Worship of Classical Elements

Does anyone assign a god to each corresponding element?

Like, Neptune = water, Vesta = fire, and so on?

Is this a popular practice? Or do most just worship the all-encompassing spirit?

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The Smell of Sage...

I love the smell of sage, but it tends to realy stick in the house for a while. It doesn't seem to matter how much of it I burn, either. It it stays lit for more than 10 minutes, you'll be able to smell it at least all day if not for veral days afterward, so I burn it VERY rarely. Is there any good way to lighten the smell? Am I using the wrong stuff? I may need to just use it during outdoor rituals only, or at times when all the windows can be open (not when it's cold out!)

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Wicca in Mainstream Fiction?

I don't know if any of you read Miss Snark's blog. If you're a writer, you probably already do, but if not, even for non-writers, she's a hoot. Anyway, recently, she's been helping people write "hooks" for their fiction. And one of those hooks, I found made me howl with laughter, because it felt so... hilariously wrong.

Desperate Pagans

So, what do you think? Would you read it? Do you read fiction that depicts Wiccans and/or Pagans as they are in today's society (as opposed to what is clearly fantasy where fantasy tropes are integral to the story)? Do people tend to get it right in your opinion?

My take: maybe it's just because it's not the best-written hook in the world, but it feels like in this example, the author has never actually set foot in a traditional coven meeting. It seems as though it might have more appeal, honestly, to those who aren't Wiccan and wouldn't know better.

And a semi-non-serious question: should Paganism get it's own subgenre like Gay/Lesbian Literary Fiction or Inspirational?

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Daily Prayers?

I am trying to develop a daily practice of prayer in my path, and I was just wondering what type of rituals, if any, you use in prayer, if you use a certain language, things like that.

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Message Board Back Up

Our message board went down in the wee hours of the morning (US Time). It came back up about noon -- thanks are due to Bob for fixing whatever broke.

Masculine? Feminine?

For those people for whom "Masculine" and "Feminine" are important determinators, what makes the difference? What makes something masculine or feminine?

And are these generalities that often lose in the specific, or is there something other than bits that's truly *masculine* and women don't have or *feminine* and men don't have?

(as far as transgender, for this discussion, I assume they are the sex they feel they should be, not the one they're born as. so they could have the male-thing and the female bits. Whatever that male-thing is)

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Review: The Mystic Foundation

This book is an extremely ambitious undertaking by anyone's standards. In it, Christopher attempts to lay bare the commonalities which underlie most spiritual paths. In fact, the appendix even includes extracts from the sacred writings of paths as divergent as Muslim (the Koran), Hindu (the Vedas), Zoroastrian, and Wiccan. And that list does not include all the sources he uses.

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Review: Christianity: The Origins of a Pagan Religion

I will admit here and now that I picked this book for review because, having been raised Roman Catholic until I left home (many years ago), I was well aware of the borrowings by the Christians from the Pagans and was interested to see how this author approached the subject. Professor Walter is professor of medieval French literature at Universite Stendahl in Grenoble. He is the author of numerous books on the Middle Ages and has overseen editing of Grail romances; all of which should make him familiar with the background of Christianity.

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Finding the Male Aspect of the Divine

In my experience, many Pagan religions, or at least the most well-known groups and books, focus strongly on the Goddess, and I have always related strongly to a feminine view of the Divine. However, I'm finding a need for the male aspect in my life lately, and I'm not sure how to honor it. I see myself as a very strong (strong-willed and thick-headed) woman, and I have a relationship with Kali. It would seem natural, then, to try and develop a relationship with a male from Hindu pantheon, but I have yet to feel drawn to one of them.

I think I'm feeling some resistance to masculine gods because of my negative experiences with a very patriarchal church (I grew up Catholic in a very traditional area of Louisiana), but I would like to put those feelings behind me and start to cultivate a healthy relationship with masculinity, which I see as a different kind of strength from that of Kali and other feminine deities.

I also feel that developing a relationship with a male deity could help me be more understanding of men in my life, from co-workers to my fiance.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm asking here, but I think I could use some advice from all you wise and wonderful folks who have always had such great insights to offer.

*How do you feel about deities of a different gender than your own?

*Do you feel a need to "work with" male and female gods?

