Moon in Wicca, Brigid, Spiral Dance Book Review
February 02, 2008
The Moon In Wicca Religion, & Brigid: Seeds of Intention
February 2008Editor's Note
Merry Meet! Welcome to the Silver Chalice E-zine for the 1st Crossquarter of 2008.It's been quite a ride since the last issue. January was a test for lots of us, as the Energy Field Barometer column discusses. Phew! Thank goodness we're through to the other side!
Now the Wheel of the Year begins to turn toward the busy spring season. Coming out of the quiet winter rest (supposedly, at least), we turn our attentions to our goals for the year.
As I contemplate my own intentions, I find that the January re-evaluation is not quite finished. Many paths open before me . . . which one(s) shall I take?
I tend to lose track of where I'm going, as life piles on this task, that deadline, and the myriad other minor emergencies to be dealt with.
So I appreciate this time to refocus. What is my deeper intention? Where do my values and ideals lead me, for now?
Without this kind of pause for awareness, it's all too easy to forget that my goals of life - no matter how important - are really just the background for Life.
Choosing my goals, and my values within the goals, is one of the blessings of this Sabbat.
I wish you a Bright Bridgid!
With Blessings,
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Table of Contents
| What's New on the Site | -- Dream Work, Drawing Down The Moon, & Resources |
| Events & Announcements | -- Tools for Creating Your Own Mandalas |
| Feature Article | -- The Moon In Wicca |
| Book Review | -- Starhawk's The Spiral Dance |
| Sabbats & Esbats & Other Wicca Rituals | -- Brigid: Planting the Seeds of Intention |
| Fave Quotes | -- Hypatia of Alexandria on Freedom of Thought |
| Energy Field Barometer | -- Intense January & The Hybernation Effect |
| Ask The Priestess | -- Inheriting Wicca |
| Next Issue | -- Blessed Beltane |
| Word on the Street |
What's New On The Site
There have been some exciting additions to the Wicca-Spirituality.com website.The long-awaited Dream Work section is now up and running. There are four articles to guide you through the process of remembering, recording, and interpreting the messages your dreams are trying to tell you.
I'm thrilled to have this section finally in place, because dream work is done by so many Witches, and many people want more information on how to understand their dreams.
And rightly so! Dreams are the envelopes in which valuable information is delivered to you nightly, direct from your Higher/Deep Self, your guides, and/or the Divine.
As we become more aware, individually and culturally, dream work is growing in popularity. These articles will help you get the most out of these important messages from the Divine. I recommend reading them in order, since each article builds on the previous one.
Dream Work starts you off with a peek into the value and process of exploring your dreams, and even asking for the specific kind of dreams you want.
Dream Work Method teaches you the complete method of recording your dreams, and tips on how to get the most out of the dream.
Dream Analysis begins the interpretation of the dream, by showing you how to analyze the various types of symbols within your dream.
Dream Analysis part 2: Dream Interpretation guides you through the final pieces of the process: interpreting the dream and what to do with more than one possible interpretation. It also advises you on how to follow up with dream work . . . what to do once you've interpreted your dream.
We've also added the long-overdue Wicca Resources List to the site. Finally, all the books and resources mentioned on Wicca-Spirituality.com are gathered in one place for easy reference, complete with links for those you might want in your own library.
This is only the start, of course. Now that a resource list exists, there so much more great stuff that you'll want to know about. So keep this page handy . . . I'll be adding to it. Probably forever. 
Our other new article is an important Wiccan Spiritual Practice: Drawing Down The Moon. This article explains the background and the value of drawing down the Moon. Instructions are also given for how to draw down the Moon.
That's it for new articles I think. But we do have two that have been completely revised, top to toe. These are The Complete Wiccan Rede and Wicca Symbols. Take a fresh look at a favourite old page!
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Events & Announcements
Coming Soon -- Tools for Creating Your Own Mandalas
We're finishing up the final touches on several unique aids for mandala lovers.
The Personal Mandala Starter Kit contains templates, guides, and motifs . . . everything you need to get started making your own mandalas (except the pencils).
- Over a dozen styles of template: plain circles, squares, pentagrams, octagons, and more.
- Guidelines to help you draw mandalas with 3 to 18 quadrants, without needing compasses or protractors.
- Circle stencils that allow you to draw great circles of various sizes.
- Mandala motifs to help get you started with the age-old question: What should you draw?
We also have a collection of Spiritual Mandala Templates. With these, you can draw mandalas in the form of many ancient spiritual symbols, like YinYang symbols, OMs, Crosses, Pentagrams, Star of Davids, and much more.
Plus a Mandala Coloring Book, with mandalas drawn for you to color in however you choose.
And putting the whole thing together, an online course on How To Create A Mandala. This comprehensive course includes:
- A step-by-step guide to drawing mandalas for the non-artist.
- Design tips and techniques for making beautiful pictures.
- Liberating your imagination.
- Secrets of the creative process that can make or break your drawings.
- Meditating with mandalas.
- Using your mandala for personal and spiritual growth.
- Reading your mandala as a message from the Divine Within.
Stay tuned for updates!
