Pagan Radio Network

There is some really great programing on the Pagan Radio Network. Check them out! Don't forget your support for these types of programs is what helps their creators make them available to us.

Have a Wicked Good Day!
Molly

The Magic, Rhonda Byrne (Law of Attraction)

 

Many of us have heard of, if not read and watched TheSecret. This is an inspirational book and film aimed at helping people take responsibility for themselves and the circumstances they find themselves on a daily basis. I have read the book, watched the movie and for the most part have seen the results of taking responsibility for my life’s circumstances. 

Click here to reserve your copy TODAY!!

The author of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, has other books out that go along and expand on this type of thinking and belief system. This information is not new and it can be found in many ancient texts, and some not so ancient writers have approached this concept in the more recent past. Some of the authors include Wallace D. Wattles, Napoleon Hill, and William ClementStone. 

Though Ms. Byrne is not writing about anything new in the concept of Divinity residing within each of us, she does bring the concept to us in terms and concepts that we can more readily accept in today’s tumultuous world.

The next book in Ms. Brynes’ series of self empowerment and discovery series, is titled The Magic, and based on her other books I expect it will be a more in-depth look at how to actively use the Law of Attraction in our personal lives to create more experiences and circumstances we find fulfilling and make us whole. 

Make sure you reserve your copy of The Magic, so you can be one of the first to start your journey through Magic and the Law of Attraction.

Have a Wicked Good Day!

Molly

Drifting and Defining

 

How many of us have started our Spiritual paths on alternative pathways only to find that after a short period of searching and looking at various forms of witchcraft, paganism, magickal practices, etc… we now have found ourselves completely adrift; like a small piece of cork just bobbing along in the currents of life and magick?

When I first started searching for my way, I read every book I could find, joined a couple different groups, and even became a Healing Minister in the ULC (Universal Life Church) so that I could legally perform marriages, and other religious rites. I never fully engaged in my minister ship, mainly because I really just enjoyed giving the occasionally services, in the local metaphysical church I was attending.  I was not really sure of the path I wanted to follow and spent most of my time drifting from one alternative path to another.

Reiki

During this time I also became a Reiki master, and though I am able to use this healing modality effectively, I normally do not practice Reiki other than to send Reiki energy to people from a distance. 

After about three years of this drifting around, I returned to witchcraft as a more dominant focus. The problem with that was there were sooooo many books and people “out there” claiming their path was the only path. What they forgot to mention in these books, lectures and random conversations was… their path is the only path for them….

I am also a student of Anthropology and find that much of what people claim are ancient practices, simply are not. There are many things we do not understand about the pagan or magickal practices of our ancestors.  Sure there are written records in some cases, very detailed records, but I wonder….

 I have practices and personal connections and understandings of divinity and my spiritual practices where there are no words, known to man; that can adequately describe my experiences. The artifacts that might or might not be found hundreds or thousands of years after I’m gone will likely be misinterpreted. I’m sure they would be…. Many of the trappings of my workings are common objects or could be understood completely differently than my intentions, especially when viewed through the eyes of someone who has not lived in my lifetime nor experienced my world.

I guess what I’m trying to say is what most of us think is the way things were, probably weren’t…

This is where things get muddled for me… I have a strong desire to “know” and “understand” the past and how my ancestors related to the divine. I also know that until they invent a time machine that can take me to the past, I can only make educated guesses at best. I have also found that a connection to the Divine is ever changing. My understanding of any particular expression of Divinity is, by default, filtered through my place on the human time line, the events and people who have shaped my understanding of the world, and my own ability and willingness to make the connection.

After all my studying and making connections with Divinity, I still find myself feeling like that piece of cork bobbing along the currents.

art on cave walls at chauve

Paleolithic art

 I’m beginning to think and feel this is just the beginning of the shift in how humans relate to the Divine. I know my understanding is changing and solidifying. As I research aspects of Divinity that were possibly revered by my Slavic ancestors, I am finding that the beliefs and practices I have may have roots in that ancient connection to the past.  I also found this to be true when I was researching the practices of my ancestors who hail from the British Isles and other northern European ancestors, such as the ancient Germanic tribes.

Most of all I’ve found a much deeper connection in what

may be the Paleolithic peoples. That energy is a much more primal and personal energy and is where I go for my deepest connections and understanding of divinity.

