New Beginnings

Well it has been amazing journey. I know I have not posted in a bit but as everyone knows sometimes life just happens.

Our Spiral Scout Troop is going well. In fact we are in the middle of our first fund raiser and it is going quite well.

My parents renewed their vows on the 11th of this month and it was beautiful. I had the unique privilege of making her dress and veil. She spent two weeks here with the family and it was nice to have her here.

My job with FWTI is going quite well and I am honored to say that I have been asked to be on the committee to help organize FWTI's presence at Pantheacon '09. We are all working on getting the Community Site up and running. Thanks to my fellow coven sister we now have a community board. It is so great to see it all start to come together.

I have sewn robes for Rontu, Bear, Tristan and I. Bug and Usagi are begging me for them now.

LOL

LOVE OUT THERE TO EVERYONE

Updated article

So I have my first article on paganism being published. It is a redone version of Skip the Cow. I am very excited and in fact am posting the new one here...

You see them in every book stores New Age section. We call them Wicca 101 books. And they line shelf after shelf all promising the same thing; to teach you the craft the fast and easy way. Sometimes you even find some that proclaim to go beyond the witchcraft basics and delve deep into the mysteries of the Gods. In this witch's experience they don't live up to those proclamations.

When I first felt the voice of the Goddess calling me home I will admit I ran for those fast and easy ways books. I read them, I self initiated and thought myself quite the priestess... for about 20 minutes until I realized that faith of any kind should not be fast and easy. The dictionary definition of faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something as well as Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. How does that happen after reading a 200 page book. It doesn't.

So then how does faith happen? Faith happens through mindful contemplation and a journey to discover how you connect with Divinity. For me that journey began by studying the religious history of my ancestors as well as the history of the craft itself. In reading the history of the craft, of my ancestors the Goddess revealed herself to me in a way I believe I would not have gotten through reading generic how to book designed to play up the magick of the Gods and not the faith.

Studying our history helps us connect to it, connect to those who have gone before us in a meaningful and kinesthetic way. It helps us develop our faith as well. Knowing the rituals and beliefs of our ancestors strengthens our own. We can look to them and know that we are not traveling this road alone. I know that starting down that road may seem daunting but trust me it can be as easy as stepping into your local library. Go there and read about your culture, ancient Goddess worship anything you can get your hands on, not only will you get a more through education but you will save yourself some money as well.

There is another benefit to studying history as way of connecting to faith and Divinity. In this day and age we are raising another generation of wiccans. By learning history from history itself we are helping to create a sense of lineage for our children and their children to come. We can impart to them the wisdom of our culture, of our ancestors, of the Gods themselves. We instill in them a desire to keep that connection alive. They see faith as a deep spiritual connection to the Divine not just a ritual we do on Sabbats or Full Moons. In fact studying your history together is a great Family Coven bonding activity. Having each member of your Family Coven do some research on the cultural history of their choice and share it with everyone. Making history apart of your everyday life will ensure a connectedness to the ways of the Wise Ones themselves.


When I was much younger than I am now I had a friend who was a vegetarian. I asked him once why he chose that lifestyle. His response to me still resonates today. He said “I used to eat meat and then one day I saw a cow and you know what they were eating grass, and it made me think. All this time I have been getting my nutrients from a secondary source, why not go straight to the source. Skip the cow, eat the grass”
What does that mean for the pagan person? It means that we want to have a deeply meaningful spiritual connection to the Gods we need to to skip the cow and eat the grass.

I know if we do our faith will thank us.

2nd meeting

Yesterday the Laughing Coyote Hearth had its second meeting. We created our Circle Banner and painted our element stones. It was very productive and the scouts enjoyed it very much. We decided that our banner will have people dancing around a fire in merriment with the image of a coyote in the fire and the Full Moon as a backdrop.

Bear is working on his Recycling Award and is now the Recycle Captain in our house for the next 3 months. Usagi is working on her gardening badge and Rontu is working on Ecology. Bug is still thinking on what he wants to work on first

Next week we start planning for the year to come.

We are official

Our Hearth has been chartered!

We have gotten our handbooks and are just now waiting for our Hearth Certificate and patches.

Yay for us

So where's the Rev.?

I have been an ordained Minister or High Priestess for over 10 years now. I do not use the title Rev. before my name. I will admit that my Bible does say Rev. Heather Christensen on it. That is because it was an ordination gift from my father and I cherish it to this day.

Let me clear, it is not that I believe that I do not live the life that deserves the title Rev or Lady, far from it. I make sure that the path I am on is very inline with my beliefs on how the clergy should live.

When I introduce myself as Rev. Heather or Lady Heather I put myself into a box if you will. Some people are off put by Rev.'s or Lady's because they have had bad experiences (read : "I know better than you do I am a HPs") with them in the past. In that moment of introduction I am setting up the framework of our whole interaction. The message that I want to convey is one of Empathy, Compassion understanding and help. I find that sometimes it is hard to do that when I have Rev. or Lady hanging over my head. The saying that you only have one chance to make a good impression very much rings true here. When setting up that framework that we will build our relationship on it is important to me not to imprint the person with a sense that I am coming to them from a a belief that I am better than they are because I have titles.

In the end I walk the walk, so whether I use it or not I am always Rev. Heather

Our Virtues

The Christensen-Branson's shall be known for


Integrity~ Living by a personal moral code. Defending and upholding it, even in the face of difficulty

Empathy~ Understanding the thoughts and feelings of others and acting appropriately

Charity~ Giving assistance to those in need. Being kind and generous with others.

Truth~ Living life without deceit. Being honest with yourself and others.

Unity~Harmony and cooperation even when disagreements exists

Respect~ Being mindful of the thoughts, feelings, wishes and traditions of yourself and others; holding them in high regard.

