How Pagans Can Triumph During the Holiday Season in the USA

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 / Moonwater / Leave a comment

Gourds

At this time many Pagans are overwhelmed with the American Holiday Season. It begins with Halloween (just passed) and includes Thanksgiving and Christmas. A lot of Pagans have mixed feelings about this time of year. It starts with Samhain, a Sabbat that others stole and made it into Halloween.

Next, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, which causes situations, in which I feel, as a Pagan, truly uncomfortable.

Although during my childhood, I was inundated with stories of Pilgrims sitting down and enjoying a meal with Native Americans, the real story is one of betrayal and Pilgrims’ self-righteousness. When we study the actual events, related in some truthful accounts, the Pilgrims deceived the Native Americans. They destroyed the Native peoples.

Consider Native American Jacqueline Keeler’s assessment that “Native Americans think of this official U.S. celebration [Thanksgiving, as the] survival of early arrivals in a European invasion that culminated in the death of 10 to 30 million native people.”

View Jacqueline’s full comment here.

This Thanksgiving I will honor my own family and I will honor the Native People who reached out and helped strangers. The crops that the Pilgrims brought to this land couldn’t grow. So the Native Americans gave them food and taught them how to grow crops.

I will NOT be honoring the Pilgrims.

November is Native American Month. I will honor the Native Peoples of the Americas.

So what about the turkey and all the fixins’? I will still have the food but be mindful of where the food came from. As Jacqueline Keeler noted: “Since that initial sharing [“first Thanksgiving”], Native American food has spread around the world. Nearly 70 percent of all crops grown today were originally cultivated by Native American peoples. I sometimes wonder what they ate in Europe before they met us. Spaghetti without tomatoes? Meat and potatoes without potatoes? And at the “first Thanksgiving” the Wampanoags provided most of the food – and signed a treaty granting Pilgrims the right to the land at Plymouth, the real reason for the first Thanksgiving.”

So as we Pagans may feel squeezed by other people pushing Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas around us, let us find our personal things to honor during the holiday season. Honoring what is important to you is how you, as a Pagan, can triumph.

Make this time holy for your reasons.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

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For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

What is a Soul?

September 11, 2015September 14, 2015 / Moonwater / 4 Comments

Thank you to NASA Space Telescope

“What is a soul?” one of my Facebook friends asked.

This is a powerful question. In fact, I’ve had a number of conversations with elders in the Wiccan community on this topic.

I’ll now share a view that has formed for me out of those conversations and my own intuitive understanding:

In the beginning there was nothing but the Void. Then, with a single thought of “I AM!” the ALL created Itself. But soon, the ALL wanted a new experience, and so the ALL separated Itself into Two. The ALL did this by making a mighty scream. The Dark Half became the Goddess. She in turn gave birth to another entity that, at first was only a wave, but soon, It had thought, and so became Illumination. With illumination, the entity became intelligent, and He was the God, the Light Half to the Goddess.

The God slowly drifted away from the Goddess. Soon after his illumination, the God realized He had been created. He was curious about Who had created Him. He began a search, looking in a circle for the One who had made Him. Soon He realized that His Creator was no where that He had looked. The only place His Creator could be was in the center of the circle. So he went there and met the Goddess.

The Goddess found him brilliant and irresistible. She fell in love with Him. They made love and created all we know and that which we do not yet know.

We start with the ALL and then have the Goddess and the God.

How does this relate to you and I as souls?

A soul is the energy that resides within everything. From people to trees, everything has this sacred energy.

Where does this sacred energy come from? – from the ALL which yearns to learn about Itself. To understand Itself, the ALL creates small pieces of Itself, which are Its children.

The soul radiates the life soul energy. Further, the soul is connected by the different chakras located throughout our bodies.

I’m fascinated by the detail that the life soul energy manifests outward from the chakras as one’s aura. Some people can see this aura energy.

A few can see the aura and appreciate it as a guide to heal people. The healer sees via the aura whether the person has health problems. With this knowledge, some healers have clues as to how the person may heal.

It helps to have a view of how things are interconnected.

