Save the Date 10-12.4.2020

Here comes some information in Swedish (see English below):

***

Lystring, du hedning, häxa, andlig sökare eller motsvarande, för nu är det dags för den andra inkarnationen av Cirkelgemenskap!

Markera in 10-12.4.2020 i din kalender, då det blir hednisk retreat i Österbotten.

Är du intresserad av häxkonster men vet inte riktigt var du ska börja?

Vill du gå tillbaka till grunderna och hitta magin i ditt liv?

Tilltalar meditation, energiarbete och musik dig?

Då är det här evenemanget för dig.

Vi finslipar ännu programmet och om du således har förslag får du mer än gärna ta kontakt.

Mera information kommer den 10 januari, då vi publicerar vår hemsida och ett Facebookevenemang. Anmälningen till Cirkelgemenskap Ostara 2020 öppnar i februari.

Antalet platser är begränsade så det lönar sig att vara ute i god tid. 

Arrangörer: Stella och Fenris, genom nätverket Svenskfinlands Wiccavänner på Facebook.

E-post: cirkelgemenskap@gmail.com

****

Short version in English:

The second incarnation of Cirkelgemenskap will take place on 10-12.4.2020 in Ostrabothnia. This is a Swedish retreat for Wiccans and Pagans of all kinds. The focus of this retreat is "back to basics", focusing on magic, energywork, meditation and music. More information will be published in January.

Cirkelgemenskap Ostara 2020 is produced by Stella and Fenris of Svenskfinlands Wiccavänner, a Fenno-Swedish pagan network on FB.

Tutorial: Utensil pouch

I sew a lot, or at least I used to before work took all the time and energy that I had. Now that I am studying again, I have started sewing more as well, as I feel more inspired, and it is a good creative counterweight to my studies.

Anyway, today I finished a UFO (or unfinished object) that has been on my table for over a year. I went on a road trip in the summer of 2018 with my best friends, and at a store I picked up the cutest quilting cotton ever: kittens among sewing and knitting supplies. Even though I had placed a ban on myself from buying fabric, I simply could not resist this one. To top it off, I already knew what I would use it for: a pouch for eating utensils.

Is not that the cutest thing ever?

However I was for some reason unhappy with the pouch I made, ripped out some stitches and then never had the energy to finish it. So it ended up as a UFO in a forgotten corner of my sewing nook. As it resurfaced a while ago it has been nagging me, so earlier today I finished it. And oh the joy. Now I actually have somewhere to put my eating utensils when I go places.

This project was inspired by a video from Shelbizleee, however, I do not remember which one. Shelbizleee creates videos about sustainable living, and if you are interested, the link to her channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Shelbizleee/featured

All rolled up and pretty.

An other huge inspiration, which has seen me pick up and finishing old UFO:s is Bernadette Banner. Berandette makes excellent content regarding historic sewing, so go watch her videos. Here is the specific video of hers that inspired me to start finishing old projects:

The following is an attempt at writing a tutorial for sewing a pouch to carry your eating utensils with you. It could of course also function for pens. Post questions in the comments if anything is unclear.

Utensil pouch

To start off, you are going to need the following materials:

• 60 x 17 cm piece of your chosen fabric, plus the same of lining and interlining (I used a thin batting for interlining to give some stiffness to the pouch without making it too rigid, a sturdier fabric could also work)
• ~1 m edge tape or bias binding for binding the edges
• ~0,6 m ribbon 

On the right I have marked the fold lines, and the dotted line indicates where to fold the edge to. The dashed borderlines here are the edge tape.

1. Start by cutting your fabric, lining and interlining to the same size (60 x 17 cm). Make a sandwich of these with the interlining in the middle. Use pins of clips to hold them in place
2. Sew on bias binding or edge tape to cover the short ends.
3. At one end, fold the fabric over 7 cm from the edge, to create a 7 cm deep pocket there. Attach at the sides.
4. At the other end, fold the fabric over 10 cm from the edge, creating a slightly bigger pocket. Attach at the sides.
5. In the bigger pocket, mark vertical lines and sew these. I made 4 pockets, but you could opt for making 5 instead.
6. Now cover the raw, long edges with bias binding or edge tape. 
7. Put some utensils in the pockets and fold the pouch and roll it up, try to figure out where you want to place the ribbon on the outside. Once you find a point, attach it there and you are done. I decorated mine with a small bow from the same ribbon. 

