This week, to help prepare for Ostara festivities on the weekend, we have a guest blogger stepping in! Bronwynn Forrest Torgerson, author of One Witch’s Way: A Magical Year of Stories, Spells & Such, writes about the beautiful magic of nature on the spring equinox. Enjoy!

When did our blessed Ostara get to be such a juvenile holiday?  I recall being new to the Craft but long attuned to the seasons and cycles of the earth, and smelling the first breath of Spring in the air.  There was a subtle shifting of energies, an inward stirring of freshness, possibility and new hope in the air.  As a wilderness child, I avidly searched for the first hint that the cold earth had thawed, for the first glimpse of wild dutchmans’ breeches, sweet violets and bloodroot flowers to come pushing up out of the ground.  Ostara brought silver minnows swimming in the creek, gusty breezes to coax kites aloft and wish bubbles to be blown out on the wind with a jar and plastic wand.

Somewhere along the way in the Pagan community, Ostara became only a children’s sabbat with grown-ups hovering awkwardly while kids scouted colored eggs.  There might be a picnic afterwards, with another avalanche of eggs.  What once was heralded as a light-hearted observance of greenings and hatchings and sighings of robins, wrens and hares, has been diminished to Cadbury eggs, jellybeans and egg coloring kits.

For all of us earthlings who are childless, or those whose children have grown, I propose returning Ostara to its roots…and stems and leaves and flowers.  If your young ones or grandkids have lost sight of their connection to the earth, and have no idea why there are chocolate rabbits hopping down from every grocery store shelf, this will be an educational outing for them.  There is magic and meaning in this observance, whether you are a covener of solitairy.  Make of Ostara a day of discovery, of newness in the wild.

If means permit, arrange a weekend camping or cabining trip to a place in nature.  Get away from the city’s concrete and steel. Along with other supplies, take your camera, notebook and pen.  Once settled in, find a picnic bench or break out your camp chair.  Seat yourself comfortably and invoke Ostara, Goddess of Spring:

“Lady of flowers returning, Lady of the earth’s green mantle,

Sweet your presence, blessed your spirit.

Awaken my senses to you, that I might be renewed.”

 Now embark upon your great discovery.  Beginning with your sense of hearing, listen to the sounds of spring.  Is there a gurgling brook or a sunlit creek skipping over small stones?  Are there birds in the trees, industriously setting up housekeeping for the year?  Listen for as long as you like, then record what impressions came to you.

Next consider the smell of spring.  What is the scent of the earth, watered by spring rains?  How does the waterfall smell, rushing by?  Press your face to a leaf or bend to sniff a wildflower.  Tilt your face up towards the sun and drink in the fragrance of the day.  Jot down your thoughts or write a poem about this experience.

You may have to take the taste of spring camping with you.  Put together a salad of spring greens and herbs.  Set a dish of plump strawberries or blackberries for dessert.  I dare you to play at face painting by tracing some of the juice across your nose or cheeks!  Pour yourself a glass of spring water with a sprig of mint.  Dice up an apple and scatter it nearby, that the creatures of the earth might dine too.  If you are led to say a pagan grace, it might be something like this:

“Blessed is the earth on which I stand.  One Mother, giver of all life, renewed and renewing for time without end.  Blessed is the goodness you provide to nurture my body and soul.  May I walk gently, ever mindful of your grace.  So mote it be.”

Savor your little feast and thank Ostara for feeding you once again.  Take time to be grateful.  After your meal, see what gift you can give back to the earth.  Pick up some aluminum cans or trash.  Pour the last of your water at the base of a tree, or bury a few silver coins for the unseen spirits of the land.

Next look around you, visually noticing the colors of spring.  Ostara has painted the land with her palette, hoping you have the eyes to see.  Notice the changes in light and in shadow this time of year.  How many wildflowers have stars outlined in their pastel centers?  Like every good artist, the Goddess signs Her work.  Choose a single flower or a leaf, and press it in your journal.  Stand by a stream and note the patterns on wet stones. Have your camera ready to catch the budding trees’ reflection in the water.

