When I look at the path of a river, I sometimes marvel at the way it cuts through stone to wend its flow through the landscape around me. I’m lucky enough to live near both the Potomac and Conococheague rivers and I’ve spent a lot of time wandering their shores and paddling kayaks along their…
Tag: meditation
One of the things I love about my job is that I get the weird questions. By the time someone has booked a session with a professional divinator and witch, they’ve already tried all the standard solutions. We’re the last resort, or at the very least pretty far down on the list. Since most mundane…
The word “Pagan” is an umbrella term for a large collection of different belief systems. Those belief systems span an incredible variety in terms of form: some of us worship gods, some focus on ancestors, some are more animistic or pantheistic, and some of us aren’t particularly theistic at all. The decentralized nature of Pagan…
This short sermon was offered to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick on Sunday, April 23rd. When I’m in emotional pain, I seek the outdoors. I grew up here in Frederick, which means that throughout the region I have special places I go to find solace – certain boulders at Cunningham Falls, the far edge…
I’m old enough to remember a time before the internet, when being Pagan was more isolating than it is now. These magical devices we carry around with us, and our laptops and computers at home, enable us to connect to a world of other practitioners. One of the interesting upshots of this connection is that…
New for 2023! I’m offering monthly Friday Night workshops on Zoom, starting in February, on a variety of Pagan and witchy topics. These workshops are all stand-alones, so you can take the entire series or just the ones that appeal to you. They are $15 each, with sliding scale options for folks who face financial…
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, my word for 2020 was “Manifest.” One of…
“To be hopeful is to have a form of emotional resilience. A hopeful person believes that although challenges, grief, and adversity occur in every life, somehow things will work out. They believe that they have the ability to figure out a path forward or respond in a way that makes adversity just another part of…
Stories wield incredible power, and are one of the core shaping influences in human cultures. We can easily look around the world for examples of this: here in the United States, our culture is shaped by Christian mythology. In India, Hindu mythology forms the culture. In Iceland, the Icelandic and Norse mythology of old supports…
I felt the coming change of season a few nights ago. The usual August heat had given way during an afternoon thunderstorm and a cool, damp breeze touched my skin. The relief from the sweltering temperatures was immediate, joyful, and then contemplative: I know what this means. Summer is winding down. We still have some…