One of the best interviews I've ever read on Wicca (if not the very best)

How lucky we are to have such intelligent, charming and well informed scholars such as Professor Ronald Hutton.  Not only is his writing style exquisite, his knowledge and amount of research into witchcraft and paganism is phemonemal.

He explains the history behind the word 'witch', our changing attitudes towards the witch and how contemporary pagans respond to an academic approach to the craft and its history.

Thanks to the wonderful Caroline Tully for making this happen.

Read more here - you won't regret it.

Healing is a psychological journey, not a physiological cure-all - a great video about the money maker called Theta healing

So I'm not really typical as a Wiccan when it comes to these sorts of things.  Sometimes I find there are grey areas, and then there are moments like these where I see things as being much more black and white.

My position on any form of healing is that, whilst it can physically make the endorphins run wild, it is best reserved for psychological work rather than physiological.  Even then, when you feel that unwell by the activity of your mind and you can't bear it any longer, see a psychologist: that is what they are for.  New Age healing, which I have experienced myself, is wonderful for the psychology and can be incredibly uplifting and invigorating, and if you receive images or feelings from it, you still have to be proactive about what you have discovered.  I am saddened to see people attempting to use it to physically heal people with their hands or their minds, particularly when they are terminally ill.  It is sad to see that the potential for healing is abused by people who:

• Charge a lot of money for it 
• Are so convinced that their healing works that they may disregard crucial symptoms of a serious illness (not that they're trained to really detect them)
• Have no actual scientific qualifications of any kind yet charge more than a doctor and probably as much as a psychologist.
• Make claims that HIV can be reversed when it's impossible, which is completely revolting and misguiding and again, draws in people to believe that if they spend their money with these people that they will be healed

This kind of thing racks my brain, like healers who claim that their practice will alter your DNA... which as we all know is impossible.  At this particular event that I went to, it was proposed to me that I would be so fortunate as to have my DNA altered - but what for was not clear.  It was thrown out there just to make the event seem incredible when all we were ultimately doing was allowing ourselves a group psychological healing - is that not enough?  Is it not joyous enough to share that moment with others at the end of a working week by letting go together, singing together and just having a nice time?

Meditation, however, can help to prevent a range of things happening to your body by reducing stress and the chemicals your body then produces which can affect your mind, heart and general wellbeing.  It reduces your risk of heart disease by half if you meditate two times a day for twenty minutes and there is certainly no harm in connecting with your truth.  Go here to read my article on how to achieve a sincere balance from your practice, which is really common sense for any lay person (well, except for the more religious parts anyway!).

It is interesting to see how people cross the line within spirituality like this, like those who practice cold reading if you remember the post I put up about that featuring the fantastic episode of Bullshit by Penn and Teller.  Don't you think it is interesting how when that line is crossed, there is a lot of money to be found on the other side?

)O(
E

video via Derren Brown Blog

Recent thoughts & things I believe that Wiccans ought to consider

A lot of people might not like this particular post, but I am constantly questioning Wicca.  Whilst there are parts of Wicca which I love, I think I have become particularly jaded of late from having experienced a variety of circles where it only takes one character to mess with everyone else's heads in what usually turns out to be a petty power game.  I do have close sisters whom I cherish and love, and I wouldn't take any of it back.

Within every religion I've found that there are several kinds of people: the empowered who actually want to create positive change rather than being obsessed with power over others; the cowards who stand behind their religion to excuse their messed up games and bizarre actions and of course the pathetic power-hungry people who are compensating for the hole in their heart, never satisfied with healthy empowerment alone - they are greedy for more, more and more power and love to play with your sense of self worth.  Then often when you have problems with one another you can either choose to talk about them partly in Wiccan/New Age terms or like normal people - and the conversations are rarely 'normal' and as mentioned before, some people love to stand behind their faith & twist their intentions.  It's a difficult game.

You might have previously read my post about why a hierarchy doesn't work & why you ought to avoid it at all costs.   If you do choose to enter a circle, I'd highly recommend that you read up on the Buddhist concept of attachment so that you are able to retain a sense of reality & realistic distance from any situations which arise.  I'd highly recommend that - if you can all manage to be organised enough - that you have a mediation process set up in advance for when things start to fall apart.