Finally, reach out with both your body and your spirit.  Skip a few of those smooth flat stones!  Roll up your pant legs and go wading and splashing like the earth child you are!  Take your hiking stick in hand and see what’s around the bend.  Rake aside a bit of old brush and reveal the seedlings popping through the ground, tiny mushrooms and insects busy at work.  Tuck leaves into your hair.  Revel in the joy of spring!

When you have returned to your camp, write down anything of special significance to you.  Then thank Ostara with words like these:

Here in the heart of nature, my spirit is renewed

And all my senses quickened.

Let me never lose the sight of beauty,

The scent of the breeze,

The taste of all the earth provides.

Let me hear the living earth hum around me

And feel your love in the weaving of nature’s web.

Blessed Be.”

 Kiss your hand, then blow a kiss to Ostara on the balmy air.  She is all around you, and Her arms encircle the world.  List the treasures your day of exploration has revealed, by saying something like:

“For the little chipmunks who came for food, Ostara, I thank you!

 For the first butterfly in the meadow, Ostara, I thank you!

 For the shiny stone in my pocket, Ostara, I thank you!

Hail to the Mother of Beginnings!  I’m betting that Ostara soon becomes one of your favorite sabbats.  Here’s to the sweetness of welcoming Spring!

 - contributed by Bronwynn Forrest Torgerson

I realized today while proofing some copy on “celebrating the sabbats” that I am more used to seeing the word sabbat capitalized – as in, “celebrating the Sabbats.”

I asked one of our trusted Llewellyn editors what she thought, and she pointed out that the word holiday is never capitalized, but the names of the holidays are. (Or in this case, Beltane, Samhain, Lughnasadh, and so on.) Also it often happens that the word sabbat and the name of the sabbat appear side-by-side, making it look a little silly to capitalize both – “as we approach the Sabbat Beltane,” for example.

What do you think? Do you want to see Sabbat uppercased, or lowercased? Let’s hear your opinions! (And to make things really fun, you can also include how you pronounce Sabbat – I’ve heard a few variations and never really knew why some people preferred one way over another.)

At both conferences I came away with a major theme in my brain, and in this post I’d like to share with you the meaning of PantheaCon for me this year: reconnecting the tribes. PantheaCon’s official theme was “Back to Basics” this time but I think there’s a different way to frame that. It’s not about learning the basics all over again – it’s about advanced practitioners regrouping and retracing their steps with other advanced practitioners who have walked another path. Comparing notes. Exchanging information. Engaging in discussion.

An example of one such discussion: Taylor and Lupa hosted an Immanion Author Panel  titled simply “What Next?” In it, the conversation quickly turned to why there are so few advanced books, and how people develop on their paths in the absence of such upper level books. Many of the folks on the panel said they were looking for more specific information than what was available at the time (in the case of Lupa, for example, on animal magic and totemism; for Erynn Laurie, authentic Celtic practices; for Tony Mierzwicki, authentic Greco-Egyptian magic; etc.) and, not finding what they were looking for, had to devote years of research and experimentation to inform themselves. Of course this always ends with them writing the book they wish had been available when they first started out.

This is a topic that was already on my mind before PantheaCon, and my opinion is that everyone starts at point A; some move on to point B; and then a few, because of divine intervention or their guides or their own tastes and proclivities and lifestyle, shoot off onto an ultra-individualistic tangent. (This is not point C, but more like point N – an infinite number of individual paths are out there, just waiting to be claimed.)

The bright and motivated authors on stage were definitely part of that last group, and in my opinion, any one of them would have forged their own paths even if their books had been available to them at the time – simply because for some people, the journey and the process of discovery is a major part of how they both learn and integrate new material into their own lives. They may not even trust what is printed in books and need to experience things for themselves to progress. Not everyone is like this of course; many people are content to stay at point A or point B, to read books about topics that interest them and learn from others, rather than striking out and pioneering new territory on their own. Or they find their own ground but then keep it to themselves as their own custom-made, tailor-fit practice.