Have a Wicked Good Day!

Molly

Dadźbóg

 

This week I had a couple D words I thought I wanted to write about for the Pagan Blog Project (PBP).

I spent a while researching Didgeridoos, and finally came to the conclusion I was not the right person to tell that story. I love the music and the information was fascinating, but something within me keep niggling at me… when I finally stopped to listen to what was going on in the background, I got the message loud and clear… I just am not supposed to tell the story of the Didgeridoo. Traditionally it is a male instrument and females do not play it… it just feels like I would have been dishonoring something were I to talk at length about it.

So, on to the D word that was actually calling me this whole week, even though I got sidetracked Down Under for a day or so…  

In an earlier post I talked about being of Polish ancestry and this week on and off I kept returning to the thought that I wanted to know more about the pre-Christian practices of my ancestors. I found myself looking for anything I could find about the Gods and Goddess that were worshiped, the days that were celebrated, and anything else I could find. 

I finally settled on Dadźbóg. After reading much information it became very clear that the gods and goddess of my Polish ancestors were often the same gods and goddesses of other Slavic speaking peoples in the region. There was some regionalization and yet Dadźbóg, was a universal god in that region. There are several pronunciations and spellings for this particular god, which I am not going to go into at this time. I am going to focus on the essence of this particular god; as that is what I feel is important. 

Because I’m not a linguist,  I’ve included some information detailing the entomology of this god’s name. 

Most scholars agree the root dažd- or daj- is derived from root of the verb dati "to give". Thus, according to Dubenskij, Ognovskij and Niderle, Dažbog would be "giving god", "god-giver, "god-donor". The close related word to slavic Dažd is in Avestian or east-Iranian language - dazdâ, dazda "gifts".^[1] This is particularly interesting since the Proto-Slavic word for god, *bagu (> Common Slavic *bogъ), the suffix of Dažbog's name, is argued either to be of Iranian origin (being related to Indo-Iranian etymons such as Old Persian baga, Sanskrit bhaga), or being semantically influenced by Iranian source, both being ultimately derived from PIE root *bʰag-, whose reflexes in both Slavic and Indo-Iranian came to mean both "deity" and "wealth, share".^[2] Thus, translated literally, Dažbog would be "giver of fortune". This echoes the ancient Indo-European concept that deity is, in essence, an entity which gives wealth and abundance, an indication, perhaps, that Dažbog is a relic from common Proto-Indo-European religion, or even that this was not a name for any particular Slavic god, but a general epithet of a deity. (Dažbog)

 

The idea, expressed above, indicates this particular god may not be an individual god, but instead may be a conceptualized understanding of deity in general, which feels right to me. 

The story of Dadźbóg, is often associated with wolves and sometimes is referred to as the lame shepard of wolves. He is also thought to be a Sun god who rises in the East as a golden infant who travels through his twelve kingdoms ( possibly the signs of the zodiac) in his chariot pulled by either three or twelve horses (depending on the legend),  he ultimately dies at the end of the day as an old man. Many of the stories I found on the internet shared similarities, but the details were sometimes different. This is common when trying to resurrect the old stories or reconstruct the old practices of most pre-Christian religions. 

Rather than regurgitate the information I found about this god, I have shared the information I thought was the most insightful for me. I have also decided to take the time to get to know this god and other gods and goddesses from this particular region. I really appreciate the work that went into the sites I reviewed to find out more about the Polish pantheon and Dadźbóg, in particular, but I know the information is primarily derived from stores or accounts, told by outsiders. Often when another culture tells the stories of another cultures deities and spiritual practices, the stories get distorted and often are told in an unforgiving or incomplete light.

I encourage you to take the time to read the information provided at the websites below. These are probably pretty good basic legends and a great place to get started on my path to knowing these deities and possibly building relationship with them. 

