November 18th, 2011 by Ben Gruagach
Image via Wikipedia
Most people are aware of midsummer (the summer solstice) as a key time when the realm of the fairies overlaps with our own. Not as many realize though that there is another time of year when the veil is thin: the winter solstice, or Yule. It’s obvious when you think about it since characters like Santa, his elves, and Jack Frost are so connected to Yule.
Some branches of ancient and modern Paganism have close ties with fairies, with some revering the Good Neighbors as deities while others treat them more as spirits, sometimes even considering them to be the spirits of deceased humans. Few see Them in the stereotypical way portrayed by Disney and in children’s picture books. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: Brian Froud, faerie, faery, Fairy, Feri, Folklore, Midsummer, oracle, William Sharp, Yule
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November 18th, 2011 by Ben Gruagach
In the late 1500s and early 1600s in the English county of Lancashire in Pendle Forest a cunning woman known by the nickname Old Demdike served the local populace. Demdike, whose real name was Elizabeth Southerne, lived in the ruins of Malkin Tower with her daughter Liza and her grandchildren James (Jamie), Alizon, and Jennet. In 1612 a local magistrate who wished to attain favour with the witch-hating King James mounted a witchhunt in Lancashire. Demdike, along with nineteen others including her daughter and two of her grandchildren, were charged and jailed. While four were acquitted and set free, one was found guilty of bewitching a horse and sentenced to stand in the pillory; Demdike died in prison before her trial and the remaining fourteen accused, including Demdike’s daughter and two of her grandchildren, were hung. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: Catholicism, England, fiction, History of England, Lancashire, Pendle, witchhunts
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November 18th, 2011 by Ben Gruagach
This slim volume (running one hundred and thirty four pages, including the index and extra materials) is a challenging read and not one I would recommend to beginners. The subtitle “Wise Words from a Crone on the Path,” implies it is an exploration of the deeper meaning of Wiccan practice and philosophy from one who is an Elder of the religion. Despite the author’s years of training and experience as a high priestess, the book has a number of major flaws which are difficult to overlook and could be confusing to a novice.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: BTW, Coven, eclectic Wicca, Ellen Cannon Reed, traditional Wicca, Wicca
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November 18th, 2011 by Ben Gruagach
Mike Nichols - Image via Wikipedia
Back in the pre-internet days computer geek Pagans like me would use our dial-up modems to connect with bulletin board systems where we could download text files, send and receive email, and participate in online discussion on a wide variety of topics. There were dozens of different networks that individual BBSs would hook into covering all sorts of interests – including PODSNet, which specialized in Pagan topics.
We didn’t have a lot of material widely available back then. There were only a handful of relatively good books available on Pagan topics, and they were often hard to find in local bookstores unless you knew the title or author and could special-order them. If you were lucky enough to have bumped into some Pagan people who lived nearby you might have someone to share with and learn from. A lot of information was fragmented. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: celebration, Mike Nichols, sabbat, seasons, Wheel of the Year, Wicca, Wiccan, Witchcraft
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November 18th, 2011 by Ben Gruagach
Poet, mystic, and visionary are words often used to describe Victor H. Anderson. Ecstatic seeker, wise elder, grand high priest, and beloved witch would also be accurate. Victor and his wife Cora are the founders of the highly influential Feri tradition of Witchcraft. A mixture of Hawaiian mysticism, European folk magic, Pagan spirituality, and Wiccan theory, it is one hundred percent Witchcraft. In “Etheric Anatomy” one of the central teachings of Feri is presented in Victor’s and Cora’s own words, supplemented with an informative preface and a list of further books to explore.
Feri witchcraft teaches the theory of the tripartite self: each of us has three distinct spiritual bodies that together make up the human soul. This book explains the three parts of the soul, describing their composition and function, explaining them by drawing on a variety of spiritual and mystical traditions in a logical synthesis. Victor and Cora use poetic yet straightforward language. As you read the book it’s easy to imagine you are sitting next to them on a porch gently rocking in rocking chairs as they talk to you. Cora and Victor speak like loving relatives sharing their knowledge; they do not talk down to their students or lecture as some nonfiction authors do. Their genuine, practical mysticism comes across clearly in what they say and teach. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 9.5/10 (2 votes cast)
Tags: Cora Anderson, Etheric body, Feri, Victor Anderson
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May 17th, 2010 by Ben Gruagach
Here are a few guided meditation MP3 files that you can download and use. They work best if you listen to them through earphones. Because they are meditations, and are meant to lead you to altered states of consciousness, you should not use them when driving or doing other tasks that require your full attention.
