Category Archives: Religion

Books, Paganism, Personal Development, Religion

My virtues and ethics: Exploring a journal prompt from Chapter 11 of “Changing Paths”

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Hello dear readers! It’s been a busy and hectic week for me. I’ve been posting #ChangingPathsChallenge2024 posts a little (or a lot late) for the past few days as a result. What’s more, I didn’t find time to write a post for chapter eleven of Yvonne Aburrow’s book, Changing Paths until today. But I’d rather not just skip putting up a post this week, so I figure a day or so late is the better option. So here’s the journal prompt I’ve chosen from chapter eleven:

Make a list of your personal values and virtues that you hold sacred.

I’ll note that I covered this to some degree earlier this month in a blog challenge post. However, while I talked about the beliefs that tend to inform my ethics and offered a few list of virtues that influenced me, I did not write down my own list. As such, I’d like to take this opportunity to do exactly that.

The values I tend to think about and hold most dear, in no particular order:

  • Compassion
  • Integrity
  • Freedom
  • Creativity
  • Industriousness
  • Joy
  • Hospitality
  • Justice (though more through restorative than punitive means)
  • Fidelity

I hope it’s obvious that this is not an exhaustive list. Merely these are the nine (convenient that I came up with exactly nine off the top of my head) that I’d say I most consider when making moral decisions.

Paganism, Religion

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Solstice

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Note: Today’s topic is supposed to be “Cycles.” But I decided I wanted to do tomorrow’s prompt instead so I could talk about the solstice on the actual solstice. It’s a day early this year.

One of the things I find unfortunate is how many in the Pagan community is how we give a lot of attention to the winter solstice, but not so much love for the summer solstice. In some ways, I get it. The summer solstice is hot — especially this year in places like my home where there’s been a heat advisory. And while the winter solstice is cold, it’s easy to put on heavier clothes and wear a blanket. I can only strip down so far — especially while in public! And of course, the winter solstice has all that gift-giving to make it more appealing. (Maybe we should start giving gifts at both solstices!)

And yet, I do appreciate the longest day of the year. I like the thought of having so many daylight hours and celebrating the fact that the growing season is well under way. At this point, we are a couple months at most from the first harvest and its wondrous bounty of grains. I like watching the corn starting to grow and the small animals flying and running around in the yard.

This time of year is filled with visible life and activity. This is something to celebrate and gives me a new sense of life and purpose. So while I may be grateful when the days start shortening once more and look forward to the cooler temperatures of autumn, I will pay honor and show appreciation for this longest day each year.

(This past is part of #ChangingPathsChallenge2024. For more information about the challenge and a list of topics, check out Yvonne Aburrow’s post announcing it.)

Paganism, Religion

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Time

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Time is one of those ideas that you have to look at from a few different perspectives. As a human being, I have a limited amount of time on this earth, measured in decades. As such, I am inspired to squeeze as much as I can into the time that I have, making the most out of it. I try to accomplish as much good as I can in hopes of both making the world a better place and leaving a legacy worth remembering and building upon. In many ways, I wish I had more time.

And yet, time stretches behind me and ahead of me. If I live to be 100 years old, my lifespan will only account for 0.00000000725% of the current age of the universe as we know it. And the universe most likely will go on for billions of years after I’m gone. Probably more.

To me, this is both reason to understand that how I spend my own time is important and to realize that I will not individually change much in the grand scheme of things. For that reason, my limited time urges me to think and act communally — ideally thinking of the global community. it is only in participating in history and doing even my tiny part to make change that we can change the course of history and have lasting impacts through all time.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathChallenge2024. For more information about the challenge and a list of topics, check out Yvonne Aburrow’s post announcing it.)

Paganism, Religion

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Life

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I see the celebration of life as central to my religion. Without life, we would have nothing and would have no way to enjoy anything anyway. Everything else is an exploration of how to celebrate that life, preserve it, and make the most out it.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsChallenge2024. For more information about the challenge and a list of topics, please check out Yvonne’ Aburrow’s post announcing it.)

Introspection, Paganism, Religion

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: The Sky

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When I first started exploring a Pagan path, I decided to go outside and sit in my yard, staring up at the sky. It was shortly after a full moon and I had been dealing with the end of both a relationship and a friendship. I sat there wanting to cry.

And yet, in my mind’s eye, I felt the presence of a goddess. I’m not sure whether it was any particular goddess, as I must have been mere days into my exploration of Paganism and polytheism. But I felt her watchful eyes upon me. It was fairly cloudy that night, and I also felt as if the clouds were her, covering myself and the whole earth with her cloak, offering comfort and some sense of warmth.

To this day, I often feel as if the atmosphere itself is charged wit the energy of the deities. Sometimes that energy is buzzing and active. Other times, it is gently soothing. Yet no matter what, it is always there, beckoning my own spirit to sense it and respond to it.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsChallenge2024. For more information on the challenge, including a list of daily topics, please see this post by Yvonne Aburrow.)