The problem with forging new territory and then writing books about it is that, in some cases, it has become so personal by that point that fewer people can either relate to it or are even interested in it in the first place. This is the main reason Llewellyn doesn’t do many very advanced, nichey books; for Immanion authors, it’s fine to sell hundreds of books whereas at Llewellyn we need to sell thousands to break even. So now there are tons of micro-presses that print their own materials for these ultra-individualistic paths and niches. In addition to Immanion Press, for example, Raven Kaldera publishes advanced Norse shamanistic books through his own Asphodel Press; Neos Alexandria publishes the Bibliotheca Alexandrina book series on the Greek deities; David Rankine and Sorita D’Este run Avalonia Books for advanced witchcraft and magic materials, and so on and so on.

By contrast, when I acquire advanced books for Llewellyn, I try to ensure they are not overly nichey in topic; what makes them advanced is the sheer amount of serious research poured into them; how seriously the topics are taken; and the advanced skills that are taught within their pages. For example, The Angelical Language volumes 1 & 2 are books that can be used by any serious magician interested in Enochian magic (or any linguists interested in created languages); yet they are definitely advanced because Aaron Leitch has been working on them for years and so have I! (I first got his manuscripts in 2006, the editor started editing the books last October, and finally last week we sent them to the printer. They are May releases.) What he has achieved truly constitutes a huge step forward in Enochian studies. Similarly, another forthcoming book, The Dictionary of Demons by Michelle Belanger (the book is not yet listed on our website), is possibly the most-researched book on the demons named in medieval European grimoires that has ever been or will ever be written. Yet it’s accessible to anyone, no matter where their interest in demons leans – invoking them or exorcising them. And Christopher Penczak’s very advanced books on witchcraft, The Living Temple of Witchcraft volumes 1 & 2 teach advanced skills, but are accessible to a very broad range of Pagan and Wiccan High Priests and Priestesses. (I’m biased of course, but I think these books could be used by future elders of virtually any path.) I could name plenty of other books in this vein, as well as the occasional books we publish that truly are nichey.

In my opinion, what really needs to happen in the Pagan community is for everyone to reconnect their separate threads. Come back from the long journeys to inner space and compare notes with others. Like: this is what’s working for me on a higher level with Odin, what is happening with you and Osiris, or with you and dreamwork, or with you and group dynamics? There is a need for this upper level cross-pollination so that people can go back to their own traditions and try something new, perhaps learn a new technique, or perhaps see the pervasive similarities that crop up and attempt to address them. Perhaps they’ll learn how better to deal with politics and in-fighting, power struggles and other issues within their own traditions when they see how others have dealt with it. Perhaps they’ll get a new idea of where they stand and what the next step is in their own path.

When I was later flying back to Minnesota after PantheaCon I bought a Scientific American magazine to “ground” myself after the intense immersion in spiritual realms over the weekend. And it turns out there is a similar dynamic to be seen in the scientific community: individuals specialize in extremely tiny niches and from that point onward seem to have no clue of what is going on in other disciplines around them. They may have infighting amongst themselves, but rarely look outside of their own discipline. For example, one article in the magazine enthusiastically spoke of an imagined future in which advanced biotechnology could allow us to design new living systems, like microbes that could produce non-biodegradable plastic building materials. This, in a scientific magazine! As if we needed more non-biodegradable plastics on the planet! What rock is this guy living under? Meanwhile the next article was about saving the environment from pollutants (such as plastic). A pro-plastic article followed by anti-plastic one? And yes, that’s the answer, it’s exactly that. The Scientific American is a multi-disciplinary magazine covering several branches of science. In reading a magazine like this, the unbridled enthusiasm about plastic in one article can be held in check by other scientists with differing viewpoints. While it would certainly be exciting to derive plastic from non-petroleum sources, there is still the problem of plastic itself. We do need plastic for a variety of reasons, but the counterpoints would urge us to slow down, inspect the alternatives, come together to form a better plastic (or better uses of plastic) so that we don’t kill the oceans entirely. (In other words, scrap the idea about a microbe that produces plastic – create one that eats the plastic that is currently degrading all aquatic life in the Pacific.)

Just as there must be cross-disciplinary meetings in science so that effective communication actually takes place between different branches, we need cross-disciplinary meetings in Paganism. This is one of the best reasons for attending PantheaCon, in my opinion. It allows us to cross-pollinate. Compare notes. Bring together the tribes. Engage in interdisciplinary Paganism.