We, Pagans, understand how all people and beings are essentially connected.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

P.S. To sign up for our E-Newsletter click here.

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

“An It Harm None” Why?

August 15, 2015 / Moonwater / Leave a comment

“I don’t understand. The Wiccan Rede of ‘An it harm none’ seems almost impossible,” Nadia said.

“Impossible?” I asked.

“Look, I eat fish and chicken. That’s harms something,” Nadia said.

“Okay. I understand what you’re talking about. How about this? When you’re talking to a family member, and he says something in an irritated way, do you try to escalate it? Do you try to say something worse—something mean?”

“You know I don’t. I try to be kind to people,” Nadia said.

“Now, you’re onto something. ‘An it harm none’ is in the same spirit as ‘be kind; be compassionate.’” I replied.

In Wicca, we’re not scrambling for “commandments.” Wicca is a path that asks us to think, not just blindly obey someone else’s orders. This is what attracts many people to Wicca in the first place.

So let’s continue with the Wicca approach of thinking (not blind obedience):

Let’s look at a hypothetical situation. Emily’s home is invaded by an attacker. If “An it harm none” was a commandment, do you think Emily would not fight back?

What if the attacker approaches Emily’s nine-year-old son, Joseph?

Many of us would say, go for it Emily and protect your son! And it would work, in a way, with “An it harm none.” How? If Emily does nothing, perhaps, Joseph dies. That is a greater harm.

Many of us would say, fighting back and causing harm to the attacker is correct—to save a life.

Self-defense appears right in line with the Wiccan Rede.

We need to think things through. We know that the world is not simply black and white. We don’t just turn the other cheek. We live in a shades-of-gray universe.

As we walk our sacred path, we make many decisions with each step we take. Each person has his or her own gait and stride. Each of us has our own moral compass, and we must make our own decisions as to where we place our feet.

I invite you to consider some important issues. Where is the larger amount of harm? Is this a situation in which some form of self-defense is appropriate?

Think of “An it harm none” as an invitation for you to live with as much kindness and compassion as possible.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

P.S. To sign up for our E-Newsletter click here.

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

Protection – The Sacred Circle

June 20, 2015 / Moonwater / Leave a comment

Circle Setup Graphic

Moira started her ritual. On the astral plane, this was like lighting a torch. Some entities were attracted. Fortunately, Moira’s mentor taught her well; Moira made sure to correctly cast her Circle!

Among the reasons to cast a Circle, protection and raising energy are key.

Do you really need protection? Isn’t nature all sacred? The short answer is . . . yes.

However, there are entities in the natural world that get attracted to a cast Circle. In the vastness of the astral plane, by casting a Circle, you have lighted a bright torch. The torch attracts everything. Entities are curious, and they’re attracted to energy. It’s what they feed on. So, in a way, you’re ringing the dinner bell.

Casting a Circle and calling your quarters is how you defend your own energy and space. Casting a Circle creates a boundary that defends you from the little buggers on the astral plane.

When you call the quarters, you are summoning the elementals (a form of entity) that help you defend your Circle. They also donate power to your spiritual working.

Calling the quarters is part of building a fortress against unwanted entities that may try to interfere with you and the energy you are raising.

In essence, when you call the quarters, you are making a temple. A fortified and well-guarded temple.

Blessings,

Moonwater

P.S. Be sure to get your copy of the special e-report “5 Big Mistakes New Practitioners Make—and How to Empower Your Spells” when you sign up for my e-newsletter when you click here before June 24, 2015.

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

Your Chance to Get “5 Big Mistakes New Practitioners Make—and How to Empower Your Spells”

June 5, 2015June 6, 2015 / Moonwater / Leave a comment

Merry Meet,

Imagine receiving even more guidance to improve your Wiccan practice.

When you sign up for my new e-newsletter, you’ll benefit when I share more rituals, tips, and ways to customize your rituals . . . and even more.

Sign up now through the June 23^rd and get a free gift of an e-report: 5 Big Mistakes New Practitioners Make—and How to Empower Your Spells, which you’ll receive on June 24^th!

