The Rowdy Goddess

An Ecstatic Vision of the Goddess, dancing in harmony with the Universe.

20 Oct 2008
1 Comment

Neo-Shamanism and Wicca: Can We Be Friends?

A friend of mine has moved to a new area and is tentatively seeking out new friends and new spiritual community. She was telling me that she had met someone who was a Reiki Master and a shamanic practitioner. When my friend mentioned Wicca, the shamanic practitioner had a mild reaction like an indrawn breath. She told my friend that she’d met some Wiccans and they seemed to be of the behavior and mindset, “I hate my religion of birth and so I became Wiccan. Can I tell you how much I hate my religion of birth!”

I drew my breath in too. If I were still a fundamental Christian, I’d be saying, “Bad witness, man, bad witness.” That means as the embodiment of our religion, others witness their understanding of that religion or spiritual path by the things you do or say. Quite a responsibility.

On the other hand, it is a phase that most pagans including Wiccans go through. We have left the religion of our birth and need to process the reasons for it and what that means for us. At some point, though, most of us cross a threshold where we our message for others to witness is “I am Goddess, I am God.” And that speaks volumes about where we are, but not particularly about where we’ve been.

A wise high priestess once told me that in her coven the behavior that we call “Christian bashing,” can go on for a short while, but then if it continues, she goes to the person and says it must stop. All the bashing and complaining serves to do is to demean the new witch, and does not create change. Without change, there is no magic.

Wiccans and pagans can be friends with any religion since tolerance and acceptance are one of the outcomes of our ethics. Sometimes within our own community, our behavior creates misunderstanding. Yes, we can be friends with each other as well as the outer community.

My personal practice for many years has been weaving the threads of seemingly separate practices to create a pattern of wholeness. To me, shamanism and Wicca meld and dance together. We are all walkers between the worlds. We dance, play, grieve, and celebrate our divine aspects in both paths. For me it is the whole cloth. And there’s a great book that demonstrates just how that can be done. I am pleased to announce that my new book The Shamanic Witch is now available from RedWheel/Weiser or from many other booksellers including Amazon.com

 

Posted in shamanism, Wicca, witchcraft, writing and tagged , , , ,
08 Jul 2008

A Wordle to the Wise

There is a cool tool on the internet called Wordle. It will make a word cloud of your text. It looked pretty cool so I tried it with one of my poems, “The Charge of the Goddess Athena,” and you can see one of the results above. I took out a lot of the meaningless and repetitive words to get this image of my poem. Pretty darn cool don’t you think? And here it is in linear language:

The Charge of the Goddess Athena

Hear now the charge of the Goddess Athena, She who is called Pallas, Warrior, Maiden, Wise One, Teacher, Weaver, and many other names. Listen to She who was born of her own passion and power; She who is creativity, power, beauty, knowledge, passion, and wisdom.

I charge you, my student, to open your mind to possibility, to magic, and to mystery.
I call you to learn and to know as you study the Craft.
Seek knowledge and learn wisdom.
See magic unfold before you, and hear the music of the Sacred and Divine.
Perfumes and scents fill you with the beauty of the Wild and the Sublime.
Feel the rhythm of the Universe in your blood and your bones.
Open your arms to embrace the known and the unknown
And dance in the ecstasy of delight and understanding.

Learn the patterns of creation, and learn the patterns of destruction
Weave your knowledge into tapestries of wonder.
Be in awe of your own magic, and be humble before the magic all around you
Marvel at your place in the Dance of love and life.
Learn every step, dance every dance, and sing every song.
You are the harmony of the Universe
Inspired with every breath, you are touched with the hand of knowledge,
And in turn you touch the Sacred with all your being.

Learn, Love, Live, and Laugh.

