The Conjunction of the Pleiades: The Darkening

We are moving forward in the year and I am continuing to frame out a series of rituals for the cycle of the Pleiades. We have arrived at the next one, the conjunction with the sun which occurs around old Bealtaine (mid-May) - this year on May 14th. I have roughed out a ritual that people can use if they'd like. I'd recommend doing it during the day, when the sun is up as this is also when the Pleiades are in the sky now. 

  As I mentioned in my previous post on 'A New Holy Day Cycle' this holiday is the time when the Pleiades disappear from the sky for the next 6 weeks. I have been calling it the Darkening. My own personal mythology around this event is about the Queens travelling out. When the star-fire that is the Pleiades disappears from the night sky the Queens have parted ways and left their Courts. Maybe they are travelling on earth. Maybe they are searching for something. Maybe they are sowing change or strife or beginnings or endings. They each have their own agendas.  I call the 7 Queens by titles:  Queen of the Greenwood, Queen of the Wind, Queen of the Wave, Queen of Winter, Queen of Flame, Queen of Horns, and the Crane Queen. 

 I have tried to keep this ritual fairly similar in outline and flow to the other one, to help with the continuity. I will use a similar format in all of the rituals for this series.   

Ritual
Find a good space open beneath the sky where you can see the sun above you. If this is not possible due to weather concerns try to set up an altar near a window or perhaps arrange some appropriate artwork near your ritual space. If necessary this entire thing can be done as a visualization exercise. My own outdoor altar for ritual work usually contains space for offerings, water in an appropriate container, candles, and a token representing the Fairy Queen I honour.
Bring some food to offer, perhaps honey cakes, and clean water to pour out.
Create sacred space as you see fit if you wish to. I usually do this now by moving counterclockwise around my space sprinkling water and chanting to open the way between worlds.
Invite in any Powers you wish to. This is not a ritual for named Gods unless they are explicitly associated with the Good People of one culture or another. This is a time to invite any goodly inclined spirits, allies, Fairy Queens or Kings in. We invite, we don't invoke, evoke, or compel. They either come as we call or they don't.
I might say something like:
"I call to all goodly inclined spirits,
spirits of the land, spirits of the air,
Fair Folk who would be my friends,
Friendly ones who aid my liminal path,
Fairy Queens and Kings,
My wonderous Lady ---,
Queen of stone and well,
I invite you all to join me here
As I honour the journey
Of the Queens and
the Darkening of the stars"
You can tailor this initiation as suits you and whatever Queen or Spirit you are calling.

After this is done wait a moment and observe. Use all your senses to note if there is any perceptible response to your call. This may be obvious, such as the wind picking up or the temperature changing, or it may be a more subtle feeling of presence.  Don't rush but wait until things feel settled before moving on.
Say:
"Today the Seven Queens leave the sky
Leaving darkness for day
Separating to their own paths
Their powers burn as brightly
Whether they stand together or apart
But our world is fuller for their presence
They ride out for good and ill
Between worlds, between time
The gates are open, may
They be opened wider
The Queens look upon the land
May they bless what they see"

Put out the offerings you have brought and pour out a bit of water.
"I offer sweet honey cakes [or whatever you are offering]
And pure, clean water
To the Queens
To the Good Neighbours
To those beings that
would aid me
to the spirits of air
and of earth"

At this point if there is anything else you would like to do in your ritual - sing, dance, chant, divination, meditate, journey - do it. When you feel ready to say goodbye, say:
"The 7 stars have left the sky
The Queens ride across the land
Our worlds are intertwined
As they have been and will be
Praise to the Queens,
May they bless us
A good word to the Fair Folk
May they cause us no harm"
Pour out the water that is left. Say
"May my words praise the Queens
May may actions show respect to the Good Folk
May my allies stand with me
May there be peace between me
And the spirits of the air and earth
May there be friendship between me
And all goodly inclined spirits."
Take down your compass/circle or sacred space however you normally would. In my case here I'd walk it clockwise sprinkling a bit of earth or leaves and asking that the space be returned to its former state. Take down your altar. Leave the offerings out. Perhaps take a moment to stop and listen, look, feel the energy around you. See if there is anything worth noting or any sense of presence. 

