Kristin Barton's Blog: Shadowy Brightness...Musings of a Wiccan Coven Leader

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!  "Prerequisite to Wicca 101:  A High Priestess Reveals What Beginner Books Won't Tell" is available on the following link:  http://store.payloadz.com/details/2356775-ebooks-religion-and-spirituality-prerequisite-to-wicca-101.html

 

While the entire Wheel of the Year is magical and wondrous, I admit a soft spot for Autumn and its Sabbats. Here at the covenstead, things are buzzing, and we're preparing for both Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox, or "Witch's Thanksgiving," and Samhain, the celebration of the Ancestors. This year at Mabon (Sept 21) we are triple-blessed, as we will celebrate not only the harvest and the abundance of our lives, but also the wedding of a covener and the initiation of another covener.

On our Mabon feast table, our group places every food we wish to enjoy in the coming year. That's right...everything! Fin and hoof and feather, all manner of veggies and fruits, grains, cheeses, chocolates, nuts, water and wine...the works. The feast is not to be missed! And this year, it is my joy to watch a new Neophyte, preparing for her initiation about a year from now, conducting her first minor Sabbat in the priestess role. She has studied hard for over a year to get here, and now she's ready to show her stuff! Looking so forward to this ritual!

After the Sabbat, we initiate our first "home grown" Priestess since we hived our coven almost 5 years ago. "S" has completed her first two non-initiatory elevations and will be brought into the inner court as a full-fledged Initiate. What an honor it is to watch her grow into this role.

The covenstead sings with life, teems with the scent of fresh-baked goodies, and tingles with anticipation of the Mabon Rites. Let the celebration begin!

Announcing Free Spirit Gathering 2013, a wonderful Pagan festival given annually in Maryland.  This fest has everything a great Pagan gathering should have...A large campground with various housing options, optional food plan or bring your own and cook, classes galore taught by highly experienced teachers from many different Pagan paths, dances, workshops, kids and teens programming, transformative ecstatic journeying, spontaneous and planned rituals, great vendors, and much more! 

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Every once in a while I stop and wonder at my life.  Sure, there are a lot of twists and turns and stresses (like the break up of my daughter's engagement and her resulting residence in my basement to await the birth of her daughter in August, for instance), but all in all, I have the most blessed existence.  I believe fully that this is because I have embraced magic as a way of life.  What does that mean?  It means driving my own vessel and behaving as though everything i...

I'm so happy that Imbolc is approaching.  It's such a lovely time of year and the ceremonies that my coven holds are so positive and life-affirming.  This year, my coven will vigil and I'm super excited about that.  We're going to do some fun, Imbolc related crafts during the evening and then have a lovely breakfast in the morning before closing the circle.

 

Here are some fun and easy Imbolc activities:

1. Recombine candle wax to make new candles.  You can do this ei...

In the first installment of this discussion, we talked about the possible meanings of the Wiccan Rede and how we got the Rede.  I recommend that you read the first part before you read this part, as it will make a lot more sense to you to read them in order.

 

In the last installment of this discussion, we addressed that "do as thou wilt" or "do as you will" or "do what you will" can mean more than just "do whatever you want."  We talked about how the "will" is a point of activ...

As a Wiccan clergy person who writes a lot about Wicca on the net and therefore discusses Wicca a lot on the net, it inevitably comes up that people want to talk with me about the basic aspects of the religion.  And that's wonderful. As any long-time Wiccan of any stripe will tell you, discussing the basics is not just for newbies.  As a matter of fact, if you get a bunch of formally trained 3rd degree High Priestesses and High Priests and other seasoned Wiccans into a room (provide...

Through an interchange with a non-Wiccan person recently, it occurred to me that many people in our larger culture automatically think of "religion" as being about "beliefs."  Why wouldn't they?  After all, most religions to which we are likely to be exposed in this culture are based on beliefs and on "faith." 

When trying to explain to this person my reasons for writing certain things, it became glaringly apparent that when I make statements about what defines Wicca, it can be...