Silver Chalice Wicca 'Zine #37

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Table of Contents

Events & Announcement	A Year & A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan — UPDATES
Best Resources	Powerful Help Clearing Life's Roadblocks
	plus 9 Tips For Getting Even Greater Results From Healing Tools
Website Highlights	Christianity & Wiccans
Special Feature Article	Loving The Goddess: Personal & Passionate
Ask The Priestess	Does Wicca Call Demons To You?
Fave Quotes	A Fresh Look At Belief
Energy Field Barometer	Anxiety: Earth's Stress, Buried Fears, Vibrational Upgrade
	Women Honouring Themselves
	Mars Going Direct
Word on the Street	"As Though Oxygen Is Reaching My Lungs For The First Time"
Silver Chalice Details

Events & Announcements

Right now all of my energy and focus is on developing the Wicca School Course: A Year & A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan.

And it's looking great so far! Over 20% complete, and with a ton of awesome information not only on how to be a Wiccan, but about spiritual advancement and having a successful happy life. Thanks to the Goddess' help, it's turning out to be even better than I'd imagined.

So all is coming along well, and it looks to be ready for the first students this Autumn or Winter. (Please add your prayers to mine, that the Goddess help make it so. Thanks!! We might need it. )

So there won't be much more time to take advantage of the pre-registration offer.

This is carried forward from the Indiegogo campaign — an opportunity I wanted to give to my favourite fans — to get the course at a huge discount as well as pick up some bonus gifts. The gifts are...

• A blessing and public (if desired) thank-you
• Wild Wiccans Of the World wallet ID card
• Energy Field Survival Tips for sensitives
• EFT (Meridian Tapping) How-To Handbook
• Guided Visualisation Audios: Earth and Sky Grounding and Divine Light Invocation
• Shamanic Journey soundtrack
• Wiccan Chants Songbook, including many new chants
• A few other optional gifts as well
• And of course enrollment in A Year & A Day: 53 Weeks to Becoming a Wiccan

(You can get several of the gifts on their own if you like, as a thank-you for your support.)

This discount on the Course ends on June 30. Click here to find out more or get early enrollment and your free bonus gifts too.

Best Resources

Powerful Help Clearing Life's Roadblocks

A friend called me a few months ago and asked if I'd tried Christie Marie Sheldon's work. She was very excited about it and said she had done another of Sheldon's courses and loved it.

Since I've been looking for new methods to get at the subconscious blocks, beliefs, and traumas that are holding me back in life, I decided to try it. I signed up for Christie's course: Unlimited Abundance.

The lessons come in the form of audios, recorded during a webinar course Christie held. Plus a mini lesson book and workbook. As a bonus, there are 8 background soundtracks that come with the course: ocean waves, forest birds, crackling fire, Tibetan bowl, etc. (I love these!)

My spouse and I have been doing one lesson a day (almost every day). The lessons were originally designed to be one per week, but I want to get the whole process in action quickly... and we'll go through it again after, at the recommended pace, so we can take it even deeper.

Some of the stuff doesn’t apply to us — a lot of mention of credit card debt, for instance — but we're creative with it and can always find ways to apply it to our situation.

And it's clear Christie really knows what she's doing. I've been impressed with her ability to find sneaky little subconscious traps (that I'd overlooked).

Watching the changes in us and in our lives has been really exciting! Things that were stuck and holding on for a lifetime are finally letting go. And we're finding income sources and opportunities popping up more.

So I can say that this is really working, and a side benefit is that we seem to be lightening up in general... being more light-hearted and happy, taking things less personally, willing to laugh at ourselves more. (What a gift that is, I tell you! Especially with that Mars in Retrograde! )

The downside is that her voice or mannerisms are off-putting to some people (I was one of them!), but if you Tap while you listen (as explained below), you can overcome that without losing this priceless opportunity to make fast and massive changes in your life.

If you'd like to try it, I think it's really worth it. There's a solid money-back guarantee if you cancel within the first 60 days. You can find out more about it here: Unlimited Abundance.

9 Tips For Getting Even Greater Results From Healing Tools

These simple techniques work for any kind of healing or energy clearing that you do, and really ramp up the benefit you’ll get from them.

