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Closed minds:

I find it hard to believe that in this day and age that people still class a witch as an old woman with warts, pointy hat and broomstick ( although I adorn this concept at Halloween) I just think that as a community we should have moved on from this stereotypical view of a particular religion. I can not wait for the day when someone asks me my religion and I can reply Wiccan without getting the strange "are you crazy look"

Full Moon Cat Behaviour:

Nature observation: With the lead up to a full moon my cat (whom I believe to be an old soul) sticks to me like glue and is very vocal. this normally occurs 2 days before the full moon and once the full moon has passed he backs off. Although he is always near me, at these times he is constantly underfoot and on my lap or trying to get as close as possible

Vertumnus in a circle - Lesson 3

Some time ago I came across this article by Maurizio Bettini on the net. http://www.qro.unisi.it/frontend/sites/default/files/Vertumnus.pdf It’s a learned and intense article written about the God Vertumnus a deity that I like and admire as a male figure and work with in the sacred circle. I’m surprised that I like Vertumnus and that he speaks to me although we seem to get along well enough. My craft name arises from a splicing of Vertumnus and the name of a Roman author.

Casting Circles and lessons learned - Lesson 3

I’m new to Wicca. You could anticipate that ‘novelty’ has some positives and some negatives as part of learning and developing. I am more aware of nature. Yes, I have always been aware of nature in that I was in the town but with parents who were country people. They lived on the edge of our home town in a modern house although they always lived like people who accidentally wandered into the 20th Century direct from a Thomas Hardy novel. When I came home from school there was carp being prepared in the sink or rabbit skinning was taking place.

House Martins

Each year the house martins arrive from Africa and each year they build a nest in the roof apex. Today, they arrived again and I'm so happy. Regrettably, the sparrow hawks also like house martins and I fear for their safety. Such is the fragile balance of life!

Casting a circle - Lesson 3

Casting a circle. Last night cast a circle in the man cave (Phoenix's phrase which I like). Very exciting and fulfilling and I used the time to silently spend time with the elements especially water. The circle was in a newly painted man cave although this picture shows the old paint work. The lights are beautiful at night and cast a silver set of shadows which are conducive to an atmosphere of magick. I have previously cast circles and developed a ritual for money. I intend to use this ritual after training.

Different Circle - Lesson 3

Different Circles should really be different shells becasue the shell goes over our heads and under our feet. ptotection is a major theme and I'm fascinated at the idea of a solomonic circle that can contain as well as another circle protecting. A containment circle is taking time to get my head around. WOW! That's an amazing concept......reminds me of a nuclear power plant or similar although run with none lethal energy. However, isn't it said to be bad manners to capture a spirit against its will or without permission if that spirit doesn't have will?

Gerald Gardner - Lesson 3

"Witchcraft" Gerald Brosseau Gardner Folklore, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jun., 1939), pp. 188-190................ ......................"I have also a small staff measuring I2- inches and surmounted by a bone cross 2" inches high. On the side of the staff the name Matthew Hopkins is cut. To this exhibit there is a label, appar- ently old, with the words: " Matthew Hopkins' sceptre or tutti- stick, used by him in his travels in the South of England finding and exposing Witches.

John Dee - Lesson 3

A Conjurer and a Quack? The Lives of John Dee and Simon Forman Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman, Astrologer, Alchemist, and PhysicianJohn Dee's Occultism: Magical Exaltation through Powerful Signs by Lauren Kassell; György E. Szónyi Review by: Mordechai Feingold Huntington Library Quarterly , Vol. 68, No. 3 (September 2005), pp.

Sea Henge - Lesson 3

This is an example of a rare henge or circle from the Bronze Age in North Norfolk. It is welll known locally http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/holmenextsea.htm

Ellis Island - Lesson 3

I went to Ellis island in New York in the winter of 1998. It was December and dazzingly cold. You could have dried fish in the freezing air. i was chilled to the bone although dressed really well with scarf and gloves. I went with my man to Ellis Island because it was there. The boat left from The Battery. I knew that we wouldn't get back until late. The daylight fell quickly and Ellis Island didn't disappoint.

Saint Botolph's - Lesson 3

This is Saint Botolph's Church and I know this building quite well. I sometimes sit here on visits to North Norfolk and meditate. The setting is quiet and tranquil and somewhere I can ponder the world. Medieval Churches are really indoor burial sites and you can explore the nature of this Christian fascination with death on the net. Despite this macabre association of the living with the dead the Church in Trunch is beautiful and peaceful.

The Altar - Lesson 3

This is my first attempt to create an altar and it is a little rough around the edges. I laid items out to claim the space rather than the altar being completed. The Roman coins and the wand are missing in this picture. I keep it in the house because its beautiful and expensive. I hope to amend the altar in due course and add more crystals and items. The selenite tea light holders are from an earlier house and the candle sticks are from my Catholic days.

