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Circle Casting, &, When Is A Butterfly Not? * SilverChalice Wiccan 'Zine #62
August 01, 2018

Silver Chalice Wiccan 'Zine

Accidentally Invoking a Demon
and
Casting a Wiccan Circle
and
Magick: A Retrospective & Future Prospect


Harvest Season 2018

August, Sept, Oct

SABBATS:
Lammas/Lughnasadh
&
Mabon/HarvestHome/Fall Equinox


Editor's Note

Merry Meet! Welcome to the Silver Chalice Wiccan 'Zine!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape


Here's a question for the era:

What is it that makes it so difficult to stay in the present moment?

This is something I've been thinking a lot about. I find it particularly difficult when the present moment isn't quite what I wish it were! Wicca-School Winking Witch © Wicca-Spirituality.com


When Is a Butterfly Not a Butterfly?

Note: The Silver Chalice Wiccan 'Zine looks best when you set your email to 'Display HTML'  © Wicca-Spirituality.com

Do you remember last issue, I said I was out of the chrysalis stage? LOL!!! I was, in my mind, jumping far ahead!

As it turns out, I had merely come to the end of the deconstruction phase of illness and had confused that with the rebuilding phase... which is pretty easy to do I think, because it feels much more calm and stable and so much more well than the deconstruction phase.

But that wasn't the reality at all.

Returning to the caterpillar/butterfly analogy: I was still deep in the imaginal-cells, not yet really begun to rebuild. It was a lovely resting stage, though, beginning to feel — now and again — like wellness.

Leaping Backwards

 Butterfly Chrysalis: This is me  © Wicca-Spirituality.com
What I noticed was, as soon as I stopped feeling absolutely wrecked, I wanted to jump right back into everything that I was doing before I got sick. Wicca-School Witch Big Grin © Wicca-Spirituality.com I was tempted back into a way of living that had contributed to making me ill in the first place: the whole mindset and way of life that was not sustaining my health or well-being.

Even though the worst is (I pray) over, what I've needed to learn is, to still allow myself this space for the reconstruction, the rebuilding, and the repurposing of myself and my life.

Re-creating myself.

You may note, looking at this image, the resemblance to the Tarot's "Hanged Man" card, and it's a very apt similarity. When you're in the chrysalis, you can literally do nothing but hang about, while all the work goes on around you and deep within.

And both require letting go of action, being still, trusting, gestating, waiting . . . .

I've really been learning a lot about patience, and I find staying closely linked with the present moment a very helpful practice.... Trying not to rush ahead all the time, to the kind of life I keep wishing and working for.

Because in doing so, I was neglecting the gifts of the moment.


Gifts of Major Challenges

Finding the gifts in illness, like finding the gifts in being super-sensitive — not always easy! Took me years to figure out how being so sensitive was a gift. I hope I'm getting this lesson a little faster.

Yet gifts there are!

When coping with serious illness, everything gets pared down to bare simplicity and stark truth. Like a winter of the soul: the branches show themselves clearly, not softened nor hidden by the coat of leaves and flowers.

Life reveals itself; reality shows through. All the things we have to enjoy and be grateful for shine forth.

wicca-spirituality Star Button   Learning who your true friends and family are, that's priceless!
wicca-spirituality Star Button   Realising just how far my spouse will go to keep me alive, keep me well — it's humbling and wonderful! It has given new depth and appreciation to our relationship, on both sides.
wicca-spirituality Star

Button   Making time — no longer having choices or excuses — to rest, relax, connect with Earth and body in a way I hadn't found time for.
wicca-spirituality Star Button   Taking my connection with Spirit fathoms deeper! — and is that, perhaps, really what it's all been about?
wicca-spirituality Star Button   Figuring out what's actually important, and learning to let go of what's not.

It still surprises me how much sorts itself out eventually, if I just let it go. That's amazing to me — so much that seems critical and urgent... can actually just NOT get done and the sky doesn't fall! Wicca-School Witch Big Grin © Wicca-Spirituality.com
wicca-spirituality Star Button   Learning to honor myself enough to give myself space for what I need to experience and the expansiveness to grow into.
wicca-spirituality Star Button   Learning, oh so stumblingly, to be patient and be gentle, very gentle, very very gentle with myself, as I'm going through this rebuilding phase.

And, despite the desires of my ego, that can't be rushed.


Choosing New Priorities

I used to put everything ahead of my health, really — does this sound familiar to you? I used to put my work ahead of my well-being because I had obligations and responsibilities to everybody that I owe bills to every month and also to my students and my readers like you. 2

2   And even just people writing to my site, who knew nothing about Wicca or my website, haven't bothered to do the reading themselves, yet wanting me to spend hours answering all their questions. Wicca-School Winking Witch © Wicca-Spirituality.com

I've had to really re-prioritize... which I still struggle with, because I'm not sure quite where the balance is between my responsibilities to others and my responsibility to myself ... to my body's needs for healing and rest.