For this is my charge to you.
I am Athena, your teacher and your guide.
I hold the mirror before you that you might see yourself as you are
Growing, becoming, perfection in the journey,
You are the tapestry, you are the masterpiece
As you know the Craft
You are the Priestess,
You are the Priest,
You are the Magic
You are the Witch.
I work a lot with Athena, especially when I teach and I teach all the time. I think it’s my spiritual work. I’ve been teaching an introduction to the Craft for many years. What began as a series of handouts is now a self-published book. It it called The Initiation of Athena: Knowing the Craft. The book gives the foundational information and presents a set of experiences to understand what it means to practice Wicca and Witchcraft.
Posted in Goddess and tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
08 Jul 2008

By the Sea, by the Sea, by the Beautiful Sea

I’m just back from a week visiting my mother who lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, part of the Delmarva peninsula. She lives half-an-hour from the Atlantic oceans beaches. The farm where she lives was my grandparents and the place we spent our summers. We also camped along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean on Assateague Island and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One of my dream vacations is to visit all the National Seashores. The other is to stay in-season on a hotel with a pool on the boardwalk of Ocean City, like the Comfort Inn but maybe something with a bigger pool.
The beach is a wonderful place. The sounds of the waves crashing on the beach, the smell of salt water in the air, the heat of the sun, and, in the summer, the sounds of people talking and laughing. It’s an incredibly magical place. Sometimes you can see a school of dolphins swimming on the horizons while gulls fly overhead. Further out, larger birds such as osprey and brown pelicans fly and hunt in and out of the waves. It’s peace and mystery.

We saw an ocean kayaker suit himself up to go out onto the water. First he zipped himself into his kayak, and then he waited on the sand until the tiniest wave went underneath his kayak. Using his fingers, hands, and arms, he inched his way further into the water. When the waves receded, he waited until another came. Again, using his fingers, hands, and arms, he moved a few more inches into the water. Again and again, the waves ebbed and flowed as he inched his way further away from land and into the water. Finally he was afloat with not a lot of water. Then he was able to use his oar and move more quickly and gracefully into the water until he got beyond the breakers.

While on the beach, read a bunch of books. One of them was Sea Magic by Sandra Kynes. It is full of wisdom and power. She provides facts and information about the oceans and seas, the currents, the inhabitants, the myths, and the stories. There is a lot about shell magic and using shells and ocean waters in devotions, oracular work, and magic. It’s very well-written with an inviting style–you want to keep reading. In some ways she’s captured that magical rhythm of the waves in the cadence of her writing. It’s a strong book, well written and researched.
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27 Jun 2008

Creating a Classroom Where Fun and Learning Happens

For a teacher of Tarot, we start on a positive because most of our students want to be there. They may be nervous about the content, but mostly they are eager to learn. However, we can’t assume everyone is at the same level of emotional readiness or experience. When a new class assembles, we can do some things to get people on similar harmonious plane. Students need to feel respected, intellectually safe, and physically comfortable.

One of my first teachers said, “You can do this the hard way, shivering on a cliff, or you can engage and do it comfortably here in my den.” I choose comfort whenever I can. My life changed when that same teacher said at the beginning of a year-long class, “You are in charge of your own comfort.” She went on to say if we needed to go to the bathroom, depending on where we were in the class, we needed to slip out and take care of things, or ask her for a break. That made a big difference in how I attended meditation and other related classes.

I have developed a set of classroom “rules,” and often I will ask the class if they have anything else to add.

  • Be here Now: Be engaged, be on time, express doubts, ask questions, exchange ideas, listen actively, and participate.
  • Take responsibility for your learning: ask questions, let me know when you get lost (ask for directions!), express frustrations, joys, concerns, and don’t suffer.
  • Help the group learn: be aware of others’ needs, encourage others to talk, to share the limelight, to be present in learning
  • Lean into your discomfort: push the envelope, be smart about your spirituality/learning, know your limits and don’t destroy your boundries–push at them.
  • Maintain sensible confidentiality: what happens in class stays in class, or, don’t disclose personally revelations and respect people’s anonymity
  • Manage your comfort needs: you are responsible for your own comfort. Food, drink, comfort breaks. Seek to solve your own dilemmas and ask for help when needed.

In some ways this is what is commonly called, “giving them permission.” Some people won’t need it, but other people will need the acknowledgement and encouragement to be in charge of their learning, their experience in your class, and their behavior. In giving them permission, you allow them to co-create the class with you. To be part of the classroom design. You may know the content and you may be a great communicator, but in doing this, you allow them to partner with you. So you are no longer the great “sage on the stage,” opening their heads and pouring your knowledge in, but you are down on the ground with them, exchanging information and knowledge, discussing and everyone will learn.

