Please donate now to pay our monthly server fees:
 [More Info] |
|
|
|
Community Home Message Board Board Home Board Rules Board Extras: Arcade Calendar Links CauldronMUX [Client] Sister Forums: Asatru Lore |
|
Home |
|
|
|
Cauldron's Grimoire RetroRoleplaying RetroRoleplaying: The Blog Software Gadgets The Terran Empire |
|
|
|
|
 Charter Member |
While this web site is designed to work in all major browsers, we recommend Firefox.
|
|
a Linode VPS Formerly hosted by  Why Use Dreamhost? |
|
© 1998-2009 by Randall |
| Home > News Archive > Cauldron News Old: January 2005 | Search |
| Cauldron News Old: January 2005 |
| On Tacking On "With Harm To None" Posted Sunday, January 30, 2005 by Randall |
So I set off on my Wiccan path years ago armed with all of Silver Ravenwolf's books. As anyone who's read her work knows, she's big on ending spells, "With harm to none, so mote it be."
I'm wondering, what is you all's opinion on the effectiveness of this "clause," for lack of a better word? I'd rather not someone drop dead because of a money spell, for instance. Do you think this will do the trick?
| Ever Feel Personally Threatened By Anothers Religion? Posted Sunday, January 30, 2005 by Randall |
With all the fuss about faith-based initiatives here in the USA, and what some perceive as a bit of a rise in hard-core fundamentalism among many more main-stream faiths around the world,i.e.: Christianity, Islam, Judaism; Have you ever felt or do you feel personally threatened by another persons religious beliefs?
In what way? What do you do when you feel threatened? Do you feel that being open about your beliefs made you a target (if you are open)?
| Review: Survivors of Atlantis Posted Saturday, January 29, 2005 by Randall |
Mr. Joseph has written previously on the subject of Atlantis, although that work (The Destruction of Atlantis) concentrated on the physical downfall of Atlantis. This work is dedicated to showing the effects of multiple waves of immigrants from a more advanced (although not massively more advanced) civilization fleeing the loss of their cultural homeland.
| Review: The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar Posted Saturday, January 29, 2005 by Randall |
Since this book is subtitled "Solving the Oak Island Mystery," you might expect a majority of it to be devoted to Oak Island. In fact, only about 90 pages are devoted to Oak Island, with the majority of the remainder being devoted to the background of the Knights Templar, the Merovingian dynasty, and other interconnected topics. It, like the book I reviewed previously (The Knights Templar in the New World), is a fascinating compilation of facts and speculation. It is sure to inspire others to their own explorations and seekings. However, its use of the name Knights Templar seems, to me, to be a simple attempt to attract readers who might otherwise pass it by.
| Review: The Sorcerer's Companion Posted Saturday, January 29, 2005 by Randall |
This is a book I ordered from one of the book clubs my family belongs to (Quality Paperback Books) since I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series. This book has no connection with the author or publisher of that series, even though the subtitle of this volume is "A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter." It is a compilation of information elating to the magic referred to in the Harry Potter novels.
| Review: A Muggles Guide to the Wizarding World Posted Saturday, January 29, 2005 by Randall |
First things first. This is NOT a serious magical book, so unless you are a fan of the Harry Potter series, or you are the significant other or parent of a Potter fan (and don't share their enthusiasm), you will probably want to give this book a pass. It is a compendium of all kinds of trivia regarding the Potter universe. Like The Sorcerer's Companion (which I have previously reviewed) it is unconnected with, nor is it authorized by, anyone connected with the Harry Potter books or movies. Unlike The Sorcerer's Companion this book is about the series, rather than the ideas behind it. You won't find any magical background here. This work is just for fun.
| Review: The Knights Templar in the New World Posted Friday, January 28, 2005 by Randall |
How, you might ask, could a group which had been officially suppressed nearly two centuries before the official discovery of America (in 1307 A.D. - 185 years earlier, to be precise) have any connection with the New World? This is a valid question. The answer, or actually one possible answer is contained in this book.