Ritual Feast
Part of my own celebration will include a feast or ritual meal. This is inline with some older practices that would incorporate ritual feasting into the celebration of holy days. My plan is to have a special meal featuring fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, and ideally anything that could be wild gathered this early (obviously that would vary greatly by region). A portion of that meal will be set aside and then left out as an additional offering. I will also take omens about 12 hours after the ritual to get a feel for how things went, the wider energy, and the next 6 weeks.  

If the theories behind these rituals hold true then the time between the conjunction and the heliacal rising should be intense energetically and represent a time of changes, good or bad, of endings and beginnings, and of increased Otherworldly activity. 

Why Do We View Fairies As Nature Spirits?

It's a widespread idea at this point particularly in modern paganism and popular Western culture that fairies are nature spirits, that is that they are intrinsically bound to our natural world in some way. This idea is often simply stated as fact, implied to have always been true, or even argued as the older or more legitimate belief. In paganism its one aspect of a current trend I'm seeing to homogenize and simplify fairies by defining them as easily as possible, erasing all the nuances and complexity that we find in the actual folklore and beliefs. It's so pervasive that I felt it necessary awhile ago to make a Youtube video addressing the confusion between fairies and nature spirits but I thought it might also be good to write a bit about it.

Waterhouse, 'The Mystic Wood', public domain

I'm not telling anyone what to believe but what does bother me is seeing people claiming that the idea of fairies as spirits of nature is ancient, from a Celtic culture, or in line with folklore. Of course there are examples of beings that we might now classify as fairies from various cultures - I'm looking at you Greece and Rome - that are heavily tied into nature and might fit the description of a nature spirit. Dryads and Naiads are often mentioned, whether they should properly be considered nature spirits or not I don't know (I don't know enough about how they were understood in classical thought) and Genii Locorum [spirits of places] get tossed in there as well. The Norse landvaettir may also be considered nature spirits by some reckoning, although again whether they fit the more modern concepts of a nature spirit the way that popular culture envisions flower fairies or modern pagans muddle elementals into it is an open question.

So what then is a nature spirit? I don't think there is any one agreed on definition of this term which is used rather nebulously by different groups. The most basic view of course is that a nature spirit is a spirit of nature, that is a spirit which inhabits or ensouls any natural object or phenomena. The world around us then is full of spirits, large and small, which most humans are simply oblivious to. Nature spirits are sometimes confused with the Indian concept of a Deva (literally divine being) or with the early Renaissance idea of Elementals (beings existing within specific alchemical elements), but again both of these terms are not directly synonymous to nature spirits anymore than fairies would be.

What is a fairy? At its most basic a fairy is an Otherworldly being, although the term is often applied more to such beings from the Celtic cultural milieu than elsewhere. The word is also often used as an adjective, hence 'fairy woman' (bean sidhe), fairy godmother, or fairy hound to describe a more specific type of being that is from Fairy/the Otherworld. While the term in modern contexts has started to take on a very specific application in some areas thanks to mass media of a small winged female sprite its wider use is still inline with the older definition which can be seen across the last 700 hundred years or so. Many, many different kinds of Otherworldly beings that are known in folklore and anecdotes under specific names from Brownies to Urisgs, from Bean Sidhe to Each Uisce, would fall under the wider term of fairy.

While many modern pagans and some non-pagan academics may view fairies, in toto, now as nature spirits that is definitely not how they have been understood across history, although as noted some nature spirits do fall into the wider definition of 'fairy'. Rather from its inception in the 12th and 13th centuries the word fairy was applied to beings from the Otherworld (i.e. the world of Fairy) that is beings who were inherently not from the human world. Fairies could pass between the human world and their own world as they chose to, could be seen or be invisible, could - in fact were known to - change their habitations regularly. They were even known to emigrate across oceans with populations or individuals something nature spirits cannot do being bioregion specific. While they may defend natural locations or things like a tree or boulder this is never done because its a tree or boulder but because it belongs to the fairies, or put another way it isn't based on a desire to protect the environment generally but out of territoriality (the same as humans fighting over territory will defend what they perceive to be theirs). As often as we see stories of fairies defending a fairy tree we see stories of them striking a person down for building on a fairy road or fouling a fairy well; its the violation of their possession of a space not the natural world they are angry over.