*If/When you have wanted to develop a relationship with a deity or other being, how did you go about it, and did it work?

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Imbolc & Brighid -- Books, Stories, Legends, etc.?

I'm constantly on the prowl for new ideas for celebration. Casting a circle and writing ritual -- it works for some people, but it does nothing for me. I love circles, but I haven't figured out how to make them happen unless it's about something bigger than me. Samhain's about the only sabbat I can cast a circle for by myself. Ritual writing is lost on me as well; it's one of the few creative things I can't find any foothold in. And this discussion is not about that. So. Another time!

In preparation for Imbolc, I'm looking for both ancient myths & legends or books about/regarding Brighid (since the feast is for her!) and I'm looking for some ideas of solitary celebration.

My current plans include making corn muffins and honey butter from scratch, making a new candle, getting bundled up and taking a hike into the woods with some of the muffins & butter & the candle, and a warm blanket, finding a not-so-snowy spot, and _________. Mostly I just sit and eat some of what I've brought to offer, and leave the rest, and enjoy what They have given to us. Sometimes I'll read, hence the asking about the reading material.

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Neo-Wicca?

I'm very confused about what the difference between Neo-Wicca and what is 'real Wicca'. (I was just reading the back end of the thread about the sister wanting to learn about Wicca). I'd really appreciate someone clearing this up a little for me.

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Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays from the Hosts and Staff of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, we hope it is a joyful one! May your God(s) bless you, your family, and all the world.

Need Help Finding Early 1970s Spell Book

When I was much younger I bought a book of spells. This book was purchased in 1973 or 74. I imagine it was published between 1965 and 1974. The best I can recall is it was a spell book and candle magick book. It had the word "witchcraft" in the title. There was a somewhat complicated spell on empowering a magick ring that involved burying the ring in a iron (or maybe copper) pot for a month. It was a paperback book and if I recall correctly had a photo on the front of candles and other magick related paraphernalia. That is about all I can remember.

It was the book that got me interested in magick and led to me becoming a pagan. Once my Christian Mother found the book I never saw it again. I have tried Amazon and B&N but books of that age with only a single printing don't warrant a full listing with description and contents. I am amazed at the number of books with witchcraft in the title that were published between those dates so just buying them all is out of the question. I realize this is not much to go on but maybe I will get lucky and someone will know this book. Any ideas are appreciated.

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Teen Practice

I've been perusing the threads in the Pagan Teens section, not only on this website, but on many others, and I have read things posted by teens about feeling alone and not knowing any other pagans [I know how that goes, believe me].

I was just curious, those that are pagan teens now and who were pagan teens way back when, what sort of things did you do to practice your religion and connect with others who followed similar traditions?

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Yule Celebrations?

This question is mostly for Wiccans, but I'm interested in what other pagans do to. How do you celebrate Yule? Christians have their Christmas trees, Jews have the menoras, what do we do? (I'm new to Wicca and therefor have never celebrated Yule before, so I'm just asking for a little guidance.)

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Magick: Two Beginner Witchcraft Spells For Money And Protection

Your first spell in any path of Witchcraft should be one of protection. There are two reasons for this. First, protection spells are very safe... even if you are inexperienced, no harm can come from casting a protection spell the "wrong way"...

The second reason is because most protection spells are relatively easy. I've given you one here, and also a simple money spell you can do too...

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Magick: All About Poppet Magick

Magick with Poppets is usually done when you are directing a spell at a specific person (hopefully with their permission, and never to affect their free will). For example, spells for healing, loosing weight, protection, and love (remember, you must have their permission!). You can get poppet materials at any good wicca store.

Creating a Poppet is very simple. All you need is some cloth (or fabric) in a color that feels right for the spell you are trying to cast. Poppets are created in such a way where you can stuff them with special herbs depending on the spell you are casting.

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Magick: Colors Can Enhance Your Magick Energy

Remember, you don't need anything external to do Magick. The Magick is inside of you.

But, especially when you are just beginning, certain things can increase your desired effects of Magick (in very big ways) - such as colors and wicca symbols...

This is because you are able to draw on the energies added by external tools (which each are imbued with their own energies). More importantly, you draw on the added belief these tools add to your subconscious mind.