| Review: Don't Die, Dragonfly Posted Friday, January 28, 2005 by Randall |
Ah the joys of being psychic, and a teenager: To know the future, but to be powerless to influence it. Wanting to fit in, but fearful of standing out. This is the start of a series (The Seer #2: Last Dance is the next one due out), which I hope will be well received. There are few authors who are producing quality fiction which is "New Age" friendly, and Ms. Singleton is one of the better ones.
| Review: My Romantic Spell Posted Friday, January 28, 2005 by Randall |
It is nice, once in a while, to read a book where you can truly identify with the characters and/or the setting. Living in and near Salem, Massachusetts for almost two decades, I could easily visualize the setting of this novel. Of course, there are creative differences between the real Salem and this fictional one, but the tone and textures remain true to the inspiration.
| Review: L.O.S.T. Posted Friday, January 28, 2005 by Randall |
How often do you meet the hero of a book who tells you right off the bat that he has ADHD, and who started his (unplanned) adventures without his medication, but with a full bladder? The story is told, alternately, by Brenden (Bren) and Jasmina (Jazz). He is a soon-to-be high school senior. She is Queen of all the Witches (let's not get into that discussion. This is a novel, after all). This is not a story about Wicca. This Witchcraft if not the reality we have all encountered, but rather the Witchcraft of ages past.
| Definition of Religion? Posted Thursday, January 27, 2005 by Randall |
I'm taking a Philosophy of Religion class in my local college. In discussing the first chapter of the text, we are trying to find the very definition of religion in general. We are finding that it is (so far anyway) basically impossible to find a definition that a) includes all religions, and b) leaves out things that are not considered a religion, like math and nationalism. I was wondering what my fellow Cauldronites might think of this. Have you found a definition that satisfies these needs? Do you have any ideas that would make me look smart in front of my teacher?
| When to Use Magic? Posted Thursday, January 27, 2005 by Randall |
There's been a lot of spell requests and discussions about the hows of magic, recently ...
So, let's get into the whys. Why do you use magic, and when? Is it a regular part of your daily life, something you use for emergencies... what? Are there any situations in which magic is either useless or downright dangerous?
What do you do and why?
| Darkside Books? Posted Wednesday, January 26, 2005 by Randall |
There is so much information and so many books out there on Witchcraft that seem to focus on the light side (more like fluffy bright rainbow side). I believe in balance and these books and their authors agree with me but then don't seem to follow through on it. They go into great depth about the light side and then ignore the dark side of nature.
I am not talking about evil, since I don't believe in absolute evil, but just darkness. Nature is both dark and light, so why do we ignore that?
Does anyone know of any good books on the darker side of Witchcraft or spirituality in general that are worth taking a look at?
| Miracles or Magick? Posted Wednesday, January 26, 2005 by Randall |
I have quite a few Christian friends who I'm quite close with. After having discussions with them about magic and miracles and prayer, I began to think about the relationship between to two.
One Christian said that magic and miracles had nothing to do with each other, others thought that magic was quite an arrogant thing to do and others thought there really wasn't much of a difference between the two as long as it was done in a 'good way'. So I thought what are the general opinions out there about the two (it might not even relate to Christianity and Paganism).
| Faith and Works Posted Tuesday, January 25, 2005 by Randall |
In another thread, Red said: "Faith without works is dead."
That kind of made me think... Because my instinctive reaction was to rebel against the idea that faith requires an outward expression, rather than being a purely internal thing. But then I began to realize that perhaps if we have a true, living faith, it is reflected in our works, whether we necessarily intend for it to be or not. And I became less sure about my initial reaction.
What do y'all think? Is faith something that should, can, or does influence what we do? To what extent? Are works necessary to keep faith living and growing, or faith necessary to give works meaning (and/or inspire them)?
| Gender Roles and Your Religion Posted Tuesday, January 25, 2005 by Randall |
Does your religion have anything to say about gender roles? Are there certain things that women "should" do or are considered better suited to, and other things that are reserved for men for the same reasons? Is there a specific directive that requires men and women to be treated equally and tasks/duties assigned regardless of physical gender? Or is there not really anything about this subject in your religion's teachings?
