Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 51
February 5, 2020
A Queer Pagan Reading List (2020)
An update on my 2018 post and my 2015 post. Please add your recommendations in the comments.
I have reorganized the list by author and added topic tags; if you prefer a list by topic, have a look at my 2018 post.
Yvonne Aburrow All Acts of Love & Pleasure: Inclusive Wicca – Yvonne Aburrow (2014)[INCLUSIVE, LGBT+, QUEER, KINK, WICCA] Dark Mirror: the Inner Work of Witchcraft – Yvonne Aburrow (2018)
[INCLUSIVE, LGBT+, QUEER, WICCA, WITCHCRAFT] The Night Journey: Witchcraft as Transformation...
February 2, 2020
A message from Brighid
We are in the northern part of Turtle Island. We start every circle with a land acknowledgment and a blessing for the First Nations of this land. Today we invoked Brighid, goddess of smith-craft, poetry and healing. This is her message. She wanted me to put it on the Internet. Even if you don’t believe in channeling and goddesses: her message is truthful.
I spread my wings
I fly over the sea
The land is covered in a blanket of snow
I see growing things stirring beneath the earth
The land...
January 28, 2020
The ‘Mpa-lu ‘Mpa
I am Nahuatl, the shaman of the ‘Mpa-lu ‘Mpa. I was away in the high mountains gathering plants when the sorcerer came who enslaved my people. This is the story of how the ‘Mpa-lu ‘Mpa rose up and defeated the sorcerer.
For many years, our village and our way of life had been under siege by illegal loggers and our trees being cut down by farmers. We had retreated high into the mountains and adopted an ever more stealthy way of life.
We make our houses on platforms high in the rainforest,...
January 26, 2020
Being yourself online
Nimue Brown has written a great article on various types of online performance, and how to remain authentic even while curating your online persona.
I try to keep my online persona as close to the real me as possible. But obviously you’re getting an edited version.
Work versus personal lifeI remember back in the early nineties when it was necessary to be “in the broom closet” at work. I hated the sense of inauthenticity and the stress that that produced, even though I tried to be as close...
January 23, 2020
Theriomorphic deities
The revelation of the restored version of the Mystic Lamb from the Ghent Altarpiece got me thinking about theriomorphic deities.
The scary goggly eyes of the restored version attracted quite a lot of comment and even a scary meme of the Lamb winking.
Before you go and have a look at the pictures, I have to warn you that what has been seen cannot be unseen.
Before and after. Restoration of the lamb from the 15th century Ghent altarpiece. I can tell you this.. It wasn't me..
January 22, 2020
Avoiding spiritual burn-out
Ask Grace: What are the symptoms of spiritual burnout and how to avoid psychic burnout
Spiritual burn-out is a real risk for spiritual leaders, counsellors, caregivers, healers and psychics. Grace, a psychic, gives advice on how to avoid it (and she should know because she has suffered from it). I have suffered from this myself (in 2011), and have found in the past that if I was getting nurtured by others, and receiving energy from the universe, it didn’t happen, whereas if you fail to do...
January 19, 2020
Causality and ethics in Wicca
There are many people who will tell you that Wicca abides by the Threefold Law. If someone tells you this, the first thing you should ask is which version of Wicca they’re talking about, and the second thing you should ask is what version of the Threefold Law they’re talking about.
There’s an excellent article by Patti Wiginton on this topic at Learn Religions. As she points out, there are many versions and understandings of the Rule of Three.
The earliest of these (and the only one that I...
January 1, 2020
Books I read in 2019
Here’s an overview of the books I read in 2019.
And a helpful infographic from Goodreads:
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Books I read in December
Some science fiction, some fairy tales, some Tom Cox (he’s his own genre, y’know), and some Robertson Davies.
The Wrong Stars by Tim PrattI saw this being recommended on Twitter by Seanan McGuire, so I knew it would be good, and I wasn’t disappointed. It has transgender and nonbinary and bisexual and demisexual and lesbian and cyborg characters. People use they pronouns properly (it’s the future, where people behave properly around gender variance). The twist in the middle is so good, it’ll...
December 26, 2019
Tips for ritual writing
So you’re writing a ritual. Staring at a blank screen or sheet of paper can be daunting. Here’s a few tips to get started.
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Get yourself in the mood. If you’re writing a ritual for a festival, read and/or listen to stuff — stories, songs, podcasts, poems, articles, other rituals about or relating to the festival. If your ritual theme is not festival-related, read around the theme in the same way.
What is the theme of your ritual? Other than the festival itself, what is the main idea you...