So those are my thoughts after PantheaCon. Please feel free to comment – do you agree, disagree? Do you ever return to point A or point B with people who have ventured on to other paths and compare notes with them? Do you always find new points of view and nuggets of wisdom when you go to big Pagan meet-ups and festivals? How can we bring all these separate individuals back into some kind of umbrella to reconnect, especially once they’ve all found their own paths of value?

If you’d like to follow my exploits, I’ll be tweeting remotely to Llewellyn’s Twitter account – just check out http://twitter.com/llewellynbooks and follow along! Something strange always happens at PantheaCon, so we’ll see what it is this year. For all PantheaCon-related posts, search for the hashtag #pcon on Twitter.

First, it turns out that dogs love to watch TV. Especially when the TV program is a soap opera whose cast is entirely composed of fellow canines! This article introduces you to people who leave their dog in front of a TV all day, and the happy solution they created to make this tolerable to the pooch. I have mixed feelings about this; obviously pets stay home all day and get bored, but I wouldn’t want to leave the TV on all day, myself. Still, it’s fascinating to think that dogs might get just as addicted to TV programs as people do.

Next up, a decidedly worse habit: a snake who smokes cigarettes. Seriously? Maybe it’s a stunt, but in this article on Treehugger.com the Taiwanese snake’s owner claims that her snake smokes one cigarette in the morning and one at night. Kids, let this be a lesson to you at home: don’t get your snakes hooked on nicotine. Just keep the cigs away from them in the first place! Let them watch TV instead – maybe someone will develop a snake soap opera for them. (Dayssss of our Livesssss?)

The final story is the most disturbing one, in my opinion: a woman in Pennsylvania was charged with animal cruelty for creating and marketing “Gothic kittens.” What do I mean by “creating,” you may ask? As if a sweet black kitten weren’t Goth enough for some of us, this woman took it upon herself to give the cats multiple piercings.

Now, most of us with any interest in both Paganism and cats will know that statues of cats in ancient Egypt showed them wearing necklaces and gold hoop earrings. (Whether the cats actually lived like this full time is debatable – even if you pierced a cat’s ears, just think about how long they would put up with that before clawing or scratching them off. Or worse – snagging them onto something while running, hunting or playing, thus yanking the earring right out of the cat’s ear.)

However, the “Gothic kittens” were taken to an obscene level. First off, their ears were not pierced with thin, light-weight, golden hoops or studs; these cats had fourteen-gauge barbells in their ears, the back of their necks and the base of their tails. In the photos published on the internet of these unfortunate kitties, you can clearly see the cat’s ears are folded over under the weight of the barbells, making it hard to move the ears for detecting sounds. If you’ve ever watched a cat’s ears rotating like a satellite dish, picking up every sound in the house, you can imagine what a handicap these heavy barbells would impose on their hearing. As for their necks, one veterinarian was quoted as saying that when a mama cat picks up her babies by the scruff of the neck, this stimulates a submission response. Imagine how those cats felt with a piercing constantly there! Translation: living your life in constant submission, not being able to hear well. It can’t feel good.

Kitten with barbell ear piercings

She also was trying to dock one of the cat’s tails, tying a rubber band to the base of its tail so that, lacking blood flow, it would die and fall off. Apparently docking is still in use with some types of dog breeds, and there is no federal law regulating its practice, though some states have banned it. Still, it is frowned upon in general and only performed by veterinarians.

Was this woman a trained veterinarian, with antibiotics and sedation at the ready? No, she was a pet groomer. Apparently her love of aesthetics overcame her concern for the wellbeing of the animals themselves. One cat had even torn out an earring and she was waiting for it to heal so she could re-pierce it.

In closing arguments at her trial, defense attorneys told jurors, “Parents take their kids to get pierced at a young age. That’s not a crime! If you say it’s wrong to pierce a cat’s ears, then you’re holding the cat to a higher standard then children.” I’d like to see a parent argue that it’s OK to pierce their newborn’s ears with huge barbells, pierce their necks, and pierce their skin just adjacent to the base of their spine! Babies are generally pierced responsibly, with small studs that can’t be yanked out or caught in something. Babies also grow up to be people with fingers who can take out or put in earrings at will. Not so for these “gothic kittens.”