| New Books Listed in our Bazaar Posted Sunday, January 23, 2005 by Randall |
We have added a few used books to our bazaar, most in "like new" condition. As usual, only one copy of each is available. We've added the following Pagan books: Alchemy at Work, The Complete Guide to Labyrinths, Garden Witchery, Handfasting and Wedding Rituals, Magic for Lovers, Pendulums and the Light, Totem Magic, and The Women's Book of Healing. We've also added the following non-Pagan books: The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook, Mordred's Curse, The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy, and Young Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Terror.
| A Synod or Council to Define Official Wiccan Beliefs? Posted Sunday, January 23, 2005 by Randall |
Almost every major religion on the planet in their early stage underwent a stage where multiple literatures about them existed. Christianity for example when it grew increasingly popular had so many different books testifying the life of Jesus (up to twelve in all if I heard correctly, do not ask me for sources on this, but I do know that recently the Gospel of Thomas surfaced). Buddhism in the first twelve years upon Buddha's death had so many variants that some sounded no different from Jainism.
Wicca is currently at the same stage. Of the NeoPagans we are the most successful. Of the NeoPagans we are also the first to have crossed the cultural divide. In the process we had an original Wicca somewhere that grew, exploded outwards and suddenly we have so many different variants it becomes scary and has become known as Neo-Wicca by some?
Do you think that eventually as Wiccans the moment we can organise ourselves will form something equivalent to the Synod of Carthage or the First Council will occur? Finally for once a definition, a compilation of acceptable Wiccan materials and in the process a definition of what makes a Wiccan?
Because it is now becoming obvious as Wicca moves out from the religion of just a hundred people to probably a million worldwide if not more there will be increasing call ( and ability ) to form physical organisation for us to gather, to study. In the process there will be a definite move to define Wicca and what are Wicca text. Do you think that eventually we will have something like the Synod of Carthage or the First Council?
| Paganism and Men Posted Sunday, January 23, 2005 by Randall |
I just wonder how many people here think that in some cases modern day Paganism unfairly denigrates men. If we look beyond the facts that male dominated institutes are responsible for most of the worlds wars and environmental destruction isn't there a sense that "mainstream" Paganism blames all men for these actions. At the same time I think there is a need for a stronger masculine pagan spirituality. This doesn't neccesarily equate with violence but it does represent inner strength and confidence. With this in mind what are various peoples relationships with male deities like ? Do they seem as strong as the Goddesses or Goddess or do they seem like an aside at times ?
| Review: Egypt: Child of Atlantis Posted Friday, January 21, 2005 by Randall |
The author's Theosophical leanings become evident very early in this work (which is not surprising, as he is a Theosophist lecturer). He brings together data from a variety of sources both within and without the scientific community. This results, depending upon your personal belief system, in an extremely valuable approach or utter rubbish. He places a heavy reliance on the writings of H.P. Blavatsky (founder of the Theosophical movement) whose writings were dismissed at the time of their publication, but which have, albeit reluctantly, given more credence as more information has come to light.
| Review: Book of Earth Posted Friday, January 21, 2005 by Randall |
For once we find our trio of intrepid magic-users-in-training on familiar ground, at least for Score. He grew up on Earth. Helaine and Pixel, on the other hand, might be forgiven for being a bit confused. Imagine, if you will, a young lady from a medieval world confronted with skyscrapers. How about a young man who lived most of his life alone or with a couple of friends on-line, suddenly encountering a busy New York street full of pedestrians and vehicles? As you can well imagine, there were lots of reasons for this confusion.
| Review: Book of Thunder Posted Friday, January 21, 2005 by Randall |
Book Four of the "Diadem: Worlds of Magic" series finds Pixel (the virtual recluse from Calomir), Score (the street-wise kid from Earth) and Helaine (the warrior girl from Ordin) back on the planet Dondar where their friends (the unicorns Thunder, Nova and Flame) are in grave danger.
| Review: Book of Magic Posted Friday, January 21, 2005 by Randall |
The third book in the "Diadem: Worlds of Magic" series finds the three youngsters (Score - from Earth, Helaine - from Ordin, and Pixel - from Calomir) once again facing dangers from Sarman, whose goal is to rule all of the Diadem worlds.
| Multiple Outer Planet Retrogrades This Spring Posted Thursday, January 20, 2005 by Randall |
For those of you who know more about astrology than I do, what might something like this (from here) mean?