References:

beling.net. 17 02 2012 http://beling.net/articles/about/Da%C5%BEbog

Care erau zeii slavilor? 17 02 2012 http://www.frontpress.ro/?p=21443

Dazbog. 13 02 2012 http://www.fact-index.com/d/da/dazbog.html

Dažbog. 15 02 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C5%BEbog

Deities of pre-Christian Poland. 16 02 2012 http://sourceryforge.org/index.php/Polish_Pantheon

Polish Paganism. 12 02 2012 http://polishtoledo.com/pagan/index.htm

Slavic Deities and The Unclean Force. 16 02 2012 http://www.slavpaganism.com/#!__deities/a---da

SLAVIC GODS. 17 02 2012 http://slavialand.org/slavicgods.htm

Slavic Myth and Religion. 14 02 2012 http://www.winterscapes.com/slavic.htm

Slavic mythology. 17 02 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_mythology

Have a Wicked Good Day!
Molly

Kitchen Witch

 Kitchen Witch

She works on her newest recipe
All the while thinking
Mixing, stirring, humming

Her thoughts are of a time not so long ago
A time when she was small
Sitting at the table
Listening to her mother
Mixing stirring humming

Now, she is the mom
And she knows—
Mixing, stirring, humming

The pot boiling on her stove
Filled with her love
Is not the same
For her pot is filled with Magick!
Mixing, stirring, humming

Madame Molly

9/7/2011

Have a Wicked Good Day!

Molly

Magickal Children

 

As the mother of five children, one granddaughter, and two more grandchildren due this month; children are an integral part of my life. Whether we currently are raising children, occasionally see our grandchildren or have no real contact with children; we were all children at some point in our lives. I know this is stating the obvious, but sometimes we forget how important childhood is in the development of adults.

As I kid I was raised catholic and had to attend CCD classes, which were designed to teach us how to be good Catholics. The material we learned with was usually age appropriate and designed by catholic educators. This made learning somewhat fun. 

As a Pagan/Magickal parent I really didn’t have any teaching materials available to offer my children. I looked for teaching material similar to the material I was given as a child growing up Catholic, but I never really found what I was looking for.  I do remember running across Lora Craig-Gaddis' Pooka Pages for Pagan Kids, but at the time my older children were in their teens and were not interested in the material and my youngest was an infant. I Loved Pooka and Elsie and their adventures, I wanted to share them with children, but like I said, at the time I didn’t have any in my life (who were interested) to share this material with. 
 

www.pookapages.com

Now that my youngest is showing an interest in my spirituality, I have found Pooka Pages once again. I am thrilled to see the familiar characters of Elsie and Pooka are still brewing up magickal stories that teach little ones. As my grandchildren come in to this world and grow, I hope their parents will let me share Pooka Pages and other similar materials with them.

Have a Wicked Good Day!

Molly

Curses

To curse or not to curse that is the question. There are many who practice modern magick in some form or other, who would immediately claim that laying a curse on another is not a proper use of magick. On many levels, I will agree with that statement and yet there are times when laying a curse on another is an appropriate step to take. 

Although there are many curses to be found in books and on the internet, it is best to take some time to assess the situation before deciding a curse is the best course of action.  In most instances a curse is not appropriate and should be avoided. 

So... what is a curse?

A curse is energy that is working in a way that causes harm or misfortune. 

Curses can be intentionally cast or lain on another, but can also be a strong energetic of ill will towards another that was directed in the “heat of the moment”. Similar to pointing a finger at another and wishing or stating something as innocuous as “I hope you get sick”. Another example of an unintentional curse is the gestures, angry words and faces exchanged between drivers.

Sometimes a curse can actually result from a spell that has not worked out well or has just gone terribly wrong somewhere along the way.

There is nothing wrong with protecting yourself or others through the use of magick. It is important that you and those who may have requested your help in cursing or using magick in a way that is intended to cause directed harm at another(s); be reminded the spells you cast tend to have a rippling effect and those who you hadn’t thought would be affected, may end up affected. While considering who is potentially effected by magickal energy, don’t forget to consider yourself and/or whoever requested the spell be cast. 

There are many Wiccans who believe in the three fold law or some version similar, and this concept is valid if you believe that which you cast will return to you through the ripples of energy moving throughout the universe. This is reflected in the Wiccan Rede. 

Not all Pagans or Magickal workers work within these guide lines. I tend to believe that when Aleister Crowley stated in his Thelemic Laws; “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” …  He was alluding to the concept that when people know and follow their true wills, they would then be in harmony with the ebb and flow of the universe.  If you have taken the time to really assess what this represents to you and you are willing to pay the piper… so to speak…or understand that following your will is not in direct conflict with another.... then by all means… cast away…

Have a Wicked Good Day!

Molly