(If you have books, online courses, or workshops you'd like to see happen, please let me know. If I create one based on your suggestion, you will receive a discount on the product!)
Feature Article
The Moon In Wicca
The Moon in Wicca religion is highly revered. She is a primary Pagan Goddess.
Through her various phases and faces, the Moon guides us through the Mysteries of life.
The Moon is aligned with the element Water.
And She is Queen of the Night, sailing through the heavens with Her starry host.
But what makes the Moon become a Wiccan icon? . . .
Read More on The Moon in Wicca.
Book Review
The Spiral Dance
Wicca is a religion of poetry, more than theology.
This perspective shines through Starhawk's classic Wiccan text, The Spiral Dance.
The Spiral Dance is probably the best introduction to Wicca spiritual practice you can get on paper.
It's a book for the conscious, adult Wiccan. There is a . . . .
Read the whole Book Review: The Spiral Dance.
Sabbats & Esbats & Other Wicca Rituals
Bridgid:
Planting the Seeds of Intention
After Yule, when we all celebrate with a huge psychological sigh of relief that, yes, life will go on, the sun will return. . . . We come to Candlemas, Bridgid's day.
As the Wheel of the Year turns toward a time of action, we set our intentions for this year's journey.
To what will you dedicate your actions? To what do you dedicate the coming year of your life?
Before you get drawn irrevocably into the whirlwind of activity waiting around the season's corner, you have an opportunity to contemplate the bigger picture.
Read more on Bridgid: Planting the Seeds of Intention.
Ask The Priestess
Inheriting Wicca
Dear Priestess,I took a quiz on your site and well, I guess I was already "born" a witch. As of this moment I'm studying Wicca and I love it. But also, I found out that one of my aunts from my dad's side of the family used to practice Wicca when she was my age.
Do you think it could've been possible that I might have inherited my spiritual interest from ancestors from my dad's side?
J. in USA
Dear J,
That's an interesting question! I do think that we often incarnate into families with experiences, skills, or powers that we need for our life's mission.
Have you heard about Rupert Sheldrake's Morphogenetic Field theory? He proposes that everything has an energy field that belongs to the group. So there'd be a field for plants, and a smaller field for trees, and more specific ones for pines, cedars, poplars, etc. Similarly, there is one for all humans, and one for every society, and one for every family, etc.
Something along these lines seems to be true. Our cells seem to remember things from family history, and carry forward those problems and gifts for us to work with.
So if your ancestors were spiritually oriented or had magickal skills, it could be that you incarnated in that line in order to have greater access to that.
In my own family, there is a history of psychic skills and other paranormal events. Did I inherit it from them? I don't know.
If nothing else, I think having other people with these abilities around us, helps us grow up comfortable with these unusual talents. And peaks our interest in the spiritual realm.
I think everyone has these abilities, maybe a little more or a little less. But if someone in our family already does this stuff, it makes it more "normal" and okay when they realize we can do it too.
Of course, this is all conjecture. No one really knows for sure. So what is more important than what I think about it, is what you think about it. What do you think?
Thanks for asking. Bright Blessings to you!
Do you have a question you'd like an answer to? Email the Priestess and your question could be answered in a future issue.(Note: questions may be edited for brevity or clarity. No real names will be disclosed. For reasons of legality, all questions become the property of Wicca-Spirituality.com.)
Fave Quotes
Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all. - Hypatia of Alexandria
Energy Field Barometer
Wow, what a start to the new year! There was a most intense energy field going on in January. Intense emotional times, for many of us.Did you feel it? There was lots of sorrow, almost grief going around. Despair and depression were lurking, ready to jump out with little provocation.
These feelings could be linked to things going on in your life, but if you were paying attention, you might have noticed that it was really involving your inner work. Old habits were dying hard, but they were dying.
It was, as one woman put it, a Cosmic Realignment . . . taking things apart inside us and putting them back together again. She also noted that it was immense fodder for growth.
She's a pretty enlightened being! The rest of us mostly noticed how much we were hurting this month.
Still, there was certainly an element of re-examining our thoughts, and noticing how much we look at things in the most painful way, rather than the most inspirational way.
And that seems to be the point of this realignment. Becoming aware of our thoughts, and taking command of them.
How do we know when our thoughts need realignment? Easy! As Abraham tells us, in Ask & It Is Given, our emotions tell us. When we feel good, our thoughts are aligned with Divine energy. When we don't, they're not.
~~~~~~~~~~
Another field that happened late December or early January was the Hibernation Effect. It comes at the dark of every year, and affects people differently.
If it caught you, you probably had a few days (even a week or two) of extreme lethargy.
This can be very disconcerting. If you give yourself permission to slow down, relax and recharge, it's actually a great gift. It's a refueling time, in preparation for the spring growth of activity.
The best thing you can do for yourself during this hibernation period is to give yourself over to energy building activities, like sleep, rest, exercise, meditation, etc.
It will pass on its own. And if you give yourself what your body so clearly needs at this time, you will come out of this time rejuvenated.
Next Issue
Blessed Beltane . . . . See you then!
Word on the Street
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