1. Focus on what you're hearing. You can listen to repeats while you drive or wash dishes or whatever, but you’ll get the best results if, at least the first time through, you really pay attention.
2. Have a relaxed, open frame of mind. A meditative state gives you the best access to alter subconscious patterns.

   One quick way to achieve this is to soften your gaze and become more aware of what you see in your peripheral vision. Or another way is to focus on breathing calmly, slowly, and deeply through both nostrils simultaneously.

   (Of course, don't do this if you're driving or doing other tasks that require alertness!)

3. Have a relaxed, open state of heart too. Relax the hardness and walls built up in your chest, and let yourself surrender to the experience. This will allow you to incorporate the most healing.
4. I HIGHLY recommend doing EFT (Meridian) Tapping the whole time you're listening.

   (Check out the how-to video and info on how to get started and how EFT works and all) to bypass any resistance that might pop up. (There's also my EFT handbook available as a donation thank-you gift, as mentioned above.)

5. As you go through the process, as you hear Christie saying the clearing phrases, repeat them to yourself, feeling within yourself that you really mean it and want it to happen.
6. Say "Yes!" and "Thank you!" frequently, even after each clearing (and really FEEL it).
7. Nodding your head while you listen and work also helps your energy field to accept the transformation at deep levels. Nodding is a biological signal to your body that you agree, so it's much more successful at integrating the changes at a deep level.
8. If you've been doing MAP Conings , you can also ask your MAP Team to help with the clearings and take them right down to the root.

   If you haven't been doing those, you can ask your guides, guardian angels, Deepest Self, or closest Deities to help.

9. And of course, do your homework! Repetition is the key to creating lasting changes.

Then watch the changes in your life!

Website Highlights

Spotlighting some of the Wicca Spirituality articles you may not have seen yet!

A Christian Speaks On The Faith And Path Of Wicca

This piece, written by a true follower of Christ, is the best response I've found. And it has the advantage of coming from one of their own...

From Christian to Wiccan — 
What You Can Do

But there's more you can do, to get through the doubts and fears you might have during this transition. Here's what I recommend...

Why Is Jesus In a Wicca Site?

Good question! I've got five good reasons...

Special Feature Article

Loving The Goddess — Personal & Passionate

These are outpourings from a journey some years ago, of seeking the Goddess with a deep passionate yearning, and some of Her responses. (The fulfillment, that'll wait for another time.)

One way to approach the Divine is as a Lover, and it's probably obvious that was my strategy at the time. It wasn't perhaps as conscious a choice as it sounds: while living in a celibate spiritual community for nearly a year, I entered a state of overpoweringly extreme... umm... sensual readiness. And I had nowhere to put that energy.

Since I was there because I was intensely committed to breaking through my boundaries to the Divine, I used this obsession in a positive way and gave all that potent spiritual kundalini energy to Her.

Also, when Rumi — or was it Hafiz? — was learning to be a Sufi, his spiritual master set him a task: write a poem every single day. I didn't understand how that could be a spiritual practice, until I tried it myself. I found that keeping myself constantly open for poetic inspiration meant I was constantly open to Divine influence, as well as being more present with and mindful of what was going on within and around me.

It was a wonderful and powerful experience!

These poems arose from a combination of the two practices. I've always thought I might someday publish the entire series in a chapbook, as a journey to the Goddess (but they're so personal, I don't know if I can bring myself to do it!).

They're glimpses into what is perhaps my truest Wiccan ritual... my purest devotion to unite with the Goddess. I hope it inspires.

(NOTE: The poems are presented as graphics, in order to maintain their formatting. If you haven't turned on the graphics for this email, you’ll need to do so to read them. Thanks!)

Ask The Priestess:

Does Wicca Call Demons To You?

Dear Priestess,

I have been studying Wicca in solitary, seeing as how I don't have a guide, and a few doubts have shown up.

I've grown up in a Christian family and while I have come to terms with separating myself from it, I recently came across a link online. There the person mentioned that when they were studying Wicca, bad things started to happen to them (this person wasn't studying because they were interested in Wicca to join it but to show Wicca to be evil).

