Witches Brew

No, Scarlett O’Hara’s plantation is not in danger. The sacred heart of Pagan Ireland is being threatened by a super highway and commercial development. Prehistoric Ireland was divided into four kingdoms arranged around the sacred hill of Tara. Tara was the site of the symbolic fifth kingdom, the domain of the High King. The Stone of Fal, the Coronation Stone of the Irish kings, is there. Like the Siege Perilous in the Arthurian legends, the Stone of Fal would cry out when the rightful king stood or sat upon it. It was a center of learning and law.

Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, holds the contract for construction of the M3 highway through the Skryne Valley at the foot of Tara. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas of the EU, has investigated the construction project and declared it illegal, but the Irish government plans to go ahead with the work. (1)

Pagans were early and enthusiastic adopters of the Internet, and the Internet is being used not only to rally global support for the preservation of this ancient site, but to work global magic for the protection of Tara. Organizers of a Samhain ritual for the protection of Tara have posted the ritual online and invited people around the world to participate. Groups and individuals in ten countries and eighteen states in the US have pledged to come together on October 31st at 8:00 pm Irish Summer Time, 3:00 pm EDT. Signal fires with be lit in eighteen areas in Ireland and in Canada, the US, Wales, New Zealand, and Venezuela.

To read the ritual and learn more about Celtic Reconstructionism, you can go to http://www.paganachd.com/tara/.

(1) Help Save Tara-Skryne Valley!
Proclaimed by: Kit O’Marcaigh
Proclaimed from: Dublin, Ireland
http://www.witchvox.com/vn/vn_detail/dt_gno.html?&id=15233

Merry Meet!

Here it comes! Halloween… Samhain … The Celtic New Year…According to Jean Markale, professor of Celtic Studies at the Sorbonne, the Celts, inhabitants of Europe and the British Isles, divided the year into two parts–the light part of the year and the dark part. The markers for their year were November 1st and May 1st. Samhain and Beltane.

Celts, by the way, reckoned a day from sunset to sunset, so Samhain actually began on October 31st.

Critics of Halloween often claim that Samhain (we pronounce it Sow-en) was named for the Celtic Lord of Death. According to Markale, it simply means “the end of summer” –in other words, the beginning of winter. It was the season of the meat harvest. In Ireland, chieftains came together for three days to discuss political, economic, and religious matters, and to swear loyalty to the High King. Attendance was mandatory. Celtic tradition said that any leader who did not fulfill his obligation would go mad and die overnight! It was a time of feasting and drinking. It was believed that the meat of pigs could confer immortality, and intoxication was a path to spiritual ecstasy. Drunken revelers could transcend reality and travel to other dimensions, .Indeed, at Samhain the barriers between the living and the dead grew thin. The fairy sidhe and the barrows of the gods and heroes opened and our world intersected with the world of myth and legend. Many of the great Irish epics begin with a mysterious encounter at Samhain.

For many Pagans, Samhain is a solemn but joyful occasion to remember and commune with our beloved dead.

Doesn’t sound much like Halloween? Well, the activities that we associate with Halloween–dressing up in costumes, going door to door to demand treats, playing tricks if our demands are not met–ARE end of year rituals. But they belonged to Christmas and to the Roman Saturnalia. The darkest time of the year was the season of Misrule when the hierarchy of society was temporarily inverted. Masters waited upon servants, and the rich were forced by the traditions of the season to share their best meat and drink with their poor neighbors. Gangs of youths went caroling from house to house, demanding food and coins, and playing tricks if they were refused. Many went in costume. Men dressed as women and women dressed as men. Some dressed as animals or spirits. There was a great deal of gambling, drinking, rough music, and sexual license.

If you hear the phrase this year, “the war on Christmas,” remember that the Pilgrims fired the first shots. Christmas was illegal in New England for many years. It was only in the mid-1800’s that Christmas became the family-oriented holiday that we know today. And all the rowdy bits got pushed off onto Halloween.

It seems as if Halloween is now becoming “commercialized” One of my coworkers remarked the other day, that there is no chance of dressing her kid up in old clothes and smearing a little soot on his face: he has no idea was a “hobo” is. But if you think about it, Jack Sparrow, Spider Man, and the Ninja Turtles are the current manifestations of our mythic subconscious, and it is fitting that we should want to meet them in the twilight between the worlds.

Among Jean Markale’s many books, you might enjoy The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year; The Druids; and The Celts. To learn more about the cultural history of Christmas, read The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum.
Happy Halloween. Blessed Be..

I had an ugly confrontation with a CityLink bus driver this week. Frustrated in an attempt to file a complaint against him and faced with a bright, beautiful full moon, I considered slapping a curse on him that would make George and Fred Weasley beam with pride.

