Finding Names for Local Spirits?

I was wondering if anyone here had some experience to share or advice to give: working with different spirits is an important part of my path, but there's one group of spirits that I find myself constantly neglecting- my local land spirits. And I know precisely why they've been so neglected, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to rectify it: I don't know their names.

And yes, I've asked. The responses I've gotten have ranged from confusion to bemusement, and the general sense I get is "call us whatever you want." I've tried this, and either I find an "ancient" sounding name that makes me feel silly and doesn't sound right, or I find a modern (or modern-ish) name that makes me feel silly and doesn't sound right. Names are really important to me- having a name is, for me, inherent recognition of importance and significance, and this plug-n-play usename thing just doesn't work for me.

So my questions: have any of you ever encountered this problem? If you have names for local spirits, how did you find them? What do you do when nothing feels right?

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Magic for Profit?

Is it ever right to charge money to do magic? Why or why not? Would you charge money to perform magic for another? Would you pay someone to do magic for you?

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Wheel of the Year?

What's the eightfold wheel of the year? And what are the holidays/festivals/sabbats/whatever their names are on them? What are the about? Can someone tell me a bit about them?

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Do You Consider Yourself a Witch?

Do You Consider Yourself a Witch? (with a witch, for purposes of this question) being defined as someone who practices witchcraft -- either just as magic or as part of a religion like Wicca)

Why or why not?

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Things with a purpose... Or not?

So I recently acquired a ring that I have felt, every time I've seen it, an urge of "I Have to get that. Not in the usual sense of "oh that is an awesome game must get, Or Ooo I love that necklace" Or whatever, I keep getting the feel that it might have a spiritual significance, or something. Though when I asked the deity, I thought it was, I got a no so *shrug*. It could just be a cool ring, and that's that. I'm totally ok with that. The reason I'm posting is because it doesn't fit anywhere. It looks weird sitting with my other non-religious jewelry, but doesn't fit anywhere on my Shrine/Altar space. I just dunno what to do with it but wear it, and I'm trying to eliminate all possibilities, so maybe I can just put it with my other jewelry and that be that without that niggling feeling in the back of my head that's saying "nope not quite" (or something along those lines).

Its silver and Has two wings coming form different directions that meet in the middle then the right turns up and left turns down.

I also have a few (other) questions:
have you ever felt the need to buy something for spiritual/Religious purposes, but not know the reason,or its use? In the same vein has it ever turned out to just have been you thinking that it was, but turned out to just be a ring/candle/etc with no other use, and was just you wanting it to be?

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Do thoughts have power?

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but my search didn't turn anything up... someone here mentioned that beliefs/ideas only have power if they lead to action. I wanted to discuss that thought a little more because there are so many different ways to look at that.

For instance, some here believe that words have power - not just the power to influence others, but the power to cause effects in their own right. Do thoughts/ideas/beliefs have power in their own right, or only in the actions they inspire?

Is speaking words aloud "doing something" more than thinking those words in your head is? What about casting spells?

I personally do think that thoughts themselves are energetically charged, and therefore do have an effect, even without physical action -- and also that thoughts inspire outward, mundane actions toward outcomes.

I'm interested to hear others thoughts about this topic.

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Atheism and Witchcraft

If you consider yourself an atheist - or nontheist - and practice or believe in witchcraft, can I pick your brain a bit? Or if you have some other reason to have thoughts to offer, please share!

Is your atheism simply a nonbelief in the literal existence of deity/ies, but you believe in spirits or Spirit? Do you believe in the supernatural? What is your understanding of how magic works?

I'm really interested in hearing perspectives on this... I think my personal idea of witchcraft would fit pretty well in an atheist framework, but I've never had reason to explore it.

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Prayer Beads for a Specific Deity

We've had several threads on prayer beads -- how people use them, ideas for creating them, etc.

My question at the moment is: Has anyone made prayer beads that they have associated with a specific god/dess? If so, how did you approach the beads?

I've been thinking about doing a set of prayer beads for several years. But my path is specifically focused on Brighid.

I can think of a couple of ways to design prayer beads for a broader Celtic Recon-type practice. That would incorporate beads to associate with the realms of Land, Sea, and Sky, for example, or beads to represent various Celtic values.

But I'm drawing a blank on how to use beads as a way to tap into Brighid's energy specifically. I'm toying with the idea of somehow representing healing, smithcraft, and poetry/learning. But that doesn't really get me very far. I'd really like to hear how others have designed similar bead sets.

Do you use prayer beads to keep track of the number of repetitions of a prayer, like people use rosary beads? Do you use prayer beads with different kinds of beads to represent different "topics" of meditations -- that would be something like associating a blue bead with healing and a different color bead for healing, etc.? Do you use beads as a simple tool for keeping your hands busy with something tactile, which you focus your brain on something else? Or what?

I'm open to any ideas you'd like to share.

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Singing Charms

So normally I'm not a big fan of taking inspiration for my practices from fiction, but I was listening to the Redwall series the other day and there was a part where a character covers up talking to a couple of prisoners by saying he was singing charms.

While the character wasn't serious about it, the idea has kind of stuck in my head and I wondered if anyone here used songs in their magic, specifically in their low magic like home wards and protection and good fortune type spells. The idea really intrigues me. Does anyone know if singing charms were used historically and where?

Even though I'm not much of a song writer, I really want to try this. I've been very interested in Hedge and Kitchen Witchery lately and I feel like this would be a sort of magic that would fall somewhere in that category of magic.

If you have any and wouldn't mind sharing I would really appreciate it.

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Modesty, Headcovering, and Paganism

I recently ran across a couple mentions of modesty and head covering as pagan practices (for instance: http://hubpages.com/hub/Veiled-Pagans). I'm kind of intrigued by this.

Coming from a rather conservative Christian family, modesty in dress was ingrained in me from early on, so much so that even though I've shed almost all other religiously rooted values, I still feel the need to dress modestly. I've also been very drawn to head covering for a while even though I've yet to actually incorporate it into my practice/daily life.

So what are your thoughts on the subject?

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