And they mentioned another woman who was Christian who'd turned to Wicca then turned back to Christian because apparently demons showed themselves in her room and when she tried to banish them with Wiccan prayers (?) the demons only laughed at them, but when the person called upon Jesus the demons disappeared.

This, I admit, has frightened me. I know somewhere I read that 'shadows' from the astral plane ( I think) try to latch on to souls and I'm thinking that maybe this is what the person experienced. I'm terrified to think that Wicca could cause any harm ( I've grown so much respect for Wicca and even celebrated the last Beltane!) and I'm just so confused.

I'm not sure if you can help me or if I'm even in the right place to look for help but.....I'm scared. I'd appreciate it if you would help me or at least point me in the right direction.

Thanks for your time,

SR

Dear SR,

I've seen the online article you mentioned, and it's a scary story, for sure. And although I more-than-half-believe that the entire thing was concocted by Christians to keep people afraid of Wicca, I can't refute one person's experience, because only she can know for sure.

What I CAN tell you is that from my decades of experience as a practicing Wiccan, it doesn’t worry me.

I've known about a hundred Wiccans, most of whom have been practicing for many decades, who have NEVER had anything even remotely like that happen to them. I have 80,ooo followers on social media (to date), and a million visitors a year on my website — and NOT ONE person has ever had anything remotely like this happen to them. Believe me; they’d have told me in no uncertain terms!

I should also point out that there are ways of explaining things that are not necessarily accurate, even though they can seem to make sense. For instance, for thousands of years, people believed that the Sun circles around the Earth. From our vantage point, it certainly seems to! That explanation made so much sense that for uncounted generations nobody even questioned it. And it can still be useful (and easy) to think of it in that way.

But as we now know, that's not what actually happens.

I think we can discount what someone says when they've explicitly set out to "prove" that Wicca is evil. Even if it were true that bad things started happening, it wouldn't be surprising. Someone superstitious and gullible, fearfully dabbling in something they think is evil, would be coming with negative energy... so that's what would show up, especially when they've actually gone looking for it.

The other woman, who is presented as an open-minded ex-Christian wanting to learn Wicca (exactly the kind of person, we might notice, that they most want to keep from "straying"), let's consider her story as real just to see what's really going on.

The surface of the tale is that Wicca is dangerous and evil and linked with demons, and that Christianity is far more powerful a protection. But here's a deeper, spiritually- and magickally-wise reading of that woman's story:

What Really Happened

The foundation for this woman's experience is that she had been indoctrinated by Christianity, so when she started with Wicca she was afraid at the same time as she was curious. She started opening herself up, energetically and probably spiritually, for the first time. When she did that, scary things started happening.

IF — a big if — what those websites say really happened at all, I suspect it's more like poltergeist activity than demons.

You get poltergeist activity when a strong negative force within a person (usually female) breaks the cultural bonds that keep psychic energies suppressed. Sometimes, at puberty, the energy is just too potent to be restrained unconsciously. (The solution then, by the way, is to gain conscious control.)

For this woman, the energies were finally freed as she began to remove the blocks to her own psychic phenomena and magick. I'm willing to bet she was indoctrinated from an early age in fundamentalist traditions or severely abused as a child, or else having some kind of serious mental illness... I can't think of what else would cause such an outpouring of intense negative energies.

Does this mean that everyone starting in Wicca should be worried? Not at all. As I said, I haven't heard from a single person that they've had bad things start to happen.

I have heard, though, from hundreds of new Wiccans, how many good things start to happen!

Does it mean that you should be careful, especially in the beginning, what you're dabbling with? Sure. That's why I recommend that you don't start trying magick until you've got the basics solid and enough knowledge and experience to guide you safely. Even so, most Wiccans (I suspect) start with magick and go from there, and seem to do so without any demons bothering them.

Explaining the "Demons"

Entangled with this discussion is the question of what "demons" actually are, and what "Jesus" actually is. That's much more to the point than worrying about what Wicca is.

Demons are negative energy projections, that are created by humans — not usually intentionally, but intensely negative energy/emotions emanate out from us and, under certain conditions, take on a semi-life of their own.