Insert utensils and you are ready to go!
Here you can see the original binding I used when I started the project, but as I had non of it left, and did not want to buy new for this alone, I used a red satin ribbon to bind the remaining long edges. I used the same ribbon to tie the pouch.

I hope this was helpful. I have another idea for a different style of utensil pouch, and if I make that I will probably add more pockets to this one so that I can use it for pens instead.

Have fun sewing,

~Stella

Ritual design and outlay

Well met! This post is about ritual and what my ritual outlay looks like, as well as some advice on how to tweak and redesign your own rituals.

DISCLAIMER:

These are entirely my own methods for creating and doing ritual, based on how I have been taught and how I have been developing it myself, and others may do it differently from me. This ritual outlay is written with a Wiccan perspective, but may also work for others. Use it and tweak it at your own pleasure.

~•*•~

I have done many rituals through the years and I vary the way I do ritual based on the phase of the moon, for sabbats and for special occasions. Sometimes I do them in a very simple and minimalistic way, at other times in full blown ceremonial fashion.

Despite the tools, ritual garb, altar decoration and wordings changing, I have found that some things remain constant. The basic layout or design of my rituals follow a scheme that has not changed much over the years. Here is one I did yesterday at the full moon, in an attempt to recreate some of my earliest rituals:

1. Cleansing and consecrations
2. Grounding and centering
3. Ringing the bell
4. Casting the Circle
5. Calling the Quarters
6. Inviting Deity
7. Statement of purpose
8. Meditation/Prayer/etc.
9. Magical Workings...
10. Energy raising
11. Cakes and Ale
12. Thanking Deity
13. Closing the Quarters
14. Opening the Circle

That is the basic outline. I usually divide rituals into sections. Especially when working with groups it is easier to plan them if one can look at a ritual in sections. These are (with examples of content):

☆Before ritual

Cleansings and consecrations, baths, setting up the space

☆Beginning the ritual

Circle casting, quarter calls, invitations to deity, statement of ritual purpose

☆Ritual main part

Magic workings, worship, prayer, meditation, raising energy, cakes and ale, etc.

☆Ending the ritual

Thanking deity, releasing the quarters and opening the circle

☆After ritual

discussions, food, cleaning up

These sections are always a part of my rituals in one way or an other. What happens within them and how exactly this is formatted varies. The above picture is one way to do it, but not the only way. Rituals I do using this format may be as short as 15 minutes, up to hours.

I have made it a point in my practice to question why I do certain things a certain way. It is good to make rituals a habit. After a while you learn the flow of the ritual and remember it by heart. But it is also good to be critical of the way you do ritual, as in asking yourself why some things come in a certain order (like cakes and ale), or if there are any other methods for raising energy than the ones you are using.

Usually I only change the order of things within the main part of the ritual, but there are other things as well to consider: How do you cast the circle? How do you call the quarters? Etc. You can vary these methods and learn a lot from them.

Try things out, experiment, and do not fear new methods. Who knows, you might find something that works really well for you.

Here are two books that I warmly recommend for anyone interested in getting more in depth with ritual work:

• Amber K. & Azrael Arynn K (2006): Ritualcraft - Creating Rites for Transformation & Celebration
• Deborah Lipp (2003): The Elements of Ritual - Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle

I would be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments. I am thinking about writing a short series of posts about ritual work so let me know if this interests you. This series would be theoretical as well as practical.

Blessed be!

~Stella

Practising your path in your mind

This post is meant as encouragement for the beginner practitioner of Wicca of any Pagan path, and for the one broomcloset witch who cannot practice the Craft openly.

I recently joined the Pagans and Witches Amino, and while browsing posts there I see some posts asking for help with practicing the Craft while living at home with parents that do not necessarily approve. So I wrote this piece.

~***~

I myself grew up in a Christian family, and although I would count them as almost secular compared to some others, they still had hard principles which led them to denounce my choice of Wicca. While still living under their roof, for four years I practiced the Craft as best I could, in secret under their noses.

I thought I would share what I learned during that time, and hopefully it will help you. It helped me to get back to my own practice after some turbulence in my life.