One of the greatest secrets of teaching is that you learn a great deal more than the students; about yourself, about the Tarot, and about how you relate to the cards, people, and yourself. And isn’t that why we’re in this, after all?

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27 Jun 2008
2 Comments

Mother, Maiden, Crone Fundamentalism

I go to a number of women’s gatherings and pagan festivals and sometimes I get twitchy when those gathered [very sincerely] categorize the Goddess and the divinely incarnated women present into the pigeonholes of Maiden, Mother, Crone. Like it’s some kind of divine order or framework into all of us MUST and WILL fit into.
I went to a Mother’s Council at one gathering and never went back because the mothers present made it implicitly clear that if you did not have children, had not borne children out of your body, you were not welcome. At that gathering, the age limits were strictly, if non-verbally, “enforced.” So even though I was single, career-oriented and driven to excel, I couldn’t join the maidens because I was older than 19, way older. Because of that experience more than 15 years ago, I ignored my mothering side, rejected it or was defensive about that fact that I never had children out of my body. Never mind that I’m a doggie mom, that I guide people to become witches and priest/esses in their own spiritual life, I supervise, I counsel, and I am often the chief cook and bottle washer in my various roles.
If you’ve read this blog (go ahead read the previous posts, you will like it!), you know that I resisted the Crone threshold too. I only accepted after I realized the the Crone is a threshold, a stage, a step onto a strange new shore. The Crone isn’t all there is. There’s more and I get to discover that!
There are lots of writers out there suggesting new roles. Donna Henes in her book Queen of Myself
says there’s a stage between mother and crone where a woman has sovereignty over herself and her life. She is the Queen. Vivianne Crowley in her book The Way of Wicca expands her view of the Goddess and the God into five aspects. In my book, Rituals of the Dark Moon, I suggested nine ways. Since I wrote that book, I’ve learned that woman and Goddess is even more limitless and encompassing.

We don’t need to be pigeonholed and categorized into one label. We can encompass many roles at once. Maiden, Amazon, Warrior, Queen, Mother, Teacher, Priestess, Witch, Crone, Grandmother, Crone, Croney, Daughter, Sister, Companion, Friend, Lover, Sweetheart; and even the less complimentary terms of Bitch, Slut, Bad Girl, Rowdy Girl, Babe, and more…………
We need to remind ourselves of this chant

Woman am I, Spirit am I
I am the Infinite within my Soul
I have no beginning and I have no end.
Oh, yes I AM!
Posted in Goddess and tagged , , , , ,
24 Jun 2008

Students who want to be there…the joys and the terror!!


So, as Tarot Teachers, we have students who want to be there in our class. How cool is that! There’s an adult learning theory model that says we need to be as aware of their learning needs and make our classroom compatable with their needs and desires.

Adults look at what as taught as an Experience which they take in and Reflect on it through the lens of past learning experiences and the style in which they learn. Then they process the subject and Connect it to their life experience, their thoughts, philosophies which tend to be more fully formed than when teaching children and young adults. When they make this connection [or not], they Decide the relevance of the topic.

Through their life’s journey, adult students are less likely to accept information at face value and more likely to think critically about it. Not all, but many!

  • They will ask questions
  • They will evaluate your statements and make counter-arguments
  • They will be able to admit that they don’t know something and ask for clarification.
  • Adult students are interested, willing to examine beliefs and underlying assumptions.
  • They will listen and give feedback–there lies terror and joy!
  • They look for evidence, will check your facts
  • They will adjust their opinion
  • They will examine and reject information if they find it is incorrect or irrelevant

The joy of this process is that you don’t have to convince the Tarot student that they need to learn the topic. They want to be there and they are most likely ready to learn. You don’t really have to convince them the topic is important or interesting.