Vision~ Using creativity and imagination to look beyond today and plan for the future by setting goals and moving towards them

Faith~ A strong belief of worth in yourself and others. Keeping to your spiritual ideals.

Family~A group of people united through love and compassion, striving for a sense of oneness in both good and difficult times

Loyalty~ Keeping to one's promises and commitments. Showing allegiance to people who exhibit the same qualities

Wisdom~ Continually seeking knowledge through the experience of yourself and others; using good judgment to filter and apply that knowledge to everyday life

Tolerance~ The ability to accept the views beliefs and opinions of others when they differ from your own

Courage~ Having the strength to follow your convictions even in the face of disapproval

Gratitude~The quality of being thankful and appreciative for what you have been given. A lack of greed.

Spontaneity~The ability to accept each moment in life as it comes. Demonstrating creative adaptability while still having fun Being able to laugh at yourself

Self-Discipline~ Being able to control your actions and feelings even when tempted not to. Showing self control and restraint especially when not supervised.

Spiral Scouts

Our family has charted a Spiral Scout Hearth. It has been a long time in the works, but now that things have settled down here we went ahead and did it. We named our hearth Laughing Coyote and are now just awaiting the approval of HQ to be official.

We are very very excited.

If you would like to learn more about them you can check out the website at www.spiralscouts.org

Why I am here now

I have always been some one who wrote about my faith and the things we did as a family. Until now however those writing have been in a private journal. I have always been proud of my faith but kept it close to my heart. I guess you could say that after one to many run ins with less than stellar pagans I sort of went back in the broom closet. Although when asked I would always say I am a witch, I really only lived my faith at home.

A light has come on for me. I am the face of Wicca. When I say I am a Wiccan I am the person that represents to the listener Wicca at large. To me that means I am the embodiment of my religious beliefs. I am no longer afraid of the world . I live my faith everyday and everywhere. If I am the face of Wicca I want to be the best at I can. Represent what wicca is and can be

What I have in the works now

A few topics I will be discussing here in the future.

Wicca and the Male

Spiritual housecleaning

I know there will be more coming I just like to jot down when I can

Skip the cow, eat the grass

I got an email from Amazon.com the other day listing books that they thought I would enjoy based on my previous purchases. The list included some Neil Gaiman, Laurell K Hamilton, Sue Grafton, as well as some religious books. One of them was touting the religious history of Irish Wicca. I clicked on the link and became amused. After checking it out I heard something in my head...laughter. It was fluff. There was no real content that would garner me spending my hard earned money on it. It made me think about a vegetarian friend of mine. I asked him why he was a vegetarian and he said I used to eat beef then I realized cows eat grass, so why don't I skip the cow and eat the grass. What does that have to do with this you may ask . This is my point...

Why are we as pagans, people in charge in our own faith relying on other people to learn our history for us? Why aren't we searching for ourselves? I understand to some degree that having an intermediary to decipher history for us is not always a bad thing, but accurate history is not always what filters through to the reader. Those writers did the same thing I encourage all of us to do, they sought out the truth for themselves. They spent the time doing the research. Learning the past they in turn pare down and deliver to us freshly washed and in convient bite size nuggets.We have no governing body yet we believe anybody who says that they know better than us. I think as a measure of our own commitment to our faith is to do the leg work for ourselves. It is time for us to pass over the newest, latest and greatest novelesque pagan how to book. and pick up a history book. Heck pick up two of them. There are very few authors who teach a history you cannot go out and learn yourself. You want to know about the Greek pantheon grab a textbook on greek mythology from your local library Learn from history itself. Not only are you more like to get a better source of information but you will save yourself some money as well. Now I know I mention textbooks and I realize that for the most part textbooks read like a stereo instructions, but not all of history is spicy and juicy. Some of it just well, plain boring. That does not mean it is not worth knowing or seeking out. Don't limit yourself to to just dry history books. It is amazing what you can learn about a culture from their myths, lore, and sacred texts. It tells us how they loved, prayed and lived day to day.
If we as pagans ever want to be taken seriously by society we need to start acting serious about ourselves. That means being our own historian, as well as being our own Priest/ess. Taking the time will be worth the time and effort it takes to learn it.

What I am saying is as Pagans is it is time for us to Skip the cow and eat the grass

The Pics I promised

Our Imbolc Altar.





I promised some photos of our Imbolc stuff and here they are. This first one is of Bear getting ready to tell his Creation story.





Here is Noodle and I dancing around and singing


Here is mom lighting the candles that signfy the Beginning Fire of the turning of the wheel.

Imbolc

Light the Way Family Coven had a great Imbolc celebration last night. We feasted on meats, cheeses and breads reminiscent of the last of the winter stores. We placed our wish boxes on the altar filled with what we want to manifest in the upcoming year. We lit the candles that repersent the stirring of the light in the world. While they burned, Rontu told us an egyptian creation myth ffollowed by Usagi and Bug's Welcome back the sleepy Sun play. After that our oldest son Bear told us the Hewbrew creation myth. Today we took down the last of our World Tree, to be put up again at Yule.

Pictures are soon to follow

My family recently joined the FWTI. www.familywiccantradition.org. This is an organization that promotes the idea that the family coven is the most important in any pagan's life. I whole heartedly agree with that statement. My family is the MOST important thing in my life. I am the mother of 6 children. Although I and one of my husbands is pagan the other is not. He is agnostic by his own definition. But that does not matter. What matters is the spirituality that transcends religious dogma that each one of us brings to our family. At the heart of us what we are is a family all 9 of us.

I love how in line our own views on family spirituality were in line with FWTI. Creating a daily Spiritual practice. Not just Religious practice.

The Light the Way Family coven is crafting our legacy...

How are you crafting yours?