Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 44
October 2, 2020
New edition of The Night Journey
I am delighted to announce that The Centre For Pagan Studies and the Doreen Valiente Foundation are publishing the revised and expanded edition of The Night Journey: Witchcraft as Transformation by me, Yvonne Aburrow.
Pre-order the paperback from the Doreen Valiente Foundation Shop
The Night Journey is a follow-up to my previous book, Dark Mirror: The Inner Work of Witchcraft.
The Night Journey: witchcraft as transformation
This book explores different ways of doing ritual, a...
October 1, 2020
Same sex initiation
Fantastic article from Katie Gerrard. I agree 100%. Same sexual initiation should be valid in Wicca.
Just one thing, though – Katie says that she believes that no-one has performed any same-sex initiations recently; I know of a group of them that were done 10 or 15 years ago. And since the whole situation is sort of in limbo right now, how would we know if anyone had done one?
Same-sex initiation should be valid in Wicca, by Katie Gerrard (2020)
“I’ve looked hard at Gardnerian trad...
September 30, 2020
Orange Shirt Day 2020
Every child matters. Today is Orange Shirt Day, the day of remembrance for Indigenous victims of the residential schools (which ran from the 1870s to 1996). Many children in them died of tuberculosis, hunger, abuse, and neglect. Sexual and physical abuse was rife.
From the Orange Shirt Day website:
“Former student Phyllis (Jack) Webstad told her story of her first day at residential school when her shiny new orange shirt, bought by her grandmother, was taken from her as a six-year old...
September 22, 2020
How to write a coven enquiry letter
So you’ve read a book or two about Wicca, and now you’re looking to find out more, maybe join a coven. So you look on the Mandragora Magika group-finder page, and you find a group that you’re interested in.
So now you’re ready to write an inquiry letter to the coven. After you have read their entire website and any blogposts they have linked to from their site, of course.
It’s a bit like writing a cover letter for a job application, only you get to put in all your occult and magical i...
September 14, 2020
Books I read in September
Philip Heselton’s new book on the New Forest Coven; a book on folkloric witchcraft; and an epistolary novel about people who love books.
In Search of the New Forest Coven, by Philip Heselton
A fascinating further exploration of the origins of Wicca. Having identified the members of the New Forest Coven in a previous book, we now get to see more details of their occult and Pagan-adjacent interests, especially the Mason family, Rosamund Sabine, Edith Woodford-Grimes, and Katharine Oldme...
September 11, 2020
The tree in summer
Following up on my previous post about the tree outside my window, here are some photos of the tree in the summer.
I realized that the reason I didn’t take pictures of the tree last summer was because of the insect screen on the window.
The tree on 24 May 2020
The tree on 25 May 2020
The tree on 27 May 2020
The tree on 28 May 2020
The tree on 3 June 2020
The tree on 18 June 2020
The tree on 4 August 2020
The tree on 5 September 2020
The tree on 8 September 2020
The tree on 11 September 2020
T...
September 7, 2020
Reviews of Dark Mirror
This is a new, revised and expanded edition of Dark Mirror, with new sections and new insights.
Inner work is a name commonly given to the inner processes that happen in ritual. It can also mean the transformation of the psyche that comes about through engaging in religious ritual. However, the best kind of inner work also has an effect outside the individual and outside the circle. When rituals are focused only on self-developme...
September 4, 2020
Interview with Eleanor Bone
Another gem from the Wayback Machine, by the same author as the obituary of Eleanor Bone that I posted previously. If anyone knows who the author is, please let me know; it seems to be by the person who founded the Occulture festival.
There are some very interesting points in the interview, such as the allegation that Gerald Gardner never received any initiations beyond first degree from the New Forest Coven.
For those who have visted this site for the first time and may wonder about my own con...
September 3, 2020
Eleanor Bone (1910-2001)
This is an obituary for Eleanor Bone from 2001 that was archived on the Wayback Machine. I wanted to save it for posterity in case it disappears from there, so I am reposting it here. I do not know who the author is (or was). If anyone knows who it is by, please let me me know; it seems to be by the person who founded the Occulture festival.
I became involved with Eleanor through my work on the book ‘Charge of the Goddess‘ a posthumous publication of the ritual poems of Doreen Valiente. ...
September 1, 2020
My YouTube channel
It seems all the cool kids have a YouTube channel these days, so I’ve revamped mine and started putting regular content on it.
You can check out some of my videos below.