So, how did this current Westernized view comes about? It was a confluence of different factors rooted in upper and later middle class media and occultism, which explains why the viewpoint is predominantly found today in popculture and modern paganism, but is less common in cultures that still hold older views and understandings of fairies. A concise timeline of the shift in how mainstream Western culture viewed fairies in relation to nature:

• Victorian Era - The Victorian era ran from roughly 1837 to 1901, encompassing the reign of British monarch Queen Victoria. It marked a period that included the end of the Industrial Revolution and many social changes including the growth of the middle class in both the United States and Britain. This period is notable for its romanticism of nature and the natural world, poetic appreciation of paganism and pagan themes, and its radical re-envisioning of fairies in art and literature. Victorian culture, divorced from actual belief in fairies, instead made them the fodder of entertainment infantilizing them, diminishing them, and gentling them in character and appearance, among many other things*.
• Theosophy - beginning in the last quarter of the 19th century Theosophy was the precursor for the 20th century New Age movement and drew on concepts from Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and Rosicrucianism. It forwarded an understanding of fairies drawn from a blend if contemporary cultural romanticism of nature (see previous point) and the 15th century alchemical classification of fairies as elemental beings. Combining these two concepts resulted in a view of fairies as tied to natural elements and strongly connected to the natural world. 
• Edwardians - following the Victorian era we move into the Edwardian, and we see a continuation of the shift in fairies in mainstream culture. JM Barrie's Peter Pan play and book are released during this time and the infamous Cottingley fairy pictures begin at the end of this era; both typify the way that modern popular culture has come to view fairies as small, fairly harmless**, and connected to the natural world in dress, home, and appearance. Immediately following this period we see Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairy books emerging which crystalize all of the previous influences into a single form: the fairy as small nature spirit.
• 20th Century Pagans - moving into the later 20th century we find these previous influences taken into different corners of paganism and appearing in diverse books. Fairies are defined as spirits of nature, often directly conflated to elementals using the classical alchemical system, and sometimes further seen as guardians of nature and guides to human evolution and right relationship with the earthly world. 

This modern view of fairies as nature spirits then is one that has been woven across the last 150 years or so initially coming from groups who did not necessarily believe in fairies but were indulging in a need for entertainment using fairies as the players on the stage, taken from there back into belief, then out again, then back in. This process has largely divorced the fairy-as-nature-spirit from the folkloric fairy, and even perhaps the actual nature spirits from the popular culture ideas of nature-fairies. 

Ultimately we can perhaps argue that some fairies are nature spirits, given how loose the definitions of both terms are, but it's an egregious oversimplification to say that all fairies are spirits of nature. We can also say that people who are seeking nature spirits and calling them fairies are getting nature spirits and this undoubtedly adds to the current muddy waters on the subject. But we must be very careful not to generalize out and assume that all fairies are nature spirits because some may be, or even because the ones that a certain author writes about or a certain person connects to are. The bulk of fairylore and modern anecdotal accounts from living cultures with active fairy beliefs show that these Otherworldly beings are not directly tied to the natural world but are travellers who come and go here.

The best way to understand fairies is to look to the living cultures the beliefs come from. Much of what we have as mainstream or popculture beliefs, while not necessarily useless, must be understood in context to really be understood. If you want to understand nature spirits, look to the world around you and work to connect to it; if you want to understand fairies look to generations of gathered knowledge, experience, and be very careful. One of these things is not like the other.


*Entire books have been written on this subject alone so I can only touch on it here but I suggest Purkiss's 'At The Bottom Of The Garden' or Silver's 'Strange and Secret Peoples' if the subject interests you. Suffice to say that some Victorian fairies did still have teeth and dangerous sexuality but the period saw a major shift in how the middle and upper class of America and Britain saw and understood fairies that has and still is effecting mainstream culture today.
** Tinkerbell was undeniably homicidal in the older source material but also unable to harm Wendy herself - she needed to trick others into doing it for her. Folkloric fairies would not have been so impotent in the same situation. There's also the famous scene where she needs the human audience to believe in fairies to bring her back to life.

Miscellaneous Q & A

It's been a while since I've done an open question and answer blog so I thought I'd start off 2019 with one. I opened my social media to questions and have gathered both the questions and my responses below.

Dana asks: How much does your fairy faith inform your fantasy fiction?
My answer: A lot, although fiction does carve its own course in places by necessity.