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Book Review: All Acts of Pleasure

I have an almost iron-clad rule when it comes to reviewing books. Unless a review is time-sensitive, or I have a particular request for a review, books get reviewed in the order I receive them. This book almost made me break my own rule. I had just started reading another book, when an Advanced Reader's Copy of All Acts of Pleasure arrived in my mail box. I have thoroughly enjoyed the "Rowan Gant Investigations" series to date, so I almost jumped right into this one. Then I decided, "No, I'll do the other review first and I can have this one for dessert in a few days."

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Book Review: Silver's Lure

This is the third book in the series by this author. It is the prequel to the first two books. I have been looking forward to getting this book since I finished reading the first two books (Silver's Bane and Silver's Edge). It sets out the background to a world which feels quite familiar to those readers who are conversant with Celtic mythology.

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Book Review: Silver's Bane

I suppose you might consider this second volume of the "Silver" trilogy to be "chick lit" (as you might have considered the preceding work Silver's Edge, but if you try to limit it so severely, you will be doing the book, the series, its author, and yourself a disservice. This is fantasy with a feminine perspective, certainly. And it is Celtic-based storytelling at its best.

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Bok Review: Silver's Edge

Okay, I can hear a few groans even as I start this review. A Harlequin book; a love story; have I lost my mind? I hope not. There are plenty of heroic fantasy books on the market, most of which are told from the masculine point of view. This is heroic fantasy with a feminine slant, and with an understanding of Paganism firmly in place.

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Book Review: Strings of Connection

AuthorHouse is one of the specialty publishing firms which have grown up in recent years (since 1997 for this particular self-publishing venture). Like the vast majority of them, it offers reasonably priced books for niche markets. Also like the majority of them, unfortunately, it has one rather bothersome shortcoming - quality control. Sometimes it is merely poor editing (missing quotation marks, improper paragraphing, etc., which are in the domain of the author), but once in a while it is something more serious. The copy I got for review had a couple of pages bound out of sequence.

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Gwyddionaid vs Gwyddioniad?

Ok, color me confused. Can anyone explain the difference between

Gwyddionaid (http://www.gwyddonaid.org/)

and

Gwyddioniad (http://www.gwyddoniad.org/)

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Fictional magic in a real world?

I've recently been working on a piece of fiction, that I'm hoping to turn into a book, and (goddess willing) make more money than the queen like good old JKR did with HP.

Anyway...There's a lot of magic in this book, and I know I've slipped a couple of things in there that I personally use in my own craftwork/spellwork/magic... whatever you want to call it.

So I got to wondering. Have any of you read something from a piece of fiction and incorporated it into your workings...

Best examples I can give are:

- "The will and the word", the magic system used in David Eddings Belgarriad and Malorian series.

- "Sunrunning" the system used in Melenie Rawn's Dragon Prince saga.

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How Big is Too Big?

The mention of a 14,000 member church in another thread prompted me to wonder: Is there such a thing as group worship where the group is too big? Does it reach a point where it's just too hard to keep everything organized and under control, or where it's just impossible to make a connection with the other worshipers? Or does a bigger number just mean more energy and more enthusiasm?

I suppose this might be best answered by those who have led public rituals and might have some experience with differing group sizes, though certainly any and all input is valued.

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Brigit Flamekeeping Cills

Flamekeeping Cills, in this usage, are devotees/priestesses of the goddess Brigit, who take turns tending an eternal flame to the goddess. I've seen some information around about these groups, and I'm interested in perhaps joining one, but I've been unable to find a group that's open to new members.

Someone here, in another thread (apologies for the vagueness, but I read it last week and I had a terrible weekend) mentioned being part of a Cill, so I was hoping I could net some good info by starting a thread.

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Midsummer Celebration Ideas Wanted

Happy Midsummer everyone!

Because it's nearly the summer solstice here in Australia, I want to do something special. But I'm a Newbie and need ideas.

Thoughts on a solitary ritual, recipes, etc would be good. Any websites or books you can point me to would also be appreciated.

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New Moon and Yule

I just realised, that Yule this year falls only two days after the new moon, so I was thinking I might coincide the two rituals. I am thinking of kind of a 'new beginnings' ritual, very fitting to both Yule and a new moon, and also to my life at the moment. The coming year is likely to bring me some major changes. I was wondering what ritual ideas you folks might have for a 'new beginnings' ritual. I am thinking of doing some work with candles, but not sure what yet, I will almost certainly do my normal candle meditation, but what else I don't know. Any ideas very welcome!