Within certain limits they can SEEM intelligent and alive and self-protective. Lots of things can seem alive without actually having life. Have you ever seen the videos of "oobleck" dancing on a vibrating surface? (This video at 2 minutes in, you can see it crawling up and out! Scary?...) It very much seems like a creature has come to life. There are chemical reactions that seem alive, too. Because of the way the energy is expressed, it seems conscious. But it's not.

Same with demons. They might seem alive and self-directed, but they're actually more like clouds or pools of negative energy, set loose.

Still, why would something like that arise for her in the first place?

Meeting Your Shadow

What happens on a spiritual path (rather than a religious one) is that you start to clear away negativity that has been lurking, possibly unseen, within you.

That's the whole purpose of spirituality!

In some people's experience, when you do this you have to face what has been called The Guardian of the Threshold… a psychological/energetic "entity" that you may meet when you begin to access higher spiritual awareness, and that often seems threatening. Jungians call this the Shadow — the fears and negativity that lurk within your subconscious mind.

Wiccans call it the Guardian, because you can't access higher/deeper spiritual levels while your Shadow lives within you unchallenged, unhealed, and unintegrated.

Not everyone has this experience. For almost everyone who does, though, meeting the Shadow happens in imaginal spaces, such as trance journeys and visualisations.

For that one woman, perhaps, it manifested in tangible ways. Which can happen, but it's incredibly rare. When it happens that way, it's generally because a person has great negativity within, at the same time that she is very psychically powerful and untrained (that is, her power is not under her control).

Why Jesus Could Help When "Wiccan Prayers" Did Not

So when scary things started happening, the woman naturally tried to get rid of them. It's a normal human approach to something that seems scary or dangerous.

However, as you are probably aware, "What you resist, persists." In fact what you resist grows even stronger through your attention to it and the emotional intensity you're having about it. So the more she tried to repress these things which were tied to something deep within herself, the stronger they became.

Part of the problem is that when the woman tried to force the negativity away, she was virtually predestined to fail. Consider her position:

• Untrained
• No experience in working magick
• Unsure of the reality of Wicca and magick
• Little or no experience in generating power or working energy
• Zero confidence
• Working from fear rather than strength

When she called on a power that she associated since childhood with love and spiritual might, the negativity vanished. She doubted Wicca and she doubted herself, but she never doubted Jesus.

So, her fear of the "entities" gave them power, and a sort of life. And her certainty that Jesus — at his best, a manifestation of Divine Love — could overcome them, erased their power and pseudo-life.

If she'd been a Wiccan long enough to build up experience and belief in its validity and power, to make personal connections with other Deities, it would’ve been a very different story.

If One Person Is Allergic To Pears,
Does That Mean Pears Are Poisonous?

On another level, the entire issue is being taken out of context. One person's negative experience, whatever the reason it happened, is only one person's. That's not a sound basis for writing off an entire belief system that benefits countless people.

It would be like deciding to try out Christianity, going to a church one day, and getting raped by the priest. As horrific as that would be, does it mean that Christianity is dangerous and evil and no one should ever follow Christ?

I have actually known a couple people who've had really scary demon-type-stuff going on, but neither of them were Pagan. One was my grandmother who was an extremely devout Catholic. Christians have far more history of problems with demons that Witches do; I'd be more worried about being Christian! Strange that no one ever says you’ll be opening yourself up to demons if you turn to Christianity.

What sites like those are saying is that you should throw out the baby with the bathwater; because one woman's baby turned out bad, yours will too.

Wicca As A Solution

At any rate, the one thing I'm certain of is that Wicca is not evil nor opens the door for evil. There's a TON of evidence of that. Far more than one or two people's experiences.

Besides, as Witches, we learn to work with other entities/energies, and how to protect ourselves from anyone — corporeal or non-corporeal — who might not have our best interests in mind.

That makes us Wiccans far less likely to have problems, even if we were to encounter negative entities.

We could easily argue that being Wiccan protects you from demons! If we believed in demons.

*   *   *  

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.)

Fave Quotes

The wish not to believe can influence as strongly as the wish to believe.

~ Ian Stevenson

I have some discomfort both with believers and with nonbelievers when their opinions are not based on facts. I am extremely uncomfortable with dogmatic atheists, who claim there can be no God; to my knowledge, there is no strong evidence for that position.

