29 April 2006

The Witches are having a Solstice festival - With Wendy Rule!

| johnboy
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Canberra’s witches are taking over Ginninderra Village from June 17th to July 16th, 2006 to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Details here. It sounds like a pretty exciting program of witchy events, with singer Wendy Rule coming to both sing and give workshops in the use of voice in ritual. (I now understand a lot more about my female friends who own Wendy Rule CD’s).

The Witches meetup page is also very excited.

I particularly liked this description of the main event.

Winter Solstice Ritual – AN ASATRU BLOT – all welcome including kids
BYO plate to share afterwards

Because after making supplication to the Elder Gods, I guess it’s nice to share your pasta bake.

Incidentally ACT Tourism should be doing something with this. I’m sure North American wiccans and witches would love to experience a Winter Solstice in June.

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Absent Diane8:37 pm 02 May 06

but you have to admit… that a lot of christian traditions bare a striking similarity to religions far older that christianity has slandered for being pagan. this includes there beloved jesus…

Mael – they didn’t still easter they took the concept of death and rebirth at the same period of the lunar cycle and made it their own… and killed anyone else who said it was theirs…

Paganism is as equally as fanciful as any religion… but a lot funner

I think you’ll all find most religions started having celebrations at similar times due to lunar events. Saying that the Christians ‘took’ or ‘stole’ them is taking a bit of a step without being absolutely sure that there is hard ground where your foot will land.

AKA show me the vellum parchment that says words to the effect of ‘We officially steal Easter and call it ours’.

I love the stone henge comment – 1 vote for ^bump to tagline

Absent Diane3:48 pm 02 May 06

I agree with wonsworld… halo’s represent sun god worship…. religious festivals around the times of winter solstice (north hemisphere) and equinox… the fact that most major paganistic religions had a dude who road into town kicked some ass on behalf of the little people, got captured, died as a martyr for the little people (around the time of the spring equinox), was ressurected a couple of days later..

Christianity is essentially a pagan religion… therefore christians have no right to knock other pagan religions…

Ari.. Chaffless weed is the best option… and Stone Henge is actually the world’s largest mull bowl

Thumper. I think broomstick flyers are akin to the mob that is into yogic flying 🙂

So that’s why Stonehenge is ring-shaped?

I thought that bit was about putting groovy drugs on the end of the broomstick and sticking it up your date.

whatever floats your boat….

Wonsworld – do find a lot of chaff in your weed?

And, to put it politely, Christianity ain’t exactly what I’d call one cohesively organised bunch either. Yes, most of them are at least working off a roughly similar version of the Bible, but there’s enough variant readings and “oh, but of course, that doesn’t apply to us” attitudes out there to mean that pretty much any attitude you choose to adopt in any given situation is probably defended as Christian in one way or another.

Mael, I think the point you (maybe purposely?) missed here is that the practice of paganism/shamanism has been around for centuries, much to the chagrin of the church (who promptly adapted most pagan major festivals as their own and just changed the name). It was the name of Wicca that was ratified (for want of a better word) 50 years or so ago to describe a particular practice of paganism.

You suggest that the lack of rules is a problem. I agree that unlike most churches or religions, in Wicca there is no one powerful all controlling central agency or body to govern policies or request $$ from the followers. There are neither prophets nor messengers to say that Wicca is the only way. But I don’t see the “no rukes” concept as being a problem, it simply allows the person to adapt Wicca to suit their own needs.

In fact Wicca is a very personal way in which any individual may find a spiritual place in their lives. You may not like it nor believe in it but that’s no reason to say it doesn’t work for someone else. If people can work out a spiritual connection or belief that works for them to have a link to a God or a Goddess (or whoever) and that gives them an inner peace then more power to them.