Aleja asks: Where does the name NicNevin come from? Is there another name for that Fairy Queen? Any relation to Nemhain (which I think is pronounced similar to Nevin, correct me if I'm wrong)?
My answer: There's no agreement on it, but the current leading theory is that it's from Scots 'nic naohim' meaning daughter of the little saint. Alternate theories do include nic neamhain daughter of Neamhain and nic cnàmhain daughter of the bones if I remember correctly. She is sometimes simply called the Queen of Elfame but doesn't have another proper name that I know of.

Bryan asks: [Tell me about] leannan sidhe?
My answer: Basically there are two sorts of Leannan Sidhe - there are the predatory kind which Yeats wrote about (and who have Manx equivalents) that inspire creative people but feed on their life force, and there are also the ones who are just 'fairy lovers' (which is what leannan sidhe means more or less). Even the non predatory ones aren't exactly safe as they generally at some point will want to take their human lover with them into their own world. When a human has a leannan sidhe of either variety it is very, very difficult to break that connection if you want to, although ironically it can be easily broken involuntarily as there are many accounts of people who loved their fairy sweetheart but broke a fairy prohibition around them, usually relating to speaking to others about their existence, and lost them forever. The human usually goes mad.

Robert asks: More a about the results of unions with Fairy Lovers.
Some of the families and clans that have that in their family history. There is a famous family of physicians that resulted from this sort of event.
And some good lines of fishermen from Selkies.
My answer: the physicians of Myddfai, yes. Descended from a Gwraig Annwn who then taught them knowledge of healing.
Generally unions of humans and fairy lovers can result in all sorts of things from death to babies. There's a lot of material in folklore that gets into this because its actually not at all uncommon - we see it Norse and Icelandic stories, we see it in German stories, we see it across the Celtic language speaking countries. the MacLeod's by some versions of the story have a fairy ancestress, as do many Irish families - off the top of my head including the O'Keefe's, McCarthy's, FitzGerald's, descendants of the Eóganachta, and O'Leary. Kelpies are known sometimes to have children with human women, as do selkies, and maran, and elves, and of course Daoine Sidhe.

Kris asks: Although I believe in, and have experienced the reality of deities often, I have never had an experience where I thought "hmmm that's the good folk/elves/brownies/etc". I DO have an open mind about it, but maybe not subconsciously, I don't know. So what about people like me? Am I missing out? Am I in more danger because I can't sense them? Should I not worry about it unless they make themselves known to me?
My answer: generally if there's no reason for you to reach out to them then its always better to leave well enough alone. I'd say its a good idea to have some general familiarity with them in case you ever find yourself in a situation where you need it, because you never know, but you don't need to worry about missing out if they aren't readily apparent to you. Some pagan traditions have actively incorporated the Good People, under various guises, into their worship and some people don't have a lot of choice about whether they interact or not, and for those people it is really important to know what they are and how to do what needs doing safely. But the best analogy I can make is that its like keeping bees, there are reasons people should do it, there are reasons people will do it, and there are perfectly good reasons never to do it at all, but its good to have some basic knowledge for safety around a hive no matter what because it has its dangers along with its positives. If that makes sense?

Patricia asks: Do you think when you work out in nature a lot (many hours per week) , and pay more attention to what goes on in the woods and gardens that it gets noticed by the Other Crowd?
My answer: I think that when you attune yourself to things that matter to the Other Crowd, they may take notice although that will vary (in other words there's no guarantee). It's also complicated because of the sheer diversity of the Fair Folk. But in general, yes, I think that its possible especially if you are making places for them in some sense.

Lucya asks: What are the similarities and differences between fairy belief in Cornwall and Ireland?
My answer: Overall very similar as I understand it, although Cornish belief is more focused on pixies and sees fairies as very small beings who are perpetually shrinking (also a Manx belief) where Irish lore sees at least some of them as the size of an average adult human. Both have stories of changelings, people led astray, fairy ointment, berries spoiled after Samhain, and fairies bringing either luck or bane.

Lesley asks: I would love to know more about living with the Good Neighbours, likes/dislikes, how often to leave food offerings, how to approach leaving offerings, how to keep them happy.
My answer: I generally make an offering once a week, although I may leave something out spontaneously more often. the biggest thing with that is to keep in mind that if you start a regular schedule they will expect you to keep it so I usually encourage people to ease into that, maybe start with holidays and special occasions. I generally leave them cream or baked goods, sometimes milk, butter, or fruit. I've found that they will express their likes and dislikes in less than subtle ways. there's no big ritual to it for me I just put it in a specific place each time for them and take a minute to focus on what I'm doing.