In the end, I think we should look at the Wiccan Rede in this situation: harm none. She did harm to her cats, not for health or safety reasons, but to make money, and was found guilty on one of the three charges of animal abuse. (She was confused herself as to why she was only guilty in the piercing of one cat rather than all three, but perhaps this was the jury’s attempt at leniency, since even that one charge could possibly land her in jail for five years. Sentencing will take place in March.)

Also, remember free will; it is just as important to respect free will in the mundane world as it is when casting spells. You should never take a choice away from a sentient being who could make that choice themselves; you should only step in when that being can’t make a choice and you’re protecting it from harm. A young child can at least say “yes” or “no” when Mommy or Daddy asks if they’d like to have pierced ears; if they’d like to take them out; if anything hurts. Please don’t take free will away from your pets unless it’s truly in their best interest – not for your entertainment or profit. Or to make them seem more like you.

Patrick McCollum, Wiccan chaplain and activist

His latest battle has been an ongoing fight of several years against California’s “five faiths policy,” which restricts paid prison chaplains to being only of the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American faiths. He rightfully argued that this constitutes religious discrimination in hiring practices, not to mention the fact that incarcerated members of other faiths would be well-served by having more minority faith chaplains. The response, up to now, has been to argue on the technicality that McCollum has no legal standing, as he’s not a prisoner, nor is he a taxpayer trying to curb government spending (he’s suggesting government money instead could be spent more fairly). But now the conversation has taken a turn for the worse. Much worse. Patrick’s latest statement reads:

In one of their first arguments to the court, the defendants said that certain “traditional” faiths are first tier faiths and that those faiths were meant to have equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution, but that all of the other faiths, for example, Hindus, Pagans, Buddhists, Sikhs, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jains, are second tier faiths deserving of lesser rights, and therefore are not meant to have the same equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution as the first tier faiths.

Now, in an amicus brief filed in the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in support of the CDCR and the other defendants, an organization called WallBuilders,Inc, which is represented by the National Legal Foundation, has argued that Christianity is the only religion that should be protected under the Constitution or at the very most other monotheistic religions might also be included.  They also argue that the term religion only applies to Christianity or monotheistic faiths, and that anyone else, including the Pagans, are not really a religion for the purpose of Constitutional protections.

Does that send shivers down your spine? Creep you out entirely? It should. Wicca has been a protected religion in the eyes of the Federal Court since 1986, and now these cretins want to say “not really.”

The WallBuilder’s brief claims that the definition of “religion” when used by the founding fathers was synonymous with “Christianity” or “monotheism” because they spoke of “the Creator” as a singular noun, and therefore McCollum can’t invoke the protection of the founding fathers. Inexplicably, they also argue at the same time that since the definition of religion has changed since then (yes, the definition has changed, but if anything I would argue that it’s broader now than it was back then), whatever definition of “religion” you apply, Paganism and witchcraft don’t fall under it. Incredible.

If you’re troubled or outraged by this assault on the beliefs of millions of non-monotheists living in America, here’s what you can do, in Patrick’s words again:

We all need to write to Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mathew L. Cate, the Secretary of the CDCR and let them all know our outrage.  And if you are a Pagan or Heathen, then we must also demand equal treatment, equal accommodations, equal access to our religious items for institutionalized persons, including prison inmates, and equal access to paid Pagan chaplains.

For the full enchilada, complete with links to Patrick’s full statement, and WallBuilder’s full amicus brief, please see the post on the Wild Hunt blog: Is the First Amendment for Monotheists Only?. Jason has summed up all the key points eloquently and has links to his previous posts about McCollum’s ongoing legal battle. Kids, it looks like now is the time to jump in. We’ve been letting Patrick fight for us, now is the time to make our voices heard on his behalf before this thing goes too far.