"There is a bit of news concerning the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto; they each turn retrograde during Spring of 2005 and for the period from mid June to the first of September they ALL appear to be going backwards from our earthbound perspective. Jupiter and Saturn move forward during this time, changing signs during the Summer - Fall seasons (Saturn mid June and Jupiter the end of October)."
| The Word "Sabbat"? Posted Thursday, January 20, 2005 by Randall |
Does any one know the origins of the use of the word "Sabbat", as pertaining to Wicca or Witchcraft in general?
I found this while searching around:
Linguists agree that sabbat originally had nothing to do with Witchcraft. Sabbat comes from the Latin "sabbatum", which in turn comes from the Hebrew "shabbath", meaning the holy day of the Jews.
Is this accurate? If so, why do we use this word, is there not another word for a holy day that is not based from Abrahamic faith? Don't get me wrong, I am not looking to use or create a new word, just curious as to the Christian or Jewish words that seep into our "pagan" practices.
| Questions on the Foundations of Wicca Posted Wednesday, January 19, 2005 by Randall |
Over the last few days I have read in a lot of places that the Gardnerian tradition is fairly new and I had read in another post that there aren't many "Wiccan Grandmothers" because it is so new. This concerns me. I had gathered the conclusion (which may be totally wrong) that the pagan/Wiccan path was an ancient one predating Christianity and that Christianity sought to wipe out the Pagans/Wiccans with their New Religion.
From an observationist perspective, what is the difference then between Gardner and the Mormon guy Joesph Smith? Aren't they both then just altering perceptions to fit their own needs? And what about before Gardner, what were the pagans/Wiccans doing then? Were they all dead? (That is not meant to sound sarcastic - it's an honest question.)
Honestly I haven't read much about Gardner because my first impression of him was that he manipulated an "old religion" to suit his needs. That may be incorrect assumption and I would be happy to learn more.
| Religious Moral Codes Posted Wednesday, January 19, 2005 by Randall |
With all the chatter about what is and isn't Pagan, and what is and isn't a Pagan moral code, I think it would be interesting to see all the various Pagan moral codes that exist on the board. :)
So, your religious moral code (a link if it's really long, if you'd rather .. I prefer accuracy over sound bite religion!), how mainstream it is if you're part of an organized faith, what it means to you. Perhaps even what it means to fail at it, if there are sanctions. And of course, what faith it is!
| Are You New to The Cauldron? Posted Monday, January 17, 2005 by Randall |
It's been awhile since we've done this and we've had a lot of new people join our message board over the last few months. We'd love to know where you heard about us and what your religion is.
| How Important Is Ritual? Posted Saturday, January 15, 2005 by Randall |
I've considered myself a Pagan for about six years, but I've always practiced alone, and have never gotten very comfortable with rituals. I guess because I grew up Catholic, surrounded by all kinds of ceremonies, I'm really drawn to a more free-flowing practice, but every book I find emphasizes ritual, all the various steps and words and invocations. Is a person's practice really less powerful if she doesn't call the quarters and things like that every time?
| Truth and Evangelism Posted Saturday, January 15, 2005 by Randall |
Follow me into a thought experiment. Imagine, if you will, that the Wiccan view of the universe IS the right one. It IS the "One True Way." (I pick Wicca because it has a fairly well-defined theology, which will make discussion of my question somewhat easier, at least to start off.) There is a God, and a Goddess, and that's that. They are distinct and separate, and do not appear with 8 zillion other faces. (IOW, you can't weasel out of my question by saying Yahweh is an aspect of the God or Brigid an aspect of the Goddess - that's not what I'm really after here.) The universe, the afterlife, everything, function exactly as described by Wiccan theology (you may pick your own particulars - what I'm after is the part where it's TRUE).
Now Wicca is not an evangelizing religion (I know it's a more Christian-specific word but I can't spell proselytizing reliably, so forgive me that one), as I understand after my years here. It doesn't actively seek converts; it is not MEANT to be for everyone but only for a few called to Wicca and to the priesthood of Wicca.
So what I don't get - and what, after my 6ish years of association with Pagans, puzzles me the most about many Pagan religions - is WHY there's no evangelism.