Mat asks: This one is based on the interview you did on weird Web Radio. Can you elaborate more on the idea that the fae don't like being referred to as the fae? I've never heard that but find it fascinating.
Also, I would love your take on the idea that the fae find the words "thank you" highly offensive.
Also, what's the primary difference between faery, goblin, ogre, troll, etc?
My answer: 1. There's a belief that the Good People don't like being called fairies which goes back at least several hundred years. Its tied into the idea of using euphemisms, although there's no real clarity on why calling them fairies specifically annoys them, just that it does, as illustrated in this poem from 1842 (its in Scots so I'll give it in english after):
""Gin ye ca' me imp or elf
I rede ye look weel to yourself;
Gin ye call me fairy
I'll work ye muckle tarrie;
Gind guid neibour ye ca' me
Then guid neibour I will be;
But gin ye ca' me seelie wicht
I'll be your freend baith day and nicht."
- Chambers, 1842
[If you call me imp or elf
I counsel you, look well to yourself;
If you call me fairy
I'll work you great misery;
If good neighbor you call me
Then good neighbor I will be;
But if you call me seelie wight
I'll be your friend both day and night].
the idea is pretty strongly ingrained even today. If you are going to get their attention by discussing them its better to do so using a name they prefer.
2. I think some of them find it offensive for the same reason some of them abhor the gift of clothing, because it implies they did a service for a human, even if they did. I'd also note though the bigger reason I generally recommend avoiding saying thank you is that semantically in english 'thank you' is an implicit acknowledgement of a debt owed, saying 'I'll remember this', and that's dangerous ground with fairies who may collect on that debt when you don't expect it.
3. Complicated. Many terms that we tend to assume are specifics are actually generics, including fairy, elf, and goblin. Fairy as I mention in another answer basically means 'Otherworldly being'; elf *probably* comes from a root word meaning white and also is used for a class of beings rather than one specific type; goblin's meaning is ultimately unknown but again is applied to various troublesome dangerous fairies. And to complicate matters further as you can see from the poem above the same being might be called imp, elf, or fairy in a single source (and we do see this even in anecdotal accounts). Trolls are a bit like this in that they have regional variants, but their folklore is a bit more cohesive; large, generally grumpy, turns to stone in sunlight. Ogres are man-eating giants.

Uailo asks: Do you think Yunnwi Tsundi(for others reading they are the "little people" of the Cherokee lore) classify as Fairies or more Nature Spirits? Or just "Other"? They seem to have some similar antics and qualities.
My answer: I tend to see the Yundwi Tsundi and the Nunnehi, as along the lines of a kind of fairy type being, much like the Jinn might be. I think cross-culturally there are a lot of similarities.

Donald asks: Could some cryptid encounters actually be fae?
My answer: I think some of what are called cryptids now would have been called fairies historically.

Shannon asks: How do you protect and support kids who are sensitive to this stuff?
My answer: I think listening and believing them when they talk about their experiences is very important. Also not blowing off their concerns or fears when they are expressed. You can start teaching children young how to ground and center, shield, focus, cleanse, all the basic good psychic hygiene things.

Melissa asks: What would America look like if we took the idea of faeries seriously?What is a faery, anyway? And should I be worried?
Help! My teenager lives in the Otherworld! How do I get her back to (my) reality?
what are shadow people and how can I defend myself and my family against them?
My answers: 1. Probably a lot better to be honest
2. A fairy, or faery (spelling has always varied widely), is a general term for a being of the Otherworld. The word has been in use since about the 13th century in English, originally as a term for the place and an adjective for things with the nature of that place.
3. Should you be worried about fairies? Possibly
4. Have you tried turning her socks inside out or burning mugwort around her?
5. Opinions on this will vary.For my own part I think that shadow people are more a category than a single thing. I think we can find human ghosts that interact in this form, negative entities that appear this way, and also some fairies that can present as shadow people. Because they inspire fear one way I have found to effectively deal with them is to stand up to them. Many spirits that feed on fear, again ime, will leave if you don't give them what they want. I've also used some traditional Icelandic runestaves against ghosts that have proved effective against shadow people as well, and iron seems to work well against negative entities in general in many cases. Unfortunately because they are so diverse sometimes it takes some experimentation to find what will work in a specific situation with them

2018 in Review

Its hard to believe we're already wrapping up 2018. Inspired by Benebell Wen's 'My 2018 Year in Review' post linked on social media I thought I'd do my own version here.
So, my 2018.