Paganism, Personal Development, Religion, Spiritual Development, Witchcraft

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: My Path

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Some days, i really wonder if I have a spiritual path. This is in part because I often feel like I don’t do much. I’m not a huge ritualist. I don’t spend a lot of time doing fancy rites, complicated offerings, or grand magical workings.

I take some heart when I read Gerald Gardner’s books. He wrote that the witches he met practiced a simple craft and that it often seemed more kike children’s games them some fancy ritual or complicated process. That seems to match my own spirituality, in many ways. I often say that for me, witchcraft is more a matter of perspective. I feel I see and think about the world in certain ways that I consider “witchy.” And most days, that seems good enough for me.

Another thing I often wonder, though, is whether things would be easier if I followed a particular tradition or joined a particular group. I often feel like I’m blazing my own trail. While I often like that and the way it enables me not to get wrapped up in things that don’t really make sense to me, it also leaves me wondering how well I actually know what I’m doing. I often find myself wondering if I could accomplish more under following the tried and true methods of a tradition as imparted to me by a teacher.

And I suppose if I ever found the right teacher at the right time, I might go that route. But until then, I find myself on a certain path of my own making. So for now, I’ll continue to wend m way through things based on my own reasoning and intuition and the occasional insights offered by my deities and any other allies I might come across. Because as much as I might wonder about other paths, a huge part of me still wants to see where this path I’m on will take me.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsChallenge2024. For more information about this event and a list of topics, please see this post by Yvonne Aburrow.)

Personal Development, Religion, Spiritual Development

Letting go of certainty and being right: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 10 of “Changing Paths”

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Happy Friday morning, dear readers. I hope you’re enjoying reading my posts for #ChangingPathsChallenge2024 as much as I’m enjoying writing them. I thought I’d briefly mention a couple other blogs participating in the challenge. Of course, Yvonne Aburrow, creator of the challenge, is participating over at the resources blog for the book. I’ve also managed to run across The River Crow, who has written some delightful poetry for many of the prompts. I highly encourage you to check out both blogs and their entries. And if you know of other people participating, be sure to drop a link in the comments!

In the meantime, I wanted to write a post about chapter ten of the book Changing Paths, which is entitled “Unexamined Baggage.” For this chapter, I’ve chosen this journal prompt from the book:

Check your baggage. What ideas or values or assumptions are you carrying around from your original religious or philosophical tradition? Which ones do you want to jettison, and which ones do you want to keep?

I had to think long and hard about this one. I feel like I’ve unpacked and discarded most of what I picked up from my days as an evangelical Christian. Sure, I’ve only recently started examining and working through the ways in which my previous religion was mired in white supremacy. Similarly, I’ve been going through an unlearning process in which I critically examine what my Sunday school teachers, pastors, and other Christian leaders taught me about Judaism and the antisemitism that often gets baked right into some of the common tenets of Christianity. But these are both things I feel like I’m well on my way of ridding myself of.

Eventually, however, I think I thought of something I picked up from Christianity that I still struggle with at times: The constant need to be right and even to prove that I’m right. As an evangelical Christian, I was constantly reminded of the need to “be prepared to give a defense of the faith at all times.” So debates — or arguments disguised as debates — were something I often engaged in. I felt the need to prove that my faith was rock solid and correct. To be honest, that’s a need to is hard shake.

In some cases, I’m not sure I want to shake it completely. For example, I think there are some things that are worth arguing dogmatically in favor of, such as the basic humanity and dignity of all people. Along those lines, I will unapologetically fight for the rights and proper treatment of all people. To do otherwise would strike me as a betrayal of my principles.

And yet, even in these cases, I find myself stopping to check with myself as to why I’m engaging in such fights. Am I doing it because it’s the right thing to do and because people will be harmed otherwise? Or am I doing it in order to be right? In many cases, I suspect both motives play a factor. However, I think only the first one is a motive that should be encouraged. In the end, the well-being of others and the search for justice for them is not about me, nor should it be.

In other cases, I just think it’s important to remember that I’ve been wrong in the past and I could be wrong again. So I try — though not always successfully — to remind myself to hold to many beliefs and view loosely and humbly. Because again, it has to be about a search for truth rather than the quest to be right.

Paganism, Religion, Witchcraft

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Roots and Wings

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Years ago, a coven member asked me a question. She knew that my own witchcraft practice tended to be shamanistic in nature and she was starting to explore those practices herself. She inquired as to why it seems that most shamanic and shamanistic practices start the newcomer of with exploring the underworld. I considered this for a moment before giving her my opinion:

The underworld is often associated with the ancestors and the ancestors typically reside there. We owe our lives and our very beings to our ancestors, as they are the ones who both made us who we are and shaped the world into what we see now. To move forward, we need to grapple with this understanding and learn the wisdom of those who came before us.

