If you’re looking for an in-depth daily devotional book for Goddess studies, Patricia Monaghan’s The Goddess Companion: Daily Meditations on the Feminine Spirit may be just what you’re after. Like Telesco’s 365 Goddess, it covers a different goddess each and every day. Rather than focus on the nuts and bolts of each goddess and incorporating spellwork, as Telesco does, however, Monaghan focuses more on the spiritual qualities of each goddess and how they apply to us.

Read more >

Canyon de Chelly

We recently visited—well, virtually visited!—some places that are considered to be sacred to many pagans in the Midwestern United States. Today we’re going to take a look at some sacred sites in the Southwest. If any of them spark your interest, be sure to add them on your list of places to visit.

Not surprisingly, Arizona is home to some of the places considered to be most sacred in the Southwest. You are probably already familiar with Sedona, its Red Rock formations and rich native tribal history. But Arizona is also home to many other spiritual locations—so many, in fact, that the state pretty much deserves its own post.

Read more >

There isn’t exactly a plethora of pagan-labeled child-rearing materials out there, but there are actually more than you might think. Between actual literature and curricula geared toward little pagans to environmental, mythological and historical publications, you have a variety of homeschooling or supplemental teaching materials just about as wide as any secular or even Christian program.

The two main pagan curriculums that I know of—and that are quite wonderful—are Goddess Moon Circles Academy and Oak Meadow School. Both schools allow you to use them as umbrella schools as well as to simply purchase the curriculum or materials that you wish to choose for your own use, making them great for both basic homeschooling as well as supplemental studies.

Read more >

While there’s plenty of literature out there for the mainstream religions, and a growing number of books on paganism and earth-based spirituality, it can be difficult to find some non-Christian lit for young ones. I had several youth Bibles growing up (my dad was religious, my mother sort of agnostic), and given that the religion is centered around the book I think it’s to be expected that it would be so readily-available.

But if you want to introduce your children to goddess-centered religion or other forms of paganism, you pretty much have to rely on what you’ve learned yourself. That’s okay; in fact, it makes it more personal, and parents who take an active role in teaching their children rock! After all, parents are their children’s first teachers, right?

Read more >

Lugnasad (in Old Irish; Modern Irish Lúnasa or Lughnasa); Modern Scottish Gaelic Lùnasdal; pronounced loog nas a, roughly), generally celebrated by Neo Pagans on August 1, is the Irish festival that celebrates the beginning of the harvest. The festival is still kept as a secular national festival in a number of European nations that were once settled by the ancient Celts, but today, it's largely a Neo Pagan feast.

Read more >

The 21 Lessons of Merlyn: A Study in Druid Magic and Lore - Douglas Monroe (Llewellyn Publications, 1992).

This has got to be one of the stupidest Neo Pagan books ever; it's hands down the stupidest ostensibly 21 lessonsCeltic or Druidic text ever. First, some background: the book purports to be a re-telling of the lore from a "lost" druidic 16th century manuscript entitled The Book of Pheryllt. In 21 Lessons, Merlyn ostensibly imparts this knowledge to a young Arthur. It's a load of well, crap. Seriously, there's almost nothing actually true in this book with respect to Celtic myths, languages, or druids.

Read more >

If you have studied for a while, learned about paganism, feel like you’d like to make it a bigger part of your life, Timothy Roderick’s Wicca: A Year and a Day may be just what you need.

Roderick takes the reader on a day-by-day journey toward spiritual fulfillment. Each day provides an activity with corresponding questions to be answered in a journal format. Day one, for example, provides a quick introduction to earth spirituality, and allows the reader to establish a connection with nature and the people of the world. It ends with several questions to consider after the connection is forged, such as, “In what way was my connection to things weak? What actions can I take that may strengthen any weak connections?”

Read more >

Serpent MoundWe’re all familiar with Stonehenge, Ayer’s Rock and a number of other international places that are considered sacred by their people. But did you know that there are quite a few places in the United States that are considered sacred, too? We think of our country as a rather young one—and it is, technically—but it existed long before many of our ancestors were here, and the people who occupied it before we did had some very hallowed grounds that are still here today.

Patti Wigington, the About.com guide to paganism, recently released a great introduction to these places, including Sedona, Arizona, the Land’s End Labyrinth of San Francisco, the Serpent Mound of Ohio, and many other wonderful places.

Read more >

If you’re looking for an introduction to Wicca that’s simple, accessible, and easy to start practicing with (if you choose to), look no further than Scott Cunningham’s bestselling Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.

Today there are a number of primers on the market, but back when I started studying Wicca as a preteen there weren’t so many. I remember having to piece together bits of information I gleaned from different outdated books at the library and thinking, there’s got to be more than this. Enter Cunningham’s masterpiece.

Read more >

Now that summer’s in full-swing, we’ve had a chance to enjoy swimming, summer reading programs at the library, camping and a number of other summer activities. (And if you haven’t yet, you can find lots of free things to do here.) You may have even done some indoor crafts already, which is a great way to pass the super hot days.

But did you ever think about expanding your creations to the outdoors? There are plenty of mediums and ideas outside, and getting your kids to look at twigs, grass and rocks in a whole new, artistic way is sure to get their creative juices flowing—as well as to stop the “I’m bored!” refrain! Here are some great outdoor crafts to do with your kids this summer (or even by yourself, if you like):

Read more >