Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit
Be welcome here.
The World is a circle. The Circle is life. My Life is in the trees, and
this is my Wood. I'm a tree person, in spite of the fact that whenever
they have sex, I tend to start sneezing violently and having dreadful
breathing problems. But for me, the World that the Lady made is
beautiful. I don't need anything to make it any more beautiful than it is
already, and in many ways, I'd rather it weren't messed with. (Of course,
I happen to be a technology person too, which means that I can't have it
both ways, but I try to minimize the damage I come away doing.)
I actually keep my Book of Shadows in a
really-oh-truly-oh-little-pet-dragon notebook, but this page contains exerpts from it, as well as some links to other pages. I make no claims to
ever being the be-all and end-all as far as paganism is concerned.
Everything that is on this page was made by me or holds power for me. I
know there are many ways to come at being a pagan, and this is my personal
way.
So. Into the Woods.
The Rune of St. Patrick -- the Four Elements
I call upon the noble earth to give me strength through day and night;
Her granite and her gems of worth are tokens of her various might.
And from her shores the endless sea in calm and tempest girds the sphere,
And like the earth the waters free shall be my trust against all fear.
Above the earth and waters free the air enfolds the globe's fair breast
In it good spirits do abide; I count on them in strife and rest.
And last of all the golden fire shall be my great and strong ally;
The goodly powers that never tire are all my strength below, on high.
I bind unto myself today the virtues of the star-lit heav'n,
The glorious sun's life giving ray, the whiteness of the moon at ev'n;
The flashing of the lightning free, the whirling wind's tempestuous
shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea, around the old eternal rocks.
Aois Dana Rhiannon
My imagination is a horse
a white horse
a grey horse
a black horse
She gallops the plains of Heaven
tossing snow from her hoofs,
Across a sky full of sunlight and angels.
She weaves the woods of Faerie
with the mist thick around her hocks
Through a forest full of shadows and Sidhe.
She stamps the depths of Hell
where the mire sucks at her knees
Past a valley full of darkness and demons.
She is my horse and I can guide her,
I can ride her,
But she is a horse and she can fight me,
She can throw me.
In the plains of Heaven,
the woods of Faerie,
the depths of Hell,
She can leave me to find my way home.
White horse child,
Grey horse child,
Black horse child.
To ride her takes courage,
To catch her takes words
Neither is easy -- especially if she's thrown you.
But I am the teller of tales,
speaker to the wind
Listener to the sky,
And I will ride where my horse may take me.
Beth is Birch
Luis is Rowan
Fearn is Alder
Saille is Willow
Nion is Ash
Uath is Hawthorn
Duir is Oak
Tinne is Holly
Coll is Hazel
Quert is Apple
Muin is Vine
Gort is Ivy
Ngetal is Reed
Straif is Blackthorn
Ruis is Elder
Alm is Silver Fir
Onn is Furze
Urr is Heather
Eadha is White Poplar
Idho is Yew
Ruis
Ruis is the Elder tree, a tree that was auspected as part of the
White Lady. Children that were placed in Elderwood cradles were supposed
to be pinched black and blue by the Faeries, and witches rode elder-rods
in place of horses; the smell of an Elder plantation was supposed to
drive people mad, and yet the tea made from the bark and flowers of the
Elder tree are excellent for bronchitis.
My links listing has been pared down! Lots of pages moved and didn't
tell me, or just died a silent death. If you would like your page
listed here, please e-mail me.
Darkhawk's
Book of Shadows. Darkhawk is a personal friend of mine, among other
things, and her page has a lot of very sensible stuff on it. This is a
good link.
Minerva's Page really
ought to be Minerva's Pages. She goes into far more depth about Paganism
in general than I ever do, and this is a terrific reasource, especially if
you have a basic idea as to where you're starting.
Catherine
Sundancer's Pagan Page. Catherine is another friend of mine; the two
of us wrote some rituals for my first Coven, Triskellion. Though the
Coven itself had to disband with the advent of some of us going to
College, the friendships we made in the group survive, and our rituals
still have plenty of oomph to them.
L'Alphabet Celte des
Arbres is the Tree Calendar in French. I wish I could read french
better!
The Web
Home for UU/Pagans is also the web home of CUUPs. Which is the
Universalist Unitarian Pagan group. These people are extremely
cool, mostly because they are such incredibly (as far as my experience has
run) tolerant people. This is a Good Place.
Lady Morgan Moonstone runes a lovely series of pages, titled Witch's Brew: For All of Mother's
Children. Her pages are a terrific resource; they've got
inofrmation, rather than just more links. Check them out!
The First Temple of
Chaos is run by Blackbird, the High Priest, and is dedicated to the
propigation of chaos worldwide.
Anthony Thompson's
Pagan Page is more of a series of links to other pages, but it is a
good place to start looking for general information. It also has links to
other personal homepages.
The Covenant of the Goddess is one of
the more organized groups of Pagans out there. Much of the stuff that
they provide is to assist in cases like the Battle for Iron Oak, and
information about Witchcraft specifically.
Jonathan's Magic and Paganism
Page is one of the smaller, out of the way pages. (You've probably
noticed I put pages up regardless of size.) It's still well done, and
while it doesn't have quite the mainstream-feel to it that some of the
other pages doe, it's quite elegant all by itself. He's also got links
to various college-Pagan organizations, so this is the place to check if
you're looking for that.
Paganlink is
very much what it sounds like -- a way for pagans to link up with each
other. It is geared more toward people in the United Kingdom, as that is
where it is based, but still an excellent resource.
Green Eggs Report of all
the pagan sites it's spotted on alt.pagan.
Which I don't frequent, so I'm not on there. The list only includes the
names of the pages, or when the names aren't available, the URLs, but if
you know what you're looking for, this is a good place to go.
Laurence Galian is a
"visionary, pianist, writer, lecturer, composer, teacher of ancient lore
and modern wisdom". You'll have to take his word for it, as I don't know
him personally.
Then of course, there are the slightly sillier aspects to being a pagan.
I refuse to be stuffy about my religion. If it's not fun, and it doesn't
do anything to make you happier, why do it? So poking gentle fun at
myself is one of the requirements of my day and my Lady. And these links
are helpful for that.
TechnoPagan Haven It's
what it says.
Gimme
that Old Time Religion This song has every single god you can think
of in it and then some. Chthulu? Athena? Hera? Danu? You name them,
they're in here.
Magic
Code v0.86 Have you ever heard of the Geek Code? This is the
equivalent for Magic Users.