Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 64

New Instagram account

I thought regular readers of Dowsing for Divinity might like to know that I now have a public Instagram account, @birdberrybooks, where I will be posting videos, talks, photos, book reviews, and news of upcoming events and workshops.

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Halloween and Samhain

The season of Halloween is fast approaching, and with it, the opening of several different silly seasons. It’s the season for racists to dress as caricatures of other ethnic groups. It’s the season for journalists to find the gothiest witches they can, and write dramatic articles about them. And it’s the season for spooky films on TV, and (gods help us all) pumpkin spice latte.

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Anti-racism 101

This post was originally a tweet thread, but quite a few people wanted me to turn it into a blog-post, so here it is. I haven’t changed the order I wrote this in, just added relevant links.

Anti-racism 101. A thread.

— Yvonne Aburrow (@vogelbeere) 21 August 2018

Harmony Day, CC BY 2.0, photo by DIAC Images.

If a Black person, Indigenous person, or Person of Colour (BIPOC) criticizes whiteness or white people, they’re talking about the construct of whiteness, white supremacy, white suprem...

Review of The Reconciliation Manifesto

I have just finished reading The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy by Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in Indigenous land rights.

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There are many important points in this book. One is that modern treaties are aimed at taking away title to even the 0.2% of Canada’s land area that Indigenous people currently have. Think about that: they’re at least 5% of the population but they have 0.2% of the land. No-...

What is oathbound?

There is much talk in initiatory Wicca of things being “oathbound”. However, a piece of knowledge cannot be oathbound. Oaths and vows are binding on those who swear them, not on the things they swear to protect or keep secret. A person is oathbound, not an item of knowledge.

[image error]The oaths sworn can vary slightly from one lineage to another, but they pretty much all focus on not revealing certain things to those who have not sworn the same oath and undergone the same initiation.

The purpose of oa...

Review of “Indigenous Writes” by Chelsea Vowel

Everyone should read this book. Especially Canadians. Especially Pagans. Whether or not you care about Indigenous people in Canada. If you do care, you need the information in this book. If you don’t care, you need the myth-busting provided in this book. (If you don’t care, what’s wrong with you?)

The book is written in a very engaging style. Ms Vowel decided to write it as if she was sitting with you in the pub having a chat about the issues. Every so often it feels like she leaned over the...

Interview at Sacred and Subversive

I was recently interviewed by the excellent Jera Brown over at Sacred and Subversive – a queer interfaith spirituality website.

Jera is creating an anthology of writing about queer spirituality which I’ll be contributing to.

Jera asked some great questions for the interview, such as “All acts of love and pleasure, as well as the body, are considered sacred in most Pagan traditions. This helps set up an inclusive ethos. Do you think this sacredness is intuitive? Is it something many of us simp...

Birds and flowers

Yesterday evening, Bob and I went for a walk. There were red-winged blackbirds, cranes, loads of flowers (a pink & white vetch that smells nice; a white mallow; a white campion; water lilies coming out on the millpond; a big pink convolvulus). We saw ducklings with a mother duck. And away from the river, we saw a pair of cardinals feeding on a bird feeder. And a beautiful sunset.

There’s also a funny little bird that flies low over the water. It’s passerine in shape, brownish-black body, blui...

Getting your hands in the earth

Yesterday I went out in the garden, cleared some weeds, and built some crazy-paving steps.

The rocks of Ontario are sharp and abrasive. My fingers are sore. The soil in our garden is sandy and soft.

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This is me looking pleased with myself after building the steps. The longer bits of stone were already there; I filled in the gaps.

There is a physical pleasure in connecting to place, touching the stones and earth, tending the plants. Even if the rocks made my fingers sore.

We also have grapes a...

Rituals for moving home

I have just moved from Oxford, England, to Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. As you can imagine, this will cause some emotional upheaval. I feel very rooted in England, and am concerned about the issue of land stolen from Indigenous people in Canada, and the effects of colonialism on their wellbeing and way of life.

It helps a lot to do rituals to acknowledge and process these feelings. We have done a ritual for moving home, and we have spoken with the land and water spirits in the area (without a...