The terror is that in their reflection on the material, if they don’t find it relevant and don’t make a connection to it, they won’t continue to learn it. I think that includes the idea that “this stuff is too hard to learn.” They are more likely to know that life is short and there’s much to learn. They will vote with their feet.
So we start with an advantage and we end up on the precipice. Like the fool, we step off the cliff into a grand adventure. Perhaps we will fly or perhaps we will land with a thud. I take reassurance in the fact that Wil E. Coyote always comes back for more. His relationship with the roadrunner is always on, always active, and always full of energy.
Posted in Tarot, teacher and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
23 Jun 2008

Teaching Tarot and the New Student…some initial thoughts

I work at a college in the library and I’m part of many college-wide discussions about how to reach our students so that they learn. And much greater than that, they are excited and engaged in the learning process; further that students become passionate about the subject and it becomes a life-long pursuit or interest. It’s what makes us interesting human beings. And then when we reach out to one another, mind to mind, to share our passions, we are become community. Teachers and students alike become community. Passionate, knowledgeable, reflective, thoughtful, and engaged. We argue, we teach, we laugh, we learn, and we play as we learn.

Students who are there because the class is required, are not in this community yet. It takes some doing to get them to that place of passion and delight. For some, there will be topics that never excite them. For others, it will ignite them and the fire will burn for a lifetime.

Most students of Tarot come because they are interested: some are passionately drawn to the cards, perhaps for a long time; some because they are curious; and some because it’s something daring and even dangerous. For teachers of Tarot, we often get a “leg up,” or an extra boost because we don’t have to lure, seduce, and convince a reluctant learner to become engaged in our passionate discoveries.

At the same time, we can’t assume that everyone is going to become instantly attuned to the cards. It is an intimdating subject to study and learn. Seventy-eight cards with upright meanings, reversals, dignities, correspondences, images, and more. Centuries of writings, opinions, rumors, theories, and arguments can cause a student to run screaming to some other, more apparently simple divinitory system.

Then there’s the whoo whoo factor, both good and bad. The Devil’s Picture Book, a Wicked Pack of Cards are really something to fear by some folks and some of our students may have grown up with that idea. It is something to overcome. Then there’s the other side of the whoo whoo factor. People who come to the Tarot because they are following a spirituality that not only accepts but assumes that their practitioners will use some sort of divination. I’ll admit I was on both sides of this coin, having been in a fundamentalist cult and then following an earth-based religion. As teachers, we may have to temper one or other of those expectations.

On the other hand, we have a much greater change to lure our students into love of the Tarot because they are in the class voluntarily. All we have to do is seduce them gracefully and with the knowledge that a wicked deck of cards brings a lifetime of wisdom, passion, devotion, strength, and learning.

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22 May 2008
3 Comments

The Bag Hag: The Eternal Search for the Perfect Bag

The Bag Hag: The Eternal Search for the Perfect Bag

I have been searching for the perfect purse. And I have standards, too. It must zipper and a zippered pocket on the inside. It must have a long shoulder strap. It must be large enough to hold essentials which, in my case, includes the ability to haul around a paperback novel. And it’s gotta look good.

I don’t mind if it looks a little funky but I do have to be able to carry it to work and professional meetings and not feel like a dork.
You wouldn’t think it would be that hard, would you. And I’ve even learned to adapt. I’ve moved to smaller purses. I tried short straps and that did NOT work. Note to self: don’t do that again.
I work in a profession of bag ladies too. I got to library and academic conferences and they hand us our materials in a bag. Tote bags, messenger bags, gym bags, back packs (no! not a bag), and little bags. A couple of years ago a newly graduated librarian came back from her first academic conference and said to me in awed, hushed tones, “I even got a bag.”
I told her that over time she would get many bags and that she would become more discerning about the bags. Do they have zippers? Do they have a lot of pockets? Are the logos tasteful? I told her the best bag from a conference was one my sister got. It was green with a long strap, a zipper, and best of all–it was waterproof. This young librarian didn’t exactly roll her eyes, but she did skeedaddle out of my office pretty fast. She got another job in less than a year, not in the library profession.
I guess she bagged the librarian gig [all puns are intended]
Recently I learned another rule. Never take a man, especially an engineer, shopping with you when you are looking for the perfect purse. He actually thinks he can solve the problem. Mouse and I went shopping and I was mourning the purse whose long, lovely strap had broken beyond repair. We were at a department store and all the straps on all the purses were short. They were perfect other than that (yeah, right!)
Mouse decided he could fix it, so we searched all over the store for straps to replace the short ones. Camping supplies–nothing. Hunting supplies…rifle carrier straps were a possibility but not entirely functional. He ended up finding a guitar strap. When I picked up a purse to see if the strap would work, my lip curled in disgust. “It won’t be pretty, will it?” said Mouse.
No it won’t. I bought the purse but not the strap. Thinking I can make a strap out of some fabric. Will I do it. Maybe. Will the purse be perfect? No. After carrying it for a week, it’s okay but I already know it’s not perfect.
I remind myself, it’s the journey not the purse.
Posted in pin-up, witchcraft and tagged , , ,
13 May 2008
1 Comment

Manifesting Pendulums!

