Category: Spirituality/Paganism & Magick

In the northern hemisphere June 21 is generally considered the longest day of the year, and traditionally it's the first day of summer - Summer Solstice. This is a bit of a contradiction, given that another of the day’s names is Midsummer - an ancient reference to the fact that this day is in the middle of Europe’s agricultural season. And there's yet another contradiction - the longest day on the annual calendar can sometimes fall a day or two later, depending on the year in question!

I am a Christian, and I’ve always been interested in Summer Solstice and the Pagan religion. I remember a horror film called Spellbinder, and the climactic scene was based around Summer Solstice. Since the advent of Christianity some 2000 years ago there is a view that ancient religions such as Paganism are inspired, controlled or even led by Satan. Thus solstice celebrations are rejected because they are viewed as Satanic in origin.

But this isn’t a true reflection of an old religion.

In Modern Magick, witches are not dark figures any more, but owners of their destinies and masters of their futures.

The term Magick, with the added k, was created by the very controversial Aleister Crowley. Despite the drama, strange hat and fuss over his life and career, Crowley was a real erudite and the first to establish the act of ritual as an act of the magician's will, instead than a favour from an invoked entity.

Author and editor Gwendolyn Toynton takes a look at how modern Shamanism compares with the role of traditional Shaman.

Traditional Shamanism is often thought of as a magico-religious tradition of the past, existing today only in indigenous populations. Whilst to many the practice of Shamanism is still limited to such areas, Shamanism itself has survived and perhaps even flourished under the blessing of a new incarnation. At the moment, the revival and new found interest in Shamanism is particularly predominant in the Western world. Finding themselves limited to the Western doctrine of Christianity, a number of people have rejected such traditional concepts and have either created for themselves new traditions, or, as in the case of Shamanism, revived a religion which predated Christianity.

Before ordering love spells from one of the hundreds of spell casting sites on the Internet,there are a few key essential things that someone looking for a love spell needs to know. Without knowing key information about real love spells and the different ways that a spell can be cast,you might just be throwing your money away.

Before ordering "self proclaimed" powerful love spells from the hundreds of spell casting sites that seem to pop all over the internet these days, there are a few key essential things that someone looking for a love spell needs to know.Without knowing key information about real love spells and the different ways that a spell can be cast (which directly effects the success rate of a love spell), you might just be throwing your money away.

"Creation consists of the emanations of the Eagle. There are forty eight distinct emanations of the Eagle, of which humans through our ordinary perception can perceive two of them." --Don Juan, the Yaqui Indian and teacher of Carlos Castaneda.

There is a lot of discussion and opinion on what a shaman is. The word itself is rooted in the word šaman from the Tungus people in central Asia. Definitions vary greatly in modern society, this varies from people who enjoy trancing out to music at dances and 'tribal' gatherings calling themselves shamans to a very precise definition as per Mercia Eliade who in his book Shamanism - Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy specifically defines the term shaman as distinct from medicine man, sorcerer, healer, diviner, magician, herbalist and so on. Eliade’s specific differentiation is that the shaman, who may be and practice all of the above, is defined as, "the shaman specialises in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld." This definition is sometimes employed in a strict sense, and appears to me to be limiting in scope. To me a shaman means more than that definition.

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Urarina Shaman photographed by Bartholomew Dean, 1988

It is said that Skinwalkers are actually witches that practice their craft to obtain power, wealth or to simply cause evil wherever they please.

Native American and Norse legend dictate that Skinwalkers are people with mystical abilities to turn themselves into creatures, taking on not only their appearance but also their characteristics. It is said that Skinwalkers are actually witches that practice their craft to obtain power, wealth or to simply cause evil wherever they please.

After the Spanich Conquest, the Spaniards tried to suppress cultivation of sunflowers because of their association with solar religion and warfare.

Ancient farmers were growing sunflowers in Mexico more than 4,000 years before the Spaniards arrived, according to a team of researchers that includes Florida State University anthropologist Mary D. Pohl.

The eye in the pyramid has been a part of our culture for so long that it's become a part of our collective unconscious. However, few of us know what it means.

If after watching one of Disney’s National Treasure films, you surfed the web for “hidden meanings in American symbols,” you might be shocked at what you found. Most other writers, beside myself, who are speculating on American symbolism say that the nefarious Illuminati-Mason Satan-worshipers are in control of world events. If you’ve seen their compelling slideshows where they flip through hundreds of corporate logos resembling the eye in the triangle over the pyramid, you can imagine how gullible people everywhere now believe America’s Founding Fathers were Satanists.

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Reverse of the Great Seal of the United States

Okay, so this story doesn't exactly tell you how to evoke trolls to do your petty bidding for you. However, it's charming, and great folklore - so get over it.

In my capacity as the UK Director of Operations for One World Tours Limited, I would like to share some of the wonderful stories that I was told in Iceland recently. Just over half of the country’s population believe in trolls, elves or hidden people and hopefully I have remembered enough to pass them on to you.

Celtic Christianity is a unique blend of Christianity with indigenous religions such as druidism, according to Linda McKinnish Bridges, professor at the Wake Forest Divinity School. The two faiths mixed easily in the early centuries, and today remnants of the druidic tradition still remain within the practice of Christianity in Ireland.

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, the legend will be retold of how the Christian missionary Patrick banished all the snakes from Ireland. However, zoologists say there never were snakes in Ireland, and historians suggest that the snakes refer instead to the druids, who had their own non-Christian religion. Over time the Christian church incorporated elements of the druids’ traditions into its own religious practices in Ireland.

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Linda McKinnish Bridges, professor of ministry studies in the Divinity School at Wake Forest University