Issues I believe that other Wiccans ought to consider:

• Materialism, altruism and true spirituality: Other religions are setting up charities such as The Salvation Army & The Red Cross - are you donating to a cause or (if you have no money) actively making a difference within society?  Being spiritual ought to always inherently involve some altruism outside of its own faith.  Put back to the earth, clean up your streets and get involved in your community.  I get sick of seeing neophytes feeling like they can't practice magick and hence be a spiritual person because they need to buy 'stuff' for their altar - props which are beautiful (and I can't talk, I own so many!) but you can do without.  Do you think that the gods will punish you for not buying the $50 bottle of liquor to put on your altar as an offering?  Isn't your love and dedication enough?  This is something I fail to understand - it's beautiful when someone gives an offering, but it's hard when you judge others because they can't afford it or just don't really see that it's that necessary.  I like to offer incense, fruit & prayers if I can (depending on who it is) but would I get hit by lightning & have the Threefold Law beat me down with an iron hammer if I didn't do that?  I don't think so.  Clearly not everyone would agree with me on that.  It's more important to make a contribution to society than it is to make sure that you can somehow obtain a rare ornament/talisman within two weeks of an upcoming ritual then feel like a failure for not having obtained it.  I have started to meet gods and goddesses during deep meditations, see whether I can work with them (upon asking their name), work with them and then have another ritual especially to thank them.  
• Honesty gains respect:  Reassess your values regularly and be honest about them - so many people hide behind their faith & its dogma.  What do you truly believe and what would you like the world to be like?  They are often two separate things.  What can you do as a Wiccan to obtain the world that you desire?  Remember that light & darkness, negativity & positivity and the rest make up for the natural balance of life - so would you really change all that much?  Just as Thelemites attempt to find their True Will by being completely and unabashedly honest about who they are - who are you outside of your faith?  Would you have more respect for a bluntly spoken Thelemite or the Wiccan who insists that everything is beautiful and amazing 100% of the time?  There needs to be a balance of who you are along with your beliefs or you have lost yourself.

I hope that wasn't too painful for anyone - it was almost like me venting some things which get on my nerves!

)O( Elspeth

Why I'm against 'talking to the dead' psychic readings - cold reading fraud

This is a very contentious subject, especially coming from someone like myself.  I really do feel that it has to be put out there, and some people I know might not like it, but that's life.

There may be some people who can genuinely 'talk to the dead', but if you can tell it's cold reading then you know that they're a fake straight away.  If they don't ask you any questions then they're more believable.  Having said that I love my tarot, I'm free to make whatever I want out of it without someone else pulling at my heartstrings.

Traditionally there are two types of reading: cold reading & hot reading.  Cold reading is where you throw small pieces of information at the participant to 'hook' them in, and they're so enthusiastic to believe that they will start to (unintentionally) give answers from which the psychic can then add more general information to.  They feed each other energy and excitement towards a delusional experience.  Many people come away from the experience days later thinking "But they really weren't that accurate, they had very few hits."  There are usually more misses than hits.  More often than not if they don't have 30 people in a room to choose from they will have one person "I'm sensing someone in your family who's passed away, I see some letters A...N" then the readee jumps in "Allan, my uncle Allan!" then another handful of hooks are put out for the readee to latch onto.

The other type of reading is hot reading.  This is less likely as it relies on the psychic having already had straightforward information from the readee, such as recorded information of the people speaking before they enter another room or, as per an experience of my own, having the reader stand off at a distance before her next reading listening in on our conversations about our beliefs etc... that's when I turned around and saw her standing in the vestibule listening to us talking on the balcony.  I still wanted to believe too - it took me months to admit to my boyfriend that I'd caught her out in the act.

Some of these people might genuinely believe that they are capable and have had people bolster their 'talent' for many years.  One in particular amazed me - a man who met my mother and pointed out some weakness points in her body: a bad knee & shoulder... which could later become sore thanks to the power of suggestion, but I still remain dubious.  He also managed to be able to 'read' everything about her work situation at the time & how she could overcome it.  Sometimes this kind of thing can be helpful, but when it comes to 'talking to the dead' I really draw the line.  Some people are so desperate to be able to have that last chance that they will allow themselves to believe the psychic, then weeks later feel the emptiness of realising the ultimately there was too much cold reading involved for it to have been really that 'amazing.'

It has to be said aswell: why aren't these psychics able to see into the future so that we can help people?  If they're so keen on helping people be at terms with their losses, why aren't they just counsillors?  Why are they only looking back into the past and reading about people who have already gone - or do I not know enough about the nature of these kinds of abilities?

I just feel that I have a responsibility to draw the line with Wicca.  It needs to be more practical & realistic with the most healthy approaches to thinking & practice.  It is so easy for the Wiccan faith to become tied up in the fluffy arena of self help books & spiritual mumbo jumbo which gives it less gravitas.  We are in a faith which since the Pagan Renaissance in the mid 20th century needs to be more grounded.  It's great to be open-minded, to look at the possibilities and allow for the fact that science still has questions to answer as we explore the 'doors of perception' in our minds & work with Nature.

Please, if you have enjoyed what you've read so far, please advocate this cause because it is wasting people's money, time and emotions.  Also, please watch the Penn & Teller episode of 'Bullshit' below which gives you a much more detailed picture than myself & Derren Brown's video also tells you how cold reading works.

