New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
Ireland is a magical place. I don't mean this in the way guidebooks do when they promise travelers an idyllic vacation, one full of hikes in shockingly green valleys; evenings in music-, dance-, and ale-filled pubs; and encounters with gracious, ebullient people. Of course, travelers to Ireland will find these pleasures, but this is not what I mean when I say that Ireland is a magical place. And I don't mean that the fairies and giants, the talking greyhounds and the enchanted eagles that fill Irish folk tales actually exist … though the lush glens around Kenmare or the bald mountains of County Kerry would be just the places to find such wonderful creatures. Nor do I merely mean ...
MY YOUTH "Dirty Gypsy!" I grew up in a small town in England. In that working-class town there was a distinct separation of classes. Many of those who felt they were in the upper classes (often determined simply by a home address rather than any real class distinction) looked down on what they perceived as lower classes. And those who were treated as the lowest of the low were the Gypsies. "Dirty Gypsy!" The rocks that the other children threw at me when I was going to and from private school (that's the same as "public school" in the US) didn't hurt as much as the slurs and insults. I never understood that behavior. I hadn't done anything to them. Neither had my parents. My ...
As many of you reading this know, there are basically two kinds of magicians. First there are the "Armchair Magicians." These are the people who study, read about, and theorize about magic but never actually practice it. The second type of magician is the "Practicing Magician." Such a person does some study, but tends to be more interested in doing magic than reading about it. Some practicing magicians dislike armchair magicians. Personally, I find that both types of magicians are important. The armchair magicians often discover concepts which have been ignored and can present them in positive ways so that practicing magicians can make use of them. But more importantly, because there are ...
If you look at almost every ritual, you will at some point find an instruction that tells you to "ground and center." For instance, you may be told to drum and raise energy, send that energy into your spell, then ground and center. No problem, right? Except for one thing: hardly anybody actually tells you how to do it. Maybe Witches are supposed to be born knowing how to ground and center? But just in case you don't, here are some simple suggestions. There are really two different kinds of grounding and centering, and we do them for two completely different reasons. (Yeah, I know, many of the books don't mention that either. So pay attention.) The first is when we start a ritual, and ...
