To come out or not?

Good evening fellow bloggers. After a comment i received i realised i may have offended some people. It made me re-read my previous post and i saw that it could be misinterpreted. I do understand why some people stay inside the closet. I have even advised people to do that in the past. It has to do with the given circumstances and of course the personality of each and every pagan.
What i meant, that was probably understood by most of you who follow my blog, but not from the rest of my readers, is that it is MY OWN personal path to be open about my practices. Since it is something i have talked in the past, i believed in and came from my heart I felt "hypocritical, like a liar and of course shameful". I did n't mean, in any case that it is shameful to hide your spiritual path. On the contrary, someone's choice to come out, is not something to be taken lightly. There will be concequences. It is inevitable to get a little bit hurt by someone's reaction.
That being told, it has a lot of advantages. There is a feeling of unique freedom when you do not have to supress yourself anymore. And also you learn a lot about those close to you and they learn a lot from you.
In my case, it was easier than i thought. It felt good, natural and i realised i was finally on my path. MY OWN path. I feel like i have to break as much the superstitions around witchcraft as possible. I do not believe everyone should , or could do it for that matter. It feels TO ME a noble cause. There have been some hardships for me also. But there were many that surprised me in a wonderful way. I realised that people would love me for who i really was and if they could n't, their love was n't real after all. That is the hardest lesson of a "coming out" pagan.
Despite those discouraging things, i certainly believe that coming out helps us grow as witches. I am saying that from personal experience and from what i heard from others. But everything i said makes sense only for people in liberal countries with religious freedom(someone mentioned something about getting physically hurt).
So, here are some tips if you decide that:
1. Do it slowly. Try coming out to just one person and see how it goes, how it makes you feel and how it makes them feel.
2. Find a person that seems "open" to "confess" for the first time.
3. Explain everything. Some things that you consider simple might indeed be completely new for someone else.
4. Remember and remind them that you are still the same person. They are just discovering a new side of you.
Good luck whatever you decide.
Brightest blessings,
Georgina

A witch's pride and Touched by Pagan Culture

Good morning fellow witches. It is a cloudy day here in Athens. I guess this should teach everyone who complained about the early summer. I have a confession to make and i hope you will all cut me some slack. Here is the whole story.
I have been with a friend this Saturday who is having a party this Friday. She is a lovely girl who has a weird dad. When she invited me to her party she asked me not to tell anyone about my work, because the information could somehow reach her dad. This means to lie about being a psychic and of course about being a witch. I was caught of guard and i said yes. By this point whoever is calling me names such as hypocrite, liar, shameful etc should remember to cut me some slack! I have always being out and about but i did n't want to hurt her feelings. Although my whole attitude towards life is to honestly talk about my spirituality so i can fight prejudice in all its forms, i found myself considering the possibility.
I am proud of being a witch. I will not lie about it, for anyone 's shake. If the only sacrifice i have to make is to not attend a party, great. I have made much bigger sacrifices till now. But i can't get rid of all the guilt for not instantly making that decision. I keep asking myself, what is wrong with me. Where did my morals go? Next thing you know i will hide my pentagramm inside my blouse. I might be overreacting(do n't you Pah-hah me!), but this situation affected me deeply. I am not hurt, because i have had to deal with so many different reactions in the past that taught me to be cool about it.
So, religious fanatics, curious strangers, friends with issues bring them on. I will never-ever hide my identity. I appreciate this valuable lesson and i will let this experience help me grow as a witch and most importantly as a person.
In an attempt to redeem myself i am making a list of the top five reasons i am proud of being a witch.
1.Paganism brought me closer to nature and gave me perspective on what's important. It led to me to being attuned with the cycles of life through my love for the Goddess.
2.It is in my blood. It is my legacy. It is the very thing that tighs me with my ancestors(well at least from my mother's side).It gave a sense of being part of something greater than me.
3.Wicca gave a moral campus not just for witchcraft but for life in general. The ways you can "translate" the Rede are infinite.
4.Witchcraft helped me improve my life and consider growing as an ongoing process for as i long as i live this life and those that follow.
5.Magic. The wonders, the beauty, the love and the light magic brings in my everyday life transform the mundane into the extraordinary. Magic brings me everytime a step closer to my inner truth.The chase of a rainbow.
What are your reasons of pagan pride?
Bightest blessings,
Georgina.
Ps. I would also like to welcome all the new readers from PaganCulture. I hope all the fellow Wicked Darlings will love it here. Thank you Magaly for this honour. I am touched(pun intended)! Whoever has n't already, should visit Magaly's blog right away(once again i failed in inserting a link so here is the URL http://pagan-culture.blogspot.com). She is great.

Keeping the light alive...

