Purification practices are part of any healthy magickal life. Basic spiritual hygiene is as important as washing our hands and, right now, wearing a mask outside our homes. However, sometimes we’ve gone through something so challenging, so dark, and so full of pain that a hard reset is necessary. Something like four years of a…
Category: Pagan
Anybody who has attended a Pagan event in the Mid-Atlantic region has most likely encountered Irene Glasse. As the president of Frederick Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (FCUUPS) in Frederick, Maryland, and the organizer of that organization’s annual Frederick Pagan Pride Day, Glasse has contributed to numerous events and organizations in Maryland and nearby environs….
Many years ago, I was introduced to the idea of selecting a single word for each calendar year to act as an intention, touchstone, and big-picture goal. The beauty of a single word intention is that the simplicity means multiple ways of connecting are possible. For example, one of my words over the years was…
I recently attended a ‘Witching Hour’ – a Happy Hour-style Zoom gathering for the Frederick CUUPS community. In a conversation in a break-out room, someone mentioned an increase to their psychic sensitivity. I laughed and said ‘Yes, that’s one of the side-effects of witchcraft.’ Another friend exclaimed ‘Wait, there are side effects?’ ‘Definitely,’ I answered….
This short sermon was offered for the December 13th, 2020, streaming service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Full text below. I sometimes joke that paganism is an unusually intense form of environmentalism. One of the common threads that comes up when talking to other pagans is that we were pretty feral as children. …
Right now, the sun is setting before 5 PM here in the mid-Atlantic and the days are only getting shorter. A season normally marked with family gatherings, festive events, circles, services, and bustling shopping malls looks a little different this year. Yuletide 2020 is shaping up to be a quieter, smaller, and more solitary affair….
In the world of Tarot, there are a handful of cards that punch incredibly hard. The Major Arcana, the section of a Tarot deck that holds cards for the larger themes in life, includes a card that is the divinatory equivalent of ‘Rocks fall, everyone dies.’ That card is the Tower. The polite interpretation of…
The Wheel of the Year has turned once more. Samhain is past and the days grow shorter and darker till Yuletide reaches us. This is the season of shadow and quiet, of the inward spiral. I think of the time from mid-October till Yule as Veil Season. Although many people focus their Ancestral work specifically…
This short sermon was offered for the October 25th, 2020, streaming service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Full text below. This is one of my favorite parts of the year. I think I am a constant disappointment to my friends who love beaches and summer. It’s just not my thing. Give me gray,…
*October 31st marks one of the High Holidays in the widely-used Pagan Wheel of the Year – Samhain. Out of all our holidays, I’d say this one gets the most press. Our celebration of the end of the growing season coincides with all that is spooky in the larger culture. This time of endings in…