To sign up for our E-Newsletter click here.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

To sign up for our E-Newsletter click here.

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

Happy Beltane 2015

April 30, 2015 / Moonwater / Leave a comment

A way to piece.

Happy Beltane

The Witches Pyramid – West

April 18, 2015April 18, 2015 / Moonwater / 2 Comments

Karina turned to me and said, “But I’ve never done this before. It’s a lot of money. I mean, I could spend all this money recording my songs and no one buys them.”

“What does your heart say?” I replied. Sometimes, and it depends on the individual, the heart says, “It’s time to Dare.”

In the previous post we talked about Fire. Now, we’ll discuss the element Water, which is West on the Witches Pyramid.

Water represents to Dare.

In this series of posts, we started with Air, which gave us the idea. Then we proceeded to Fire which was to Will and to desire the change, and get it moving into reality. Now we focus on Water because we need to Dare to accomplish the change.

Wanting to change isn’t enough, we need more energy associated to the process. We need to Dare to do it!

Many of us are too afraid of change. We hide from it and even run from it. Still, we notice:

“There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus

Change can be a very emotional subject. Being afraid of change is natural and so we need Water, to Dare ourselves to do it.

Change promotes growth. We grow not only spiritually, but also with our relationships and our mental and physical health.

A Ritual to Celebrate Water and to Move Beyond Fear

Consider something in your own life that you know you need to change but are afraid to.

Draw a pleasant, hot bath. Make a sachet of lavender. Lavender is used for purification, and lavender helps us calm those fears of change.

When your bath of lavender is ready, step in and relax. Breathe in and out slowly.

Once you have relaxed, think of the change you want and the fear holding you back from it. Concentrate on these fears you have.

Now envision the fear being absorbed by the water all while you continue breathing deeply—in and out.

When you feel you have successfully transferred all the fear into the liquid, get out and drain the water away. Dry off and make sure you do not use the towel again until you have laundered it.

Use this ritual focusing on Water and to Dare to move forward in your life.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

The Witches Pyramid – Fire

April 11, 2015April 11, 2015 / Moonwater / 2 Comments

“I feel stuck,” my friend Amy said. My first thought was that it might help for her to do a ritual related to the element Fire.

In the previous post, we talked about Air in the Witches Pyramid. In this post, we will discuss Fire, an element (related to South) that is part of the foundation of the Witches Pyramid.

Fire represents To Will on the Witches Pyramid. Will is that fire to get things done. Will is the intensified-desire that creates change and allows us to manifest our thoughts into reality.

Fire is energy. And still, we begin with the element Air which creates the idea of what you desire. Fire helps manifest what Air created.

Without Fire things stagnate. Nothing gets done. We need to Will to change ourselves and forge forward to accomplish the fulfillment of our needs.

Fire is a transformative element. Fire is a force (or energy) to change, which transforms you into something new

Change is something we strive for in Wicca. We want to transform ourselves into newer and better states of being so we can grow spiritually.

So how do we enhance the element of Fire in our lives?

Consider something you want to change or to get better in your life. Do you want to get a better job or do you need a better living situation? A quiet desire is not enough. You need to apply Fire so you Will something into being.

One of the best ways to empower yourself with Will is to do a ritual focused on Fire. Begin a meditation on Fire by first lighting a candle. Focus your eyes on the flame. Breathe deep. Soon you will close eyes and do the following visualization.

Your visualization will now be quite specific. Visualize a symbol of a current situation that you do NOT like. Now imagine that what you really want is inside the symbol.

Now apply the power of FIRE to the symbol which is like a false shell around what you want.

This false shell burns away and you are left with what you really want!

You have applied the power of FIRE.

To build up your To Will power, you may need to do a series of Fire-related meditations.

Remember, your mind, properly harnessed, has terrific power to improve your life.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

What Might Be Fading from Our Wiccan and Pagan Community?

March 28, 2015 / Moonwater / 2 Comments

Two things recently shook me up. First, a friend told me about how a work group came to her house and then her camera was missing. This work group was made of pagans who participate in community events. What?!

