Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 32

Gender and the English language

English can sometimes be a really good language to be nonbinary in; and sometimes it can be awful. This is mostly because of the unmarked default, and sometimes it is because of words that have been badly imported from elsewhere.

However, I want to reiterate what I’ve stated elsewhere: people’s needs and lived experience are more important than grammar or linguistics. Uncontroversial case in point: the word Wicca meant a male witch in Old English; now it means a whole tradition.

The un...

Books I read in November 2021

November seems to have been a month of starting books and not finishing them. I started a novel by Isabel Allende and did not finish it, as it’s rather depressing. I started reading a book by Nigel Pennick written in 1992, and then learned that he has links with the far right, and haven’t felt like continuing with it (I probably will finish it, because I can read critically, but just felt sick at heart after finding out about it). I have managed to finish two books, though.

The Hollow Hil...

Books I read in November

November seems to have been a month of starting books and not finishing them. I started a novel by Isabel Allende and did not finish it, as it’s rather depressing. I started reading a book by Nigel Pennick written in 1992, and then learned that he has links with the far right, and haven’t felt like continuing with it (I probably will finish it, because I can read critically, but just felt sick at heart after finding out about it). I have managed to finish two books, though.

The Hollow Hil...

Hail to the beans!

Today I pulled all the beanstalks off the climbing poles and put the poles in the shed. It’s snowing hard outside.

As I worked, I sang to the bean plants to thank them for their gifts of food, and promised to plant their seeds next year.

Tune: Joy to the world

Hail to the beans!
The lovely beans!
The lovely, lovely beans!
We thank you for the foo-oo-ood
We thank you for the foo-oo-ood
The lovely lovely food
The lovely lovely food
And we will plant your seeds, your seeds in spring.

It’s not great a...

Nature, tradition, and ancestors

I am very keen on rejecting, resisting, and repudiating the infiltration and co-opting of Paganism by the far right, and so I found Amy Hale’s article on The Pagan and Occult Fascist Connection and How to Fix It a very useful resource, particularly the questions at the end. I would encourage you to read the article, and use these questions as journaling prompts.

So here are my answers to those questions for initiatory Wicca (in some cases, I have previously written blogposts on these topics, ...

No platform for fascism

I recently posted on Instagram about a book I was reading by Nigel Pennick, and was informed by Amy Hale that the author has links with the far right (she published an article about it in The Pomegranate in 2012). I was horrified, as I have been recommending his books to people. If you Google his name, the first results that come up will not be related to his links with the far right, but if if you Google his name along with “Arcana Europa”, a far right publisher, you can find ample evidence of ...

What “inclusive” means

Inclusive doesn’t mean that we have to include everybody who asks to join; it means that we don’t exclude whole classes of people due to their innate or acquired characteristics (such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or physical characteristics).

Some people may not be suited to Wicca because they are drawn to a different path. Some people might not be suited to coven life because they don’t play well with others, or because they are not kind and considerate of others.

Inclus...

Moon water

I had never heard of moon water until very recently. It seems to be a piece of North American folk magic. It also seems to have gained in popularity very rapidly, especially on Instagram (and possibly on Tiktok too, but I’m not on there). So I wondered where it came from.

Sacred waters

In Britain, there are many many holy wells, originally sacred to Celtic and Romano-British deities or spirits of place, and subsequently dedicated to saints. The most obvious and well known example is Aq...

The Golden Shadow

Shadow work seems to be the thing all the kids are talking about these days. I assumed that people were talking about the integration of the shadow as is talked about in Jungian psychology. But do you know about the concept of the Golden Shadow? Check out my YouTube video, “Archetypes and shadow work” for more about Jungian shadow concepts, including the Golden Shadow.

‘In Jungian psychology, the “shadow” refers to an unconscious aspect of the personality, everything of which a person is ...

Fire Magic and Earth Magic

Llewellyn have recently published a series of books on the Four Elements, called Elements of Witchcraft, and the two that I was asked to provide endorsements of are excellent. All the authors of this series are experienced occultists and Pagans, so these books are well worth your time, whether you are a beginner or a more experienced practitioner, or someone who is interested in folklore and mythology.

Earth Magic, by Dodie Graham McKay

Whether you are new to the Pagan path or have...