Blessed Be,
)O( Elspeth.

Why a hierarchical structure doesn't work in Wicca

Terminology has been changed within this article and no names have been provided to retain respect towards this coven and their members, sisters who I send my love to. 

You would think that in the 21st century that archaic heirarchical structures would go anywhere near a New Age faith.  You would be wrong.  Unfortunately, even in this day and age as there is no set way for a Wiccan coven to set up their circle of kin. You can be left in the hands of someone who doesn't leave the forum open for discussion and slowly introduces a restrictive structure which the circle do not naturally question.  It makes it harder for the leader because if they're not being open with their coven members to ascertain how the boundaries are formed and why.

I recently left a coven for this reason.  It was one of the hardest decisions I'd ever made.  We weren't all equal within a tiered system where some were left feeling left out because they weren't being accepted into the 'central ring' of witches.  This saddened me a great deal.  When you know that others aren't getting the same treatment and aren't made to feel as special as those within the 'central ring' it makes it hard to concentrate and thus the experience is dulled and the rituals aren't powerful for you.  It's stilted the whole way along.

I had read of many solitary witches who practiced on their own but attended pagan events regularly so that they would remain in the community and in a way I wish that I'd done that, but I still loved meeting everyone aswell.  Someone like Wendy Rule doesn't even like the term High Priestess (as she was made an honorary one) as it denotes simply that someone is at a higher ranking than you.  Often these people are simply left in charge as leaders, to form the coven rituals and be the social 'glue', but sometimes their sense of power becomes too much and it's destructive.  They want to become selective about who they want there as the 'central ring' which apparently had the 'priestesses with the strongest bond' which was only founded by the High Priestess. I don't regret having met these people at all, the events that I went to were wonderful, but the underlying strain caused by the politics was unfortunate to say the least.  In a sense, I can understand why the High Priestess wanted to have some control over who came so that you had the most dedicated people, but it didn't always work that way - loyalty did not equal being allowed into the 'central ring.'  The 'central ring' had remained closed for so long that the minute that someone else was let inside, the foundations of the coven started to fall apart - despite how lovely the new member was.  Other witches who wanted to be in the 'central ring' who had been in the coven for just as long started to question why they weren't permitted into the 'central ring.'  The High Priestess wanted the most dedicated women with the closest connection within the 'central ring' and 'regular attendees' to attend ('casuals' were the outer ring and were thus not always invited to events also) - but it ended up having the opposite effect.

Then things became messy: 'central ring' members were doing their own thing and not turning up to as many events with the 'regulars' and occasionally only went to exclusive 'central ring' events.  Eventually this dissapated even more, and gossip ensued from all sides... less so from those who were not in the 'central ring' who did not want to risk being kicked out. 

It just seems that if you want to organise that, you need to have everyone informed and involved every step of the way.  In the Catholic church, for example, paritioners are given the right to attend Parish meetings once a week where they can talk openly about the proceedings of their congregation and air concerns.  Many Wiccans would hate the idea of taking anything from the Catholic church, but this is definitely something that could at least help towards groups such as this.  Without unity you can only have fragmentation.

Without wanting to go into any more detail, you get the picture.  I had hoped that it would be an experience of 'let's learn from each other and grow together' but it wasn't really what ensued.  It may still happen within this coven, and I hope that it does.

It's been a very strange experience but also a great learning experience aswell.  Sadly, I had aired why I was leaving the coven openly with the rest of the coven and it was taken very well by other coven members - but not so by the High Priestess...  That is another story - too soon to tell and this is a very public forum where it will be kept this simple.

In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust
)O( Elspeth.

Great Podcast I

Thelema Now! podcast
Ordo Templis Orientis
http://oto-usa.org/podcast.html
Review so far - This is a great podcast, it's just a shame about the fact that you're essentially listening to a telephone conversation so the quality of what you're listening to is raspy but the topics are fascinating with a history of the American underground occult scene.

Weighing up our values with our intelligence

My point of view from a conversation online with a friend (refer to the beginning of the article below - with a link to the rest of the article):


That's really interesting. I'd like to see the statistics about those who enter cults, because I had read somewhere that the majority of people who join cults independently in young adulthood actually have a high IQ and are evoluntionarily novel to their 'pack.' I'd take this with a grain of salt - I know some damn intelligent religious people and really annoyingly not so smart atheists who all they need to back their argument is that 'religion is stupid' - some of which were brought up with religion, so that's more understandable!

I find that sweeping statement of "Humans are evolutionarily designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are paranoid," in some instances is certainly true, but what about the capacity within our brains to 'feel' the presence of a universal consciousness? I just hate sweeping statements that put people in a box where they're suggesting that fear and paranoia is a part of ALL religions! 

