Leisha's Blog (17)

Hi Folks, 

Family of mine is working on a project for needs assessment within the Pagan/Witch/Heathen/etc. communities and could use your help:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pagancommunitysurvey

The survey will take about 15 minutes and is open to U.S. residents ages 18 and up. 

Thank you so much as a personal favor…

Here's another one found in one of my notebooks that doesn't seem to have a life on the Internet at present.

This one is attributed to "Eilyan, 1995" and appears to be done in the style of the Christian "Lord's Prayer."

High and Holy Lady

Which art the Cosmos

Hallowed be Thy Names!



Thy Will be done

Throughout the

Astrals, the

Earth, and the

Underworld



Illuminate us this day with the Holy Grail



And bless our…

Looking at which notebook this is in, I probably found this on a BBS back around 1993 or so. I don't know the author of it, and haven't had any luck finding a copy of it online. I am sharing it here so it won't be lost to time, even though it isn't something that resonates with me these days.

Sacred Steps



Energy-air,

Air-energy

Swirling, tumbling wild



Body-aware

Aware-body

Trembling, awake, quick



The sacred web

In…

This is something i wrote....sometime. Probably wrote it back in '06 or so, but just found it while cleaning out that big bin of misc. papers. Figured it would be a good Yule gift for you all. Enjoy!

From the land on which I walk

To the sky where spirit soars

Through the waters of life I call

I, of the witchflame, give my word.

Let my voice blend truth and love

Let my deeds be guided above

From my…

Witch blood, hereditary witch, natural witch, witch DNA. Regardless of what you call it, the topic can raise the hackles of newcomers and oldsters alike. More often than not, profession of a belief that some people are born into witchcraft inclination is seen as the mark of fluff. As a person who, ideally, has a reputation for being pretty fluff-free, I'd like to come out and make a rather bold statement.

I believe in "Witch DNA".

Because that statement is likely to cause some…

Here's one of those things that I've found in my purging of papers. I have no other information about where I got it from or who wrote it, other than it was written by "Dawn". I've preserved the capitalization and spelling from the way I wrote it down:

January did bring to me

a Key to Unlock the Mystery.

February’s Gales did Bring,

Lore and Learning on the Winds.

March came with other Needs,

rising up with Oestre’s seeds.

April…

Another ol' writing of mine, this time from 2007 when I was doing some work with the elements leading up to initiation. It's not good--I'll admit that--but since someone asked a while back what my beef with poetry was, it's that most of it sounds like this to my mind. :P

Wrote this back in 2006. Enjoy!

A few thoughts on shadows:



1. Everyone has a shadow, because there is no way for us to exist in total darkness.



2. Spiritual people, because they work closer to the light, often have stronger shadows. This is how the balance is kept.



3. People who claim to embrace the darkness fully, do so many times because they are afraid of what shadow they would cast. By keeping themselves close to darkness, they feel they are…

Within various systems of philosophy, the question comes up at some point as to whether all the _______ have been done. Have all the original songs been written? Have all the thoughts been thought? Have all the original books been written? Have all the original movies been made?

This morning, I got an e-mail about a local eclectic coven's newest offering.... Saturday services. The gist of it is a service where people get together for "a silent contemplation, readings from…

A few years back, I had a conversation with a self-proclaimed high priestess of a newly formed eclectic ritual group. At the time I was editing a book for her of her practices, and had made some comments in the chapter where she outlined her sabbat rituals that the rituals were all very cookie cutter and that she could probably save some pages by just writing out one sabbat ritual and then have the filler text on another page, or (preferably from the standpoint of her students) she could…

As a personal exercise, I have spent years condensing down what I believe....with the idea that if you can condense down what you believe, everything you do should be a reflection of one or more of the principles that you live your life by. 

Since I'm not the video blogging kind, here's what's on my card....this is what I live my life by:

The 10 Disney Management Principles

1. Make everyone's dreams come true.

2. You better believe it.

3.…

To me, being a witch means that one lives a life of personal responsibility and personal accountability. This includes for our actions AND our words. If you write something, but then either don't allow for comments to be posted or feel the need to moderate comments, it is because you are afraid of what people might say. To me, this shows cowardice and goes contrary to the ideas of personal responsibility and personal accountability.

If you feel strongly enough about something…

Many people of the internet world have heard stories of so-called psychic vampires, willingly or unwillingly feeding off the energy of those around them. Although it is easy to dismiss these claims as the ravings of deluded attention seekers, there is some validity to claims that people can drain one’s energy, albeit not in a supernatural way. In my view, there are three classifications for psychic vampires.

The first…

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross compiled the five stages of grief in her book On Death and Dying. When a group, such as a coven, dissolves or when an individual either makes the choice to leave or is forced out, it is
 a major life adjustment. In many ways, it is a process by which the individual
 goes through a death and rebirth cycle. Here is an…

Spinning off from another thread where this was brought up and in the hopes that a certain someone will put a link to her blog on the subject (hint hint!) and that another certain someone will write up an essay about it (hint hint hint!), I thought it would be interesting to have different people weigh in on the topic from…