Do what you can, find alternatives
Are you allowed to have candles in the room? Are you allowed to burn incense? Is there a spot you can go to where you can practice undisturbed?

I was allowed candles (but no more than a maximum of two at a time), and incense (but in low moderation). I had a small bedside table where I would light a candle and incense and I would sit quietly in front of this. To my parents I said I was meditating. It worked for me and it might work for you. We all need some quiet in our lives sometimes. This was my way of performing ritual. I will discuss how below.

If you cannot practice at home in privacy, is there somewhere you could safely go where you know you will not be disturbed? I had a spot in a woodland park, slightly off-trail, where I would sometimes go, while sneaking candles, incense, bells and crystals with me in my pockets. I usually went for walks there, so staying a bit longer for ritual or spellwork did not matter.

What of tools then? You might not be allowed an athame, tarot cards or cauldrons, and random bells and wands might look suspicious to some parents. If you stay on this path, you will eventually get all of these. But in the meanwhile, find alternatives.

The athame is used to direct energy, the same goes for the wand. But you can just as well use your finger instead. Any tool you direct energy with is just an extension of yourself and your will.

If you need to find representations for the elements to symbolize them, find something that corresponds with them, that feels like them. For the longest time I used a rock or pinecone to represent earth, a feather to represent air, a red jasper for fire, and a seashell for water.

There are countless things you might use to represent the elements, and if your are crafty you could even make them yourself. Finding different things to use as elemental representations is a good exercise for your mind as well. Which leads me on to the next thing.


The power of the mind
When it comes to performing magic and spells, your most powerful tool is your mind. Magic is to create change in conformity with will, ie. it becomes so because I will it to be so.

As I mentioned earlier, when I started out I would sit in my room, maybe with a candle and some incense, and "meditate". What I actually did was practice ritual and spells. This is possible because of the power of the mind.

The tools we use and the words we say carry symbology that triggers our psyche. This helps our minds support the frameworks of ritual and spellcasting. Or put differently: Tools (as symbols) help us concentrate on the work we are doing.

In itself, the tool does not have any power, besides the one our mind gives it (attunement). This means that even if you had an athame, if you do not know the symbolism behind it, and feel no connection to it, then it will not work for you as a tool because it does not trigger your mind.

In your mind, you can have all the tools you want, or none, that is up to you. When doing ritual or spellwork in your mind, you use visualization to see and feel what you do. You might use physical gestures, but I would usually sit still with my eyes closed. I would even be silent, just saying any words in my mind alone.


Vizualization - the key to successful ritual
I've talked about theory, now let's get down to actually doing it.

If you go in for performing ritual or spellwork in your mind, find somewhere quiet where you can sit, stand or lie down undisturbed. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in your ritual space. Now you will use your imagination to visualize yourself doing that spell or ritual, following any instructions you have. This will be easiest if you have them memorized.

If you are casting a circle, you can visualize yourself walking around, casting the circle, or you might choose to visualize how the circle just starts forming around you into that perfect bubble. Visualize the tools that you need on your altar, how you prepare spell ingredients and how the spell comes together.

As you raise energy, feel it with your body. You might want to tighten all the muscles in your body as much as possible, and hold on until you are ready to release the energy. When you do, relax your muscles and let go of the energy, but keep the visualization of your ritual or spell going.

End the ritual and take down the circle just as you started it. Then allow your mind to come back to the physical space you are in and reconnect with this world.


"But it's too difficult"
Imagination is something all of us do. As children we are experts on it: imagining we are adventurers, or princesses, or Batman, etc. As we grow older and learn more we tend to use fantasy in imagination less and less, it is a skill we loose.

Visualizing whole rituals can feel very difficult at first because you have to concentrate very hard and keep that concentration going. With practice, however, you will become good at visualizing. And if your first years of practicing magic or Wicca or any other path consists of doing it through visualization, you will become very good at performing powerful ritual and spells later on.

Because, you might light candles, wave your wand, put together spell ingredients, and read incantations, but nothing will come of it if you do not also put the power of your mind behind it. So practice with patience. Maybe just practice casting a circle in your mind at first, or visualize yourself in your ritual space. It can be the room you are in, or a completely different room. Your choice.

However you practice, you will become good at it after a while. When I had done this for a few years, I was able to do it whenever I needed it, wherever I was: on the bus, in class, even once at dinner.

