http://www.wiccanweb.ca/ Canadian Wicca & Pagan community site offering daily updated news, resources, events and information en-ca http://www.wiccanweb.ca/images/logo_transparent.gif http://www.wiccanweb.ca/ achriel@wiccanweb.ca achriel@wiccanweb.ca (Achriel) http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26572 Reviewed by John Rimmer In reviewing other books in this series, and a similar collection from History Press, my colleague Peter Rogerson has pointed out that ghosts, hauntings and the paranormal are now as much a part of local nostalgia and the heritage industry as they are of psychical research, an impression which is reinforced by this current crop of titles. The most substantial collection from a researcher's point of view is Darren Ritson's, although the title is slightly misleading, as the book deals mostly with the author's home area, the North-East, with comparatively little on the western half of Brigantia (which Ritson has dealt with in another book). The controversial South Shields poltergeist case is summarised, with the author taking the opportunity to get in a little retaliation to some of his critics, who may or may not include Magonia! This book has much more hands-on investiagtion than the other titles reviewed here, via Ritson's group, Ghosts and Hauntings Overnight Surveilance Team (G.H.O.S.T.S. - best acronym since Jim Moseley's Saucer and Unexplained Celestial Events Research Society - S.A.U.C.E.R.S!) An account of an investigation of a haunting at a Miners' Welfare Institute in South Yorkshire, and the description of the almost superfluous haunting of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach's ghost-train, shows perhaps the way the ghost-story is moving: from the castles and abbeys, decayed relics of a vanished aristocracy, to the Miners' Institutes and closed-down pits of the post-industrial era, and the fading remnants of the once raucous, lively, working-class British seaside holiday. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26571 By Louise Bunn with Fritz Muntean and Kara Cunningham Today’s Pagans revere the Earth and all its creatures, seeing all life as interconnected, and striving to attune ourselves to the cycles of nature. Pagan practices are rooted in a belief in immanence – the concept of divinity residing within. The many contemporary Pagans who have found a home in the Unitarian community are grounding our work in the rational structure, the intellectual balance, and the humanist core values that have descended to us from the Enlightenment. We’re working to develop a religiosity that is entirely compatible with, and complementary to, modern Unitarian rationality. The new curriculum represents contemporary Paganism as: •A thoroughly contemporary and well-tested approach to Mystery. •A performative, lively way of attending to the rhythms, wisdom, and demands of Nature. •A way of using the richness of myth and ritual to build religious community. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26570 By Rob Henderson My views on the role of Pagan clergy have definitely changed since I started down this path twenty years ago. (Egads, that means that next year it will officially have lasted for half of my life.) Back in my early twenties, when I heard the phrase "every Pagan is their own priest", I thought it was totally cool and revolutionary and stuff. Fight the power! Given how old I am now, I guess a slightly more conservative attitude was inevitable, and if anything I'm a little surprised how much of a "fight the power" kind of guy I still am. But on the clergy thing, I've completely changed. Now I see that "everyone is their own priest" thing as elitist claptrap. Sure, every Pagan *can* act as their own priest, I'm definitely not claiming to have any special relationship with the gods in general, and certainly not with someone else's household gods. I'm definitely a "Protestant Pagan" in that sense. But spending this much time as a Pagan, and as a Senior Druid, and as a Dedicant Clergyperson in ADF, I know all too well that not everyone *wants* to be their own Priest. And further - and here's the bit I know will get some people out there angry with me - not everyone is *good* at it either. Many people through the years have asked me for help creating personal household rituals or ideas for their altars, and I'm not about to tell them to figure it all out for themselves. Nor the folks without the experience or self-confidence to do their own ritual or magical work. Yeah, I suppose I could run a thirteen-week class to teach people everything they need to know (assuming I had the patience to be a teacher), but is that really something most people want to commit to? Sure it would be great if everyone was an expert at household ritual. It would also be great if everyone could sew their own clothing and fix all of their own car problems. Reality doesn't work that way, and I'm happy to share my knowledge and experience - which I've put a lot of my own time and effort into acquiring - with those who hear the call of the old gods but don't necessarily know what to do about it. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26569 And Why They Are Important to Heathenry By Swain Wodening Both orthopraxy and orthodoxy are important to Heathenry, but in different ways. Orthodoxy can be defined as the standard beliefs of a religion. It comes from Greek orthodoxos “rigid/straight thinking.” Orthopraxy on the other hand can be defined as “rigid/straight action/activity.” Orthodoxy concerns beliefs while orthopraxy concerns practice. Last post I identified some areas where Heathenry was orthodoxic or orthopraxic in practice. However, it is not as simple as that. Heathenry by its nature is not orthodox. Beliefs vary a great deal between groups, nay, between individuals. There is no set dogma. The only areas where one might be able to say there is a standard of belief is a belief in Wyrd and the concepts of innangards and utangards. Even then, interpretations of these concepts varies a great deal so that there cannot be truly said to be a real orthodox practice. There is a better argument for orthopraxy. There is a standard of practice of Heathenry throughout their religions. I say religions, because I am not sure Heathenry can be identified as a single religion. That would imply too much commonality. Still, in my last post, I noted that faining and symbel contain the same elements from group to group, that the thews are roughly the same, and that frith and grith are practiced much the same. Even then there are differences. As my lord Brian Smith put it of a liberal Asatruar attending a Theodish blót, “They may have a good idea of what is happening (cunnan), but the minutia can only come from empirical practice (cýðan).” That is while a Heathen may attend another groups rites may understand generally what is going on, they may be lost on the details. Heathenry though is closest in practice to the Chinese concept of li. Li is hard to define because as Confucius taught that it covered everything from rites to customs. For every single thing there was a right thing to do. Heathenry is no different, for everything we do, there is a proper way to do it, just look at the Havamal. Right action can lead to right thinking, but right thinking may never lead to right action. This is why orthopraxy is superior to orthodoxy. Þu bist þín dæda You are your deeds. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26568 By Frater Barrabbas Well now that the blogs are all in a tizzy over Goetic evocation and demons in particular, I have decided to state a few of my own opinions on the matter. Over the past few months I have learned a lesson from adherents of the Left Hand Path, that it’s all too easy to judge a group of spirits by their class, even though like human personalities, they are actually unique individuals, and really need to be judged as such. To say that all Goetic demons are of a certain nature is to make a generality that is at best, inaccurate, at worst, a kind of prejudice. I admit that I have fallen into this trap, because magicians tend to categorize classes of spirits in order to place them into a greater context. However, all models and systems of categorization are heuristic devices that help one to understand what actually is a diverse and very loosely organized body of spiritual entities. Knowing a spirit’s alignment and determining its place within a spiritual hierarchy and class is an important tool for understanding and identifying that spirit, but its true identification can only occur when one has actually either invoked or evoked that spirit through some kind of magickal operation. This means that the old grimoires can’t be completely trusted in regards to how they describe and qualify specific demonic entities. I am not going to name any names from the individual authors of these blogs, of course, since everyone who is commenting on this thread are experienced magicians in their own right. Magick can easily get out of control, but most of the time when this happens the magick just fails to really produce any verifiable effect. It’s also easy to blame magickal operations for being the cause of catastrophes, such as a house catching on fire, having an auto accident, causing the breakup of friendships or love relationships or any manifestation of bad health. Those of us who are committed and consistent workers of ritual or ceremonial magick can tend to paint our realities with too much literal and metaphorical magickal phenomena, since that is what we are particularly focused on. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26567 By Kris Bradley This morning, the New Jersey Board of Education voted to approve their list of religious holidays permitting pupil absence from school for the 2010-2011 school year. Included for the first time on this list are the eight Pagan/Wiccan holidays, or sabbats. This marks the first time any state has approved Pagan holidays to a state calendar, and will set a precedence for other districts and states across the country. This story starts with a mother sending in a note to get her daughter excused from school for Yule, 2009. Rev. Elena Ottinger's daughter attends Pennsville High School in the Salem County School District, located in Pennsville, NJ. Brianna Ottinger had recently finished her "Year and a Day", a traditional time of study for many Wiccan initiates. Rev. Ottinger, who has a doctorate in metaphysics, wrote a note to her daughter's school, letting them know that she would be taking Yule off from school to celebrate. When Brianna came home that day, it was with the list of approved religious holidays for NJ schools and a note from the vice principal that stated while they would give Brianna an excused absence, it would not be an excused absence based on a religious holiday. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26566 Jenna Lyle The Labour Government plans to replace the 700-year-old House of Lords with a wholly elected second chamber that will call time on the automatic presence of Church of England bishops. Justice Secretary Jack Straw is expected to propose the establishment of a 300-seat second chamber similar to the US Senate, in which legislators will be elected by the public similar. In details leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, members of the new chamber would have to be UK residents and could face a “recall ballot” if their competency was in question. A new ICM poll commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust out today found that 74 per cent of the population, including 70 per cent of those who described themselves as Christians, agree it is wrong that some Church of England bishops are given an automatic seat in the House of Lords. [Emphasis added] http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26565 By Siegfried Goodfellow Mind and heart are one. Odr is a single word encompassing all the inspired mind may gather. It is where feelings and thought come together and share. Their feast, that juice fermented, is inspiration and wisdom found. Our lore therefore is one with heart and mind. The wordloc mind of Western scholars will never penetrate the fullness of lore. Their analyses may be helpful, their takings-apart interesting, their external comparisons even insightful. But lore is not the letter. Lore is what happens when odr meets the letter. What blossoms therefrom is lore. This is not the same thing as wild fancy. It is not immature imagination gone bizarre. It is the meeting of mind and heart with letter and leaf, world and soul in close communion, finding their words, sifting their meanings. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26564 Reviewed by Fionnchú Efficiently told, often convincingly argued, this surveys the late medieval and Spanish secret police, courts, and prisons where "heretical depravity" could lead to execution, a life sentence, ostracization, or exile and destitution. Kirsch extends the parallels with Stalinist, Nazi, and contemporary applications of authoritarian suppression of what an authority deems thought-crime. He strives throughout to alert us to the parallels that for nearly seven hundred years have perpetuated the crushing of what "heresy" means in its Greek derivation: "choice." That this choice lies within the individual dissenter infuriates the forces seeking monotheism, and/or conformity of expressed opinion. Kirsch cites Kafka's "The Trial": "You can't defend yourself against this court, all you can do is confess." The show-trials and the torture were applied to not only punish resistance, but to exact the ultimate humiliation-- to reduce the accused to admit accomplices, among his or her family and loved ones. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26563 By Peter Laarman Yes, friends: an American culture that says it really, really cares about its children needs to pay close attention now. We already overcategorize these same children; we overstimulate them and then we overmedicate them in so many disturbing ways. But now we are about to cross a whole new boundary, because researchers have learned that tiny tots are actually able to make “consumer choices” much earlier than was ever before thought possible: they are neurologically ready to shop ’til they drop even at the tender age of three. According to the new study, jointly conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin, “children use brand cues to determine what food products will be exciting or which toys will be the most enjoyable, and values associated with items (like food choices) are formed as young as three years old.” As well: “The most commonly recognized brand was McDonald’s, followed closely by other brands of fast food, soda, and toys.” http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26562 By Uncle Thor Some years ago, I read a delightful book entitled “The Hobbit.” The story revolved around a tiny fellow known as a Hobbit. He had gone on a quest. In the story, he encountered a ferocious dragon named Smaug. This Dragon guarded a hoard of treasure in his underground lair. The hobbit took a piece of that treasure, and it sent the dragon into a frenzy Smaug is not alone. The tales of Fafnir and the dragon of Beowulf also deal with reptilian horrors which have hoards. These beasts guard their treasures with a jealousy unmatched by any mere mortal. The dragons are reminiscent of the Gnostic “Gospel of Thomas.” In one passage, the gospel reads: “They are like dogs guarding a manger. They let none pass to eat, and they do not eat themselves.” The dogs are like dragons. Dogs have no use for the fodder in a manger, and dragons cannot use treasure. Nonetheless, both guard their territory with ferocious intensity. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26561 By Swain Wodening Many years ago, my brother made a case for orthodoxy in an article for Theod Magazine. The need is as great today as it was in the 90s. But just what is orthodox Heathen practice? To me it is all the things we have in common. But what do we have in common? I think I have identified a few things and I will present them here. First there are the rites. Faining or blot as it is more commonly called follows a basic outline of prayers, blessing, and giving. While other steps may be added, these three things seem to be common for Theodsmen, Asatruar, Odinists, and Irminists. I have never seen a faining deviate from that. This is for a reason, it is how our ancestors did it for it is drawn from the Heimskringla: It was an old custom, that when there was to be sacrifice all the bondes should come to the spot where the temple stood and bring with them all that they required while the festival of the sacrifice lasted. To this festival all the men brought ale with them; and all kinds of cattle, as well as horses, were slaughtered, and all the blood that came from them was called "hlaut", and the vessels in which it was collected were called hlaut-vessels. . . . http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26560 Ethical consumers less likely to be kind and more likely to steal, study finds By Kate Connolly When Al Gore was caught running up huge energy bills at home at the same time as lecturing on the need to save electricity, it turns out that he was only reverting to "green" type. According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics". Do Green Products Make Us Better People is published in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. "Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviours," they write. The pair found that those in their study who bought green products appeared less willing to share with others a set amount of money than those who bought conventional products. When the green consumers were given the chance to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then given the opportunity to lie about it – in other words, steal – they did, while the conventional consumers did not. Later, in an honour system in which participants were asked to take money from an envelope to pay themselves their spoils, the greens were six times more likely to steal than the conventionals. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26559 By Siegfried Goodfellow Things are not always as they seem. They say humility is foreign to heathenism. Bullshit. Humility is the very heart of heathenism, the ground from which we brag. It is Rome that is arrogant, in its imperial and its religious forms. It is Rome which constructs a great chain of being with human beings at the top, little lower than the angels. We are heathen. We are of the earth. We humble our humanity before weeds, trees, rivers, stones. Teachers reside there. Great elfin beings of shine and marvel tend these flocks. There is grandeur in a simple field of corn and grass. The wind blows, and we know Odin's thoughts wander about the earth. We are beings of the heart. Our hearts are not debased by bowing before the humble things of this earth. We are trees transformed. We are bread and meal and milk drawn up through earthen flesh into bone and blood bodies spiralling with stars in our heads. God is mad, wild, uncanny. Enchantment lies deep in the heart of things. This is how it belongs. This is how it should be. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26558 By Rowan Pendragon We’ve talked a little about magickal timing over the last handful of blogs and it’s one of those aspects of magickal work that can either be extremely simplistic or can get horribly complicated. Some people work just with the phases of the moon, others work down to the planetary hour that is most approperiate for their work. Learning to work with magickal timing can take years but it’s simple enough to start out with the small stuff. If you’ve been working with magick for even just a handful of months you know the power of working with the cycles of the moon. Let’s expand on that a bit and look at working with the moon when it is in specific zodiac signs. Most of the Pagan or magickally themed wall or desk calendars, like the Llewellyn Witches’ Calendar, will tell you what phase the moon is in, astrologically speaking, on a daily basis. It does this by placing the symbol of the phase next to the little moon icon, along with the time that the moon enters this sign. Having a calendar that shows these little icons can help you to know at a glance what sign the moon is in on a specific day helping to make planning certain spells or rituals quite easy. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26557 By Brendan Myers A friend of mine down in London Ontario, who is the branch manager of a paralegal company, recently drew my attention to section 365 of the Criminal Code of Canada. This is the section which deals with the practice of witchcraft. It reads as follows: 365. Every one who fraudulently (a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration, (b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or (c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. R.S., c. C-34, s. 323. It's been in the news recently due to the case of Vishwantee Persaud, a woman charged with witchcraft after bilking a Toronto lawyer of more than ten thousand dollars by posing as the embodiment of his dead sister. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26556 Reviewed by Anne Hill I have had the distinct pleasure over the past few months of immersing myself in some wise and erudite books on dreams. Here, rising to the top of the pile, are two books that I consider essential to the serious study of dreams in history and practice. The first is by Dr. Kelly Bulkeley, former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and author of many worthy books on dreams. Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History (2008, New York University Press) is a book that finally answers the basic question: how did people in ancient cultures view dreams? I call this a basic question, because anyone who spends a significant amount of time working with their dreams inevitably wonders how it was done in the past. In your religion, in other religions; by your ancestors, by other people’s ancestors. Dreams call us to understand our place in the world, and Kelly’s book answers the call because it addresses the problem with both comprehensive scholarship and also a deep love and appreciation for dreams. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26555 By Lupa [T]here is inherent racism in a lot of non-indigenous shamanic practices and trends. Not overt racism, but racism nonetheless. A few examples: –White people traveling to far-off lands for the sole purpose of having shamanic “experiences” with “genuine tribal elders”. In many cases, these experiences are completely removed from the reality of their cultures of origin. This is especially pernicious in cases where participants are blind to the fact that members of that culture may be living in poverty, may be subjected to egregious human rights violations at the hands of governments and corporations, may experience daily racism (to include violence) from other residents who don’t go away when the seminar is over, and otherwise are not the mystical, quasi-Atlantean purveyors of super-secret wisdom. –Core shamans claiming that core shamanism is culturally and racially neutral. There is no such thing as “culturally neutral”. Core shamanism was developed within a particular Western mindset, and its parameters and emphases reflect that. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26554 By Seth Borenstein In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. Six hundred feet (183 metres) below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist. That is why a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26553 By Seth Borenstein In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. Six hundred feet (183 metres) below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist. That is why a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26552 Who killed John Lennon? Mark David Chapman, a psychotic, pulled the trigger, assassinating the musician/peace activist in December 1980. So who killed Lennon, the person or the brain? That's the kind of question neuroscientists, lawyers and judges are wrestling with today, says Michael Gazzaniga professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and head of the SAGE Center for the Study of Mind. He's leading a project examining brain studies and the law -- the norms of society that are the basis of our rules. Gazzaniga "What is the brain for? It's there to make decisions," he said at a seminar on neuroscience and morality, sponsored by Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science and Religion where I'm attending lectures and scooping up sources this weekend. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26551 By Jess I felt that this was a good topic to blog about, given some discussions I've been taking part in recently. Asatru, Theodish Geleafa, and all the other forms of Heathenry which exist today have members whose political leanings range from the very liberal to the very conservative. You have folks who are very much into environmentalism, committed vegans/vegetarians, pro-gun, pro-life, pro-choice, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, Libertarian, you name it. There is a wide spectrum. Add to this the fact that you have some Heathens who do galdr/seidhr/spae/utiseta/etc., some who don't; some who focus more on the Gods, and some who don't and focus more on landvaettir and ancestors; some who see the various forms of Heathenry as indigenous faiths that are exclusive in terms of who can/can't be Heathen, and some who believe that Heathenry in any form should be open to all, and you have a melting pot of views and ideas. I could go on, but I think the point is obvious: there are as many different viewpoints on political, cultural, and environmental issues as there are Heathens. Becoming Heathen does not make you a Republican, Democrat, environmentalist, etc. That's like saying that all Neo-Pagans are card-carrying members of PETA and liberal pacifists - which is most definitely not the case. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26550 By Fire Lyte Project Pagan Enough is my movement to raise awareness in the pagan community about our treatment of one another in public, online, one-on-one, and any other time we are faced with talking to, about, or meeting with other pagans. It has become quite obvious over the past few years that the pagan community likes to talk the big game of being tolerant and inclusive of all peoples, but seems to lack that tolerance when the person in question dresses or is attractive or is otherwise garbed in a cloak of 'mainstream.' This intolerance seems to be derived from a standpoint that we, as the pagan community, believe we are ridiculed or ostracized by the mainstream, thus people that look mainstream must be our enemy. Project Pagan Enough seeks to say that - no matter your beliefs, practices, looks, or loves - you are pagan enough. We can argue theology back and forth all day long and disagree with one another's fluff-factor until the cows come home, but it is high time that we stop denigrating one another's level of being pagan. Paganism does not have a set definition, and there is definitely not a dress code or music-loving requirement. If you listen to Lady Gaga right alongside Kellianna, you are still pagan enough. If you don't mind wearing Abercrombie & Fitch, Prada, or other name brand, mainstream clothing to the local pagan festival, you are still pagan enough. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26549 By Sarah It took me four years to realize that as a wand maker and writer, I have never written a piece on wands before. I would like to start with a disambiguation as there is much modern fakelore out there about wands; wands were not invented by Gerald Gardner, they were not invented by new agers, nor are they a modern ritual tool. Staves, (referring to wooden staffs, wands, and other rods) are a very ancient magical tool stemming from our Animistic ancestors stretching further back than the stone age. As wood does not preserve well over millennia, researchers must look to documented historical uses of wooden staves, similar ritual tools made of metal, bone or stone in later ages as well as the use of wooden staves by untouched animistic tribes in the last two centuries. Do such examples exist? Indeed they do –in spades and spanning across cultures and continents. Introduction I have met many neoPagans and traditional witches alike who use staves but really have no idea what their history and purpose is or how to use them in magic. I hope to remedy that in this article with my research and own experience as a ritual tool maker and tree worshipper. My god is the World Tree and he has been hung upon it both willingly and unwillingly throughout myths bringing back the mystical knowledge of trees; of their medicine as well as staves, runes, and charms carved from their wood. Each year he cuts himself down with his sharp axe in sacrifice so that each year the tree, representing this time the fertile greenmantle of the earth, can be reborn growing out of the mineral rich decay of the previous dead tree. Within the lore of staves are the rich and ancient mysteries of the Forest — the Earth when it was wild and we were but babes just opening our eyes laying on the ground like fallen fruit beneath the great World Tree. http://www.wiccanweb.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=26548 By Rowan Pendragon We talk about ritual tools quite a bit, especially when we’re getting started with magick and ritual. Everyone is looking for the perfect wand or athame, but the most important of all ritual items is something that we all possess already and which costs no money at all, but certainly needs some polishing and preparation before we can really put it to use. Our mind’s eye. It’s arguably the most important of all tools a Witch has because without it, the true power behind our work may not be harnessed. And let’s face it, no wand in the world can make up for the lack of ability to ground, focus and visualize our intent and send energy to our goal. When you’re just getting started you hear a lot in books about the mind’s eye. You’ll see a lot of phrases like “Visualize your desire in your mind’s eye” or “See the elements in your mind’s eye”. A lot of people get a little confused, unsure of what and where the information that the mind’s eye calls on is going to come from. In the simplest of terms, the mind’s eye is your imagination. When we work in meditation, trying to envision something coming to us, or something happening to us, we are working to “see” with “eye” in our mind (aka the mind’s eye). For some people it can help to have almost a physical place to focus on when doing this; if you’re one of those people imagine that the there is a large movie screen or white board in your mind right around where your third eye is located. When you’re eyes are closed, imagine that this eye then opens, and when it does you can now see this screen or board through this eye. This is where you can call up any image or any energy you desire.