Now, almost all of the Pagan and Wiccan authors I work with are successful in both realms – magical and mundane. They own houses, support their families, and don’t seem to be any worse off than the average Joe. Some of them have used their talents to spur themselves to go running every day, to establish non-profit organizations, to go to law school, to get a master’s degree, to own a bookstore, and other shining accomplishments. But this writer did hit on a good point – if we look around, we can also see people with real troubles in our community. The ones who drift aimlessly from job to job, or even from couch to couch. The ones who can’t quit smoking or lose weight when they try. Just look at the preeminent magician of the early 20^th century, Aleister Crowley – for all of his magical and spiritual prowess, he was a slave to his heroin habit.

Focus and will are two of the most important skills of a witch, so how is it that some witches don’t have the same focus and will when it comes to their mundane life? Maybe they see these mundane things as secondary to their spirituality. In other words, they may have done a lot of work on the inner planes that allows them to be fully present in their lives, so they are “OK” with the outer trappings of their life, no matter how poor that may look to us on the outside. They may be so involved in enriching their inner life that bettering their mundane life is just not a priority.

Obviously there are many shades of gray to this, so I’ll put the question to you. How much magical work do you put into your mundane life – for example, eating better, quitting smoking, finding a better job, planning a career path, getting better grades, getting together rent or mortgage money, supporting your family? Are there areas you’d like to work on more? How much of your magical work is solely aimed at spiritual development and inner transformation and has no concrete outcome in the mundane world, other than making you feel better about your life circumstances? Are there some parts of your life that you’ll “tamper with” and other parts you won’t? (For example, in my own experience I’ve done magical work for concrete things like jobs, money, finding an apartment and healing but I’ve never done magical work for things harder to measure, such as enhancing my relationships or creativity.)

Please take a moment to share your thoughts – either here on the blog, or on our Facebook page. Better yet, if you have specific examples of using magic to improve your mundane situation, please share!

First of all, I have to say – I love this new function of our website. It allows you to look at the table of contents and an excerpt of the book – a longer one than you’ll see on Amazon. This means I don’t have to tell you quite so much about the book, because you can see it for yourself. But I still want to tell you a little bit about them! What can I say, the books I work on here are my babies.

The first book that hit our warehouse is the work of Los Angeles-based musician Kenny Klein. This fiddler, guitarist, singer, photographer and author regularly tours Pagan and Renaissance festivals, so you may have seen him performing before. He has six original CDs available on his website plus one more with his band Odd’s Bodkin. His new book is titled Through The Faerie Glass: A Look at the Realm of Unseen and Enchanted Beings. How to describe it? Poetic. Thoughtful. Dark. Full of folks songs and fairy tale snippets – and we’re not talking the friendly ones, either. Spine-chilling stories like that of Tam Lin or Reynardine shed light on the eroticism and dangers of the Good Folk. Klein also explores what journeys to the land of the fey are like – how they involve a time shift, a journey over water, and how you must never eat or drink anything they offer you – as well as he profiling changelings, the faeries’ relationships with various animals, lore about their enchanting music , and gripping tales about their sexuality. If you’re not sufficiently perturbed by the end of the book to resolve to stay away from them, there is a whole chapter on actually dealing with faeries – protecting your home from their mischief, finding objects that have gone missing, even gaining inspiration from them.

Kenny’s writing is thoroughly modern and enjoyable, helping to offset the sometimes archaic language of the folk tales. Here is a random sentence that exemplifies the tone and content of the book: “She is apparently a shape-shifter who can show herself to Henry as she wishes him to see her: as an ugly demon when it suits her; then as a total hottie when it’s time to get their groove thing on.” Yeah, you read that right: groove thing!

Check out the table of contents and full excerpt here.

The next book to arrive was the third book by talented author Michelle Skye. While she is not a roving musician, you may have heard of her nonetheless; she is a regular contributor to Llewellyn annuals, and has also written for Circle Magazine, SageWoman, and Renaissance Magazine. In her previous books, Goddess Alive! and Goddess Afoot!, she introduced readers to goddesses in the Celtic and Norse pantheons by providing deep guided meditations to meet them and magic or ritual workings to pull their influence into your life.