~***~

So let nothing stop you, just start practicing ritual and spellwork, in your mind. Take baby steps while starting and, as Scott Cunningham put it in Living Wicca: Just do it!


Blessed Be!
~Stella

PS: this post has no images, you'll just have to visualize the pictures of all the tools, and of me standing in line for school lunch, eyes closed, doing ritual. ;)

Book Review: Living Wicca by Scott Cunningham

Cunningham, Scott: Living Wicca - a Further Guide to the Solitary Practitioner. 2018 (12th printing), original copyright 1993. Llewellyn Publications. ISBN: 978-0-87542-184-1

Living Wicca was the second ever book I read on the subject of Wicca. The year was 2004 and I was 15 or had just turned 16. I had been introduced to Wicca earlier in the year, and been lent the book Teen Witch by Silver Ravewolf (I might discuss that one  at some point) which I read cover to cover. In my eagerness to learn more about this religion that held such a calling for me, I entered the library with as much courage as I could muster. I was scared that if I asked for books about Wicca my parents, who did not approve, would find out. But despite that fear, and the fear of being reprimanded by older women, I went and I asked.

The librarian who helped me found one book that she could get me. It was located in Oulu - which felt like the opposite end of the country - and asked if I was willing to pay the reservation fee for them to mail the book between our cities. I happily paid my weeks allowance (I did not have a huge allowance), and waited for Living Wicca by Scott Cunningham to arrive. Once it did, I fashioned a faux cover from colored paper for it and read it at night under the covers by the light of a flashlight. That is how secretive I had to be. I also made coded notes from the book that I still have to this day.

That was the backstory of my relationship to this book. I eventually read more books, and now own quite a few Wiccan titles myself. I purchased Living Wicca for myself late last year, but did not get around to reading it until recently. Here I will give my thoughts of the book.


Living Wicca - a Further Guide to the Solitary Practitioner

Living Wicca is dedicated by Scott Cunningham "to solitary practitioners everywhere". After the success of his book Wicca: A Guide to the Solitary Practitioner he worked on bringing about further instructions to solitary Craft practitioners. Wicca was emerging as a religion and demand for information was growing, especially information for Wiccans practicing alone.

Living Wicca consists of three main parts. Part one deals with learning, of how to teach yourself and learn without a coven or teacher to guide you. Cunningham states that every book is a teacher in itself, and urges the practitioner to read everything. He does however stress, that one should always be critical and not accept everything one reads, as books just as well as the people who wrote them, can be in the wrong. This part of the book also deals with the questions of taking magical names, of self-initiation, Wiccan mysteries and Wicca in everyday life.

Life itself can be seen as a ritual to the Goddess and God.

- Cunningham, p. 35                        

Part two of the book deals with different practices of the Craft. The first thing that Cunningham tackles here is prayer. I truly enjoyed this chapter as Cunningham talks of prayer almost like a conversation with the Gods. Some Wiccans I have spoken with have great trouble relating to prayer because of the subservient stance Christian practitioners have to it. I think this is simply a stigma that needs to be broken, and Cunningham tackles the subject in a very down-to-earth manner. 

This part also deals with some parts of rituals, such as circle castings, and invocations to the Goddess and the God, as well as a chapter on magic and why the Circle is needed.

The moon illuminates the earth

With wondrous silver rays;

Illuminate me through the night

And through the sun-lit days.

- Evening prayer, Cunningham, p. 53

The third part, and indeed half the book, centers around how to create your own Wiccan tradition. Cunningham breaks down the process into a comprehensible and easy to grasp method, giving concrete advice on what to include and how to write your own material. With a firm starting point in the basics of Wiccan beliefs, morals and practices, he provides a framework upon which one can create a working Wiccan tradition. Each chapter within this part of the book contains a comprehensive list of suggested further reading (I have myself taken many clues from here).

He deals in deity concepts, tools of the Craft, ritual design and different ceremonies, and symbols, to name just a few. Here he also writes about teaching, weather one should teach, when and whom, as well as what ethics govern teaching. At the end of the book there is a glossary of terms, and then a bibliography. 