Last night was a very windy night. It was the new moon and i slept listening to the beautiful sounds of my wind chimes(i have about a hundred). I felt relaxed, calm, centered and grounded. The wonderful breeze was coming from my open window and it felt as if She was keeping me into Her arms. They are weird the things that help you connect.
Right now it feels like it is about to rain. The air smells like rain and i am experiencing the sensation of a storm that is about to come. An ugly thought tried to make its way to my heart, but i stopped it. There is no room there right now for stress. I know everything is going to be okay and work itself out.
I am just going to keep listening to the sounds of my wind chimes and feel again that i am into Her arms. And if a storm comes a real or a metaphoric one i will deal with it. Because now i know that strenth does not come from enduring difficulties but from retaining the ability to love during those hardships. Keeping the light alive during darkness.
I was just thinking that from just one word i made into my mind a whole catastrophic scenario. You got to admit it is some sort of talent. In a split second to see the worst possible way things could advance. But you know what, i am an optimist. It is easy to be brave and positive when you can't see the difficulties that may appear. It is far more difficult to take a deep breath and "believe".
Since it is a windy day and the moon is waxing i think it is time for the leaf. I will cut a big, beautiful leaf and write on it the things i want for me in the immediate future. Then i will let it fly away from me. I will do it during the night. I will have a burning candle on my side and love into my heart.
I hope you will do it too. And who knows? Maybe our leaves will meet into the air and travel the road to heaven.
Brightest blessings,
Georgina.

Direct motions, pendulums and happy thoughts

Greetings to all the blogland. I am finally over my funk. I have forgotten how good it was to feel relaxed, calm and relatively stress free. The fact that i am back to normal, besides the usual techniques and soul searching is also a bit thanks to all of you, my beautiful, wonderful, patient readers. Although i was n't commenting as much as i used to, i read and read. You gave me comfort with your words, your general thoughts and with sharing the ways you deal with everyday, mundane stuff. So thank you once again for being the best therapists in the world.
Onto our magical (un)usual talk now... Mercury is finally in direct motion so our lives should be a lot easier from now on. We can finally think clearly(or so we should), say what we want, when we want to and make it sound exactly the way we mean it! Thank Goddess for that! Now we can make decisions that will not blow up in our faces and not have to deal with anymore small, but still nerve wrecking accidents(the glasses that i broke the last two weeks could serve the needs of a big restaurant!).
Anyhoo, i would like today to talk about pendulums. They are great for divinational purposes and also for directing energy. If you want them to unblock chakras clear quartz and even rainbow crystalls are great. Just hold it in front of your blockage and let it vibrate the negativity away. But if you want to use one for divination, although amethyst is great, the best choice is black obsidian. I love that rock! It is powerful.
Also, i am sure you have all seen wooden pendulum boards and they are fine. But i have a way to use them that is absolutely amazing and much prettier(i know,modesty is not my thing!).
I take a small plate and i feel it with salt. Then i try to make half of the yin-yang symbol and i fill the other half with poppy seeds(perfect for divination). I arrange them so that the shape is perfect and i add a small salt spot in the poppy side and a small poppy spot in the salt side. Then i concentrate on my question, hold the crystal over the plate and if it drops on the salt is a yes answer, while if it drops to the poppy seeds is a no. If you try it, just keep in mind that you can't ask many questions because the pendulum messes the plate up pretty quickly. You can also use herbs for the yes part of the plate. I enjoyed very much using thyme.
So that is my magical tip for the day. I hope you liked it and that you will try it. Have an enchanting day and a witchy afternoon!
Brightest blessings,
Georgina*

Paws in the air for people food

I have a confession to make. I was a horrible fur mom and i did n't even know it. As you all know by now, i have three pets two cats and a dog. One of my cats only eats people food and although i have tried anything she can't eat anything else(once i only gave her cat food, and she starved herself for four days, i caved of course). And although my other two eat their kind of food, i frequently give them little treats that they enjoy very much.
Whenever i cooked for them i wanted their food to be tasty so i used spices as well as onions and garlic. I did that for years. And now i found out that garlic and onions are toxic for both cats and dogs and that i unintentionally poisoned my fur babies.
My neutered male cat only eats his food now(because anything else could lead to urinary issues), but the other too still eat people food. I felt i had to post that, although it has nothing to do with paganism, because i know many of you, my wonderful witch friends, have pets. Our familiars give us love, help us heal, open up and even protect us. So this post is dedicated to them.
Brightest blessings, love and light.

I am finally..back!

I am married. Well, not in the typical kind of way yet. But the handfasting was wonderful, more romantic i could ever imagine and a truly beautiful ceremony. It was my best Beltane by far and the happiest day of my entire life. We were alone. We were humble. We were in love.
Now that all the craziness and preparations are behind me, i will be posting as often as i used to. I am sorry i was slacking off. I will definitely make it up with you. I hope you all had a beautiful Beltane. I also hope you celebrated the love in your life, the fertility of the season, the beauty of Mother Nature and the Sun 's vivid power.
By the way, how are you handling Mercury 's retrograde motion? Try to stay calm, there are only eight days left of the insanity.
Love and light to all of my amazing readers.