[Pagan Blog Project 2014] A for Authors

Specifically: magic, occult, new age, and/or pagan authors.

31 Days of Magic: What lead you to start practicing witchcraft?

"Magic" by Curenta

A few weeks ago, a blogger on Tumblr mentioned a lack of Secular Witchcraft "31 Days" Question Meme. For those who don't know, the "31 Days of ___" is a meme of sorts that has 31 questions to be answered over a series of 31 days. The ones easily found by Google for witchcraft, though, had religious elements in the questions. Such as, "What Gods/Goddesses do you worship?" or "How do you honor the Moon?" and stuff like that.

So, in response, I decided to make a 31 Days of Secular Witchcraft. I called it "witchcraft" because that was what the person seeking the meme worded it as. Ironically, I don't call what I do "witchcraft" so I'm going to be changing this title for myself to "31 Days of Magic."

Without further ado, I'll now be answering the first question: What lead you to start practicing witchcraft magic?

My Beliefs ... As of Today

"Change" by NaBHaN

I am starting a new Tumblr blog, despite creating this blog so I wouldn't. But my idea behind what this blog should be changed. Instead of just being a place to store and type out my thoughts, I have started to consider this blog a platform for discussion.

And like my idea behind what this blog should be changed, so have my personal beliefs. For one, I am distancing myself from calling myself "pagan" and "witch"--two identifiers I have used for several years now. But my perceptions are changing, thus so too are my beliefs in what I am and should be.

Woe is Me: Celtic Culture and Eclectic Paganism

This is an article I have been itching to write, but I don't really know how to go about it. Perhaps it is because this is probably the most opinionated piece I have so far written; these are more about my thoughts about something that irks me, but isn't necessarily unmoral or a call to movement.

My problem boils down to this: a lot of people in the pagan community tend to use terms, practices, and holidays removed from their original cultures.

For example, pretend that someone in Europe is celebrating Fourth of July. They have fireworks and are eating outside--but why call it Fourth of July? Why celebrate another country's national holiday when that person is outside the country?

So... Why celebrate Lughnasa without understanding of the culture that created it?

Local Community--Different Group, Different Results

Decorative hummus from Lughnasa Ritual I went to.

Looking over my Blogspot statics, my post: "Local Pagan Community--Summed up in Facebook?" so far has the most views out of any of my other posts. I guess everyone likes a good drama--that, and I have been linking to it every time I bring up my experiences in the local pagan community. However, I will probably start to refer to this article too; I have branched out once more and met with a different group of local pagans who work out of the local Unitarian Church.

What to do with a Gender Binary?

Before I was banned from this group, I went to a meet up where in the general discussion a person mentioned a Women's Retreat. I don't recall which one she meant, but there are Pagan Women Retreats throughout the United States. This also is not a purely Pagan or New Age ideology. Christian Churches will have women's retreats, or even secular groups will engage in this dichotomy. To be clear, there are also male-only retreats or gatherings.

As the title suggests, I'm not a fan of this.

Problematic Perceptions

Walt Whitman writes in his poem, "Song of Myself":

"Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd
     the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? 

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the
     origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are
     millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor
     look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the
     spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things
     from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."

The last line sticks with me: "filter them from your self." What a marvelous, potent phrase about understanding

Remember that game of Telephone? I remember how teachers would use it as a way to exemplify how rumors spread. Basically, everyone gets in a circle of five or more people. One person will turn to their right and whisper a phrase. That person will then turn to their right and whisper exactly what they heard. And so on. This process morphs the phrase so that by the time it reaches the last person, the phrase is almost (if not completely) indistinguishable from the first phrase. A phrase like, "I like to buy shoes at the market" becomes "Eyes are hard to mark." This is due to a number of human error problems, like speaking too fast, stuttering, emphasizing some words over others. Etc.

There is a website called Bad Translator that mimics this almost by taking a phrase in English, translating it to a different language, then back to English, then to another language, and so forth for how many iterations you set it to. I typed in, "I like to buy shoes at the market" and it became "I want to buy shoes."

My point is: the further from the source, the more distorted the message.

Occult Store Scoring Guide

In response to my own posts about a local occult store, I am keep an on-going list of occult stores online and local. Similar to how the Human Rights Campaign has a buyer's guide with LGBTQ+ issues, I will keep an ongoing list of scores for occult stores (online, local, or both) based on criteria people look for when shopping.

The stores will be given a percent rating by taking the points earned and dividing that number by the points available. This is because certain occult stores will not be able to be evaluated on all the criteria given and should not be penalized for that (eg: an online store that is strictly items and not services.)

Example: If a store has all possibilities to earn points, the total will be: #/13. If they don't offer any services, then the total would be: #/10.

Here is the form for each store. I will post completed forms on a master lister on a separate page.

Store's Name:
URL: (if available)
Location: (if available)
Evaluated by: (name or online alias)
___ Staff:
     (+1) Friendly
     (+1) Knowledgeable
     (+1) Professional
___ Items:
     (+1) Religious variety
     (+1) Authenticity (eg: no cultural appropriative items.)
     (+1) Supports individual artisans and/or witches (eg: items are handmade opposed to factory made)
     (+1) Includes health warnings for herbs, spices, oils.
___ Services:
     (+1) Variety (eg: not just Wiccan.)
     (+1) Has community outreach and/or classes
     (+1) Promotes an educational atmosphere
___ General:
     (+1) Overall appealing atmosphere (or online readability)
     (+1) LGBTQ and gender identity positive
     (+1) Anti-racism
___% = Score (Points Accumulated/Total Possible Score)

Additional Comments:

If you want to evaluate an occult store you have shopped at, please either comment with this forum completed or email me at omahapaganphilosophy (at) gmail (dot) com. My only requirements to filling out this form is that you are not an employee or owner of the store (ie: if you own your own occult store, do not submit your own evaluation.)

If I missed anything in this evaluation form, let me know ASAP and I will amend it. If there are already forms submitted, they will also be edited to reflect changes in the form.

So, reader, do you have a store you wish to evaluate?