Christians, Muslims - they have a pretty clear view of their goals in the world. They each believe they posess the Truth, and because it's the Truth, they want to share that with everyone and have everyone become thus enlightened by the Truth. (And I think we can all agree in the abstract that this is a Good Thing, that we'd rather know the truth and be fed lies; that truth is objectively a better thing to know and believe than untruth, whether that comes to science or politics or religion.) Judaism-qua-Judaism is traditionally only open to tribal members (and certain converts), but Judaism also has a "plan" for the Gentiles to follow Yahweh (as Noahides) and a desire to have the world recognize Yahweh as God. Hinduism is less evangelistic than Christianity and Islam, but also has a particular view of Truth that they believe all people should know.
So if Wiccans held the One True Way, knew how the universe functioned, and the Gods worked, and so forth - why would they not share this Truth with all people?
| Advice for New Converts Posted Thursday, January 13, 2005 by Randall |
Seems like we've had a lot of people coming in lately saying they're new to Paganism, or looking for the right kind of Paganism for them, or some such. I thought it might be good to gather all that advice in one place. So--what kind of advice would you give someone who has just converted, or to someone who is looking around for the right place for them?
| Your Birth Religion? Posted Thursday, January 13, 2005 by Randall |
I know many of us are converts, either from another religion or from no religion at all to a Pagan religion. I know that our profiles have a space for "birth religion" (a.k.a the religion you were raised in), but I'm betting not all of us fill it in or look at profiles, so I thought it would be interesting to discuss that subject here.
What is your "birth religion" (if applicable -- or lack thereof, of course)? If you've converted to another religion, how do you feel about your birth religion now? If you're still following your birth religion, was there ever a time when you considered converting to another, or have you always been on the same religious path?
| Rites of Passage Posted Wednesday, January 12, 2005 by Randall |
What sort of rites of passage (if any) does your religion have? Have you gone through or attended any such rites, and if so, would you be willing to share the experiences? I've always found this a fascinating topic.
| Birth Religions Posted Wednesday, January 12, 2005 by Randall |
I know many of us are converts, either from another religion or from no religion at all to a Pagan religion. I know that our profiles have a space for "birth religion" (a.k.a the religion you were raised in), but I'm betting not all of us fill it in or look at profiles, so I thought it would be interesting to discuss that subject here.
What is your "birth religion" (if applicable -- or lack thereof, of course)? If you've converted to another religion, how do you feel about your birth religion now? If you're still following your birth religion, was there ever a time when you considered converting to another, or have you always been on the same religious path?
| Educating the Masses About Paganism? Posted Tuesday, January 11, 2005 by Randall |
In another forum I visit (tradition-specific, a bit sectarian), many people say that it is not their job to "educate the masses" about Paganism. They feel they should only train and help those who are part of their specific tradition. What do you think about this? Do you think it is important to educated the non-Pagan public about our beliefs? Or is it a waste of time, and we should focus on our own development instead?
| Chaos Magick and "Pretending" to Believe Posted Tuesday, January 11, 2005 by Randall |
I've only recently been introduced to Chaos Magic, so I may be misunderstanding (and please correct me if I am) but its my understanding that a Chaote is free to use any system which they want/feel will be beneficial in fulfilling their magical goals.
One basically acts as if they were a believer for the period of time of the magical work. One doesn't have to believe in the system and the system doesn't even have to be based in "reality" to work for the user.
What are your thoughts on how god(s)/goddess(es) might feel about someone "pretending" to ascribe to their worship for the short term to perform magic? For those with a close report with your gods/goddess(es), have you ever asked them about such a topic? For those Chaotes out there, is my general understanding correct and what are your thoughts?
| Performing Weddings? Posted Monday, January 10, 2005 by Randall |
For those of you who are interested in and able to perform weddings, have you done friends' weddings only, or would you perform it for anyone who asked? What might stop you from marrying a couple?
Would you advertise to your local Pagan community that you can perform weddings? Should Pagan ministers have some kind of outreach or availability, or should they only be responsible for their own coven/circle/grove/group/etc. members?
