Silver Chalice Wiccan 'Zine #53

Samhain: Summer's End
and
How to Keep Returning to the New Paradigm

October / November 2016

Editor's Note

Merry Meet! Welcome to the Silver Chalice Wicca 'Zine in this most Wiccan of seasons!

I'd like to beg your indulgence for a moment before we begin this issue, to take this opportunity to explain why I do what I do in this 'Zine. Because there've been some questions...

A couple people have complained that the Silver Chalice has too much "advertising" in it. I can understand that — nobody enjoys ads. Even if they're brief and easily scrolled past.

There are two reasons I put things that might be considered advertising in the 'Zine.

First, I must confess, when I first came up with the idea for having a Wicca Spirituality website, and even moreso for the School, "Wicca" was not the most important part of the equation.

Don't get me wrong — I adore Wicca! I think it's the best thing to happen to this planet in millennia!

But to me, always, the most important part is the "Spirit."

I really wanted to be able to help people experience the Divine personally, in their own lives and in their own way. I live to increase humanity's spiritual connection with the Divine Within and Without. That's my passion.

When I set out to create a course to do that, though, I was a little worried.

After all, that's a tall order! Could I really achieve that? Could I really lay out the steps that allow others to have deep spiritual experiences through an online course?

Now that it's been running for over a year and a half, I hear back from students all the time that it's really working. Some of the stories they tell me about their experiences through the course make my heart sing; some of them make me weep with joy and wonder and gratitude.

When I hear that they're having all these literally AWE-some experiences, I feel so thrilled, I have to share it with someone... and who better than Silver Chalice fans?

Second, I'm pretty sure that if you read this 'Zine, it's because you, too, are wishing for deeper connection with the Goddess and/or Gods. You're here for spiritual development, right?

And I want to help you achieve that! That's the whole point!

So I share the feedback from students — that way, if you also want these results, you can know that it could do the same for you.

And in the same way, from time to time, I let you know about tools, techniques, and events that I know are particularly powerful and effective.

See, I don't think of it as advertising. In no way do I wish to talk you into something you don't want! I'm trying to serve Spirit by helping you find something that works, to give you what you want.

A living, loving, personal connection with the Divine is what I think everyone really wants.

We may not realise it. We may bury that soul desire under substitutes like seeking love or money or beauty or fame or whatever.

But at the core of all other desires
is the desire to feel absolute enduring LOVE,
cherishment, bliss, empowerment,
fulfillment, security, & peace.

In other words... everything that Spirituality provides — and nothing else can.

As I see it, I'm not doing you a good service if I don't offer you those things that I know can help.

That being said, you may not be interested in them, and just want all the great (and, I might add, completely free) Wiccan info and such. In which case, please feel free to skip right over them. I won't be offended.

I want you to get the most out of this 'Zine, whatever that looks like for you.

That being said, let's get on with the exciting part: the articles and columns you love. Enjoy! And Happy Samhain!

With Bright Blessings,

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Table of Contents

Wicca Students Speak Out	Dedication Magick!
What's New on the Site	Energy Protection for Sensitives and AYAAD FAQs
Website Highlights	Pages for Highly Sensitive People
Sabbats & Esbats & Other Wiccan Rituals	Samhain: Summer's End
Ask The Priestess	Alien, InterPlanetary Flight, & Ghosts — Was That Real?
Fave Quotes	Wandering Wisdom
Word on the Street	Thanks from a Christian
Energy Field Barometer	How to Keep Returning to the New Paradigm
Silver Chalice Details

Wicca Students Speak Out

Want to hear what our students
are saying about
A Year And A Day:
53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan?

*   *   *   *   *  

"My Dedication yesterday was the most beautiful, gloriously awesome experience! Thank you so, so very much for giving me this opportunity!

I have been trying for years to connect with the Goddess, with limited success. I have known for a long time my path is with Her.

Yesterday was a profound experience! Without you, I would not have achieved this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

~ Lisa K, USA

*   *   *   *   *  

"I just finished my dedication ritual! When I asked the god & goddess to join me I knew immediately when they arrived!

The air in my circle became very light. My candle flame began dancing wildly as though in a strong breeze although there was no air movement.

I then had a feeling that made me tear up a bit. Not a bad tearing up but with happiness, love and gratitude.

After I took down my circle I felt greatly uplifted."

~ Matt D., USA

*   *   *   *   *  

" I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this course! I have just completed my dedication, and it was such a special and moving experience, I felt shivers up and down my arms and was very close to tears!

I have thoroughly enjoyed the introductory lessons and am so looking forward to and excited about the rest of the course. I feel that I have come home, and been given a long, cool drink of water after many years in a spiritual dessert.

