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.
I call upon the noble earth to give me strength through day and night;
Above the earth and waters free the air enfolds the globe's fair breast
I bind unto myself today the virtues of the star-lit heav'n,
My imagination is a horse
She gallops the plains of Heaven
She weaves the woods of Faerie
She stamps the depths of Hell
She is my horse and I can guide her,
In the plains of Heaven,
White horse child,
To ride her takes courage,
But I am the teller of tales,
And I will ride where my horse may take me.
Beth is Birch
Alm is Silver Fir
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.
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.
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.
a white horse
a grey horse
a black horse
tossing snow from her hoofs,
Across a sky full of sunlight and angels.
with the mist thick around her hocks
Through a forest full of shadows and Sidhe.
where the mire sucks at her knees
Past a valley full of darkness and demons.
I can ride her,
But she is a horse and she can fight me,
She can throw me.
the woods of Faerie,
the depths of Hell,
She can leave me to find my way home.
Grey horse child,
Black horse child.
To catch her takes words
Neither is easy -- especially if she's thrown you.
speaker to the wind
Listener to the sky,
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
Onn is Furze
Urr is Heather
Eadha is White Poplar
Idho is Yew
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.