Solitaries -- would you prefer (or would you have preferred) a local Pagan minister to have performed your wedding? Do you think there should be some level of outreach by local Pagan clergy, so you have someone to call for a wedding, a funeral or a hospital visit?
| Ego and Wicca/Witchcraft Posted Monday, January 10, 2005 by Randall |
Do you think there's any room for ego in the practice of witchcraft?
Would you work with an HP or HPS who displays his/her ego?
What about day to day life....what role does your ego play and how do you deal with someone who is ego driven?
| Questions about Deities Posted Saturday, January 08, 2005 by Randall |
Many people feel drawn to certain deities or pantheons. And there are many of them.
Say you worship the Egyptian , Greco-Roman or Asatru pantheon. Now, when these arose, the gods and goddesses took the form that the culture and time period could relate to. For instance, a Nile god would not be as 'important' to someone in say, Iceland. It would have no meaning.
Now, does this mean that the deities existed before those times and those places and were merely 'named' then? Or did they come into existence through human agency? And do their separate identities indicate different god-form pantheons, or are they the same 'energies' , just given different 'guises' the culture could relate to?
But then we have mythologies about how the deities 'acted'. And their actions seem (from my reading) to tie in closely with the cultural mores of the the time. Which would mean....what? That deities assume the forms and actions 'given' to them through human agency? And is this what people are 'relating' to in choosing different pantheons? Or is it the case that they will be 'seen' in different ways depending on the time and culture. In which case, how do they maintain their identity?
And what about time periods? If the deities/entities always existed and were just given different names, than does it matter what pantheon one 'uses'?
If this is not the case, and they are all different and from different time periods, than did say, 'Odin', not exist yet when we walked the Rift Valley? And if not, then do deities cease to exist if we know not of them?
Just a few questions that would help me to clarify things.
| What's Wrong With Cunningham? Posted Saturday, January 08, 2005 by Randall |
After three years of being a generic Pagan and avoiding Wicca because of its popularity, I finally decided to stop reading Wiccan books for background info and start reading them as a serious would-be practitioner. I read Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide near the beginning of my path, but I started rereading it recently with new eyes. I was surprised to find I agreed with a lot of the beliefs and practices he called Wicca (and the list Sine posted in another thread). At the risk of sounding cliche, it's like coming home again.
However, I'm not new to the Pagan community, and I'm aware that some people have issues with Cunningham and don't recommend him.
The self-dedication/self-initiation argument is a point on which I disagree with Cunningham; initiation requires separation from the community, a change, and a return to the community, a sequence impossible to perform alone. You can dedicate yourself, sure, but not initiate. Also, you can't reveal the Mysteries to yourself.
Other than this, what problems do people have with Cunningham? What does he have all wrong?
On a related note, if I'm really interested in Wicca, should I bide my time with books until I can study with a coven, or is it possible to be a Witch alone? Is it "heresy" to say I'm studying Wicca but not particularly interested in the priesthood aspects or learning the Mysteries? In conversation should I qualify myself (say, as "neo-Wicca") or just expect flamewars and accusations of fluffdom when/if I bring it up?
| Message Board Software Upgraded Posted Thursday, January 06, 2005 by Randall |
Since we moved from DelphiForums last April, our message board software has a slightly modified version of Beehive Forums 0.4. A new version of Beehive Forums was released in December. Since its release we have been modifying it for our needs and testing those modifications. This afternoon, Bob upgraded our message board to this new (and slightly modified) version of Beehive Forums software (version 0.5).
This new version has many new features -- and allows attachments to work correctly on our server. The most obvious change is the menu bar. The old Preferences and Profile items have bee replaced with a single "My Controls" item that will take you to a framed set of sub-menus where you can set options and modify your profile. Like in the current version, we have modified the menu bar to add a few items of our own, but even these look better. Another noticeable new feature is graphic emoticons for messages
Our modifications added our menu items (Chat, Rules, and Extras) and disabled a few of the items added in the official Beehive 0.5. For example, we removed the server-side spelling checker because it was implemented via a MySQL database and would overload the database on a busy forum like ours (causing the board to slow to a crawl when it was very busy). As free client-side spelling checkers are available for IE, Opera, and FireFox on most platforms, this feature should not be missed by many members.
