Ken's Korner

It has been an exciting and busy month for us here at CyberWitchcraft. We’ve added a bunch of new content to the website, and have plans for even more.

First off, we’ve added a section for Interviews. The first two interviews are up, and have been extremely popular. We interviewed first Christopher Penczak, author of numerous books on Witchcraft. Among other things, he told us about a new course he’s offered to online students.

We were also lucky enough to get an interview with Raymond Buckland, who is credited with bringing Witchcraft to America. He was one of Gerald Gardner’s students, and is a man who knows his Craft inside and out. Both interviews are up on CyberWitchcraft now.

In related news, we’ve also put up a section for book reviews. Now this isn’t the normal kind of review where I, or someone else on staff reads a book and tells you what we think of it.

Instead, you get to tell everyone else about the book you just can’t put down, or the book you wasted money on. Even better, each review can be read, and commented on by other visitors to CyberWitchcraft.

This way you get several different opinions about a single book, to help you decide if it’s something you might want or not.

Last, but not least, we’ve added an easy way for you to tell others about CyberWitchcraft. The easiest way, of course is to just email your friends, and tell them.

For those of you who have web pages, we’ve created code that you can copy and paste into your web page, so that your visitors can find us also. The Share This Site section is up and available now.

Sign of The Times

I had an experience poll up for several months. The reason for this was to find out who our visitors really are. What I found out, kind of surprised me. Most of those who filled out the poll are interested in Witchcraft, but not currently practicing.

So now I’ve put up a new poll to find out what you most want to learn about. This is your website, and in order for it to become the resource I know it can be, I need to know what’s most important to you. I have my own ideas about what I think is important, but they may have no correlation to what you really want to know.

Now we’ve started adding questions to CyberWitchcraft. It started with the new Interviews section, asking who you want to see interviews from, and what questions you’d ask.

Then we set up a question in the Beginning Witchcraft section, asking what questions you want answered. We’ve just put up a poll on the Home Page asking you what your most important question about Witchcraft is.

By asking you what you want to know, we are assured of making CyberWitchcraft the most usable and knowledgeable site of Witchcraft on the web. After all, a website is useless, if it doesn’t give you the information you’re looking for. You know more about what you’re looking for than I do, so I’m asking for your help in letting us know what to put up.

Based on some feedback we’ve already received, we’re in the process of putting together a section on astrology. You’re questions and comments are what will help us become the number one Witchcraft website on the Net!

Blessed be,

Time of The Season

At Imbolc, milk begins to engorge the udders of livestock, as the animals come closer to giving birth. Preparations for Spring sowing, and the hiring of labor that will be needed for the growing season, are made. Fishermen check their boats and make minor repairs, readying to go back out after Wintering in the safety of land.

Take a look out your window. You may have already noticed that the sun isn’t setting quite so early as it was at Yule. Even the news casts have noticed that there’s more light out as they show the rush hour traffic in the evening.

It’s this extra light that we celebrate, and the changes it brings in Nature. Those who breed livestock know that it’s the sun, and the abundance of its light that allows the animals to come into cycle each year. The sun is beginning its long march back toward the northern hemisphere.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to see new sprouts of growth in the trees and plants. Even here in cold, snowy Colorado, I can see the first stirrings of Nature. The grass is starting to show the first pale greens of returning from the brown of dormancy. Often it is what most call weeds, but we know as herbs, that start to show the first signs of Spring.

Brighid, is the Goddess in Her form as the Maiden, and it is the Maiden who is celebrated at this time of year. She wears a hat, or crown of glowing candles to symbolize the return of the light. Whatever the light touches, again becomes fertile.

The Greeks first, and then the Romans, had their tales of Persephone, returning from Hades, to be greeted by her mother Demeter. Now the Goddess, Her grief no longer upon Her, can allow the fields to bloom again.

There will still be cold and snow, but the frequency and duration will become less. The days will become warmer now. Windows will eventually be thrown wide to welcome the Spring breezes. This is the time for traditional Spring cleaning.

This is also the traditional time for Spiritual cleaning. It’s time to clear your Spiritual fields of the trash accumulated over the Winter. Get rid of anything that holds you back, or is no longer of any use. It will only keep new possibilities from growing.

Before you can till the fields of your Spirit, and plant the seeds of success, you must clear them of all that no longer belongs. Remove the dead stalks of last year’s harvest.

This is a new season, and a New Year. It will be better than last year. No matter what is happening in your life, you have the ability to take control and make of it what you Will. Will and Intent are the tools you farm with. Sharpen and polish them.

An Imbolc Exercise

Find a white candle, it doesn’t matter if it’s a taper or a votive. Dress the candle with oil, what oil you use is up to you, it can be an essential oil from a Spring flower, or even cooking oil. That too comes from flowers.

As you dress the candle, think about the things, the baggage you still carry with you. All the things in your life that you want to get rid of, or no longer need.

Make a mental list of these things that you want to get rid of.