For the past few years, I’ve been manifesting pendulums. Not on purpose, they just come to me. For a couple of years, that was the gift I got for presenting at Pagan Pride Days. It was pretty cool, and some of them were just gorgeous. But I was perplexed because I wasn’t particularly drawn to them. I kept joking that it was a sign from the Goddess to learn about pendulums. I bought a couple of books, but didn’t bother to read them.

When Mouse and I started vending, one of the vendors sent me a beautiful one. It really called to me. You can see a picture of it here. One of my friends is a great pendulum dowser and I watched her use it. It’s very simple and such a tool for manifestation, concentration, and intention. Another witch in my coven taught us a chakra clearing method using pendulums. And I was set. I had a pendulum in my purse, by my chair and by my computer. I have been using a pendulum to heal some joint pain/arthritis in my right hand. It’s working.
Then I started losing pendlums. I discarded one of my purses, actually threw it away, and forgot to empty the zippered pocket. Along with a set of business cards, one of the cool pendulums got thrown away. I felt really bad, almost as if I had abandoned a friend. I said good bye in ritual and in dreams.
A few weeks ago, as I was packing to go to the Readers’ Studio, I discovered that I had lost my spiral pendulum. I decided not to panic and tear the house apart looking for it [that was hard], and just packed my bags.
The Readers’ Studio rocked and then rocked some more. Tarot is my divination of choice! One of the vendors, Mists of Atlantis had some wonderful pendulums. Two were made of citrine. I love citrine. This lovely yellow crystal continues to call to me through the years (that’s another story for later). So I carefully tried them both. I finally chose one and for the first time, manifested a pendulum by purchasing it. I think it’s special having come from the Readers’ Studio amidst all that divination magic; and Garnet, the proprietess of the Mists of Atlantis is a very magical person.
So I take my wonderful new pendulum back to my spot in the Studio classroom, open the bag my deck is in, and there is my spiral pendulum. Is that crazy or what. I must have stored away my pendlum when the cable guy came to install the new modem. Or maybe it just wanted to be near the Tarot.
And then as we were taking a break at the Readers’ Studio, the stress reliever gift they distributed were — you guessed it — pendulums. So now I have a sweet rose quartz pendulum. I think there’s more to learn here and I’m excited to move into that space.
Blessed Be your manifestations!

 

 

Posted in Divination, Tarot and tagged , , , ,
30 Apr 2008

Herding Cats and Other Strange Creatures

We all hear the expression “it’s like herding cats” to get a certain type of people to do anything together. In every area of my life, that is true. I work at a college library….working with faculty is like herding cats; working with librarians is like herding cats; and students, well, students have their own herd and they definitely don’t want to join ours. Not that I blame them!
One year, I was a marshall at commencement at our college. My job was to make sure that the faculty got lined up for the procession into the arena. So I stood behind them and made shooing motions and said, “meow, meow, meow.” Some people were amused but others were definitely not laughing. There is something in us that wants to be unique and separate from the crowd or herd.
Then you add the brave new world of witches, goddesses, tarot readers, and similar new age folk. It’s like herding cats. And yet, “I’m living a dream,” as you see in this herding cats video on YouTube. I just love this video.
I do think we need another analogy though. It’s getting tired and over used. Maybe herding buzzards. My brother had a poster that had two vultures sitting on a tree and one of them says, “patience, hell, I’m going to kill something.” Or maybe herding polar bears.
As frustrating as it is sometimes, witches, Tarot readers, goddessy types and even librarians are part of a life of love. So I choose the herd I’m in and I love it. Even if I don’t always go with the crowd!!!
May you always be in the herd you love.
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