An unplanned absence
Sometimes you hit a wall.
In a world of bigger-better-faster-more, at some point each one of us reaches a limit. We have to stop and breathe. Recharge.
Recharge.
Like a cell phone.
We’ve learned to think of ourselves as machines. Of course we can keep going. Of course we can always do more with less, go a little faster, do a little more. We must, or we’ll be seen as lazy. Why did you not make more things than you did last year? Why did you not make better things than you made last year? Why did you not make bigger things than you made last year? Are you losing your mojo?
No. Nature doesn’t work that way, and we are children of Nature. We live by the seasons. Sometimes our personal winter doesn’t align with the calendar, but we must take that time anyway, and go dormant. Drop our leaves. Let the sap sink back into the roots. Simply exist for a time, and let the inner magic work to renew us. And when we flower again, we remember that some years the tree bears more fruit, some years less. And when it bears too much, it breaks.
Go touch a tree today, if you can. And learn from it. It’s your cousin, your protector, and your teacher.
Blessed be.
2023 Beltane Public Ritual
PUBLIC Beltane RITUAL
Come join the Wiccan Church of Minnesota in celebrating the greening of the Earth. Our ritual will be focused on creativity and fertility. All are welcome
The ritual will be facilitated by Estelle. There will be an opportunity for participation and a potluck feast afterwards. We will not have access to a full kitchen, but this venue does have counter space and a sink. It’s OK to bring a crock-pot (and possibly an extension cord).
Please bring your own cup and silverware, if that’s practical for you. We would like to move away from using disposables.
| Where: | Crystal Community Center, Valley Room 4800 Douglas Drive, Crystal MN 55429 Google Map |
| When: | Saturday, May 6, 2023 Social time starts 6:00 Gather in, ritual intent and meditation 6:40 Ritual 7:00 |
We hope to see you there!
Gardening by the Moon
As witches, we know that each phase of the Moon is a good time for certain things.
It’s the time of year when there’s still a foot of snow covering the ground and gardeners are fantasizing about planting. So it’s a good time to think about how the Moon can guide us in gardening. I’m not an astrologer, but I’ve found that my gardens thrive if I pay attention to the phase of the Moon and the sign that it’s in. I use the waning Moon as planning time, and the waxing Moon as planting time.
- Waxing Moon in an Earth sign is a great time to prepare your garden’s soil.
- Pretty much anything will grow if it’s planted or transplanted when the waxing Moon is in Cancer or other Water sign.
- Root vegetables will do well if they’re planted when the waxing Moon is in an Earth sign. This is also a good time for transplanting.
- Things with feathery foliage (such as dill) do all right if they’re planted when the waxing Moon is in an Air sign.
- Don’t plant while the Moon is in a Fire sign unless you want to establish yourself as a person who can kill any plant.
- Waning Moon is a great time to weed, especially when it’s in a Fire sign.
My favorite resource for knowing what’s up with the Moon is the Lunar Calendar from Luna Press, www.thelunapress.com.
Welcome Spring – Happy Ostara
The Spring Equinox came on Monday, March 20th at approximately 4:24pm (for the northern hemisphere – for those in the southern hemisphere, this time marks the beginning of their fall). From the perspectives of astronomy, physics, at the like, this is a time when the axial tilt of the earth is perpendicular to the sun. It is marked by days and nights of an equal 12 hour length; it marks the time when the length of the day will slowly become longer and longer, and the length of the night will reciprocally decrease.
Because the northern hemisphere is now moving closer to the sun, and the length of time this hemisphere is exposed to the sun increases, likewise, so do the temperatures. The snow begins to melt and the temperatures rise above freezing. And, in the ground, the seeds will soon begin to germinate. The sap will once again begin to flow through the trees and plants, and green leaves will return. With the warming temperatures, and the return of the flora, the animals too will begin to return to activity.
From a spiritual perspective, similar changes take place in our own personal worlds. Our winter world is one of more dormancy in the long nights. And we spend much of our time indoors, removed from the cold. Though holidays and celebrations will mark the season, much of it is spent internal. It is a time of introspection and tending to matters in the house.
However, with the coming spring, we are drawn out, once more, into the world to engage. The warmer temperatures lift a burden off of our shoulders and the world becomes more welcoming. It isn’t that we move from a negative state into a positive state. Rather, we transition from a state with one purpose and a certain set of benefits and liabilities, to another state with a different purpose and different benefits and liabilities. Both are needed; however, as one grows old, it is time to shift our gears and move into the other.
Welcome Spring!
Beneath the springtime sun’s warm glow
The Wiccan Ostara begins to flow
The earth awakens, the flowers grow
As new life sprouts from winter’s snow
The goddess and the god unite
To bring forth the season of light
Fertility reigns, the air feels right
As we celebrate the day and the night
With eggs dyed in every hue
We honor the rebirth of life anew
The sacred hare hops into view
As we embrace the cycle, old and true
Let us dance and sing and play
And welcome the return of the day
May we honor the growth in every way
And cherish the blessings of Ostara’s sway
Poem by Chat GPT
What’s a spell?
Different traditions seem to define spells in different ways.
I work with one coven where people think of spells in a very traditional way – an odd number of people stand under the full moon at midnight, around an altar with one candle of one particular color and two candles of another particular color, each anointed with a particular oil and incised with particular symbols, placed in a particular way. Each person holds a particular thing in their right hand and another particular thing in their left, and together they chant a particular chant some particular number of times, and in principle it all goes wrong if any one of those is not just so.
I have a different view. To me, a spell is a prayer with an action – whatever you do to spell out your desires to the Universe. One that I use a lot is for holding a traffic light green. I imagine a gigantic broom sweeping me through the intersection, and fairly often I’ll make a sweeping sound. It doesn’t always work, but it usually does; and that aligns with my intent: I don’t want to get through the intersection at the expense of someone who has a more urgent need.
