As Ronald Hutton points out, pagans have always had a strong sense of “history” (an interest in past events), but not always in “historicity” (understanding what actually happened, as opposed to what you wish had happened).
Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon traces the factors that led to the founding of the modern Neopagan Witchcraft movement. Philip Heselton’s Witchfather focused on the life of one important individual: Gerald Gardner. In other words, Hutton told us about the times, Heselton told us about a life.
Michael Lloyd’s Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan does both. It does it a way that’s engaging to read. I’d never heard of Buczynski before Margot Adler recommended this book to me; now I understand his impact on the Craft.
Folks are coming for a ritual this evening. I have to mop the floor. The WetJet isn't working. I can't find my mop. There's nothing else to do but get on my hands and knees, and scrub with water and Pine-Sol. As I'm doing this, I'm humming: Of course, the title of this post has nothing to…
I hung with out with one of my Wicca students yesterday. She's incredibly pregnant, due in under a week. She looks just about ready to pop. You can see and feel the baby's feet move as he shifts around in her mother's tummy. It's an amazing experience. Mother and baby are both healthy. The baby may be…