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.. .. As a kid I was obsessed with magic. A lot of people are. I think it's all to do with this fear of what's going to happen to us when we die. If you can find proof that magic actually exists, you think maybe it's proof of something beyond, and that something happens to us after we die. We all want to know the answer to that! I think a lot of young women are drawn to the idea of Wicca and magic because we've been disenfranchised for so long. We live in this very patriarchal society - I mean, it wasn't until very recently that women were allowed to go to college!

Go back to the time of earth magic and the idea of the goddess, and women were worshipped for their fertility. We've got so far away from that. Women are starting to come out and say "Hey, we want to be treated equally." And Wicca makes you feel like you have the power to go out and change things. [And Buffy is a powerful role model too...] Absolutely! You've got this girl who goes out and kicks ass! But she's also human. Has she dated a guy yet who's treated her right? No. So she's dealing with that, and also with the whole question of whether she wants to be this supernatural figure. She just wants to be normal! And so many young women can identify with that. You want to be different, but not so much that you're out of the norm. Amber Benson from interview by Amanda Vilestra, March 2003 Issue  of 'Spirit and Destiny' magazine (UK)  -  posted on site amberbenson-online more on Buffy the Vampire Slayer  on the shadow self : page 3

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.. .. Another nature lover is 17-year-old Elizabeth. She and her family used to live on 42 rural acres in upstate New York, where she'd spend hours surveying the clouds and staring at patterns in rivers.  Now, she lives in a cramped basement apartment at the northern tip of Manhattan... "I feel most comfortable in nature," says Elizabeth, laying out tarot cards on a green silk cloth in the grass. The only girl among six children, Elizabeth  has covered her room with trinkets, glow-in-the-dark stars, hanging leis, dried leaves, and snapshots of her curly-haired boufriend. //  She needs her room to be a sanctuary because her family life is complicated. One of her brothers is in jail, another is in drug rehab, and a third is a very young father.  As for her parents, they're not as attentive (or sober) as she'd like. In tenth grade, she says, Elizabeth suffered from severe depression and insomnia, and even flirted with thoughts of suicide. "I felt like I had no one," she says. "I was digging myself into a hole that I couldn't get out of. I knew that I had potential, but I couldn't do anything about it."

.. .. It was around this time that Elizabeth discovered Wicca. .... She credits Wicca (and her beloved cat, Diaper) for saving her life.  The spells and rituals she learned helped her harness the strength she couldn's see. "Wicca taught me that if I have a will to fix myself, I can light a candle and say, What do I want, and how do I get there?" Llewellyn Worldwide, the largest publisher of New Age books, reports that teen interest in Wicca is at an all-time high.  Their most popular titles are  Lauren Manoy's Where to Park Your Broomstick,  <Amazon.com>  <Powells>  <Amazon.ca>  <Amazon.co.uk> and Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch. <Amazon.com>  <Powells>  <Amazon.ca>  <Amazon.co.uk> from article Smells Like Teen Spirits -  by Carly Jacobs, Bust mag., Fall 2003 photo of Elizabeth [detail] by Margo Silver  above image from book The Enchanted Tarot

....related pages:.......depression:: teen/young adult.........mental health: teen/young adult.

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I came to The Flower of Life teachings in 1998 after thirty years of searching high and low for something that would reconnect me to the truth.  When I was eighteen the search began with a seven year sojourn in a Gurdjieff community.  From there I took a detour through several "Pop" enlightenment systems that mesmerized so many of us during the '70's.  After that I ended up on the wharves of Gloucester, Massachusetts, face to face with poverty and addiction.  Through that period of time I held on to my sanity by power lifting and reminding myself that God is everywhere. By 1990 it became obvious to me that I had to find my way "home" again. I left the ocean and moved to the Green Mountains of Vermont.  Here I began practicing Wicca, something I had been doing for years without knowing it had a name.  Somehow, through what I did with my magic I found my way to The Flower of Life.  The MerKaBa Meditation and the teachings that have come through Drunvalo Melchizedek [book] have been a vehicle that has allowed me to open my heart, transform my life, and reconnect with who I really am.