I travelled a lot this year!
In April I went to Ireland, visiting Ardagh, Sligo, and the Beara Peninsula. Part of that was for a Land Sea Sky Travel tour and it was a great experience.

June I was back for another year at the Morrigan's Call Retreat and in July I went down to Atlanta for the Mystic South Conference

Mystic South was a great conference. I had fun with my presentations and I was able to hang out with old friends and new.
Then in September I went to Iceland, travelling from Reykjavik up to Akureyri with the fabulous Land Sea Sky Travel on the Hiddenfolk, Witches, and Elves tour. I think this may have been the most accurately named tour ever.

Shoutout to my travel buddy Mel who lets me drag her to all sorts of random places. Level 7 friendship unlocked.

I wrote a lot this year as well. I had my usual blogging for Patheos Agora, but I also started blogging on Witches & Pagans, kept up with my personal blogging here (albeit scaled back a  bit later in the year) and wrote for my Patreon. I had two articles in an issue of Air n-Aithesc this year and one in Watkins Mind Body Spirit.

I contributed pieces to several anthologies including a chapter for a book (forthcoming in 2019) on Modern witchcraft, articles about the Morrigan and Brighid for an ebook on Celtic Goddesses, and had several pieces published in a really awesome Dagda anthology 'Harp, Club andCauldron: a curated anthology of scholarship, lore, practice and creativewritings on the Dagda' 

I wrote several books: Desire and Ashes (the 7th book in my fiction series), Pagan Portals Manannan, Pagan Portals Fairy Queens, and I'm just wrapping up a New Fairies Dictionary.

I had several books I wrote published this year, including the aforementioned novel Desire and Ashes, as well as Pagan Portals Odin, Travelling the Fairy Path, and Pagan Portals the Dagda.

And inspired by my friend Lora O'Brien I started making youtube videos and ended up with my own youtube channel.

I am of course leaving out all the boring parts and just focusing on the highlights here, but suffice to say there was also a lot of driving kids to school and doctor's appointments, celebrating things, assorted shenanigans, and general life going on. And of course that whole Pleiades thing.

Looking forward to seeing what 2019 has in store.

Witchcraft, Acceptability Politics, and Defiance

I've often said that I think witchcraft, specifically American neopagan witchcraft, is a victim of its own public relations. This is something we can see more and more clearly as different divides appear within the wider community, often over core issues of inclusion or exclusion. Why do these things happen in witchcraft which is at its core something that should be amorphous enough to hold a place for everyone?
Because, I think, we have forgotten where witchcraft came from, where its power is rooted.

There's been a push for decades, since the 1950's at least in my opinion, towards mainstreaming witchcraft and painting a picture of it as gentle and kind. Reimagining witchcraft as the domain of the white middle class, literally recasting the witch as young and white and female - and of course beautiful. Harmless. And intending no harm either.
This idea has been pushed so hard and for so long that many of us have started to believe it ourselves, and there's a whole generation of witches now who see witchcraft as an aesthetic of young, beautiful, spooky (but harmless!) people. Looking like Wednesday Addams but with candles and a cat.

Maybe there's nothing wrong with that, and I have no issue with people whose witchcraft is gentle or based on lighting candles and thinking good thoughts. Witchcraft is expansive, it can fit these new people in.
But.
But we have lost and intentionally subsumed the other (and the Other for that matter) along the way. We have accepted a certain degree of trendy outsider but only so far, only what is still acceptable to the wider mainstream. We hate being embarrassed by those people*, the ones who make us all look bad by going too far, by being too queer, too ethnic, too macabre, too spirit-ridden, too dramatic, too big, too different, too outside the norm. Too much. Satan? Definitely off limits. Making pacts with spirits? So early modern witchcraft-ish. Necromancy? Too Hollywood. Oh mainstream witches may talk about all of these things repackaged into more palatable forms but the real gritty bloody practices no. And then there's the people who we politely segregate, the ones we suggest make their own spaces and get out of ours, the people of color, the trans people, the gender non-conforming, people from specific cultures. Actual inclusion is too messy. Too intersectional and difficult and requires making space and letting people speak for themselves instead of speaking for them.