In many ways, I'm still — of necessity — allowing my body to set those boundaries itself, letting me know when I can do no more. It's difficult to accept! Especially when it's SO much less than I feel I need to do!

But even if I'm not doing so wonderfully at choosing rest, proactively, at least I'm getting better at not resisting when my body insists. Wicca-School Laughing Witch

Guffaw © Wicca-Spirituality.com

And, on an even deeper level, to this soul-gestation that's going on in me right now. Something new is blossoming in me, and I'm not even sure what it may be, because it's too early to see; it's still down in the depths growing quietly in the dark.

One thing I think it might be — one thing that's come recently, which you are going to be the first to hear — probably next issue.

And because balance is dynamic, not static, it's an ongoing dance: the Tai Chi of life.

Within this balance, though, I've made a lovely, full 'Zine for you this issue, so let's get on to it!

I hope your dance of life is going beautifully, as we head into the next quarter of the Wheel.

Happy Harvest Season!


With Bright Blessings,

dragonsong signature; click to write to erin

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Table of Contents

Feature Article Casting a Wiccan Circle
New Memes, Tips, & Inspirations Circle Casting
Sabbats, Esbats, & Other Wiccan Rituals Lammas & Mabon
Magick Book In Progress Magick: A Retrospective & Future Prospect
Wicca Students Speak Out "I've Never Found a More Powerful Way"
Ask The Priestess Accidentally Invoking a Demon
Word on the Street Thanks from a Retired Christian Pastor
Silver Chalice Details  


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Feature Article


Casting a Wiccan Circle

I'd like to give you another sneak peak into one of the lessons in A Year & A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan.

As before, this is the actual lesson that I'm opening to public view — it'll only be available for a limited time, so click here to check it out today.

(PS, Only the Circle Casting part of the lesson is available this time... the Invocations part is still reserved for students only.)


What Is A Wiccan Circle?

There are places on the Earth where the wall between the worlds is thin as a veil, and ancient peoples would go there to worship, pray, celebrate, and work magick.

Wiccans can make such magickal places, wherever we are, whenever we need them.

We call it Casting a Circle, and Creating Sacred Space.

The magick Circle is a prime tool (and symbol) in Wicca. As such, it has different meanings, so let's start by getting clear on them...


Continue...


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New Memes, Tips, & Inspirations for Wicca & Spirituality


 When you Cast a Wiccan Circle, you're creating a magickal structure... a magick bubble, transporting you outside the ordinary physical world and into Sacred Space.   © Wicca-Spirituality.com

 Evolution: Learn through Joy or Learn through Pain  © Wicca-Spirituality.com

 Religion & folklore tell of another place... © Wicca-Spirituality.com

 Because a Wiccan Circle creates an energetic protective bubble, it works well as a magickal Shield. © Wicca-Spirituality.com

 There are places on the Earth where the wall between the worlds is thin as a veil, and ancient peoples would go there to worship, pray, celebrate, and work magick.   © Wicca-Spirituality.com

My Greatest Blessing © Wicca-Spirituality.com

 A magickal seal is an energetic lock to hold energy in place & also to prevent contamination by outside sources.  © Wicca-Spirituality.com

 Know that the energy is real whether or not you are able to perceive it yet.   © Wicca-Spirituality.com



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Sabbats & Esbats & Other Wiccan Rituals


Here are some articles on the upcoming Sabbats, from earlier editions of the Silver Chalice Wiccan 'Zine.

With Blessings for your seasons... HeartLoveGlow © Wicca-Spirituality.com


Lammas: Divine Teamwork

The gardens are producing madly; the first grains have ripened and been harvested.

Like all harvest festivals, this is a time to give thanks for the gifts of the Divine. It's also a time when we celebrate our skills.

  Continue...


Mabon: Balancing the Wheel at Autumn Equinox

Equinox means "equal night." On this Wiccan Sabbat, day and night are equal forces, and now Darkness is beginning to gain the ascendancy.

As with all spiritual matters, we must ask: "What does this mean, symbolically?" Putting aside old superstition and association of "dark" with "evil," what does Autumn Equinox tell us?

  Continue...

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Wicca Magick — Book In Progress


(Please Note:
This material is protected by legal copyright)

Magick: A Retrospective & Future Prospect

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In the course of one lifetime... my lifetime... the Western world has undergone a radical and fundamental shift in regards to the nature of reality, and the reality of magick.

When I was a small child, magick was seen as nothing more than a fairy tale. Miracles maybe, just maybe, existed, but entirely out of the control of mere humans.