.. .. The longing to know what I came to Earth for and the deep desire to fulfill my purpose are yearnings that all of us on the spiritual path share. Cal Garrison photo and quotes from Flower of Life page -.books by Cal Garrison The Old Girls' Book of Dreams: How to Make Your Wishes  Come True Day by Day and Night by Night The Old Girls' Book of Spells: the real meaning of menopause,  sex, car keys, and other important stuff about magic

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.......from cover of The Wicca Spellbook

 
 

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Wicca.. is an earth religion -- a re-linking (re-ligio) with the life-force of nature, both on this planet and in the stars and space beyond.  In city apartments, in suburban backyards, in country glades, groups of women and men meet on the new and full moons and at festival times to raise energy and put themselves in tune with these natural forces.  They honor the old Goddesses and Gods, including the Triple Goddess of the waxing, full, and waning moon, and the Horned God of the sun and animal life, as visualizations of immanent nature.    from site: Covenant of the Goddess Teen Resources

 
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When I was researching Witches fifteen years ago, it was considered rather kinky to talk about the female aspects of divinity or to attempt to rehabilitate witches from the libels perpetrated on them by their inquisitors.  Witchcraft was a bog of myth, misinformation and Halloween gear.  There were people who called themselves contemporary witches or Wiccans -- and I met plenty of them -- but they seem as confused about their origins as anyone else.  Some called themselves goddess -- worshippers or contemporary pagans. Some were feminists rediscovering the female roots of divinity, and their rituals were as muddled as they were sincere.  Nobody could quite decide whether to be a white witch and do good with herbs or -- more exciting -- to be a bad witch and go to bed with devils. The popular image of the witch reflected this confusion. There were both good and bad witches in picaresque movies like The Wizard of Oz, and only bad witches in scary movies like Rosemary's Baby.  Did witches worship Satan or did they worship a benevolent mother goddess?

.. .. Hardly anyone would have posed the question that way. It fell to this book to put the question to a popular readership for the first time -- and that has been a large part of its appeal. The truth is that the witch is a descendant of ancient goddesses who embodied both birth and death, nurturing and destruction, so it is not surprising that she has both aspects. ..... Erica Jong -.from Witches.....// .....her new book: Sappho's Leap: A Novel

....related pages:.......identity..........the shadow self

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Hidden behind the eldritch mists of magical Avalon, Eilan grows into early womanhood as a priestess of the Old Religion.  But then she becomes attracted to Constantius, a Roman officer with ambitions to greatness. Defying the orders of her aunt Ganeda, the Lady of Avalon, Eilan takes the place of another priestess and partners with Constantius in a sexual rite destined to create a child who will restore Brittannia to its former greatness.---- [from review by Nalo Hopkinson] --Priestess of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson

 

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--Starhawk   [image from article: "Meeting Starhawk"]

Some people have adopted the word, Wiccan, because witch has been used for so many different things for so long and people have a lot of misconceptions about it. The two words come from the same root — an old Anglo-Saxon root word that means willow, wicker. And it meant to be able to bend or to twist. So a witch was someone who could bend or twist fate a little bit, could change the shape of possibility. A witch is someone who has made a life commitment to spiritual traditions based on the goddess, who is our conception of the wheel of life — birth, growth, death and regeneration. ... Witches were the healers, the wise women and men who knew the use of herbs because they were connected with nature. They knew how to shift your fate a little bit. If you had a problem, these were the people you'd go to for help or advice.      Starhawk  [from UnderWire interview] Goddess religion is not based on belief, in history, in archaeology, in any Great Goddess past or present. Our spirituality is based on experience, on a direct relationship with the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration in nature and in human lives. We see the complex interwoven web of life as sacred, which is to say, real and important, worth protecting, worth taking a stand for. At a time when every major ecosystem on the planet is under assault, calling nature sacred is a radical act because it threatens the overriding value of profit that allows us to despoil the basic life support systems of the earth. And at a time when women still live with the daily threat of violence and the realities of inequality and abuse, it is an equally radical act to envision deity as female and assert the sacred nature of female (and male) sexuality and bodies.   from article: Religion From Nature, Not Archaeology - Starhawk Responds to Atlantic Monthly      << additional article: Meeting Starhawk by Stephanie Hiller --book: Starhawk. The Spiral Dance : A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess

 

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Loreena McKennitt

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides Figures dance around and around To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness Moving to the Pagan sound. Somewhere in a hidden memory Images float before my eyes Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires Dancing 'till the next sunrise. [from All Soul's Night]

In the velvet of the darkness  By the silhouette of silent trees  they are watching waiting  They are witnessing life's mysteries  Cascading stars on the slumbering hills  They are dancing as far as the sea  Riding o'er the land, you can feel its gentle hand  Leading on to its destiny [from Night Ride Across The Caucasus] Music and Lyrics by Loreena McKennitt - from: --CD:Live In Paris And Toronto

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image from book cover:  Persuasions of the Witch's Craft

image from book cover: A Witch Alone

 
 

 The moon is full. We meet on a hilltop that looks out over the bay.
Below us, lights spread out like a field of jewels, and faraway skyscrapers
pierce the swirling fog like the spires of fairytale towers.