We talk a lot about spirits and Gods but we don't seem to actual live that talk. There's no teeth to the belief.

We have forgotten the power of feasting with the Devil and dancing with the Queen of Elphame.
We have forgotten the need to heal with magic when there is no money to heal with doctors.
We have forgotten the rage of the unheard victim who knows they will find no justice in any court and turns instead to a moonless night and thorns and clay.
Well...some of us have forgotten.
Because it's easy when we live in relative comfort and safety, when danger is an idea rather than a reality, to forget the visceral needs that drove and still drive people to feast and dance and heal and hex. It's easy to forget when we are part of the comfortable majority, in any sense, what it's like for those of us who are not, who live on the fringes. Who don't choose witchcraft for for gentle reasons but for survival and defiance. The disabled, the queer, the marginalized, the unwanted. And the people for whom witchcraft isn't a choice but an inheritance, a culture, a way of life. People for whom witchcraft is about power.
We need to remember all of these things.

Its time and past time to stop worrying so much about what the mainstream thinks. They will never stop trying to make us like them and they will never accept us based on our attempts to be just like them unless we sell our souls to their God. It's time to start living in our own power, to get our hands dirty and bloody again, to go out under that dark moon and feast and dance - or at the very least to accept that some of our witchcraft kin do so and that they are witches as much as anyone else is. To embrace defiance.
Acceptability politics won't save us. Witchcraft that is inclusive and wild just might.


*my usual disclaimer that no I do not mean actual predators or dangerous people here. They deserve to be shunned and should be

The Selkie Resistance Agenda

Today's post is meant just for fun (mostly) and is based off something a few of my friends came up with a while ago, the Selkie Resistance, which is in part about loving the ocean and hating modern society's aesthetic standards.
I'm trying to keep this humorous, hence the format, and what follows is entirely my own opinion. I do not speak for the entire Selkie Resistance ;) And yes I realize this isn't really an agenda per se.

Always dive deeply
Be true to yourself
Curiosity is a gift
Devour their hearts
Enjoy what you can
Find your flow
Go where the waves call you
Home is where you find rest
Its alright to let the water carry you
Joy doesn't need an excuse
Keep swimming
Learn your own tides
Making waves is okay
Nothing is really permanent
Oceans exist inside and out
Play whenever you can
Quests don't always end well
Rage heals; so does rest
Selkies of the world unite
Tears have power too
Value the worth not the weight
Water is always the answer
You are beautiful

Evolution of My Spirituality

I was asked on social media to talk a bit about my personal practice, so I thought a short blog about it would be a good approach. I've been pagan now for nearly 30 years and in that time my approach to everything has changed drastically more than once so its interesting to answer this question now, knowing what I say will be different than what I would have said 10 or 20 years ago and what I might say 10 or 20 years from now.

When I first started out in this spirituality I was very young and mostly modeling my practice from what I could glean out of available books. The result was a very stylized, formal, and rigid structure. At first I would follow a book exactly to make sure I was doing it correctly, dog-earing pages so I could flip between sections as I performed each part of a ritual or spell. Later as I shifted into a more reconstructionist approach I became more comfortable innovating but I carried forward a sense that a good ritual or even spell needed formality and rigidity. This was exacerbated as I joined Druidic groups which also focused on very formal, complex ritual structures. When I later began exploring Heathenry I was introduced to the idea that ritual could be simple and effective and this led me into a deep dive on older ritual structures including Celtic cultural feasting practices which were very eye opening for me*. In turn this influenced my personal approach to witchcraft and the Fairy Faith.

Ironically as I began to see the value and power in simplified ritual and to understand why we did each part of the structure - and so what in my own practice of it was actually essential and what wasn't - I ended up returning to a closer approximation of what I had done when I was much younger before I had stumbled across the idea of formalized spirituality at all. Nonetheless when I wrote down the outline of my own witchcraft practices in my book in 2013 I kept a slightly more formalized approach in there knowing that such structure had been comforting and necessary to me at one point and that especially when I'd been starting out on my path connecting my witchcraft to Fairy that more formal structure had its value. I mention that here because while I don't personally follow the same approach anymore I do still think that's a good place for people to begin, especially if they are coming from neopaganism more generally, and that aspects of that structure offer a level of safety my current approach does not.