In her latest book, Goddess Aloud!: Transforming Your World Through Rituals and Mantras, she focuses instead on nine spiritual principles: Peace, Caring for the Environment, Love, Self-Love, Forgiveness, Healing, Growth, Hope and Spirituality. Each of these chapters then introduces you to three goddesses who can lend their support to that particular endeavor. For example, you can call on Pax, Roman Goddess of the Peaceful State, Our Lady of Fatima, Peaceful Mother of Christianity, or Branwen, Welsh Goddess of Compassionate Peace in the chapter on peace; or Tlazolteotl, Aztec Eater of Filth, Mary Magdalene, Christian Sacred Prostitute, or Arianrhod, Welsh Sovereign Lady when it comes to forgiveness. Each of these goddesses has a mantra to help you find your voice; these can be used in meditation, prayer, ritual or spellwork. For example, the Venus mantra is “Light my fire. Stoke my desire. Venus! Send my love to me.” Each chapter then ends with a ritual for the given attribute (peace, forgiveness, love, etc.).

As you can see, this means that the book covers 27 goddesses, rather than the 12 or 13 in her previous books, and calls upon goddesses from around the world, not just the Norse and Celtic ones. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to delve in and work on these issues in their life.

Check out the table of contents and full excerpt here.

First of all I’ll be at PantheaCon in San Jose, California, from Feb. 12-15. This is a huge hotel event, and the hotel has been booked solid for months; however, if you’re interested in attending, there may still be space at the overflow hotels nearby. Attending will be authors Z Budapest, Amber K and Azrael Arynn K, Deborah Blake, Donald Michael Kraig, Kenny Klein, Gus diZerega, Brandy Williams, Ruth Barrett, Lon Milo DuQuette and many, many more. This year, for the first time ever, I will not be giving a presentation or hosting a panel discussion; but this will give me more time to actually have meetings with authors who are interested in publishing with Llewellyn. If that describes you, please let me know you’re interested in arranging a meeting.

The next weekend I’ll be almost clear across the country, but not quite, attending ConVocation in Detroit, Michigan. This is another booked-up hotel event, but again there are overflow hotels, and if you live in Michigan, you could always drive in for just one day over the weekend and pay the daily rate instead of the weekend rate. The dates are February 18-21. Presenting at this event will be authors Michelle Belanger, Andrieh Vitimus, Mya Om, and Raven Kaldera among many others. At ConVocation I will be giving my presentation on “Book Publishing 101” for those who are curious or would like to get into the business of writing books. The theme this year is The Tower, and they put on a great masquerade ball!

If February get-togethers are not your thing (brrr!) you do have the summer to look forward to. Consider Circle Sanctuary’s 30^th annual summer solstice festival, Pagan Spirit Gathering! PSG will take place June 20-27 at a camping location in Missouri. If you register by March 4^th you can get the discounted registration price; otherwise, the deadline is June 4. Deadline for presentations is May 1. The full line-up of presenters has not been posted yet, but will include T. Thorn Coyle, Jason Pitzl-Waters, and Selena Fox.

Don’t worry, we’ll be posting more festivals as they come up, but if you’d like to leave information about your favorite Pagan gatherings in the comments section, feel free!

Though Santeria differs from Wiccan and other Neopagan faiths greatly, being what Isaac Bonewits would term a “Mesopagan” religion, their plight in the US today is of great interest to the wider Pagan community. They share many commonalities with Pagans – their religion is misunderstood, they are of a minority faith, they are polytheistic, they are engaged in legal battles on many fronts to protect their faith and practices, and they are often made into a scapegoat. In fact, Santeros often have it worse than Wiccans as they have routinely been blamed (along with Satanists) whenever any gruesome animal remains turn up because animal sacrifice is a living part of their tradition. However, animal sacrifice is a way of honoring deity, and does not mean mutilation or torture, which almost always is the work of disturbed teenagers rather than any truly spiritual ritual.