There is one known minor problem with the new software, Beehive Forums 0.5 corrected a very large scale problem with storing single and double quotes in the database which means that material posted with the 0.4 version we have been using may be subject to slightly erroneous display (e.g. \' displayed where a ' should be). There are probably a number of other minor problems that have not been discovered yet, but in general the upgraded message board software seems to be working nicely.
A list of changes will be posted to this thread. You can also post questions and problems there.
| Hekate and Sexuality Posted Thursday, January 06, 2005 by Randall |
I couldn't sleep last night, for various reasons, and so I lay in bed thinking about Hekate. I kept coming back to one question that I've never seen discussed anywhere, until this morning. It seems that someone else had been thinking about the same thing, for when I read my e-mail today there was a discussion about this very subject on one of the mailing list I'm subscribed to. I figured that people here might have some interesting opinions too, so here goes...
Do you see Hekate as being sexual, at all?
I don't. It's got nothing to do with morals, or purity, or her being "above" such things. I just have the impression that she's so focused on what she's doing that sex is irrelevant to her. Or maybe it's just that I've never seen that side of her.
Ideas? Opinions? Rants?
| What is a Demon Anyway? Posted Thursday, January 06, 2005 by Randall |
I was just wondering, how do the people here define "Demon"? I realized that I don't really have a personal definition for the word myself and was wondering what other people think.
| January Issue of Cauldron and Candle Available Posted Wednesday, January 05, 2005 by Randall |
The January 2005 issue of our Cauldron and Candle newsletter has been emailed to subscribers (over 1600 of them) and is now available on our web site. This issue features the usual forum news and reviews as well as a number of interesting articles and a new section on Pagan Webcrafting.
If you don't subscribe to our free monthly newsletter, you can read the archive copy of this issue at the link below.
| Hekate and the Chaldaean Oracles Posted Wednesday, January 05, 2005 by Randall |
I have been studying Hekate lately, using online rescources and books here at home. One of the books I have is Hekate Soteira by Sarah Iles Johnston, which says it is mainly drawn from the Chaldaean Oracles. I have not read it yet. I am currently reading Hekate In Ancient Greek Religion by Robert Von Rudloff, which makes only small mention of the oracles as Roman writings.
Being confused, I decided to try to check the veracity of the Chaldean Oracles, but my online searches return such vast amounts of vague articles and sites, that I have no idea of where to begin. I am hoping that someone here can perhaps provide me with a starting point, or perhaps has a general knowledge of the oracles themselves.
| Best Rune Books? Posted Tuesday, January 04, 2005 by Randall |
Any Rune experts out there? I was wondering what people thought were the best books on Runes? Ones I am contemplating are Fries' book "Helrunar", Thorsson's book "Futhark", and Blum's "The Book of Runes". Any thoughts will be most appreciated!
| Is It Wrong To Be Eclectic? Posted Monday, January 03, 2005 by Randall |
Earlier today I was talking to a new friend of mine at school and she brought up the topic of religion. She was pretty interested in my being pagan. I tried to explain to her how I am an "eclectic witch" and I kind of pick and choose which concepts make sense to me from many of the denominations of paganism/wicca. She couldn't seem to understand how I can do that and she said I am "wrong" to think I can pick different things from separate religions to believe in.
Is she right? Should I just pick one denomination and stick to it? In which case which denomination is right for me?
I guess I'm kind of afraid that the god and goddess might get angry that I 'mix'?
| Why Am I Here? Posted Sunday, January 02, 2005 by Randall |
Winter is supposed to be a good time for philosophical discussions. The title of this thread I swiped from a church 'sign or bulletin board' giving this weeks sermon.
So, as a widely diverse group of pagans how do you answer the question of Why am I Here?
| Summoning Humans? Posted Sunday, January 02, 2005 by Randall |
Summoning humans? Has anyone heard about this happening? Perhaps I am being naive about it, but I did not think that this was something to worry about. I had thought that only spirits could be summoned into a circle by a practitioner. Are there any published sources of information on how to prevent it? I would appreciate any advice on the matter.
| Happy New Year 2005 Posted Saturday, January 01, 2005 by Randall |
The members and staff of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! May 2005 bring good things to everyone!