At this point in my life my own magical work and spiritual practice is more spontaneous and fluid. I do love having set holidays to celebrate and I think holidays and holiday traditions are very important both in passing on beliefs and in creating connection between us and the Other (or Gods, spirits, ancestors, seasons, or what have you). Previously my holiday schedule was fairly reconstructionist in nature but as those who follow my blog and Patreon know that has recently been changing as I feel my way to a new cycle. Exciting times.

My approach to the rituals themselves is fairly simple and organic for the most part and usually just involves casting a compass with fresh water opening the rite and creating a space between worlds, calling in the spirits, making offerings, speaking to the spirits as needed, doing divination as needed, finishing with more offerings (think of it like welcome gifts and parting gifts), asking for peace between myself and whatever showed up as I say goodbye, then returning the space to its former state. I use this structure for holidays and for dark moon rituals although for dark moons I may also include meditation or journeywork. For spells or magic I would only go to those lengths if I was doing something major. Usually magic is a matter of simple actions and words, often involving yarn or fire.

I do have set things I say or repeat in these rituals and spells because words have power and repeated words gain power over time in my opinion. I'm a collector of old folk spells and charms and I also write my own and use them over time, and as well I've had things come to me in dreams or visions that I use. I also will use spontaneous speech when needed so not everything is old, traditional, or something I've been using for years. Sometimes the most powerful magic can come from words uttered in the moment when magic is being cast.

Daily practices are also generally simple and include small offerings and focused awareness. Focused awareness is a state of mind I try to have where I pay attention to potential omens, messages, just basically try to listen more than I talk if that makes sense. Talking to the spirits is easy but listening isn't always something people think to do, not really, so I have found it helpful to make an effort to throughout the day no matter how chaotic or hectic it is. And yes I often end up doing this in places like the bathroom, or while I'm cooking, or out walking, or while everyone else is watching tv. I make note of my dreams and if I remember them I write them down, as I believe that some dreams are actually the spirit wandering out and should be treated as real. I try to engage on some level with the beings who I feel are my allies or friends (if you will) as often as possible. I pay attention to the Otherworldly things I might See or experience and try to note patterns or trends as well as work, daily, to keep things in my general area and home smooth with Them.

I'm not trying to say any of this is easy, its not, and I want to emphasize here that this is distilled practice after almost three decades so please don't anyone use me as a measuring stick - there's many ways I could do better and things I've gotten pretty well dialed in now. I also, I've mentioned in other blogs about my particular fairy priestessing, don't necessarily recommend my personal path to anyone. Certainly the wider tradition of blending witchcraft with fairywork I do recommend which is why write about it, but the specific dedication and service to Themselves I advise caution with as it is consuming. I think some of that is reflected in my daily practices and I'm not even getting into the details of dietary things or personal taboos.

So this is where I am currently at with my personal practice. I feel like every change has helped me grow closer and deeper into my work and I am glad for that. In many ways I wish that I didn't have to stumble along creating this as I go but I have tried many other traditions along the way - and learned a lot from each experience - and I have never found anything yet that is suite right for what I'm looking for except what I do myself. My witchcraft isn't something that fits well in the ceremonial magic structure or the neopagan one that comes from it, its far closer to early modern witchcraft. My spirituality isn't easily fit into CR, Irish-focused neopaganism, or Heathenry although it looks to all three. My focus on the Good People is something I've only found, minus the religious overtones, in the traditional beliefs of Ireland and those people who were once known to be away with the fairies. Which leaves me with no choice but to forge ahead as best I can.

And so I do. And I change and grow and try to learn and do the best I can to honour the Other and to serve Them, and to preserve and continue the traditional beliefs respectfully.

I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, or even perhaps 5 years ago, and that is alright. As the saying goes that which isn't growing is dying. I'm sure I contradict things I've said and opinions I've had before, do things now I probably once told other people never to do, and that's also alright. To quote Walt Whitman: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.". Opinions change, people change, and we should never be afraid to acknowledge that.
I'm not the same person I was even 2 years ago - I went into the sidhe at Cruachan and I came out a different person, I stood on Tlachtga surrounded by fires and walked away a different person.
And I've learned to love the person I am now.

*I highly recommend Lady With A Mead Cup by enright for more on this