Focus the energy of ridding yourself of these things into the candle.

After you have spent some time working out your list, place the candle in a fire-safe place. This can be your altar, or a coffee table, as long as it can burn undisturbed, and not cause a fire. Remember, magick takes Will and Intent, and it can take time to focus them into your need. Give yourself that time.

If you wish, you can carve labels for the things you are cleaning out of your life, into the candle with a pin, or some other sharp object. It can be done with your Athame, but it’s a real pain.

The carvings don’t need to be done, but they will give you a visual reference as the candle burns, and it’s more time you can spend focusing your Will and Intent.

Once you have the candle finished place it where it will burn, and light it. You may see the flame spark and sputter as the energy you placed into the candle ignites. It is important that you allow the candle to burn all the way undisturbed. You are transforming all those things that held you back, in the Fire of the candle.

Watch the flame for a while, and see your worries and issues burn away, transformed into warmth and light. If you carved symbols or words into the candle, you will be able to actually watch them melt and burn.

This is magick.

You are transforming your burdens into energy, and sending it back into the Universe for other uses.

Allow the candle to burn all the way down, but you don’t have to watch it. This is why you put it in a safe place. Let the candle burn down, and go about your business. Forget all about it.

When the candle has burned itself out, if there is any leftover wax from drippings, or in the bottom of the candle holder, remove them and dispose of them in running water.

This can be any running water from a nearby stream, to an irrigation ditch, to your kitchen sink.

Letting hot water from the tap run into a candle holder is the easiest way to get that stubborn chunk of wax out of it.

Once the wax has gone down the drain, your ritual is complete. You have burned away those things in your life you no longer need, so forget about them. Start to think of what seeds you want to plant. Ostara is just around the corner, and we’ll be planting then.

For more information on Imbolc check out;
The ADF website
Star Breezes
Wikipedia

The Myth of The Poor Pagan

We all know how bad the economy has gotten. People are out of work, and even those who have jobs are finding it harder to make ends meet. So what’s a Witch to do? I find it amazing how many “Witches” I have heard say that it’s unethical, or wrong to do things for yourself magickally.

When I hear this, I have to wonder, if you won’t do it for yourself, who will? Are you expecting that someone will just give you what you want out of the goodness of their hearts? It’s been my experience that I have to work for everything I get. No one has given me a thing since I moved out of my parent’s house.

I think that the real problem here isn’t that these people don’t want to have nice things and money, I think that it’s that they don’t believe they deserve them. This makes it a confidence issue.

If you don’t deserve the things you want, you’ll never get them. Another connected issue is that if you don’t have confidence in yourself, how do you ever expect for your magick to work?

Magick is all about Intent, and Will. If you really believe that you don’t deserve something, no matter how many spells you cast, or rituals you do, you will never get it.

Beyond that, if you don’t believe that you should get something, you will never find it in the physical world either.

If you want something, like money, you first have to believe that you should have it. The Charge of The Goddess says, “...that which you seek without, you must first find within.”

That doesn’t mean just magickally, it means always.

If you are one of these people who has been working at ritual and magick, but nothing ever seems to manifest, take a good hard look at yourself, and figure out if you really believe that you should have what you’re asking for.

Until you know with a certainty, that you should have it, the universe will never give it to you.

Magick doesn’t work in a vacuum.

You back up your spells on the physical plane by doing things that will help the magick along. If you do a spell to find a job, or a better job, you look for that job, you don’t just wait for someone to come knocking at your door!

If you don’t really believe that you should have that job, or that better job, you don’t look for it, and so you miss opportunities that you would see if you only looked.

This is why you must have confidence in yourself, in your abilities, and in what you really want out of life.

This is what Witchcraft can do for you. It can show you how to get those things you really want out of your life. Witchcraft can help you to build that confidence that you need, to be successful not just with Witchcraft, but in life.

Those who lack the confidence, and the drive to be successful at anything, are the ones who never will be successful.

Witchcraft won’t fix the problems in your life effortlessly. If that is what you are looking for, you are looking in the wrong place. Witchcraft takes time and effort.

The good news is, everyone has the ability to be successful, they just have to want it bad enough to work at it.

The “Witches” I spoke of earlier, who don’t believe that they should work toward getting the things they want in life, will never be successful at it.

They don’t believe they deserve success, and therefore they will fail. You on the other hand, can make the choice to be successful in your life, and reap the rewards of your own labors.

So you see, there really is no such thing as a Poor Pagan. Whatever success you want, you can have, even in this economy. You just have to work at it, and be willing to do what it takes.

The first step, is believing in yourself, and believing that you do deserve your success, whatever it is.

Articles for Witch Way should be around 500 words, and those for CyberWitchcraft.com should be around 2000 words.

If you have any comments or suggestions, you can go to the Contact Page on the website, or simply reply to this email. This newsletter and the website are created for you, your thoughts and ideas are important to us.

Until next month, may you be blessed in all that you do, or as we usually say,

Blessed Be,

Ken Biles