The night is enchanted. Our candles have been blown out, and our
makeshift altar cannot stand up under the force of the wind, as it sings
through the branches of tall eucalyptus.

We hold up our arms and let it hurl against our faces. We are exhilarated,
hair and eyes streaming. The tools are unimportant; we have all we need
to make magic: our bodies, our breath, our voices, each other.

The circle has been cast. The invocations begin...

    excerpt fromStarhawk. The Spiral Dance

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No doubt, no pain  Come ever again, well  Let there be light in this lifetime   In the cool, silent moments of the nighttime from Planets of the Universe -  words and music by Stevie Nicks --CD: Trouble in Shangri-La

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One day, one night, one moment  My dreams could be tomorrow  One step, one fall, one falter  East or west  Over earth or by ocean  One way to be my journey  This way could be my Book of Days from Book of Days - Far and Away    lyrics by Roma Ryan on cd  Shepherd Moons - by Enya

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--interview:

Pat Devin High Priestess of Covenant of the Goddess -
on making the movie "The Craft" and modern Wiccans --
"I remember reading where they estimated there were something
like 30,000 technopagans working in Silicon Valley."

--sites:
 

Covenant of the Goddess  "international organization of cooperating, autonomous Wiccan congregations and solitary practitioners."

Covenant of the Goddess Teen Resources

The Pagan's Path ~ Education Network  "...spiritual education center offering studies, classes and lectures in Magikal practices, Karma, Meditation, Psychic Development, Holistic Healing, Reiki, Spiritual Principals, Celtic Shamanism, Wiccan Beliefs and much more."

Reclaiming   "a community of women and men working to unify spirit and politics. Our vision is rooted in the religion and magic of the Goddess — the Immanent Life Force. We see our work as teaching and making magic — the art of empowering ourselves and each other. In our classes, workshops, and public rituals, we train our voices, bodies, energy, intuition, and minds. ... to deepen our strength, both as individuals and as community, to voice our concerns about the world in which we live, and bring to birth a vision of a new culture."

Starhawk
 

------Web Witches Network --[image copied from site]
 
 
 

 
--books
 

Karri Allrich A Witch's Book of Dreams : Understanding the Power of Dreams & Symbols

Zsuzanna Budapest The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries : Feminist Witchcraft, Goddess Rituals...

Scott Cunningham Wicca : A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner
"...the essential primer from one of the best known authors on Wicca. Focusing on the importance of individualism in your spiritual path, Cunningham explains the very basics of Sabbats (holy days), ceremonies, altars, and other nuts and bolts of Wicca that a solitary practitioner may have trouble finding elsewhere. While [this book] shouldn't be your sole point of reference when considering Wicca as your way of life, it is one of the best starting points. -- [Amazon.com review by Brian Patterson]

Gerina Dunwich The Wicca Spellbook

Marian Green. A Witch Alone : Thirteen Moons to Master Natural Magic

T. M. Luhrmann. Persuasions of the Witch's Craft : Ritual Magic in Contemporary England

Lauren Manoy. Where to Park Your Broomstick  <Amazon.com>  <Powells>  <Amazon.ca>  <Amazon.co.uk>

Silver Ravenwolf. Teen Witch.  <Amazon.com>  <Powells>  <Amazon.ca>  <Amazon.co.uk>

Silver Ravenwolf. Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation
     <Amazon.com>  <Powells>  <Amazon.ca>  <Amazon.co.uk>

Starhawk. The Spiral Dance : A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess

Starhawk and Hilary Valentine. The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey Into Magic, Healing and Action
"A resource book for Pagans, circles and teachers, that compiles much material developed by many people in the Reclaiming Community over the last two decades. Its structure follows that of one of our Witch Camps. We use the fairy tale of The Twelve Wild Swans as our theme story, and divide it into seven parts. Each section is another step on an initiatory journey, and for each we provide basic magical training, inner work on personal healing, and outer work to heal and change the world."  [summary by Starhawk - from her site]

Marion Woodman, Elinor Dickson Dancing in the Flames : The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness
 
 

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--video:The Burning Times
"This beautiful crafted film is an in-depth look at the witch-hunts that swept through Europe
just a few hundred years ago. False accusations and trials led to massive torture and burnings
at the stake, and ultimately to the destruction of an organic way of life. The film advances the
theory that widespread violence against women and the neglect of our environment today can be
traced back to those times. Part two of a series of three films on women and spirituality which
includes Goddess Remembered and Full Circle."  [from abstract on National Film Board of Canada site]
 
 

--CD: Loreena McKennitt  Book of Secrets
 

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