Ostara

Merry Meet,

Ah, that strange, wonderful, mixed up time for the Christian. Ostara or Easter, is the feast of spring and the growing time and the celebration of fertility and Mother Earth. When Christianity came into play, the pagan holiday was replaced by Easter. The resurrection of Christ is the only date that we as Christians celebrate with any certainty. Jesus was tried and crucufied in the days leading up to and through the Jewish passover, which is a moveable feast, coming late in March and early in April. This year, it is in April. Ostara and Easter became intertwined closely more so than even Christmas. We celebrate in the Christian religion with Sunday School or Mass, palm crosses, candles, and joy and we also celebrate with the visitation of the Easter Bunny, or the fertility hare, with gifts of eggs, which are symbols of fertility, and chocolate, a food which is supposed to induce desire and a wish to reproduce.

For the Christian Wicce, we celebrate the season of not only the Savior's resurrection, but the redemption of our old parents, Adam and Eve. The old blood libel against Eve as the weak vessel who succombed to the temptation of the Devil and Adam as being less of a man and being beguiled by an evil and vain woman are redeemed by the love, generosity and sacrifice of Mary, the Mother of God and her Son, Jesus, the living God. Mary is the new Eve, following the instructions of the Lord and Jesus is the new Adam, without the stain of sin, serving God the Father.

It is ironic, perhaps, that in the beginning, there was Adam, and from a rib, was made Eve. And yet it is the reverse, Mary is the perfect being, sinless and Jesus comes from her womb. The cycle is complete, we are all reunited, humanity and God, part of each other and inheritors to the heavens.

So, this Ostara I celebrate not only Jesus and his life, but the redemption of our old parents and I celebrate the new year of growth and warmth and healing.

Brightest Blessings be

Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk

Coming of Age: Croning

Merry Meet!

I turn 40 for my birthday. Forty. I have mixed feelings about that. There is a part of me that is glad that I am turning forty. Less is expected of me in many ways. In someways more is expected of me. I am no longer young, but I am not old. I have different priorities. At thirty, I wanted to find romantic love, but now I want to just love people around me and I want to love myself more. I want to be still, no more of that hoping around and hair pulling. I am far more interested in my interior world.

I want to devote myself to my personal studies and get ready to go to that next step, that next level in the world of the Craft. I am Croning this summer. It is a bitter sweet prospect. My dear friend who has made the journey to the Summerland was to have croned me. I am still being croned, but I will miss my friend.

For those who do not know what croning is, it is when a female witch has reached spiritual and chronological maturity and can be considered one of the wise ones. Men are eldered. It is a happy celebration, acknowledging the wealth of wisdom, experience and work the witch has done in his and her lifetime.

That does not mean that I will stop growing as a person or a witch, it just means that I have reached the highest level attainable in my spiritual practices. So in August think of me as I go through my croning and bright blessings be.

Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk

How do you define Witch? Part Two

Merry Meet

After much thought I came up with this. It is by no means complete but it is a jumping off place. Maybe this is the way it should be, always evolving as we grow. We are never the person we were from one year to the next, so perhaps this truth should also apply to being a witch and how we see ourselves as witches.

A witch is someone who has a personal relationship with their sacred spirit, who acknowledges, embraces, and loves the energy endowed to them by their sacred spirit. A witch is someone who seeks not only to serve themselves but help others explore, embrace, and cherish the sacred for themselves.

A witch studies and enriches themselves and emerse themselves in multiple traditions and disciplines so they have a wealth of wisdom from which to draw protective, healing and intuitive powers to help others from diverse paths find their own notion of the sacred.

A witch serves their sacred spirit through their Craft and from their sacred spirit comes their Craft. A witch, above all things is a believer.

So throw away all those stereotypes of the witch. Accept and love yourself and your sacred spirit and your witch self.

I am a witch

And I love the peson I am.


Brightest Blessings Be,
Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk

How do you define Witch?

I was reading Judika Illes book, The Element Encyclopedia of the Magical World A-Z, and she begins her book with a question "How do you define the word witch?" And I had to really think about it. How do I define the word that I and others would apply when describing myself? To tell you the truth, I had more ideas about what a witch is not:

1. I do not cast spells to control people.
2. I do not worship the devil.
3. I do not sacrifice animals or people to the afforementioned devil.
4. I do not play quiddich
5. I am not a hag (though I might soon be a crone)
6. I have a black cat but he is not my familiar spirit or daemon (which is not the same as
the devil)
7. I am not Wiccan (but not all Wiccans are witches)
8. I am not one of the Charmed Ones

But If I am none of these things, what am I? What is a witch anyway? You tell me, and I'll think about it and try to answer that question the next time I blog.

Coming soon: More good books, more spells and more lore!!!!

Bright Blessings Be
Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk