You can give us all a laugh with cheesy love spells out of your teenage BOS? Any abysmal spell drafts in your paper bucket?
Or you've written some bad examples just for fun?
Maybe you want to nominate any spells from the net, books, serials or movies which weren't according to your lyrical taste?
I would like some pointers on researching the exploring past lives subject, weblinks would be helpful since I'm not too sure I can shell out for a book at the moment. Thanks for any help.
Any general advice what to watch out for? Are there specific phrases to avoid? Or specific contents necessary to include?
Do you self-design spells? (Which kind of or which kind not?)
How do you usually go about it? Are there specific steps you take? Things you prepare or consider first?
Do you work on them over a longer time period? Do you experiment and improve?
Have you ever spontaneously designed a spell?
Do you feel more secure with self designed spells or with ones from a book/teacher/other source?
What do you think about non-oathbound material published by people from an oathbound path?
* Do you think the given information is incomplete in a significant way, because oathbound stuff is omitted, changed or generalized? So is the material less authentic than material published from a not-oathbound path?
* Do you use such material, for example books by Gardnerians containing non-oathbound stuff (like Deborah Lipp Elements of Ritual?
What do you think about oathbound material published?
* Do you think it is authentic and useful?
* Would you use it or parts of it? Why/why not?
If you're from an oathbound path how does your tradition handle this question or how do you think it should?
Over the last however many years, I've read pretty much all of the academic books on the market about Celtic/Irish mythology, archeology, art, etc. I think I have about as good a grasp on what we know about ancient Celtic religious practice as most lay people have, and, frankly, I'm bored with the histories. I'm tired of reading dry descriptions of archeological artifacts and stuff like that. It's important and provides a critical foundation, but enough is enough.
However, I still feel that I need to keep moving forward and developing my own spirituality or it will stagnate. I think that spirituality is a work in constant progress that is always evolving.
So, with complete understanding that nobody knows how the ancient Celts practiced their religion, I've bought a couple of the more recent books that purport to help the reader to understand "Celtic sprituality", whatever that is.
I'm starting with The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers, by Frank MacEowen, and Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit, by Tom Cowan. I'm hoping that these books might help me move my thinking forward in much the same way that deep discussion here at TC does -- by stimulating critical and creative thinking about my own beliefs, ideas, and spirituality.
I'm wondering if anyone else has read these or any other similar books, and if you have any thoughts about them.
Since we're about modern practice as much as ancient, I thought we could talk about a modern symbol: the neo-druidic symbol for awen. Awen is a Welsh word/concept for truth and poetic inspiration.
* Do you use the above symbol in your practice?
* What does it symbolize for you?
* If you do not use it, is there a specific reason why not?
* More generally, how do you feel about modern symbols?
We've had threads before dealing with altars in small spaces, portable altars, altars at college, etc., but just now I'm specifically curious about what people have going on at work. I know I've heard of people having small unobtrusive altars or shrines set up in their workspace. Do you have something like that? If so, how is it set up?
I have a little sun-shrine: a Sun tarot card that Hubby picked up for me at Comicon, a printout of more or less the same graphic I use as my avatar here (but minus the flames in the center), a couple of health-cause-related lapel pins, and a copy of this are pinned to my cubicle wall, and an LED pillar candle sits below them.
At one point I also had made an attempt to put up elemental representations on the four walls of my cube--fire is kind of obvious, I think, and then I had an enamel butterfly pin for air and a sticker with the Japanese kanji for "water" that I used for... er, water. I can't remember what I used for earth. I think I did that more for the hell of it than for any particular religious/magical purpose, though, since I haven't done much elemental work for quite a while, and as I've rearranged things most of those representations have gotten shoved into one big group of "personal decorations" (family photos, cartoons, etc.) on one wall. So I guess they don't so much count...
OK, so the other night Hubby and I were watching Troy. And, you know, whole other discussion there, but what I want to ask about is: About the second or third time the characters poured a libation to the Gods before drinking, Hubby says, "Who has to clean that up?"
...And I realize I have no idea. I know if I stood around in my house pouring wine on the floor, the floor would get pretty gross pretty quickly. Do we have any idea how they dealt with that, a-way back when? Were the floors just plain more absorbant (dirt, porous stone, etc.) or covered in disposable absorbent stuff (I'm thinking rushes/straw here) or something that would make it less of a problem than it is now with our carpet and linoleum and whatever? Were libations not poured on the floor indoors? Did they just not care if the floors got gross? Something else I'm completely missing?
I know this is a detail that makes no real difference and probably hasn't got much to do with anything, so it's not something that I'm really that worried about finding the answer to. It's just got me a little curious, and I thought I'd see if anyone here had an answer.
There are plenty of Ceremonial Magick rituals, where the lines include YHVH or INRI. While the tetragrammaton YHVH may be in the ritual, meaning "Jehova", it can also mean "Father (Y, Yod), Mother (H, Hé/Heh), Son (V, Vau), Daugther (H, Hé/Heh final). INRI can denote Christ - although not necessarily to just Jesus, but an archetype of 'dying and resurrecting God' - but there are also longer tables of correspondences linking elements, planets and what have you to the different letters in INRI.
Do you think Pagans should use rituals including these very Christian-looking elements? Can they be taken from "their original context", or are they somehow off-limits for Pagan ritual magick use?
Why or why not?
This thread hit me just now, thinking about the Familiars fiasco about Academic vs Non-academic sources. Is there a time and a place for a Non-Academic source? What should be classed as a non-academic source? (well besides things like Wikipedia)
Myself personally I think academic sources are either direct sources (such as myths, legends, things like that) and indirect sources (writings by scholars on the primary sources). These are useful when discussing general relgious terms and the like.
Then Non-academic sources is either UPG, or perhaps some one writing a book on the source though their profession isn't directly related to it. I think these are useful for when talking about practices, and in the case of UPG, when talking about personal practices. I don't believe they are mutually exclusive either, I think both are needed to have a well founded base.
So what are y'alls thoughts on the matter?