Yes there may be unscrupulous individuals who claim that their “coven” (or whatever) is the be all and end all and their way is the one “true” way, but you will get that with any number of things in this life. Some people are louder than others (look at the people who post in this site hehehe). But really, like anything, it is up the individual to sort out the chaff from the weed and make up his or her own mind as (you obviously have, just as I have). But really, I think that the people who you suggest would be buying candles and trinkets are probably the same people who would be buying rosary beads and icons if it were Christianity that attracted them or burning incense and chanting if it was Buddhism. Some people go the whole hog no matter what they turn to.

I like the way that it’s ‘pagan’, but it’s only been around since the 1950’s…

Kind of gives it away that it’s MADE UP GARBAGE, AND IT’S MERELY A WAY OF SELLING CHEAP TRINKETS AND CANDLES TO IMPRESSIONABLE WOMEN.

Kind of like going into Freedom Furniture and seeing what kind of asian/indian/edwardian theme they’re plugging this season, only more well established.. aka it’s not linked to ‘seasons’, it’s more of a fad that women progress through; like being a goth till they find out they have to hang out in graveyards and talk like Daria etc..

The great thing about paganism though is so little rules are out there, that it’s easy to manipulate it to your every whim (hence some of the appeal factor). Ask any pro-pagan how many gods there are for example.

The answer should be ‘shitloads’.

There’s the god of the trees, then there’s the god of ‘this’ tree, the god of the harvest, the god of the leaves, the god of that thought that just passed, the god of the foul thing I just flushed down the toilet… you get my drift.

Anyway, I prefer Pilgrimism over Paganism;

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

I’ll see you there 🙂

Mmmmmmm…..

lot of beer…..

(gurgling noise)

I’ll bring the T-Bones…. Some for us and one for the fish.

Speaking of beer, call me Jesus but I just put down a homebrew this weekend.

The great news is, although I can do it (I know I can), the wife won’t let me drink 50 glorious litres of Coopers Draught in one sitting, and I have to check out my new beerfridge, complete with external taps.

Once it’s ready (I have to test it thoroughly – I may even have to put another brew on), I’ll set a date and we can all talk shite in the back yard. I’ll fill you all in on a plan Bulldog, Thumper and I came up with a couple of months ago involving fishing, the RiotACT and a hot sunny day (and beer).

witches shmitches – as long as they’re having fun and not hurting anyone they can knock themselves out.

As for casting spells – well unless they cast a spell on me to turn me into a loudmouthed, beer loving braggart – there’s no such thing.

Cast a spell on me then, I dare you…

Ooh, Mael, I expected better from you!

I’ll be there, if only because Wendy Rule is fab!

Because they haven’t identified that they are casting a spell, which has had a tangible or even semi-credible effect.

There’s no prerequisite for secrecy as far as I am aware, that’s for the AWB and Department of Defence matters.

Mael: How do you know they haven’t cast a spell on you already?

wicca, white magic, black magic, voodoo, hocus pocus, I don’t care.

I’ve heard it called a lot of things, wicca I have only heard in recent years, previously it was called heather, and before that it was white magic and white witches.

Until I have had a spell cast on me, I’ll continue thinking it’s more of a fashion choice than a reality.

Since there’s going to be a larger abundance of them than usual, I reemphasise my open invitation:

Cast a spell on me, influence my interspatial trajectory1.

Or just burn a candle and think good/evil thoughts, it doesn’t matter either way. Until I am affected by ‘wicker’, I’ll continue considering it a material for making baskets.

**Disclaimer**
Except those people who believe in wicker who are in a position of power above me and can actually influence my career (eg: fire me), which isn’t a display of wicker anyway, it’s a display of rank.

I’ll go to see if any of them are lighter than a duck

She turned me into a newt!

barking toad8:33 pm 29 Apr 06

Throw ’em into the pond!

yet more lost souls who have so little faith in the abilities of man they look for answers from con artists and story tellers.

any form of organised religion is all about picking your pockets.

even jesus chased avaricious priests from the temple.

i would hope my rates were not spent on promoting mind control.

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