The Spirit is Upon Me

So, it's either really late or really early - depends on how you look at it. It's 12:20 a.m. and rather than going to bed, which would be the sane thing to do on a work night, I am sitting up writing a blog entry. This one is a bit more personal, as I just wanted to record that I am very glad to be experiencing the spiritual inspiration that has come on me in the past month. I've lived long enough to see the waves of inspiration and I love it when they come in. The Great Power is the the highest part of ourselves. it is our God self and the self that is connected to all that exists in the world.

When you tap into this universal energy, it provides a wellspring of energy and sometimes it is difficult to go to sleep. I just wrote a poem for WitchVox called "Grateful" and that is what I am. I am grateful to the Goddess and God for all that they have given me in this life. Grateful for the lessons learned - grateful for the people and places that I have encountered along the way. Grateful for each day and each night and all the experiences in between. Blessed be, and goodnight. - Az

The Gods Need Us and We Need Them

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? An age old philosophical question that pretty much sums up the subject of today's entry. The Gods need worshippers in order to thrive and be powerful. Why would this be? Yaweh doesn't need this to exist - Jehovah doesn't need worshippers to thrive and be powerful you might argue - but it would be a short-sighted argument indeed. Think to two-thousand years into the future. What if by that time Christianity has been diminished to a few faithful? The tenets of the religion just a dusty tatters of the tapestry of beliefs that existed only a few millenia ago, and another religion, with a totally different deity and/or savior now standing in its place. A very different picture, huh? Who would remember who Jesus was? Who would buy into the whole death and rebirth and assumption into heaven thing? When you think about it that wayBasically the gods need us to remember what they are all about. Bear in mind at all times that "all gods are one" in Witchcraft and that we are talking about aspects of that one god or power here. When you worship a deity, whichever deity(ies) you see fit to worship, you give power to that deity. Power by recognition, power by calling the name. Power by thinking of them over and over. By doing these things, you give power to and revive their particular aspect of the great power. In return, they are better able to grant you your prayers and petitions. Sound crazy? Well, it might, but it isn't. It's nothing more than the natural law of like drawing like to itself. On the astral plane, we create our own reality - we create our own afterlife, our own rewards, our own punishments. And, in a way, by worshipping them, we create our gods. Think about it. 'Til next time. - Az

There is No Part of Me that is Not Part of the Gods

In my last post I discussed how paganism, and specifically Witchcraft, works with a pantheon of gods and goddesses. The title to this post is "there is no part of me that is not part of the gods." This is an affirmation used by many pagan groups, including most branches of British Traditional Witchcraft. It simply states the premise that everything that is within us, as human beings, is of the gods. There is light and dark within each of us, and, therefore, there is light and dark within the gods. In Witchcraft deity is not all good with the all bad half somewhere and someone else with whom the deity is constantly at war. In other words, we do not follow the god/devil model of Christianity. In Witchcraft, deity, like ourselves, has light and dark within them. And, as I've said in the previous post, all gods are really aspects of the one great power. So we are talking about parts of a whole here. There cannot be light without darkness. There cannot be good without bad. There cannot be joy without suffering. Life is a complicated whole and a beautiful dance of opposites. From a witches eyes, it would be foolish to think deity, which is part of the natrual order of things, followed different rules from everything and everyone else. - Az

Witchcraft is a Religion

Many (or even, dare I say, most) people who look into witchcraft do so because they believe it is all about spells and hexes and such - they don't think about or realize that it is first and foremost a religion. Taken as a whole, it is, in fact, a way of life.

The religion of Wicca (and I will use the terms Witchcraft and Wicca interchangeably until I later elaborate on the subtle differences between the terms) there are pantheons of Gods and Goddesses to venerate and worship. We do not believe that they fly around like so many fairies, floating in the air above us. Rather that they are potent concentrations of the great unifying force that is the One great life force of creation - and that they express and manifest themselves in certain ways and have certain roles in our lives and on the invisible plane. Different witches have different Gods and Goddesses that they work with and venerate. Covens (groups of 3 or more like-minded witches working together) have deities that the group works with when they are together which increases the potency of their workings. "Workings" mainly include the sort of thing you would hear about in any church on any Sunday - someone needs healing, someone needs money for a new car to get back and forth to work, someone needs to find a job so they can make their house payment. That sort of thing. Nothing dark or sinister, and certainly nothing to fear. - Az

In the Beginning

Hello - welcome to my blog. This is my first posting and I am creating this blog as result of reading an article written by a novice blogger in a legal publication. He seemed so enrapt with the idea of being able to express and share his ideas and expertise, it was infectuous. So here I am.

This blog is going to be about witchcraft, Wicca, and the rise of paganism in its' many forms in the United States. You are welcome to comment on anything you read here, and I will, of course, read what you have written. Be warned, however, that no hate-mongering will be tolerated here. If you post something that bashes or otherwise displays intolerance of my, or anyone else's religion, it will be deleted. Otherwise, freedom of speech is alive and well on my blog - so long as the webmasters will allow it, so will I.

Today's offering will be brief:

What is Witchcraft?
Witchcraft is the practice of a pagan way of life and religion comprised of many and various elements. There are as many different types of witches and witchcraft as there are Christians with their various beliefs. Think of it for a moment - there are Catholics (certainly Christian), Mormons (yep - Christian), Baptists (again, Christian) and literally dozens more under the broad umbrella of Christianity. Each of these religions share some very fundamental concepts and core beliefs, but are wildly different in practice. And so it is with Witchcraft.

Stay tuned for more. I will be back to post more in the next couple of days.

Until then, Bright Blessings,
Asradel