Individuals can be a combination of the things they are suggesting: I 'care' about strangers to an extent as we are all a part of the one organism - so this article suggests that I am smarter in this case via being evolutionarily novel, BUT if I'm religious - which I am - I'm put into another box yet again which suggests that I can't be religious and liberal simultaneously. And I was an atheist during high school with an IQ at the time of 126 and now I'm Wiccan... I know it's all very general science, but it's... kind of weak! 

I simply don't like the suggestion that I cannot have social values from my religion and not be able to see past the values which are 'dictated' to me - certainly not the case with Wicca!  Just because I have these set of values does not mean that I do not have the capacity to question and reason other people's values.  Perhaps I'm reading into this far too much!

An excerpt of the article

From Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2010) — More intelligent people are statistically significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history.  Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a new study finds.

The study, published in the March 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychology Quarterly, advances a new theory to explain why people form particular preferences and values.  The theory suggests that more intelligent people are more likely than less intelligent people to adopt evolutionarily novel preferences and values, but intelligence does not correlate with preferences and values that are old enough to have been shaped by evolution over millions of years."

"Evolutionarily novel" preferences and values are those that humans are not biologically designed to have and our ancestors probably did not possess.  In contrast, those that our ancestors had for millions of years are "evolutionarily familiar."

Click here to read the rest of the article
- Thanks Steph!

Cruelty free consumerism

Most Wiccans are careful about how they contribute to the environment, but remember 'Do as ye will but harm ye none' which extends into more than the way we treat other people.

I found this site many years ago when I was 16 and vegan.  Now I'm vegetarian and wear non-leather shoes from Veganwares and always keep an eye on the products that we keep in our home to make sure that they haven't been tested on animals.  You will become used to checking products to see whether they are owned by particular large organisations that spread their products across consumables like pasta and moisturiser.

 

Veganwares 'Witchy' boot

 

Veganwares Victoria shoe  

 

Veganwares 'Ernest' 2 (Sharpy)

Animal testing was made legal after one woman died in the 1930s after using a mascara which made her blind and eventually killed her from a severe infection.  Since then, animal testing is legal to avoid another case occuring again.  The only way we can affect this is by boycotting particular companies who refuse to change the way they operate.

Some companies find themselves on the list and are contacted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which has contributed to positive change where some companies slowly merge animal testing out of their procedures.

All kinds of bizarre tests are taken out which are ludicrous because they (a) Prove nothing and (b) They do not have an anotomical structure that resembles a human's in any way - so why test when the subjects have such different bodies and hence different responses to products?

From this link you can either search for particular companies that DON'T test or companies that DO test on animals.  Below that you can get a downloadable PDF or Word document for each kind of company if you want to hand it to anyone.  Support those companies that do not test on animals and you will be actively contributing to positive change.

I couldn't upload the video here and choose to keep it separate because it is very disturbing - so you are warned!  This still happens within society today and there is something you can do about it.

Watch the PETA video here and pass it onto friends with a warning of its contents to spread awareness about the campaign.

Blessed Be,
)O( Elspeth

Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair - a warning to not hex nor conjure love spells

 

I'd seen this on Witch Mountain weeks ago and have thought about the phrase 'Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair' for some time now, especially given that I'd come across a quote (I believe also from Witch Mountain) which said something like "Those who cannot hex cannot heal." Of course I can't take the latter seriously, it sounds like a whimsical passing statement but at the same time I don't encourage anyone to hex just as I don't encourage anyone to conjure love spells - they are at both ends of a person's will as love and hate are just as strong as the other. All of the love spells I have performed have turned out incredibly badly, almost into hexing myself. I went down each stage, from taking an image of someone I wanted, to the next time where I drew my ideal man without giving him any of the personality traits which would make him a great love... I ended up briefly with this person who loooked exactly like my drawing, even the badly drawn long torso and long jade pendant - and it was a disaster for my soul... he floated from woman to woman anyway! I warn anyone who practices magick: do not hex or cast a love spell as it's essentially Black Magick, commanding the will of the other to be overtaken by your power which you have no right in doing. I am adamant about this for a reason: to help others and to prevent the negative outcomes that they will have placed themselves in.

'Fair is foul and foul is fair' comes close to the dualities in life which Wicca encapsulates: light vs. dark, negative vs. positive, man and woman which create the balance of life itself. These witches state that fair play is as powerful and justified as foul play and are in themselves an inherent part of witchcraft... and yes I realise they're fictional characters - I don't completely live on the web!

Those who feel the need to hex justify in doing so when the other person has done something so bad that they need to be taught a lesson, but why wouldn't karma take care of that for you? If we believe that whatever we sends out comes back times three, why would we need to control the punishment of others?

I am sincere in my warnings... and will only say it once! And watch the clip too, it is fantastic.

)0( Elspeth