Years later, I think that answer still fits, though I think it’s also incomplete. Our ancestors were imperfect. They made mistakes. We need to learn not only the wisdom of their successes, but the wisdom they learned from their mistakes. And perhaps we might learn lessons from their mistakes that they themselves still missed.

Once we are rooted in the past and understand the lessons we can learn, we are ready to soar beyond that past. We now understand the territory beneath and behind us, giving us a framework as we take flight and explore the world anew. In this way, we add to the wisdom of our ancestors, once more reshaping the world and trying to do a slightly better job than those who came before us.

And someday, we too shall pass into the underworld. We will become the ancestors who provide wisdom and roots for future generations preparing to spread their wings and take flight themselves.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsChallenge2024. For more information about the challenge and a list of topics, check out this post by Yvonne Aburrow.)

Music, Paganism, Religion

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Songs

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Most of my life, I’ve had a tentative relationship with music. I did not listen to the radio or collect a lot of albums from my favorite musicians growing up. When we traveled in the car, if we weren’t listening to the radio (usually tuned to one of the Christian radio stations that dominate the twin tiers region), we listened to one of three tapes that my family collectively owned.

  • My mother’s “Best of the Statler Brothers” collection.
  • My sister’s “Beat the System” tape by Petra.
  • My “Ghostbusters” tape.

In fact, the only music that remained in my life were hymns at church and the songs we’d sing at Sunday school. Some of those are still implanted in my memory even though I haven’t sung them since 1998 (for the most part). Especially the Sunday school songs. I swear that the fastest way to trigger a former Sunday school teacher from an evangelical church is to start singing “Father Abraham.” (Warning: The link is neither for the feint of heart nor for those particularly susceptible to earworms.)

In college, I got introduced to the kind of worship songs put out by groups like Maranatha Music. I came to like these simple tunes as they were easy sing and fairly easy to remember. At lest the choruses were. I’d never remember all the words to even the first verse of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” but I could always remember how to sing “As The Deer.”

When I started exploring Paganism, I thought it would be nice to find music that reflected my new spiritual home. I had heard there were many Pagan chants used in ritual, but there weren’t any groups in my area that used them. (I did get introduced to a couple while attending Pagan conferences in Ontario province in the early 2000s.) I started looking at music that was not explicitly religious and found artists like Loreena McKennitt1 and Clannad, while not explicitly Pagan, had songs that at least seemed to hint at Pagan ideas.

While spending time with various Pagans in Ontario, I also discovered the music of a Pagan folk singer who went by the name Castalia.2 I instantly fell in love with her music and I’d consider her songs some of my favorite Pagan songs. Not that I know a lot of others, mind you. As I said, music has never been a huge part of my life.

I’d still love to learn some simple tunes or chants for ritual purposes, though.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsBlogChallenge2024. See Yvonne Aburrow’s post announcing the challenge for more details and a list of topics.)

Footnotes

  1. The particularly observant reader might note that I seem to gravitate towards Canadian artists. I see it too, though I have no idea why that is! Maybe it’s because I basically live right on the border? ↩︎
  2. I was also fortunate enough to meet the artist herself at a couple of those Pagan conferences I mentioned and even have a couple brief conversations with her. ↩︎
Paganism, Religion, Spiritual Development, Witchcraft

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Wonder and Awe

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I know that a lot of people find the term problematic due to the connotations many people associate with it, but I love the term “baby witches.” I also love people to whom the term applies. But then, I also love babies.1

To me, I think of babies and I envision of little humans facing the world for the first time with curiosity and a sense of awe and wonder. Everything is new to them and they’re often eager to explore it and try to understand it. This is the similar to the way I feel when I interact with “baby witches.”

As someone who has been exploring the Craft for two and a half decades now, I love watching people come to it for the first time. I love to see the excitement and curiosity in their eyes. I love the awe they experience as they perform their first spell — and their sense of triumph when they reap the rewards of their first successful spell. I love the amount of concern and attention they often give to making sure they “get it right” when planning their first ritual.2 Like their infant counterparts, they are encountering this new world they’ve found with a sense of wonder.

That’s something that I sometimes have to work to recapture as a more experienced witch. It’s too easy to forget just how wondrous doing ritual and encountering the gods can be after a while. So I appreciate the “baby witches” in my life that show me what that’s like and inspire me to take a moment to rekindle that sense of awe and wonder.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsChallenge2024. See Yvonne Aburrow’s post announcing the challenge for more details.)

Footnotes

  1. Until it comes time to change a dirty diaper. I changed my sister’s oldest daughter’s diaper once. After that, i decided that was not part of the job description for being an uncle. ↩︎
  2. I will seemingly contradict myself a tiny bit to offer this advice to less experienced witches: Try not to worry quite so much about “doing something wrong,” though. The Craft is a learning process rather than a high stakes game. You will make little mistakes, but the vast majority of them will be of little to no consequence. ↩︎