So, once again, thank you so much for everything you have put into this course, and for sharing it with me, I am so glad I found you!"

~ Jude M., UK

*   *   *   *   *  

"I did my dedication ritual yesterday and I did not expect to feel it so strongly.

When I felt the presence of the Divine it was such a feeling of coming home that I burst into tears.

I think the course is a very good arrangement and I am very inspired by the lessons!"

~ Susanna S., Sweden

*   *   *   *   *  

"Just wanted to tell you how deeply this affects me. I have clearly always had this within me but I buried it deep inside for 15 years. Now, I am finding my way home!

I feel blessed, and that this is a life-changing experience for me.

I am impressed by the depth of this course so far. It seems very broad and authentic, and I really like that you somewhat "lay out the rules" but also explain that we have to find our own way. And to take that step, we need to know what questions to ask!

My dedication was amazing. I have felt the Goddess near me, in me, all of the time since then. My rite took place in my garden in a ring of trees, 30 meters high and 200 years old, a truly magical place.

I like your way with words and how humor can be mixed up with this subject; it should be a celebration of life to engage in this — so, of course we are happy!!!"

~ Frida H., Sweden

* See What More Students Have to Say... *

What's New On The Site

Energy Protection for
 Highly Sensitive People

AYAAD FAQs —
 A Year & A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan

Here you’ll find the answer to anything you're likely to be wondering... like...

• What Wiccan Tradition Does This Wicca School Teach?
• Will the Wicca Course Work for the Southern Hemisphere?
• When Is the Best Time to Start, & How Do I Enrol?
• Can I Pay Without Paypal or Credit Card?
• How Long Should the Lessons Take?
• Where Does the Class Material Come From?
• How Does This Compare to Other Wiccan Training?
• Will I Receive Certification for this Course?
• What Can I Expect After Enrolling?

Website Highlights

Spotlighting some of the Wicca Spirituality articles you may not have seen yet!

Are You A Highly Sensitive Person / Energy Healer?

Energy Protection for
 Highly Sensitive People

Highly sensitive people and Energy Healers are particularly susceptible to illness of body, mind, and emotions.

It's because you are bombarded daily with energies that affect you.

And because you don't know how to keep yourself from energetic harm.

So you must take action to protect yourself!

These are not skills that our culture teaches, because our society is ignorant of energies and the needs of highly sensitive people.

The Modern Shaman — Healer and Channel

The modern shaman. Healer of the Earth and the human community.

Sabbats & Esbats & Other Wiccan Rituals

Samhain: The Great Sabbat

Excerpt from A Year And A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan
(Please Note: This material is protected by legal copyright)

Samhain: Summer's End

As the old year dies again
The new begins at dark Samhain

— Rede of the Wiccae (adapted version)

Samhain: Summer's End!¹

This is the season of the Sacred Dark
— the Star Goddess —
in the purest form we can know Her.

The Great Sabbat

⁶   As the popular Wiccan chant goes.

⁷   At least, philosophically. It can be another thing altogether to accept and embrace it in a personal context.

Although, as Wiccans, we are duty-bound to try to honour this part of the Cycle of Life as it occurs within our community... and our own selves.

Ask The Priestess:

Alien, InterPlanetary Flight, & Ghosts — Was That Real?

Dear Priestess,

I have virtually no knowledge of the occult arts or magic in general, but I've had a couple very profound experiences that I did not request nor can readily explain.

Alien In My Body

The first experience I had was probably the least notable, but may have been a primer for the second and third. I was simply taking a shower and reflecting on the events of the day and was overcome with the strangest feeling.

I felt as if my body was completely alien, and was marveling at the strange shape of my hands as if I was using them for the first time.

As I was thinking about it, my own thoughts (in English) seemed very alien and I was strangely amused with the English language (the only language I have ever known).

It seemed as if I had just realized that this human form is not my own, that I am only inhabiting this alien body temporarily.

I tried to explore this realization further, but this new knowledge was fleeting and as hard as I tried to hold on it faded away like a dream.

I then dismissed it as some fluke in my brain like Deja vu (which I also seem to experience regularly). But it really came back to the forefront of my mind a few weeks later after my second "experience".

Flight to Another Planet

The second experience I had was much, much longer and more profound than the first.

It was a typical evening at home and I was sitting at the kitchen table waiting on my wife to get home from work. She arrived and was complaining that she had a splinter in her foot. I told her to let me take a look at it.

As she bared her foot to me, I found it very hard to focus on her foot and was unable to locate the splinter as my vision started to fade away.

This is where the story gets really strange.

I cannot tell you what happened exactly, all I know is I was l looking at her foot then I was traveling through outer space at an astonishing speed. I wasn't aware of having a physical body, but I could see perfectly. I was traveling very fast and the only thing I could tell about my destination was that I was traveling to the center... the center of the universe for all I know.