My thoughts

I always enjoy reading Cunningham's works. His language is easy to read and there is good flow to it. Beacuse I had read the book before I new what it was about, but as 15 years have gone by my memory was rusty. Re-reading it, however, felt like coming back home to a warm meal after a long day out in the cold. 

Cunningham writes in a manner reminiscent of an uncle teaching a child in the gentlest of manners. He is not judgmental in any way, but he is firm when he for example states that certain things have to be a part of your new tradition for it to be counted as Wicca, but leaves the possibility to the reader to formulate their own beliefs upon the previously existing framework. 

Wicca is a religion that teaches specific beliefs. We should be fully familiar with them if we're to practice this religion. It may take time for you to completely accept some of these beliefs. Study, think, pray and experiment. Wiccan beliefs are the heart of Wicca.

Cunningham, p. 114

I really like this approach, and maybe it stuck out to me because I have heard so much of the "you can take whatever beliefs you want into Wicca" that I have grown sick of it. Yes, you can include a lot in your Wiccan practice and beliefs, but without the core principles of Wicca, it ceases to exist and becomes something else. This is something that irritates me extremely in a book I am soon going to review, but I will take that discussion then.

What I really enjoyed is that Cunningham has included so much suggested reading. I especially enjoyed the suggested reading in the third part of the book, as he sometimes not only lists books, but even the relevant pages. I feel like he has been very thorough in his research and made an effort to make the study of the Craft as easy as possible for the (new) practitioner. 

Cunningham has a very positive tone throughout his writings. He on one hand encourages the student to read as much as possible, from as many sources as possible, and on the other encourages the student to just go out there and do it, to not think too much, but rather just start practicing. 

In conclusion I would say that I like this book very much, and I would recommend it to both beginners and more advanced practitioners of Wicca. It is an easy read with good information, and with merely 168 pages it is amazing how much good information is in it. I would however suggest for the beginner that at list a slight grasp of what Wicca is about is needed before reading this book. If looking for one, I can recommend Wicca: A Guide to the Solitary Practitioner. 

If you have read this book, or if you have questions, leave your comments down below.

Blessed Be!

~Stella

Book of Shadows - the Project

Maiden, Mother, Crone. Drawings from my page on the Triple Goddess.

I have owned a large, hand made Book of Shadows for a few years now. It was a custom project hand made by a dear friend of mine, a monster of a book with 600+ pages. Basically it was a dream of mine come true to own such a tome. My intention from the beginning has been to fill it with information and to make it a collection of knowledge on my Wiccan path. 

My big, leather-bound Book of Shadows. So many pages to fill.

I have many different books and old Book of Shadows that I do use. But they are more like journals where I have collected my thoughts and different snippets of information from different sources. The intention of this book has therefore been to not just gather information, but to do so in a thought out way, preferably with a lot of pictures and drawings. This has meant that I have been very restrictive with what and how I write anything in my tome.

The big Book of Shadows-project, however, is now officially in the making. I have planned and made mock layouts for it for a while, and the thought process has taken its time. But I have finally begun to fill the pages with information. It is going to be a slow process, and it is ongoing. One does not simply fill 600+ pages in a few days.

Moon phases and how to utilize them for magical or other such workings.

The pages I have now been working on contain the moon phases, information on the moon, different moon deities, the Triple Goddess, and other moon related aspects of the Craft, such as chants and moon rituals.

The moon phases. I drew and painted this on a separate piece of paper and inserted it in the BoS.

I find myself enjoying drawing the images and making small doodles. Pictures speak their own language, and relay their own messages. My aim now is to consequently work with the BoS from time to time to fill its pages. I also want to share my progress in the hopes that it might inspire others in their own magical endeavors.

Blessed be!

~Stella

Money Jar Spell

Autumn has begun and with it I sense magic in the air, a buzzling feeling of a new season. I have recently started studying again, which means I have rather less money to live on than when I worked as a teacher. Thus, in order to attract prosperity into my life I went looking for spells of that kind.

Now, as always, one should never expect to just have money fall into one's hands just because of a money spell. It could happen, yes, but if you do not work toward your goal, you will most likely not see the results. The money spell I am about to write down might work for you or it might not, and I am in no way responsible for the results you have with it (if you perform it, go gamble and loose all your money, realize that you are the one responsible for that loss).

That said, let's get down to business.

