I wonder what the old North European ancestors would have called asparagus, had they known of it. Considering the ways along which the old tribal imaginations were wont to run, I'm guessing, probably, “spear-grass.” It even kind of sounds like “asparagus.” Oh asparagus, most ephemeral of seasonal delicacies. The Red Crests savored it back in old Romeburg days, of course: “quick as boiled asparagus,” Augustus Caesar was wont to say. (Anyone who has ever tried to poach asparagus will understand that this means very quickly indeed.) Things look different now, of course. Drivin ..read more

An altar is a place of power—your personal power—where you can make magic. It should be an expression of your deepest self, filled with artifacts that hold personal resonance. Allow your altar to be a work in progress that changes with the seasons and reflects your inner cycles. To create your altar, find a small table and drape it in richly colored, luxurious fabrics—perhaps red satin or a burgundy velvet scarf. Take one red and one pink candle and arrange them around a sweet-smelling incense such as amber, rose, or jasmine. Decorate your altar with tokens that represent love to you: a ..read more

I grew up steeped in a Christian idea of worship: as humble devotion paid to a perfect, all-powerful God. Such devotion could feel inspiring, promising a kind of ultimate consummation.   But it depended on a level of belief I could not sustain, and dogmas I could not accept. I needed God to be perfect, but reading the Bible put that deeply in question. In the end Christianity seemed to limit my experience rather than complete it.   I left God behind, but not the need to worship, to taste the exaltation of reverence. As a refugee from mainstream religion, to whom could I bow? Read M ..read more

Here, at your magical power source, you can “sanctify your love.” Collect your tools as well as meaningful symbols and erotic iconography, and prepare for the sacred rituals of love. Supplies: Red and pink candles Incense Victorian violet and rose essential oils Directions: 1. Light the candles and incense and dab the essential oils between your breasts, near your heart. Speak aloud: I light the flame of desire, I fan the flame of passion, Each candle I burn is a wish And I come to you as a witch. My lust will never wane. I desire and I will be desired. Harm to none, so mote it be. Read ..read more

  In Which Our Intrepid Blogger Makes Some Really Bad Puns and Denies Being Anti-Kemetic   Who? Me? Anti-Kemetic? Gods, no. I'm not anti-Kemetic. Seriously, one of my best friends is. Kemetic, that is. Yes, it's true: I do call him my “effete shaveling.” Hey, he calls me his “vile Asiatic.” But that's not anti-Kemetism: it's just what passes for humor in the pagan community. (Why “vile Asiatic”? Well, because, when the bristles hit the breeze, my sympathies—such as they are—lie firmly with the Hyksos, not the Egyptians. I suppose it's remotely possible that some of my ancestors actua ..read more

This Night of the Witches (heks, meaning “witch” in Dutch and nacht meaning “night”) was created originally out of the need to overlay a Christian rite onto a Pagan festival that was hard to abolish. In Germany it was called Hexennacht, in Scandinavia Walpurgis Night. At the end of winter, people wanted to celebrate and hurry on the coming of spring, and bonfires would be lit to drive out the spirits of winter and also reflect the return of the light and warmth of summer. However, this became the fires that would burn the witches, or at the very least keep them at bay while they travelled on ..read more

  In Henry Treece's 1968 novel The Green Man, his brutal, gripping retelling of Hamlet in its original pagan cultural context, Beowulf is—let me avoid anachronism here—a man for men. He even puts the moves on young Hamlet. (Young Hamlet, himself a man for women, isn't having any of it.) Yes, that Beowulf: Beowulf Grendel's-bane, King of the Geats, hero of the sole surviving Old English epic of the same name. I'd always thought that Treece was taking some pretty broad literary license with his gay Beowulf, but after a recent intensive immersion in the original text of Beowulf, I've come t ..read more

Make room for love in your life and your home! To prepare for new relationships and to deepen the expression of feeling and intensity of your lovemaking, you have to create a center from which to renew your erotic spirit—your altar. Here, you can concentrate your energy, clarify your intentions, and make wishes come true! If you already have an altar, incorporate some special elements to enhance your sex life. As always, the more you use your altar, the more powerful your spells will be. Your altar can sit on a low table, a big box, or any flat surface you decorate and dedicate to m ..read more

Make room for love in your life and your home! To prepare for new relationships and to deepen the expression of feeling and intensity of your lovemaking, you have to create a center from which to renew your erotic spirit—your altar. Here, you can concentrate your energy, clarify your intentions, and make wishes come true! If you already have an altar, incorporate some special elements to enhance your sex life. As always, the more you use your altar, the more powerful your spells will be. Your altar can sit on a low table, a big box, or any flat surface you decorate and dedicate to m ..read more

    Let's let Professor Tolkien demonstrate. Take a word from Old English—English as it was spoken 1000 years ago—one that either never existed, or once existed, but didn't survive into modern times: say hol-bytla, “hole-builder.” Ask yourself: if this word had survived into modern times, and undergone—mutatis mutandis—all the usual sound changes, what would it look like today? Enter hobbit.   If there is a linguistic term for this process of artificial verbal aging, I for one don't know what it is. Over the years, drawing on the Greek and Latin vocabulary that linguists tend to ..read more