Recently a prominent babalawo, or high priest of Santeria, named Ramon Cruz has been accused of animal abuse and neglect for whatever has been going on in his home while he’s been away in Mexico for a year. You can read the very interesting debate about this case in Philadelphia over at the Wild Hunt blog, but to summarize, nobody at this point really knows what happened. On the one hand, authorities and media alike may be over-reacting and sensationalizing the story – on the other hand, Cruz’s friend who was supposed to be taking care of the house may have let things get this bad (or perhaps Cruz himself had left things in such a state, which remains to be seen). As Jason Pitzl-Waters summed it up in his latest post on the situation:

So we have two competing narratives. One, is that Ramon Cruz, and possibly some others, have been engaged in a twisted orgy of animal sacrifice. Leaving an offal and blood-encrusted house that simply confounds local animal welfare officers. The other narrative is that Cruz’s house has long been a target of the PSPCA, and that the malnourished dogs were the casus belli they were looking for in order to take down a known center of Santeria worship. So we have to decide, bloody death-pit, or anti-Santeria vendetta by biased officials? Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between?

Until we know all the facts in the case, it isn’t our place to speculate needlessly or pass judgments on things we have not seen or experienced first-hand. The news stories do make it sound incredibly filthy and cruel, but then, we’ve all seen what happens when even a good-intentioned reporter files an article on Wicca. Things quickly get twisted and distorted in their limited framework.

Compare this current scandal to an account of a raid three decades ago:

In the spring of 1980 the ASPCA, apparently acting on a neighbor’s tip, raided an apartment in the Bronx where an asiento was about to take place. According to an article in The New York Times (May 24,1980), ASPCA agents came upon “a scene of blood-spattered confusion.” Several chickens and hamsters and a goat had already been sacrificed, and the raiders confiscated eighteen chickens, three goats, and several hamsters.

This report gave Santeria a few months of adverse and much sensationalized publicity, and a great deal of speculation took place as to the purpose of the sacrifices. The press, obviously unfamiliar with Santeria, commonly used terms like “satanic cults” and “bizarre ritualistic activities.” (Santeria, González-Wippler.)

Interesting that these phrases are almost perfectly mimicked in today’s reporting.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because everyone – both in our community and in the US at large – could stand to learn more about Santeria and other minority faiths. And this situation is anything but new. I recently came across an old issue of Gnostica, a New Age magazine formerly published by Llewellyn owner Carl L. Weschcke. In the “letters” section, one letter came from a practitioner of Santeria (signed anonymously, so I don’t know if this is a Santero or Santera), complaining bitterly about how this faith was misunderstood by Wiccans. I would like to share a short excerpt:

In the Santeria Pantheon there is a God/Father form, a Goddess/Mother form, and a Pantheon very similar to the Welsh Wiccan, Scottish and Irish Druidic, and most other Celtic-oriented traditions in the Earth religions and Pagan communities. But while visiting a certain Gardnerian High Priest and Priestess, I have been forbidden to practice even my Santeria morning and evening devotions. I find it impossible to comprehend how this “devoted” High Priestess finds it within her to forbid a person of another segment of the Wiccan community, with roots probably much more fresh, to practice his/her religion.

(Note how interesting it is that this letter writer referred to himself or herself as part of the Wiccan community! This has surely faded from fashion.)

Please, Mr. Weschcke, may we have some assistance from your writers/editors, to help inform our sister-traditions of our “acceptable form” of worshipping the  Mother Goddess? I was deeply hurt by this instance with my Gardnerian friends; and how many more of my brother and sister Santero(a)s will be hurt by just such other misinformed Wiccans?

Carl responded to this letter, writing in the same issue:

While it’s true that Santeria is only lately receiving fairly widespread publicity, and its details are still generally unknown, prejudice is always ugly. So let’s redress the balance. Santeria is fine by us, and we’d certainly welcome well-written articles on this, and of course on any other less-known, less-accepted traditions of Paganism.

Now, let me tell you when this was published – it was the May/June issue (#51) of Gnostica from 1979! (If I could capitalize numbers, believe me, I would be doing so in this case.) Yes, 1979. We have come 31 years and Santeria is still misunderstood, although one could argue it is less misunderstood in the general Pagan community these days than in the public.

Llewellyn eventually went on to publish several books on Santeria by author Migene González-Wippler, including the book I quoted from above, Santeria: The Religion, originally published in 1989. Although we do have a quite few books in Spanish, this is the only English book we still have in print on the religion. That said, I would highly encourage any experienced practitioners with a fresh voice and a modern perspective to contact me with their book proposals. This is something we could use here at Llewellyn – and something that, it seems, the public at large could use as well.