Is that a spell? I don’t know, but it works; and that’s what I care about.
Choose your power
What draws you to Wicca?
Recently I posed this question to a group of Wiccan-curious and Wiccans fairly new to the Craft. Of course the answers included “Power” and “To learn how to cast spells.” Before you get all judge-y, think about how you came to Wicca, if you weren’t raised Pagan. Props to these people for their honesty.
What does it mean to have power? In terms of how people deal with each other, I like the “four types of power” model. (Google “four types of power” for more information.)
Power-over says “I can make you do my will.” It’s inherently coercive, and it’s what most people think of first. Power-over stops when you no longer have a way of exerting control over others.
Power-to says “I can make things happen.” It’s self-empowering, and often we don’t think of it as power. It stops if you stop caring.
Power-with says “We can make things happen.” It’s about community, and we often don’t notice it until it starts getting results. Power-with stops if you run out of friends and allies.
Power-within says “I believe in myself. I can do this.” It’s the recognition that you’ve always had power, even if you didn’t realize it. Power-within only stops if you give it up.
What kind of power drives your magic? Choose mindfully.
2023 Ostara Public Ritual
PUBLIC OSTARA/SPRING EQUINOX RITUAL
The Sun is growing stronger and the ice is fighting back. We’re so ready to see green leaves, and the Earth isn’t ready to show them. Be a part of the epic struggle as we join forces with the Sun to send the ice away!
The ritual will be facilitated by Karen and Suki. There will be an opportunity for participation and a potluck feast afterwards. We will not have access to a full kitchen, but this venue does have counter space and a sink. It’s OK to bring a crock-pot (and possibly an extension cord). Snack foods and things that can be dipped in chocolate are encouraged!
Please bring your own cup and silverware, if that’s practical for you. We would like to move away from using disposables.
| Where: | Crystal Community Center, Valley Room 4800 Douglas Drive, Crystal MN 55429 Google Map |
| When: | Saturday, March 11, 2023 Social time starts 6:00 Gather in, ritual intent and meditation 6:40 Ritual 7:00 |
We have not held a celebration in this venue before, so we’ll be evaluating it. Please let us know how it feels for you.
We hope to see you there!
Dressing Kabalistically
You can tie yourself into the energies of each day by dressing according to the color and planet (kabalistic) of each day.
This is a subtle but real influence and after six months or more, you might notice your psychic abilities are stronger. I have been doing it since 1992 and it helps me a lot. It also gives you something you consciously think about, and gives you a magickal perspective every day.
- Sunday – Sun – yellow/gold
- Monday – Moon – purple
- Tuesday – Mars – red
- Wednesday – Mercury – orange
- Thursday – Jupiter – blue
- Friday – Venus – green/pink
- Saturday – Saturn – black/navy blue/brown
I wear shirts of the appropriate color, but also underwear and socks. Sometimes only the underwear is in the color of the day, and one person used hair ties of an appropriate color because a uniform didn’t allow color choices. A scarf, tie or pocket handkerchief would be appropriate also. Be creative. Just choose something that ties into the color of the day and know that’s why you are wearing it.
These colors are according to the King’s list of correspondences. There are others, and you may want to use another, but be consistent to what you choose. Good luck and enjoy this practice.
— Estelle Daniels
Oh No, More Snow
“And if the groundhog sees his shadow, we get six more weeks of winter.”
It’s a cruel joke. The groundhog comes out at Imbolc, and doesn’t care about his shadow. Ostara is still… wait, how long after Imbolc? But we want the groundhog to promise us a shortcut.
Late winter is the season of impatience. Stop and go. Block and flow. Sun, clouds. Thaw, freeze. Fleece vest, big coat. Do you find yourself impatiently picking up projects and then putting them aside? Thaw, freeze. Flow, stop. What’s going on when you thaw and flow and start something new? What’s going on when you freeze and stop? It’s that time of the year. Maybe it’s that season of the self. Pay attention to what flows and what freezes.
Be gentle with yourself. It’s still winter. Settle in with a mug of hot chocolate or whatever makes you feel warm and happy. Sip, savor, breathe. Close your eyes. Ground, and send your roots deep. Be a tree for a few breaths. Let the snow remind you that it’s not quite time to put out new leaves yet. Come back into your humanity. Enjoy your hot chocolate.
RSS has come to WiCoM!
RSS has come to WiCoM! Check out our new Wiccan RSS Feed page for an aggregation of the latest posts from a number of different Wiccan websites!
And also, if you check the side bar on our website, you will see that WiCoM is also offering its contents for RSS syndication!
What is RSS you may ask? Wikipedia offers the following description:
RSS (RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator, which constantly monitor sites for new content, removing the need for the user to manually check them. News aggregators (or “RSS readers”) can be built into a browser, installed on a desktop computer, or installed on a mobile device.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
Websites usually use RSS feeds to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, episodes of audio and video series, or for distributing podcasts. An RSS document (called “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, and metadata, like publishing date and author’s name. RSS formats are specified using a generic XML file.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
Simply put, RSS is a great tool for helping you find the most recent content posted to the web on various topics. If you know of another wiccan web whose RSS feed you would like to see added, please email the webmaster.
If you know of a website that shares RSS feeds, please feel free to suggest ours!
Welcome!
Welcome to the Wiccan Church of Minnesota!
The Wiccan Church of Minnesota is a Twin Cities based 501 (c) (3) religious organization that celebrates both Goddess and God. Our church was founded more than 35 years ago.
WiCoM sponsors group rituals for the Wiccan sabbats, as well as for other special occasions. Many of these rituals are open to the public or invited guests who are not members.
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