When I was a young adult, 25 years later, there were tiny sparks visible in society of those who believed there might be something more to the world than what the doctrine scientific materialism declares.

Now, 25 years after that, the belief in magick, manifestation, and co-creating reality is mainstream!

If you've come along in the last 20 years or so, it's hard to realise the astonishing transformation of thought this represents. Imagine one day taking for granted the ability for a human to naturally regrow a leg, or to bilocate (be, physically, in two places at once), or to communicate telepathically with each other and animals and plants and the planet itself.

That's similar to the scope of transformation society has gone through in a mere 25 years.

What an amazing time to be alive! To witness, and participate in, humanity's awakening to deeper levels of reality!


Dawn of the New Paradigm

Of course, the stage was set a generation or so before I was born, in the early 1900's, with the emergence of quantum theory... which, unbeknownst to most of the world, entirely turned our understanding of the nature of reality on its ear.

This revolution of awareness was so profound, in fact, that society is still struggling to integrate this knowledge.

More than 100 years later, we still have science and medicine based on an entirely obsolete myth that the universe (including the human body and even mind) is random and as mechanistic as a programmed clock, and that only what can be seen or measured or proven is real.

A new paradigm of thought has arisen within this old, materialistic paradigm... not yet supplanting it, but growing by leaps and bounds. One that sees the physical world as an expression of — a shadow play of — unseen forces. One that recognises our power as conscious beings to influence and shape those forces.


Magick in Modern Times

And while the idea of magick has been around since the dawn of human consciousness, and a handful adepts have effectively worked magick in various forms in each generation, we are only beginning to understand magick in what might be called a "scientific" way....

  • What is magick, really?

  • What are its real-world limits: what can, and can't, it do?

  • What is the process by which it happens?

  • How can we harness this power most effectively?

The magick that has come down through history (especially in the West) is a result of trial and error, generally by semi-secretive people unwilling or unable to teach their society how to do it... even if the society were willing to learn. This is not disrespect. I'm sure many were truly secretive, wishing to hoard the advantage for themselves. But many others, I'm sure, would've been entirely happy to teach everyone.

If only everyone had been ready to learn.

Because the first hurdle to doing magick is the most difficult. It requires changing the way we perceive reality... and ourselves.

Now, at this unique point in human evolution, many people are ready to learn, and able to practice, magick.

Now we just need to learn how.

Imagine the first humans to learn how to create fire. It was a mysterious skill, with unpredictable results. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't... sometimes, no doubt, it worked a little too well! It was a process of hit and miss, trial and error... gradually developing into a well-ordered system of actions that produced reliable results.

This is the stage humans are now at, with magick. While more and more people teach various magickal techniques — visualisation, affirmation, manifestation, spell-casting, intention, prayer, miracle-working, etc. — the fundamental science of magick is still being discovered and systematised.

In early adulthood, I focused that quest: to discover the secrets of magick. If magick is real, what could it do, and how can we get it to do that most dependably?

That's what I want to share with you through this book....


What Do You Think So Far?

I'd love to hear from you… Please write and let me know!

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Wicca Students Speak Out


Wicca School for Wicca Beginners © wicca-spirituality.com


Want to hear what our students
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A Year And A Day:
53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan
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"I have read some books, but I appreciate the more hands on approach and being accountable for my learning.

I would fully recommend this course to anyone wanting to see real shifts for the better in their life!

I can tell the great amount of dedication and love that went into the materials."

~ Julie W., Canada

"I continue to enjoy every lesson of the course immensely.

Opening each lesson file is like opening a lovely present!

Thank you so much!"

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" The course has been amazing"

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"I love the course as it's packed full of advice and information beyond anything I've ever found.

I have never found a more powerful way to connect to the divine and gain clarity as I do now using your exercises and creating sacred space"

~ Maria H., United Arab Emirates

"This course is not for the weak-minded. It is fully-comprehensive and quite challenging, but it is so very worth every minute spent learning.

I've not found another Wiccan tutorial that compares.

Wicca-Spirituality is the best of the best!"

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Click Here to See what More Students Say About A Year & A Day Online Course

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Ask The Priestess:


Accidentally Invoking a Demon


Dear Priestess,

I feel like my progress [as a Wiccan] has been very good considering my background; let me explain...

My Dad was Pentecostal Preacher so I was raised in a very strict household growing up. No TV's, movies, country or rock music. The women did not cut their hair nor did they wear pants, makeup or jewelry etc, etc.

You can imagine the outlook on anything to do with the Occult.

About 7 years ago, fed up with the hypocrisy, I started searching for my own true spirituality...I won't go into a lot of detail in order to keep this as short as possible.