Astral Cup Meditation (490)
Astral Cup Meditation - Spoken Word Only (305)
Astral Tower Meditation (368)
Cerridwen's Cauldron (401)
Night Ride On A Broomstick (505)
(The numbers after the name of each download link indicate how many times the file has been downloaded since it was posted here.)
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Rating: 10.0/10 (5 votes cast)
Posted in Articles, Meditations, Rituals | 1 Comment »
April 27th, 2010 by Ben Gruagach
If you’ve come to the WitchGrotto website looking for a particular article, book review, or a booklist of recommended reading don’t panic — it will be back soon as I catch up on moving old content over to the new streamlined website. Feel free to email me at webmaster@witchgrotto.com to let me know what you’re looking for specifically and I’ll try to get that up sooner.
Note: As I add some of the older material I’ll be backdating the content to give a better indication when it was originally written. Be sure to look back through the archives as older articles will appear over time.
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Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
April 27th, 2010 by Ben Gruagach
One of the lessons I’ve learned as a Wiccan is that everything has its seasons. There are beginnings, middles, and endings… and sometimes when we think it’s an ending it’s really just a new beginning. Things will change whether we want them to or not.
Over the years the WitchGrotto site has grown, expanded, and become more complex. Unfortunately that includes the software that was needed to run things on the web host. As the internet has grown we’ve also had a proliferation of malicious users who derive pleasure in damaging or wrecking other people’s websites. The more complex a website is and the more visibility it has the more likely it is to be targeted by hackers. WitchGrotto has not been immune to this negative attention.
The hackers have not won — WitchGrotto still lives and will become even better!
I’ve decided for now to keep the site stripped down to basics. It will still be a content-rich site focusing on providing practical information for modern Pagans, Witches, and occultists. It will be regularly updated with new material to keep things fresh. The site will focus on its strong points rather than trying to include lots of extra features. There’s no need to make the site more complex and an easier target for hackers.
So have a look around at the new leaner WitchGrotto. If there’s something that you are missing please let me know (by emailing or by leaving a comment) as I can point you to where you can find what you’re looking for either on this site or another one on the internet. I promise to work hard to make WitchGrotto into a valuable resource with relevant practical information for people practicing magickal spiritual paths.
Blessed be, WitchGrotto visitors!
Ben Gruagach
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February 4th, 2008 by Ben Gruagach
Our dreams are populated with all sorts of interesting characters – friends, family, strangers, fictional characters, animals, mythical beings, Gods and Goddesses. Each night when we close our eyes and give ourselves over to dreamland we gain unique opportunities to interact with intelligences with which we normally don’t have contact.
Some explain these dream figures as parts of ourselves that manifest through our subconscious when we are asleep. Others believe that these figures have their own independent existence. Perhaps they are the astral forms of living people. Maybe they are discorporate spirits or ghosts, angels or demons, perhaps even Gods and Goddesses. It doesn’t really matter how we explain their existence. There are things we can learn from them regardless how we explain their presence.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: astral, deities, dreams, ghosts, spirits
Posted in Articles, How-To, Theory | No Comments »
June 18th, 2006 by Ben Gruagach
Religious fundamentalism is characterized by literal belief in specific spiritual claims, often about a particular religion’s history, regardless of any available evidence. A particular dogma is promoted as the One True and Only Way and anything that deviates is considered heretical.
The Roman Catholic Church has an office within its organization called the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In previous times this office had another name: the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Despite the name change the office’s role has remained the same. It is responsible for keeping doctrinal discipline and confronting and eliminating deviations in doctrinal thought. It’s all about maintaining the authority of the Vatican and the Pope and ensuring that all Roman Catholics are following the same religion and respecting the established hierarchy.
Wicca is a religion based on autonomy. It draws its basis from Pagan religions of the past but primarily from lore about Witches and Witchcraft. Most today consider Wicca to trace back directly or indirectly to a single man, Gerald Gardner, who promoted the religion starting in the 1940s or early 1950s in Britain. Gardner described Wicca as based on covens with each coven being autonomous. If there was dissent within a coven the rules as Gardner presented them allowed for the dissenting parties to separate and form new covens. This way of dealing with conflict resulted in encouraging diversity within Wicca and reinforced the idea that there was no central authority which would dictate that one coven was wrong and another right on matters of philosophy or practice.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)
Tags: denominations, fundamentalism, Gardner, skepticism, Wicca
Posted in Articles, Community | 1 Comment »