I arrived there and seemed to come into orbit around this giant planet.

Its surface was the strangest thing I've ever seen, and my language is too limited to try and explain it. The best I can do is liken it to TV static. Even though it looked like a random pattern on the surface, I could somehow understand it and it communicated with me using this static.

It began reviewing my life back to me. At this point I came to the conclusion that I must have died.

And I started to become annoyed with the object as this replay was taking a very long time (what seemed like weeks) and I wanted it to hurry up and get to the part where I died, as I had no memory of actually dying.

As this went on for what seemed like eternity, I began to hear my wife's voice. This is when I realized that I was NOT hearing this sphere thing, as this was a completely different sensation. I heard her describing me to someone else, in the background to all this other stuff that was going on around me.

This overwhelming feeling of love for her washed over me like a wave, and then immediate sorrow as I could hear the fear in her voice and realized I was leaving her alone in the world.

At this point I involuntarily left the weird planet and returned to my body. And let me add that the return trip was very, very fast. Almost instantaneous, as the trip to the planet seemed to take hours.

I then opened my eyes to a strange environment; it seems I had forgotten my home as I had been gone a very long time.

Then all the memories of my house and life came flooding back into my mind and I sat strait up as I was apparently lying on the kitchen floor. My wife was on the phone with 911.

I asked what happened, and she said I just slumped over and fell on the floor. I asked how long I had been out and she said 5 minutes.

5 minutes?! How? I had days worth of memories...

The ambulance arrived, checked me out, and found no problems with me. To this day it gives me goosebumps to tell the story.

Ghost in the Mirror

The third experience was probably a year later. My mom had recently died suddenly of brain cancer, and I was in mourning. I was really upset and wishing I could speak to her again.

The most personal item of hers I had was a small 12" antique mirror that hung on her bedroom wall that she used to get ready for work every day.

I took the mirror out and looked into it, and what I saw in that mirror will be with me until the end of time. My own reflection slowly and almost unnoticeably changed into hers. I saw her smile at me which caused me to begin to cry, then she began to cry, then smiled again.

Frightened, I took the mirror, placed it in my closet, and haven't looked at it since. I was going to give it to my little brother, but I now can neither look into it nor part with it.

Today is the 2 year anniversary of her death, and I prayed to I-don't-know-what last night for advice. Let me add that prayer is extremely rare for me as I cannot seem to make myself believe in any mainstream religion.

And today I have not been able to shake this sudden interest in the occult.

Also, one of the last things my mom said to me has been in my mind all day, she said "A_______, I hope that you find spirituality in your life and may it bring you peace."

Was That Real...?

These things may just be my brain malfunctioning, or a manifestation of my own desires.

I have no idea, but I would really like your perspective on this, and I would like to ask if you have ever heard of something like this before.

Thanks in advance,

A., Ireland

I've had similar experiences, A., as have lots of other people.

Ascertaining Whether It's Real

The current belief system in Western society disavows anything that it doesn’t know how to physically measure, labelling it as "unreal" and "untrue." This is ironic, considering the foundation of almost all scientific progress these days is based on subatomic particles/waves that are neither physical nor measurable.

What Mirrors See

Occult Calling

As for your sudden interest in the occult... how could you not be interested?? You've had not one but three potent personal events that prove there's more to life than what ordinary science and society can explain.

*   *   *  

Do you have a question you'd like answered? 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

Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.

~ Sufi saying

A saint is a sinner who never gave up.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

If it can be solved, there's no need to worry. And if it can't be solved, worry is of no use.

~ 14th Dalai Lama

Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.

~ Linus Pauling, Nobel Laureate

There is nothing beyond one grand field of consciousness, which holds: body is mind — matter is intelligence — physiology is consciousness.

~ Tony Nader

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

~ Abraham Lincoln

Word on the Street

What People Are Saying About Wicca-Spirituality.com:

I have always been Christian, but after finding the power and closeness to the Divine when doing spells, I've had to research it for myself.

I wanted to thank you for, as a Wiccan, and on a Wiccan site, posting such useful & tolerant articles based on Christianity. Thank you for not being hateful, but being open and peaceful.

I have learned a lot and quite enjoy your articles. I hope to reach a place of peace & knowledge about the truth of God & Jesus, and perhaps find peace about practicing magic as a 'Christian'. God bless you.

~ K. in South Africa

Thanks for writing!! I appreciate hearing from you! : )

Energy-Field Barometer

This article owes much to ongoing explorations of the journey to the New Paradigm with Colombe. Thanks, Colombe!

How to Keep Returning to the New Paradigm

An ongoing issue these days, as mentioned in earlier editions of the Silver Chalice, is a sense of flip-flopping between the Old Paradigm and the New Paradigm.

