Witchy Update - Issue #24

Updates Galore! News and new books!

Are you getting Witchy Update for the first time? If so, you may have signed up at PantheaCon, and we thank you for your interest. If you've never heard of PantheaCon, it's a great Pagan festival held indoors in San Jose, California - yes, in February it can get a little chilly even in San Jose! But I love it because it doesn't require me to sleep in a tent - I've always been a city girl at heart, no matter how much I love a good bonfire. Plus there were nearly 3,000 witches, pagans and mages in attendance, some 70 vendors (sparkly things!), and a mind-boggling list of presentations, concerts, rituals and activities.

Llewellyn hosted a panel discussion (emceed by yours truly) called Ask the Authors: Pagan Writers Merry Meet and Greet. It was truly amazing to have some of the best and brightest authors all onstage together answering audience questions: Z Budapest, Raven Grimassi, Stephanie Taylor, LaSara FireFox, Christopher Penczak, Donald Michael Kraig, Grey Badger, John Michael Greer, Mary K. Greer, Joseph Ernest Martin, Michelle Belanger, Ruth Barrett, Amber K and Azrael Arynn K. It was really something! The questions quickly got very interesting and opened a discussion everyone wanted to chime in on. I wish I had been able to podcast it for you all to enjoy - maybe next time. Thanks to everyone who was there!

It was also there that I made the official announcement I will now announce here in the Witchy Update as well: Llewellyn and BBI Media (publisher of fine magazines like SageWoman, PanGaia and newWitch) have launched our first ever Pagan Fiction Contest! Please click on the link for details. We're looking for short stories with Pagan content or themes to be published in an amazing anthology. If it really takes off, it may be the first in a series. After all, I've been hearing from a lot of you who want more Pagan fiction on the shelves at bookstores. Ask and it is given! READ MORE!

Comments? Suggestions? We welcome your feedback - write to us at witchyupdate@llewellyn.com

Articles from the Llewellyn Journal

Festival Fun with the Family
by A.C. Fisher Aldag
Summer is coming, and it’s time for outdoor Pagan festivals and indoor conventions. Every year, there are more and more events to choose from, including small campouts and the huge multi-tradition gatherings. There are events for Pagans, ......read more

Oak and Ash and Thorn -- the herbal and magical uses of trees
by Ellen Evert Hopman
“Where oak and ash and thorn grow together one is likely to see Fairies.” So goes the old adage, passed down through the generations to impress upon us the value and sanctity of trees. For our ancestors, these three trees and many others were the basic tools of survival.. read more

The Wiccan Rede and the Art of Persuasion
by Arcane Static
The Wiccan Rede has the distinction of being a core tenet of the faith. The origin of this creed and its rhetorical influence are explored in an academic capacity by Arcane Static, which can help you to better understand the fundamentals of this spiritual movement. read more

Excerpt: Sacred Land by Clea Danaan

The Sacred Soil

The soil is a vast kingdom beneath our feet, home to giant and minute earthworms, billions of bacteria and microspiders and ants, and wise, ancient stones. Rich black, sandy red, or pale and gritty, it is in the soil that life on land begins. But not all soil is the same-far from it.

The first step to getting to know a garden is to meet and appreciate the soil. The health of a garden depends on its soil. Just as a good house needs a strong foundation or a healthy child needs a stable home, a garden needs well-balanced, healthy soil.

Soil is a garden's immune system. Since soil builds a garden, and the garden brings health and healing to the gardener and the land, we begin our magic-making and world-healing in the dirt.

A few summers ago, I prepared a garden bed that had not been touched for years, a plot of mostly hard-packed clay. I turned over piles of the dark, slate-gray soil with my shovel. The sandy clay, granular but compact and moist, supported a few worms, including two behemoth night crawlers. Bits of charred wood and carbon specked the soil, perhaps remnants of an old burn. It smelled like a dripping cave, damp and cool. I felt a sense of the soil awakening, seeing sunlight for the first time in many years. I also sensed a curiosity from the soil itself and a willingness to explore the co-creative journey of garden-making.

In another bed in another garden, I met very different soil. Pale and gritty, the land had baked beneath Colorado sun for years. Digging it was like scraping ice, hard and unyielding. I felt a mistrust from it, like a rattlesnake eyeing me askance. Beneath this top dry layer lay clay, stone, and bedrock, layers that would give my garden a hardy, determined energy.

Whether you have worked a garden space for years or you approach a new bed that you have never met, take time to get to know the energy, personality, and style of the land. This is the beginning of any sacred gardening partnership.