Wicca, for example, is about respect for nature, respect for ourselves and respect for others. What happened here that some pagan stole a camera?

Second, two elders in our community told me about how they are being marginalized. “Younger Wiccans are not honoring elders. They don’t listen,” said one of the elders.

The above two incidents inspire the question: Is our Wiccan and Pagan community letting an important part of our identity fade away?

The part of our identity I’m talking about is being respectful. Respect is defined as “a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be treated in an appropriate way.”

Elders and people’s rights to their property need to be respected.

But there is something impinging on our Wiccan and Pagan community: For many of us, we’re an island surrounded on all sides by the Western culture’s self-centered ego, the “me, me, me” effect.

Have you noticed that if we get caught up in our thirst for instant gratification we lose touch with the roots of Wicca?

We’re used to getting everything instantly. Through the internet, we have instant music, news, and contact with others. There is a casualty in all of this: patience.

And that’s where the lack of respect for elders comes in. Elders move and think at a different pace from those of us typing away at our electronic devices.

More than that, many of us think that elders are too behind the times to offer anything of value. What could elders teach us? Certainly, they can inform us of things to be careful about when doing ritual. Further, if they have had long-term friendships or a long-term romantic partnership, they know something valuable!

So how do we return to our Wiccan roots and enhance being respectful to others?

For many of us, we need to practice being respectful to the one person with us all the time—ourself. Show some patience and compassion toward yourself.

Then allow that patience and compassion radiate out from you.

If you’re going to be near an elder, pre-plan a couple of questions you might ask him or her.

Such questions might be:

Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?
You’ve been married 25 years. How did you do that?
I hear that you’ve been friends with two people for 18 years. How did you take good care of your friends?

Elders have gone through life stages that many of us have not experienced yet. Sure, the details change. They may have used rotary dial phones, and we now have smart phones. But elders have gone through big and tough changes including loss of friends and loved ones to death, for example.

Wicca provides us with wisdom from the past. In fact, our Wiccan heritage has been passed down through the generations by people talking to each other. The process has usually been from elder to neophyte.

So I invite you see how you can make some space, pause and listen.

There’s so much that elders can share with us.

Blessed Be,

Moonwater SilverClaw

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And

Beyond the Law of Attraction to Real Magic: How You Can Remove Blocks to Prosperity, Happiness and Inner Peace

See the Truth

March 14, 2015 / Moonwater / 4 Comments

“Now, do you believe?!” my sweetie said to me, as the plane lifted from the ground.

“Yeah, I do,” I replied.

For months, he said that we would take a plane, cross the country and then take a ship and finally walk on the ocean floor.

Because of dealing with depression symptoms, it was hard for me to really believe that our trip would actually take place. In a way, you might say my depression symptoms blocked me from seeing the possibilities.

This reminds me of the classic story in which blind men gathered to experience an elephant.

“It’s a pillar,” said the blind man embracing one leg.
“No, a hand fan,” said another holding an ear.
“You’re wrong, a rope,” said another.
“No, a wall.”
“A solid pipe,” said the one holding the tusk.

A wise man approached and explained, “You’re all right. You all experienced a part of the elephant. The elephant is all that you said and more.”

Finally, the blind men stopped arguing.

The same, I believe, is true about Deity. Everyone has a piece of the ALL. And what they don’t see is that it is all connected. It’s the same ALL that everyone else has. But they are experiencing the ALL in different ways, and this selective experience creates different practices and beliefs around the world.

So when I hear someone say that he knows the one and only God, I pause. I think of the elephant which is more than the sum of the parts.

Yes, I believe the God and Goddess are part of the ALL. But still I realize that Deity is more than my momentary perception.

And I’d invite anyone else to consider that other people are experiencing Deity in a way that suits them at the moment.

Let’s celebrate our shared opportunity to grow in spirit.

Blessings,

Moonwater SilverClaw

For more of Moonwater SilverClaw, consider some of her books:

Goddess Has Your Back: How Wicca Can Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem and Make Your Life Magickal

And

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book

The Hidden Children of the Goddess Embrace Wicca, Become Strong, Be at Peace with Yourself and the World Around You

And