The one thing I have been nervous about is bringing evil spirits into my home / life. I know it is because of what has been ingrained in me since I was a child, but the fear is still there none the less. It has taken me pushing myself to keep moving forward, especially with Lesson #6 on casting a Circle and Invoking.

In short I am scared that I will invoke a demon or some other evil spirit.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Blessed be!

BP


Merry Meet, BP!

I know how difficult it is to overcome lifelong brainwashing like that. When I started, coming from a Roman Catholic background, I definitely felt some fear and worry too. That’s why I wrote those articles on Christianity and Wicca… if you haven’t yet read those, they may help: Christianity & Wicca.

I can assure you of two absolute truths:

  1. Demons as they’ve been taught to us do not exist! Nor does the Devil. There is evil in the world, but it is human (or human-sourced) evil.
  2. There is NO correlation between Wicca and evil / demons / devils. Wicca is a religion at worst, and an uplifting, empowering path of spiritual development at best (and the latter is what you’re learning in this course [A Year & A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan]).


Why Wicca Is Anathema

Wicca/Witchcraft has been demonized (literally!) by religions that see it as a rival… or people who see women, nature, Earth, the physical body as something to be controlled and dominated.

For those bent on domination, you bet Wicca is seen as anathema! Wicca-School Witch Big Grin © Wicca-Spirituality.com The last thing a dominator can allow is a belief system that empowers the individual. They want to reserve all power to themselves — and as you know, knowledge is a form of power, none more so than "being the only person who knows the Truth and can interpret what God really wants.”

Of course, anything can be twisted and used in an evil way, but Wicca is one of the least possible to do that with. After all, Wicca's first and only law is: Do what ye will an ye harm none!

Let's Talk About Destructiveness & Evil, Shall We?

There is and has always been immeasurably more evil and harm done in the name of christianism than has ever come of Witchcraft!

You can see this continuing today, and just think of the inquisition, the missionaries to “the heathens” of all continents, the almost-systemic abuse by priesthood and nun-teachers and missionary schools, and on and on throughout its history.

Personally, I think it’s far more destructive to deny that women and animals have souls (as is still debated in some circles today!) and to assert that the Earth is dead meat for us to carve up however we want, than anything Wicca could possibly do!

So What's To Be Done?

At any rate, do the best you can to reason your way through the brainwashing traps. And then take your concerns to the Divine! Ask for insight, guidance in this tricky issue. Ask for help and support working your way to truth, whatever it may appear to be to you in the end.

Spirit doesn’t care, couldn’t care, has never cared about what we call it and how we envision it. All it cares is how we live, what we do for others, how well we can open up the connection to its glorious Being and all the joy and bliss and love that we can discover there!

I’m not saying you should just take what I say/believe about any of this to be true and real. I know that you have the power within yourself to discover your own truth! And it may be different than mine. There’s a unique truth for every consciousness that has ever existed. Wicca-School Smilie Witch © Wicca-Spirituality.com

The Genuine Danger

Here is the real and only danger: Fear is more the enemy and risk than demons/devils are. Fear calls negative energy to us. What we resist, persists; what we focus on, we attract. These are fundamental laws of this universe. If we feed our fear, we feed that which we are afraid of and draw it to us.

Don’t let fear of fear kick in, though! Wicca-School Winking Witch © Wicca-Spirituality.com Acknowledge that it’s popped up again. And then just keep returning to the knowing in your heart, to your deepest truths, to the experiences that have brought you the most joy and gratitude and peace… because that’s the energy signature of the Divine. When you feel those wonderful feelings, you know you’re on the right track and getting closer to God/dess.

So as well as you can, whenever the fear starts to arise, shift into deeper awareness, greater faith, more joy and love. Then you’ll call that to you. And you never need to worry about demons at all.

Thanks for asking. Bright Blessings to you!


With Bright Blessings,

dragonsong signature; click to write to erin


Do you have a question you'd like answered? Email the Priestess and your question could be answered in a future issue.

(Note: questions may be edited for brevity or clarity. No real names will be disclosed. For reasons of legality, all questions become the property of Wicca-Spirituality.com.)


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Word on the Street



What People Are Saying About Wicca-Spirituality.com:


Thank you so much for your inspirational website. I am truly blessed to have discovered it.

I am a retired pastor from a Christian denomination that doesn't appreciate the lovely nature-centered a nd Goddess-loving spiritual path followed by Wiccans.

Since my retirement I have become attracted to Wicca. I especially appreciate your articles about Jesus and why he would like Wicca. Your words are so enlightening.

Thank you so very much.

~ RN. in USA


Thanks for writing!! I appreciate hearing your feedback! HeartLoveGlow © Wicca-Spirituality.com




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