Nature diary - May 2013

The diary today is much better than previously reported. The sky has been blue all day and without a cloud. We see the year getting better and developing. How often can you say that In England? The sun has been out all day and hot. I notice that the sun is higher in the sky and this is all part of the rotation of the Earth. I notice the sky because I look to the South from the decking to the rear of the house and in the distance I look through the branches of a hazel tree. This tree is coming into leaf and looks great as it sways a little in the breeze.

Triple Goddess

I was shopping in charity shops today and found a small dish at around 8 inches across. Blue pottery with gold designs on it and it screamed out at me. "Triple Goddess" was on the front and the usual symbol was painted on the front. It was a real surprise to find the dish in Norfolk and out in public. This tells me a few things. The first is that Wicca is more widespread than one would imagine and the other is that artifacts are coming onto the second hand market. The man in the second hand shop picked up the items and looked at it before passing it to me.

The Antlered God

I never tire of the image of the antlered God. This little find is from a second hand shop in the bric a brac section. He's beautiful to me and cleaned up a treat.

My Journey

I just finished my first lesson, and am looking forward to moving to my second. It took me a little longer to complete, as I wanted to get the visualization exercise down. I also had much going on at the time, and had to find a quiet time and place to work through the first lessons. I am noticing some changes, such as what I notice in nature and my moods. I am more happy, as I have always been pulled to Wicca. Being raise Christian/Catholic I was afraid to go against my family. It feels different when you are where you belong, instead of following beliefs of those that are not your own.

Hymn to the creator goddess

At Your Feet

All the bells in all the world
Chime
To herald the coming of one
fairer than the sea,
I would be
Greater than Pharoah
at her feet.

Muse, mistress,
She whose priestesses alone can heal,
We heard Your name
First before all other sounds
on the shores.

When all was chaos You gave order,
And there was no other order than that of thy priestesses.
We heard Your name
First before all other sounds
on the shores.

Hymn to Hecate

Hecate, dark mother, dark heart of dogs,
Goddess of the byways and the crossroads;

Hecate whose name means Age, Symbol,
the central disturbance, the mirror inside.

Hecate in the highest and the lowest, the sky and the sea,
Hecate called Heart-of-Days,
In silence, in tumult, she calls us to herself.

We pray to you and darkness
holds our hands,
Hecate the skin of the wolf, our open mouths and hands.

Pantheons

Tonight I have a few hours to myself, so I am making a start on feeling out which pantheons I identify with. Although I was very attached to the Egyptian pantheon a while ago, I don't feel that way now. At the moment I am feeling interested in the Babylonian and Etruscan deities, but I haven't really started looking yet. I also had a hypnogogic moment a few weeks ago when I was almost asleep and saw the name Hecate appear in scrabble letter tiles. I did used to feel oddly attached to Hecate, with her dogs and crossroads and black.

Same place different time

This is a photograph of Saint Alban’s Church on the Isle of Wight. Situated in the Victorian town of Ventnor the Church is modern dating from the 1920’s.

Circumcision- A male issue

Male circumcision: the unkindest cut of all New guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics run counter to medical consensus. No way will my son get the snip! • Matt Williams o guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 August 2012 21.58 BST o Jump to comments (510) “Nor am I prepared to have one of his first experiences in this world be the pain of a surgical operation that will leave him with a wound that will take time to heal, carries risk of infection and could potentially impact on his sexual enjoyment as an adult: circumcision.”

April in Norfolk

In the UK we find that the weather patterns have largely stuck and there was a lot of snow on the ground until recently and although the weather is warming up in East Anglia it will become colder shortly. Water in frozen form has caused mayhem on roads and livestock have died in large numbers up on the hills. Pot holes have opened up in the roads as ice has formed and cracked the road surfaces. Life has been hard for wildlife and for people as the cold air rushes in from Continental Europe reminding us how close we are to Europe..

Sacred items - remembering

Floodgates seem to have opened and I am remembering events throughout my life. Here is one I wish to write about. Several years ago, my mother was sorting through her mother's possessions prior to grandma going into a good nursing home (which grandma is now socially dominating, very happy). My mother, W, came home with an item that she said was meant to be an Aboriginal circumcision knife. It was in a box upstairs and she didn't know what to do with it. She also said that she felt a bit uneasy, as she had sort of waggled the knife and made a joke about its apparent sacredness.

Late Spring in the UK

In the UK we find that the weather patterns have largely stuck and there is a lot of snow on the ground. Water in frozen form has caused mayhem on roads and livestock have died in large numbers up on the hills. Life has been hard for wildlife and for people as the cold air rushes in from Continental Europe. As a consequence wildlife has been delayed in the rush for springtime and new life. The trees are slow to grow leaves and everything is ‘on hold’.

Nature diary in snow-again.

The snow is falling again and its very cold. The garden is covered in the white stuff and birds are gathered around the feeder more than is usual. Blackbirds are on the ground, Robins on the platform and bluetits on the tube feeder hanging upside down. The pigeons and doves are all around getting in the way. The sun breaks through the clouds and promises warmth although never actually delivers at the moment. The greenhouse looks forlorn and has nothing in there and the small patches of Earth that I worked last week inbetween rain are desolate.

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