There are numerous money spells to be found in books and on the net. As I was casually browsing Instagram I came across this image that had been reposted by an other user:

Money spell jar by @herbal.moon.goddess on Instagram

It drew my attention and I felt inspired. So I copied it into my own spellbook, researched some correspondences and tweaked the spell to my liking. When doing magic, I feel it is important to listen to your intuition and do things that speak to you, that feel right. It is not about having to have the precise ingredients called for, or doing it at a time inconvenient to you. Choose ingredients for a spell that work for you and feel right for your working, and do the spell at a time that feels right. My instructions come with recommendation and suggestions, but you choose your own way of doing it.

The spell in it's original form calls for different ingredients with money correspondence to be put in a glass jar, then to be charged with your intentions and placed on your altar or carried with you to remind you of your goal.

Ingredients:

• Container: a glass jar is suggested, but you could also use a wooden box or small pouch, especially if you will carry it around with you.
• Representation of money: Like attracts like. You could use coins or bills to represent money, but if this is not possible, write a money symbol on a piece of paper and use that.
• Herbs: There are numerous hers that can be used. Mint has long been associated with wealth and prosperity. Others could be (but are not limited to) cinnamon, allspice, cloves, chamomile, jasmine, nutmeg and vervain.
• Essentioal oils: Patchouli and orange bergamot are the original suggestions, with options for chamomile, mint, cinnamon and basil
• Crystals: Citrine, green aventurine, moss agate, tourmaline.

These are mere suggestions. Research books or the web to find other ingredients with correspondences to money. It you do not have a certain ingredient readily available, consider if it is strictly necessary for you to go out and buy it. In my mind, the point of a money and prosperity spell is not to spend money in order to work it, but to work with what you have to achieve your goals. It is not only about making money, but about saving it as well. With that said, here are some other things you might think of when working your money jar spell:

• The colors green and gold (orange for success) are often used in money spells (that is the reason for choosing eg. citrine och green aventurine). Green is a color of growth while gold quite literally suggests wealth. Orange is a color for success. You could incorporate these colors by burning a candle of that color during the spell, and then again if you renew the spell or meditate on it. 
• Moon phase: spells to draw money and prosperity toward you should ideally be performed during a waxing moon. If you have to do the spell during a waning moon, you might instead opt to let go of ill spending habits. 
• Day of the week: Thursday is the day ruled by Jupiter and thus represents money and prosperity. You might opt to perform your spell on a Thursday of the waxing moon. 

There are several other correspondences you could incorporate, but I will repeat what I said earlier: Magic should be intuitive. If you hesitate because you fear you do not have the right ingredients, or might perform the ritual on the wrong day, then that doubt will influence your work. Correspondences are meant to help you bring power to your work easier. The more connections you feel that your spell has to the goal you are working toward, the easier it will be for you to perform your spell. So choose what you feel works for you and let's do some magic!

I copied the spell into my spell book, wrote down some additional information about different correspondences.
The chant I used popped into my mind during the spellcasting.

Like I said I tweaked the spell to suit my needs and chose ingredients based on what I had and what felt right. I ended up using an old glass jar (found at a flea market last year), a citrine and green agate, some pine nuts (because in the moment I opened my pantry my eyes fell on them and I thought "Yes! Those are the ones I will use") and some dried blackcurrant berries that I harvested and dried myself last year. I also included a gold colored coin, lit some patchouli and amber incense (I had mint oil in a diffuser in the room just before the ritual) and burned a green candle.

Once you have your ingredients, cleanse them in any way you wish (I used white sage), and create your sacred space. You do not need to do ritual if you do not want to, but I like to do it. I also like having a circle in place to store all power and not let other things that I have not invited in to influence my work. This is my basic ritual plan for spellwork, bare bones:

1. Cleanse the ritual space, tools and yourself
2. Ground and center
3. Begin the ritual by casting a circle
4. Call the quarters and deity 
5. Preform the spell: Add the ingredients to the jar, stating with each ingredient your goal
6. Raise energy for your spell. I did this by chanting:

Money and prosperity,

will be bountiful to me.

And once I had raised the energy and charged it into the jar I closed the top saying:

As I will, so mote it be!