I was in the process of gathering up tools when the voice of caution spoke up. Have I thought this through?

Wicca is one of the main flavors of Paganism. The Wiccan Rede states, “Do as you will, if it harms none.” And the Three-Fold Law says whatever force you send out into the Multiverse comes back to you three-fold. I’m not Wiccan. Those are good principles to live by, but I’m not sworn to them. The Three-Fold Law, though, makes me pretty damned careful about casting spells that involve other people. Like, “Is there any way this spell can come back and bite me in the butt?”

The moment I pose that question, my whole perspective changes. What do I really want to accomplish with this work? Seats at the front of the bus are reserved for senior citizens and the disabled. I qualify on both counts. But twice this week, while I was standing in line to board, this driver–let’s call him Darnnear Atoad–tried to waive me off and let younger, skinnier passengers board in front of me. Said if I sat down, I would be blocking the other passengers–though he was the one standing in the aisle taking transfers! We had a shouting match before I finally got off at my destination and I burned for the rest of the day. I have been a bus rider for twenty years and I have never heard a bus driver speak that way to a passenger. I definitely wanted to heap retribution on his head.

But I didn’t want it to splatter back on me. I did not want to create a psychic link between us, showering endless bad cess on him. Unable to articulate a neat, satisfying outcome to my spell, I put the tools back again. I’ll go back to Plan A, filing a grievance against him.

Not to say that I won’t let Darnnear off the hook if I can think of something concrete and to the point. I may add a little magical imperative to the grievance.

And if the coming week, I’ll be looking for a copy of Dorothy Morrison’s new book Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes, and Other Unsavory Notions. Dorothy promises:

Jam-packed with more than a hundred spells, rituals, incantations, hexes and curses, is the quintessential primer for learning all those magical tricks that no one wants to talk about. You’ll learn the proper way to enter a cemetery, how to collect and use graveyard dirt, and from which sites it should be gathered. You’ll explore the little known secrets of the 11″ fashion doll and find out why it’s become such a valuable magical tool. Then it’s off to the kitchen to whip up hot foot powder, four thieves vinegar, goofer dust, and other magical ammunition designed specifically to obliterate your toughest problems. But that’s not all. You’ll also discover how to protect yourself, your family and your home from ever being bothered with this sort of crap again. And if that’s not something to smile about, I don’t know what is!

http://www.utterlywicked.com/

Maybe I can find some inspiration.

I have not yet introduced myself.. I’m Sophie Gail, novice blogger, Pagan, and Witch. “Merry Meet,” as we say. I’ve not been practicing for a while, and I hope in these posts to rekindle a spark of magic in my life. –Or Magick, if you prefer.

So, why, you may ask, all the concrete? How come I didn’t choose a green forest cove for a theme or mysterious ruins by moonlight? Well, I like tree-hugging and moonlight as well as the next Pagan, but consider myself an Urban Witch. Born and bred in Peoria, I take power, when I focus, from her streets and parks, her river bluffs and valleys. I receive inspiration and encouragement on this path from author Christopher Penczak.

The stated purpose of this blog is to offer news and views that you won’t usually find in the Saturday “Faith & Values” in The Journal Star. Penczak’s City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells, and Shamanism (Weiser Books, 2001) is a great place to start. Penczak says, “Nature comes in many forms. It finds a voice in anything created. All things are sacred. Everything–including concrete, glass, steel, and even plastic–come from the same source, Don’t be fooled into thinking things are unnatural. Why is one thing, like honey, made from materials found on Earth natural, while another, like a compact disc, made from different materials on the same planet, not natural? Both are made by other beings, bees and people respectively, from natural resources. The original materials go through a great change You can argue the merits of use, need, consumption, chemical change, and biodegradability, but neither item is more sacred than the other. Both are valued.”

I expect that you will read more about “the merits of use, need, consumption, chemical change, and biodegradability” in these posts. And more Christopher Penczak and urban rituals. For today I’ll say, “Merry Meet and Merry Part, and Merry Meet again!”

Welcome to Witch’s Brew. I am a solitary Witch living here in Peoria. I have had a life-long interest in religion. Every Saturday I turn to the “Faith & Values” page in The Journal Star, but I seldom read anything that speaks to my faith or values. So I would like to use this space to explore issues, stories, reviews, etc that you probably see in the JS.

My formal religious education was Christian Existentialism. I have friends who are liberal, progressive Christians. So if you take a sudden interest in saving my soul, I suggest that you read Matthew 25:31-46. Though I no longer consider myself a Christian, I trust that I am still on the right side of Jesus, and I an glad to break bread with anyone who also rises to his challenge.