I'm also uncomfortable with dogmatic believers; to my knowledge, they don't have any strong evidence either. If we don't know the answer, why are we under so much pressure to make up our minds, to declare our allegiance to one hypotheses or the other?

~ Carl Sagan

A wrong attitude toward nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude toward God.

~ T. S. Eliot

Every fact of science was once damned. Every invention was considered impossible. Every discovery was a nervous shock to some orthodoxy. Every artistic innovation was denounced as fraud and folly. The entire web of culture and progress, everything on Earth that is man-made and not given to us by nature, is the concrete manifestation of someone's refusal to bow to Authority. We would be no more than the first apelike hominids if it were not for the rebellious, the recalcitrant, and the intransigent.

~ Robert Anton Wilson

I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world . . . I want ecstasy . . . I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.

~ Anaïs Nin

The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth — that is the world as we know it that must pass away.

What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.

~ Joseph Campbell, "Thou Art That, Transforming Religious Metaphor"

Energy-Field Barometer

Anxiety A.M.

This is an energy field that's been going around for weeks (though not everyone has felt it the whole time).

There are actually, by now, 3 things going on here. They arrived in this order: #1 was the earliest anxiety, #2 came in during that and lingered after, #3 is mostly coming along after. But there's a lot of overlap.

You may be experiencing one or all of them. Either way, if you follow the recommendations for each, you can benefit yourself... and the Earth.

1. Tuning In To Earth's Stress

   The Earth has had some difficulty adjusting to the changing climate this Spring: the plants and insects in particular, it seems, have been struggling. As they are born or awakened, their food sources are not in sync and the weather is not what they've evolved to expect. Their stress and anxiety and deaths are creating an energy field that many sensitive people are picking up on.

   As we move further into the warm seasons, this anxiety seems to be lessening. Keep saying prayers and blessings for all the creatures of the Earth — it DOES help! The Buddhist prayer is perfect for these times: May all beings be happy; May all beings be peaceful; May all beings be in harmony; May all beings be liberated.

   It's also helpful to all the creatures if you can remain in a feeling of peace and safety and wellness as much as possible. I get this feeling when resting outdoors in the tranquility and beauty of nature. When we feel this, we share it with the entire planet. So whatever it is that brings you back to a sense that all is well and good, do that regularly and feel it as strongly as you can so you can share it with the Earth.

2. Calling Up Buried Issues You Need To Heal

   Another level of anxiety is simply the hidden anxiety that's lain dormant within us: the spoor of our Shadow, needing to be revealed, healed, and integrated.

   As a planet, we're at the threshold of the New Paradigm — a world based in harmony, respect, compassion, and joy. It's a wide threshold! We've been crossing it since 2012 and we're moving closer and closer to the other side of the gateway.

   As we do, our vibrational energy is changing and anything that's in disharmony with that is kind of shaking out of the mix. Like sifting flour, we are being sifted into the New Paradigm and the old programmes are being filtered out.

   A lot of the old programmes are fear-based, and since they're no longer hidden in the mass of "flour" that we used to hide them in, they're right on top where we can't avoid them. So we need to deal with our fears and resolve them.

   This part of the process can feel like you're not getting anywhere, since you no sooner deal with one fear than another arises. It feels like the anxiety hasn't changed at all.

   But take heart! You are actually making good strides, if you deal with each fear as it arises. And that's all you're being asked to do. Deal with your issues, one by one. You get clearer and lighter as you do. Eventually you’ll be free of them.

3. Feeling The Vibrational Upgrade As You Step Into The New Paradigm

   This is tied to #2 above. Buried issues are being plowed up as the whole planet shifts vibration.

   In particular, though, as our vibrational frequency changes, it literally changes the vibrations within our cells. If you are sensitive and doing a lot of personal growth, you may be feeling this frequency shift within your body.

   Since this is a new sensation, it's easy to misinterpret it. That vibration may feel like anxiety, but actually be just a new vibrational frequency.

   How can you tell?