     7. Thank deity and release the quarters

     8. Release the circle and extinguish any candles

You are now done. I allowed my green candle to burn  until I went to bed, and I will keep burning it and recharging the jar on Thursdays, renewing my consciousness about my goal.

Good luck in your spellwork!

Blessed be!

~Stella

What is that?! Thoughts on knowledge about wicca

This post is mostly going to be random ramblings about things and thoughts that have been occupying my mind as of late.

I have started reading a few books on Wicca for review. A couple of these seem to completely omit any information about the history of Wicca, while still being aimed at the fledgling Wiccan. One of them seems to confuse the words witch and Wiccan, and uses Wicca and witchcraft as synonymous, which they of course are not. Wicca has a lot to do with witchcraft, but to do, as one of these books, and claim that Wicca is simply "a way of life", makes me honestly cringe in dislike.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the current trend of Wicca, witchcraft, paganism and different forms of divination that seem to have become so popular on eg. Instagram. When I try to browse for Wiccan images I seem to come across a lot of pictures of tarot cards and pretty looking young women dressed in Killstar-clothing with very eccentric makeup on. Not that there is anything wrong with eccentric makeup, dark clothing (although we could discuss the influence of brands like Killstar on the occult, pagan and goth scenes) or tarot cards for that matter, it is just that I do not expect that to be the first thing to see. And that brings me to the topic of representation.

How do we, or even I for that matter, represent myself on social media? I do not have a very large following on Instagram, barely over a hundred followers, most of whom are my friends, and I post pictures of a varying content. A lot of my Instagram consists of pictures of historic clothing and the sewing thereof, snippets of my daily life (including selfies), food pictures (because I love making food), and the occasional altar picture. My Instagram has not been a primary outlet for content relating to Wicca, rather it has been more reflective of other things I do in life, mostly clothing and fashion.

The point of my Instagram was never to be an outlet for Wiccan themed posts. I intended it to be more oriented toward sewing, goth fashion and snippets of my personal life. However I have started thinking that I should include Wicca more in my feed, and as I have been thinking about it I have also began wondering how I would represent Wicca, and witchcraft for that matter, in a good and versatile way. It takes a lot of time to prepare good content and I have not had that time, and I do not know whether I will have it in the future either. But as a Wiccan of some fifteen years, I think it is my responsibility to think about how I present myself and my faith on social media, because there are so  many young people looking for their own path in life, and if all they see when they search for Wicca on social media is tarot cards, black-clad women in perfect makeup and hauls or unboxings of witchcraft-related items, then they are not getting a very good idea of what Wicca really is.

And this brings me back to where I started. If these books (geared toward the beginner) that I am reading omit important things like the history of Wicca, the mentioning of the Goddess and the God, claiming that Wicca is only "a way of life", or even get basic things (like drawing down the moon, of consecrations) wrong, where does that leave us? Have we reached a point in Wicca where celebrity culture has taken over and we listen only to the most popular outlet of information, instead of learning as much as we can and thinking critically about it for ourselves? Is it only symptomatic of society in general?

I am wondering where we are headed. I am not part of a coven or any tradition. I have always been a solitary and eclectic Wiccan and witch, and that is only a result of the circumstances in which I have grown up and lived in. But I have made it a point to read and learn as much as I possibly can. I am by no means claiming that I know everything, far from it. And it might be the academic in me, but when I read a book that is supposedly about Wicca, and it contains no references, or the reference list consists of five books and does not reference any of the books that laid the groundwork of Wicca, then allow me to be skeptical of the contents of said books.

Maybe I am nitpicking. Everyone has to start somewhere, and anywhere is better that nowhere if it inspires the novice to learn more from better sources. Or is it? I would prefer that books for beginners be well written and contain correct facts. Here I believe that the publishers carry as much responsibility as the authors. I believe it is unethical to claim to write a book for beginners on Wicca and make such a crap job of doing it that you muck up even the most essential details. It honestly makes me angry that such misinformation is allowed to be published, and I fear that publishing was done mostly for monetary reasons.

Anyway. I think I shall end my rambling rant here. I will be publishing a few reviews soon, once autumn arrives, and one of them will unfortunately be a rather poor one. But on the positive note, I am also reading some very good books at the moment, so look forward to those.

What do you think about representation or the responsibility to fact check what you write for a young or inexperienced audience? Tell me in the comments.

~Stella