Finding the New Resonance

When everything is inconstant flux, and life feels so different from what we've learnt to expect, it can be challenging to feel into the Resonance.

• You can sense that deep down everything is really okay
• You feel like things are falling into place effortlessly
• You feel like you're being guided in a particular direction
• You feel 100% certain about a choice you have to make
• Coincidences keep showing up, just when you need a sign or a boost, and you know what they mean
• (Your experiences with being in the Flow here)

When The Path Is In Flux...

How to Switch Back to New Paradigm Mode

When your emotions are
unpleasant, chaotic, cynical, or depressed,
you're in Old Paradigm Consciousness

When your emotions are
pleasant, peaceful, and optimistic,
you're in New Paradigm Consciousness

	Feel what you feel. Feel what's going on in your body. If you're having emotions, feel where they are in your body and what they're like. Then love them. Love the emotions, which are only your body trying to communicate with you. Love your body. Love yourself for being willing to be there with yourself!
	Ground & Centre. (If you're in A Year And A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan, this is in Lesson #3.) When you connect with the Light above and the Love in the Earth, you expand your Energy Field bigger than whatever problem you're facing... as well as Calling in Divine aid. And Centering, as the name states, brings you back to your Centre. There, where the Goddess lives, everything can be seen in its true state of goodness.
	Look around you. 99 times out of 100, nothing bad is actually happening at this moment. The only trouble exists in your mind. Look around and notice that in fact everything is okay in this moment. Maybe even better than okay!
	Pendulate. When experiencing negative/unpleasant emotions, try going back and forth between the emotion and where you are right now. For example, focus on the anxiety in your stomach (or wherever), then look at something pleasant outside you: a plant, the sky, a picture of a kitten — whatever makes you feel calm and happy. Let yourself take that feeling in; stay with it til you feel a more pleasant emotion. Then go back to noticing the anxiety. Then steep in whatever's pleasant in your surroundings. Anxiety. Pleasantness. Anxiety. Pleasantness. As you do this, you’ll find that each time you return to the anxiety, it'll be a little less. It fades away, bit by bit.
	Shift your perspective. If you allow your thoughts to dwell on the negative, your emotions are going to follow them into that pit of Hell. Look on the bright side. Even when there's no bright side to be seen. In the very worst of situations, you can at least remind yourself that you're in training for something important to your future. For especially stubborn thoughts/emotions, I've found Abraham-Hicks' Focus Wheel exercise to be really effective. (Hard to believe, but I haven't written about this online yet. It's explained perfectly in their book — see my review of it here — along with a number of other really effective tools.)
	Shift location and action. Go somewhere that makes you feel good. Do something that truly makes you happy (i.e., not something that you’ll regret later). We often feel like we have to stay where we are, even when we feel terrible there. We don't! Sometimes just exchanging our environment — especially for a lovely, quiet, natural setting — is enough to bring us back to ourselves.
	Put attention on things at higher vibration. Sometimes it's enough to just shift your attention for an hour or two. Some of my favourite standbys are... Watching Wayne Dyer, Byron Katie, Deepak Chopra, or similar on DVD (or audio) Listening to spiritual chants that I can sing along too (Current favourites: anything by Deva Premal.) Reading inspirational books (some of my faves: Gregg Braden, Eckhart Tolle, Rupert Sheldrake) Quick and effective online meditations like Diamond Alignment, and Tom Kenyon (many of which are free through links in his articles, like this Inner Sun Meditation). Following along a healing recording like EFT Tapping or Christie Marie Sheldon's tapes are particularly effective (Love or Above and Unlimited Abundance are both great at lifting you up from negative energies/emotions).
	Breathe! Breathe into your heart. Put your hands gently over your heart. Imagine your breath coming into and going out from your Heart Centre, allowing this to create more space around your heart. It increases the power of this practice to imagine a flame there, fed by your breath, warming and softening the whole Heart Centre. If you're experiencing extreme emotions, it helps to start with what I call a Reset Breath first: Breathe deep into your belly, long slow breaths with a pause between inhalation and exhalation. This resets your vagus nerve — the communication channel between your intuition/deep knowing and your conscious mind, relaxing your parasympathetic nervous system.

Although we may continue to slip back,
we can never fall quite as far back as the time before.

*   *   *  

Notice or suspect an energy field going around? Can you confirm this reading, or shed more light on it?

I'd love to hear what's happening for you! Please let me know.

What to do about being caught in an unpleasant energy field? Click here for tips.

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© erin Dragonsong 2016. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprinting any of this is forbidden unless you obtain my written permission: karma and the law agree on this one. And Copyscape is keeping an eye on these things.