   Just observe it, as it happens. You may be able to differentiate this vibration from the feeling of anxiety. Once you know that's all it is, then you can welcome it! You need an upgraded vibration in order to function in the New Paradigm (that's what the New Paradigm is all about), so be grateful it's working in you and your energy field is being cleared!

Women Honouring Themselves

It seems that women are standing up for themselves in new ways. After letting things slide for whatever length of time, women are realising that their needs are worthy of respect, and taking action to include their own needs and desires.

For example, it's common for women to consider other people's needs first, even when that contradicts their own needs. If you have been doing something for someone else's benefit, when it's contrary to what you actually need, you might find that you're getting less willing to sacrifice yourself to make others feel better.

This is an important step in transitioning to the New Paradigm. While the selfless aspect of women is a wonderful spiritual quality, it can be overdone. Women tend to give themselves away even when it's not necessary. This is about not valuing themselves. Self-sacrifice is great, I always say, but first you need to have a self to sacrifice!

It's like picking your fights. Not everything needs to be argued about — a wise person learns to choose their battles: the ones that are important, and the ones they can win. In the same way, not everything requires self-sacrifice. It's a powerful tool — use it wisely and sparingly.

You have permission to take care of yourself, too! In fact, that's a requirement for the New Paradigm Earth.

An important point is that this assertiveness is done with gentleness and kindness for others, as well as firmness in asserting that your own needs matter. Maybe this shift in values is a result of Mars going direct, after months of clearing out piece after piece of inner garbage.

Mars Going Direct

As we wrap up our trip through Mars in Retrograde, and launch into the new phase of the year, the energy encourages us to take stock of where we've been and where we're going next.

Mars Rx is, like any astrological retrograde, a time when past issues get dragged forward, will we or nill we, to be cleared — hopefully! — once and for all. Since Mars deals with anger and aggression, power and control, action, and relationships, you probably saw some issues arising around these things. (If not, look back on the problems and challenges you've been through in the last few months, and see if you can perceive how these issues might have underlain them.)

If you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter, you've seen some of the updates on this Energy Field.

I'm sure if you've been doing your work in these areas as recommended back in issue #35, you've experienced some remarkable shifts in your life. That's the beauty of the retrogrades: you can get this huge turbo boost forward! Of course, you have to do your part.

Empowerment seems to be a key to this work. We've been challenged to face the ways we act like a victim, and to put on our Captain's hat and take command of our lives instead. Specifically, we need to take command of our minds and thoughts and beliefs.

You see, we're going through a huge shift now into the New Paradigm — a very magickal and exciting one. We're closing the door on fears of "What if??" and "What will happen??" And we're crossing the threshold to MAKING what we want happen, instead!

As we've cleared out some of our old Mars-y stuff, we also find that our ego stuff is just fading away, almost unnoticed. What a relief it is not to be yanked around so much by all the fears and doubts and feelings of lack, etc., eh?

And a lot of stuff that used to seem important or critical just doesn’t work up a sweat in us anymore. Drama has faded, grabbing us less often and letting go more easily. It seems, more and more, that all it takes is a choice to step out of the drama, and it lets us go.

Another issue of power and action that was strong this Mars Retrograde was "What's holding you back?" The energy was very strongly pulling us to examine — and clear! — old beliefs and fears and feelings of helpless or overwhelm that undermine us. So many of us are tied to the past so strongly that we can't really move forward, and in Mars Rx those ties showed up as (in many cases) childhood training in which we were told all the things we "can't do."

This is why I've spent the whole of Mars Rx using powerful tools like the Unlimited Abundance program reviewed above. Whatever tools we use have to be able to reprogram our subconscious beliefs, or we can't get free.

So, as my friend Colombe teaches, the retrogrades pull us backwards like a string being pulled on a bow, building the tension as well as preparing for that imminent launch forward. We gain clarity and take aim. And now Mars releases us, to plunge ahead into whatever we discovered really matters to us.

And if we've done even a little of our internal work, we're in a much stronger position to achieve whatever goals we're aiming for.

Are you ready? On your mark…!

*   *   *  

Notice or suspect an energy field going around? Can you confirm this reading, or shed more light on it?

I'd love to hear what's happening for you! Please let me know.

What to do about being caught in an unpleasant energy field? Click here for tips.

Word on the Street