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Book Review: True Magick (2006 Edition)

This is a revision 0f one of the "standards" in the field. Amber shares a great deal of background with me. We both came into the Craft in the 1970s through the Temple of the Pagan Way in Chicago; neither of us claims an ancestral tradition; and we both believe in cutting through the "mystic, trystic b.s..."

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Book Review: The Pickingill Papers

Bill Liddell, writing as Lugh, published a series of letters in "The Wiccan" and "The Cauldron" magazines over a spread of two decades (1974 to 1994). His writings have been at the center of an on-going debate which continues to this day. Why did he write those letters? Did he write to disprove the "authenticity" of Gardnerian-derived Wicca? Was it disinformation to smear the reputation of a man who, although properly trained, went against the wishes of his elders? Was it an organized campaign, or the work of a single man?

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Book Review: Modern Pagans

This is not a new book, but I have only recently begun to see copies of it locally. It is composed, overwhelmingly, of interviews with 50 individuals who each present their view of Paganism, its history and its future.

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Book Review: Pagan Christmas

The subtitle of this book ("The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide") helps to explain why I wanted to review it. Far too often people focus of the most visible of Yuletide symbols - the tree, the presents, the mistletoe and the decorations - and ignore the myriad of other details which surround this time of year. So I felt drawn to investigate these background items.

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Book Review: The Haitian Vodou Handbook

I have a certain level of trepidation as I read any book devoted to a religion which actively incorporates the use of magic in the daily life of its followers. The gods (or in this case, the lwa) know that there exists a surplus of "spell books" on the market today. There are plenty of books which reveal the "inner workings" of "non-traditional" (read "mainstream") religions. And the number of authors out there who claim high degrees of initiation which prohibit them from saying anything intelligible is legion. This is NOT one of those books and/or authors.

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Educating Others About Your Faith?

I noticed that we talk a lot about the ignorance of others, how so many people confuse Pagans with "devil worshippers," and so forth. So... I have a few questions. :-D

1) Do you think it's neccessary or appropriate to educate others about your religion?

2) When is/isn't it appropriate?

3)What do you wish people understood about your religion/path?

4) If you support educating the masses about your religion (and others, I would assume), how do you see that happening? What do you or could you do day-to-day to help that happen?

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Personal Interpretation vs. Different Religion

When does ones beliefs that differ from the general consensus of ones path cease to be simply ones personal interpretation and become signs that one is not of that path?

I have often had trouble reconciling my beliefs with those I have encountered who are supposed to be on the same path as myself. While most Pagan paths do allow for a certain degree of personal interpretation and UPG, I can't help but feel that sometimes, personal interpretation goes so far as to make ones beliefs a new religion.

In my personal experience, my beliefs do align better with a different path than simply as a personal interpretation of another, hence my choice to pursue conversion. I was curious, however, to see what other opinions or experiences are out there.

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Gardening: Growing Your Own Herbs

If you're not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as significant, you'll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh, delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

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Gardening: Planting A Wildflower Garden

Full of vibrant colors and interesting textures, the wildflower meadow are often a welcome change to the lawn or the traditional garden . Since the meadow landscape is based on a natural landscape and are self-sustaining they require a clear understanding of a site's natural environment. Wildflower meadows are dynamic. Some species in the meadow will survive year after year while others may disappear and be replaced with something new. Wildflower meadows are not just beautiful, they're also ecological beneficial. They are only mowed once a year, introduce native species of plants and attract wildlife.

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Gardening: Home Composting -- 10 Ways to Make it Successful for You

Gardening is a fun and invigorating activity. It keeps one busy and productive and brings the creativity and ingenuity in everyone. Gardening beautifies our homes but it also produces a good deal of yard waste. What better way to make this waste work out for you than to use it to enrich your garden through composting? You'd be making your soil more fertile for the health of your plants and at the same time, you'd be helping you community dispose of waste in the cleanest, cheapest and easiest manner. Here are some simple ways to make home composting successful for you:

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Webcrafting: Top 5 Web Design Pet Peeves

The evolution of web sites over the past ten years has been amazing. What started out as a motley gathering of crassly designed personal sites has evolved into a varied collection of multimedia presentations, dynamic online journals and stylishly designed online brochures.

What has not changed, however, is bad web page design.

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Webcrafting: Accessible Web Design Tips

Here are some simple rules for developing modern accessible web sites. We will just touch on a few of the main rules, as there are too many to cover here, but sticking to these rules will get you off to a good start.

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Driving the Sun-Chariot?

I'm curious: for those of you that believe in gods as they were portrayed before, who drives the sun? Is the moon a woman or a rock?

How do you balance the physical reality and the metaphysical?

Personally, I have no problem with the idea of being a god OF the sun without needing to actually drive it around. But I do wonder sometimes if we've stripped a little too much divinity from the sun and similar things when we speak only of the physical "reality" of them.

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The Cauldron's NINTH Anniversary (Dec 13, 2006)

The Cauldron celebrates her Ninth Anniversary today. Nine years ago today -- on December 13, 1997 -- the folks at Delphi (now DelphiForums) got our new "Custom Forum" fully working. I had started the forum on December 10th, but due to a glitch the forum would not anyone but me post until the 13th. It took Delphi several days to fix it -- and this was back when you had to pay to start a forum.

The Cauldron was a Yule gift to Elspeth. TC started out very slow. I think by the end of three months, we only had 400 messages or so -- most from a small group of our friends. But the board grew with time. We've moved around a bit since then. First to a mailing list, then back to Delphi (reopening our original forum there), then when DelphiForums just got too annoying to live with Bob offered his server and to what is now our "Archive Board" here. When the upgrade to Beehive 0.6x proved to be a disaster of slowness, we moved to this older version of Beehive last February. Fortunately, our members have followed us from home to home.

A few of us (Elspeth, myself, and Ann for sure) have been here since day one, many more have joined us over the years and many have made TC their online home for many years. A lot of things both good (I met LyricFox here) and bad (lots of spammers) have happened here in nine years, and will -- with your support and the Gods willing -- continue for years to come.

The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum could not have survived as long as it has without a large group of active and supportive members. To everyone reading this -- whether you joined eight or nine years ago or yesterday -- thank you for helping to make The Cauldron a success these last nine years. Special thanks to current or former members of TC Staff. Extra thanks and a keg of the best virtual beer to Bob for making his server available so we could get off of DelphiForums.

Congratulations for nine great years! BTW, this thread is not just a place to most "Happy Birthday," we hope long time members of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum will post in with some of their memories of our earlier years.

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Is Changing the Future Dangerous?

This lady did some love spells and money spells for me that really worked, but a friend told me that something bad will happen because I changed the future. Is that true you think?

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Religion in the Workplace?

What are your thoughts on religion in the workplace? Have you ever had a problem with it? Does it make you uncomfortable?

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Sources on Ishtar?

Can anyone point me toward solid, reliable resources on Ishtar (website, books)?

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New Cauldron Site Theme is Here

As you can tell, the new site theme mentioned yesterday is (mostly) here. The message board and a few small sections of the web site may still sport the old theme, but those area should be updated over the next few days.

New Site Colors Coming Soon

After six or seven years, it's time for a change to the appearance of this site. While we'd love to do a complete site redesign with a modern CSS layout, we've finally admitted that we aren't likely to have time to do this -- after over two years of having a complete CSS redesign scheduled for "soon." Therefore will are just going to give the website a minor face lift: new colors and a slightly cleaner look. However, this minor update will make it much easier to integrate third party features into The Cauldron's web site because this site will use solid colors instead of background images. This will also make it load a bit faster.

The current plan is to roll out this change over the next few days. As different parts of the site are created with different tools, there will be times when one part of the site has the old look and another part of the site has the new look. In a few cases, the old look and the new look may co-exist on the same page for a while. Our apologies in advance for any site appearance weirdness as we update the site.

The default color theme on our message board will be changing to match the new look of the web site. However, if you prefer the current theme, it will be available as an optional theme from the settings menu.

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Again with the Satanism Questions

A few comments on other threads got me thinking about what, if any, connection modern Satanism has to traditional views of (how shall I put this) adversarial gods. I'm thinking particularly about Darkhawk's statement:

quote: "the Temple of Set is, as modern interpretations of Big Red completely divorced from context go, really quite excellent as a way of putting forth His goals for people. Unfortunately, the context dropped is all the checks and balances on His goals as established within the system."

Never having heard of the Temple of Set before, I popped over to their site to have a look. I came away with two impressions:

1. This isn't the Big Red I know. ("Set is the lord of the subjective universe" -WTF?) Actually, there was very little written about the nature of Set himself.
2. Arrogant much? The front page fairly oozes superiority. Apparently I have to join an occult order to learn to be self-reliant and develop as a person. Dressing it up in italicized foreign words doesn't impress me much.

I admit I'm thinking mostly of Set here, but I guess this also applies to other similarly inclined gods. Is it just me, or did these Satanist groups more or less say "ooh, adversarial" and pick one as a mascot?

And what about the "checks and balances"? (Darkhawk, would you mind expanding a bit on that? :-) ) From what little I know, modern Satanism could easily swing into "You ignorant peasants are so totally beneath me" territory; is there anything pulling in the other direction?

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New Gods?

A lot of people will mention, in explaining either paganism as a whole or their own particular flavour of it, that they worship 'pre-Christian gods'. I've seen the term so often in recent threads that I've started wondering if JHVH is the 'baby of the family'.

Did the gods stop breeding abruptly 2000-odd years ago? Have none appeared/been born/revealed themselves since the dawn of Christianity?

Or is this a societally imposed moratorium on new gods, a feeling that in order to deserve current respect or worship one must have been around for millenia?

There have been so many changes in human society, new social systems, technologies, new cultures etc. that it seems strange that no new gods have appeared. Would someone who admits to worshipping a post-Christian god be seen as less serious, or less valid in their religious beliefs, than those who follow pre-Christian ones?

If Gods will themselves into existence, or appear in response to people's needs, why have they stopped? Is there a general feeling among people that 'we have enough, now, thanks', so that new gods would have a hard time getting recognized?

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Pagan?

A recent thread brought up some questions for me.

1.) Do you consider yourself a Pagan, if so why?

2.) How important is the Pagan identity to you?

3.) Is it better to have an all-inclusive concept of what is "pagan", or does doing so over generalize it's meaning?

It seems that the definition of a "pagan" has changed since last I looked. Originally it was Latin for someone who lives in the country. Now it's meaning has become very broad. One part of me is glad for this diversity, and another is a bit apprehensive.

In the end the term itself doesn't matter I suppose, but what it means to people.

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Wedding Question?

I was recently proposed to. Very romantic, at the Texas Reniassance Festival. Anyhow, I'm now left with the task of planning the wedding.

Herein lies the problem. I am Pagan, he is a Satanist, my family is Baptist and I don't know what his family is... We want to have an outdoor wedding, both of us have a strong connection to nature. Since we live in South Texas, we're not too limited on when we can have the wedding and still have an outdoor ceremony. Yay for South Texas! The problem that I'm having is how do I take both of our beliefs and still have a ceremony that all of our family and friends will understand/enjoy/not freak out about? His best man is Pagan, as is one of my bridesmaids. The rest are Christian/agnostic. Does anyone have any ideas?

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Finding Common Ground?

Karen and I were talking about using some of the "buzzwords" to describe a Pagan religion to someone who isn't familiar with it. What I was telling her is that I suspect that that's one reason so many of the common Wiccanesque terms get used in interviews.

So if someone came up to you and asked you for a brief explanation of your religion, how would you handle it? Assume that the person is genuinely interested, doesn't know much (if anything) about your specific religion and isn't looking for a conversion opening.

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Offerings?

I don't get the ritual act of food/libation offerings.

I don't understand why a god/dess would want me to pour milk or whatever into a bowl or on the ground, or to put a portion of food aside and then dispose of it.

It seems wasteful to me, and try as I might, I don't understand it. (I hope it goes without saying that I don't mean to offend anyone who uses this practice. I just don't understand it, and I'm curious.)

I have heard people talk about setting aside money as an offering, and then donating it to charity. Or donating canned goods to a food bank as an offering. I understand that, because the money or food isn't wasted, and is used by those who need it.

I'd really like to hear people's thoughts on this. Thanks!

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