My life these days is generally lived with the tide and current of my Pure Will as it flows along the cosmic River of Life, or to be less wanky and less esoteric, I tend to go with the flow more than anything else. In fact, the large majority of the time is spent attuning to my Deep Self and thus self-actualisation becomes a realisation of Divinity; thus I am able to, with empowerment and determination, choose my life. After all, what is choice but the exercising of God-given free-will and a spiritual journey into embracing the Law of Eternal Paradox (Change, etc.).

Yuletide is here. In fact, I have wrapped presents for my loved ones and placed them under my family’s house altar, upon which sits our Blue Protector Goddess (of the Heart) who at the moment is wearing beautiful stars and moons bought for me as a gift from the German Christmas Markets by a friend. Last Saturday was my coven’s debut on the public Pagan scene in QLD. We had a crowd of approximately 60 people which is a great turn out! We recently dedicated four Witches into the inner court and now have a total of five aspirants - one of whom was aspired during the open Yule ceremony. Thank-you to all the covens, groves and solitaries who came to join our celebrations - especially to Earthwyrm Coven and Pagan Awareness Network (PAN) for the legal protection! The coven returned to my mother’s place on the coast and partied and wined, retiring into the still night with cheer and jeer.

Now, back to Thorn’s podcast (interviewing Patrick McCollum - www.courtingthelady.com). A few stimulating things were talked about which I internally and emotionally responded to. I have to say that I deeply admire both Coyle and McCollum and their work for and with the Pagan community.

While the interview was quite lengthy and they spoke of many significant issues. The philosophical discussions concerning immanent Divinity and here is the now, now is the here were particularly pertinent to topics I am writing and teaching about at the moment.

An illustrating comment was - “All is sacred…can you see that all that is here was here in some way from the beginning, it has merely changed form”. Patrick McCollum spoke of one of his early Craft teachers taking him into a parking lot and asking whether or not he could feel the innate sanctity in the place. He answered that he couldn’t in contrast to the still and raw domains of the wild forest places. I think being able to connect and commune with the spirit of place anywhere is an important insight; however, the ability to identify what is medicine and what is poison to us and the Earth is an essential skill for a Witch, and for any Cosmos/Earth/Life-aware individual. So I ask myself, coming from a philosophy, tradition and personal feeling that all is sacred, all is of the Mother (Latin Mater=matter) - if the asphalt covering the Earth is still sacred because its origins are within the womb, is it also possible that because of ‘human frailty’ and a decisive ability to create strong paradigms of power-over, separation, and exploitation of our precious resources as inanimate and thus ‘unfeeling’, that human-engineered/modified designs somehow consolidate and affirm a thought-form which is decidely anti-immanence?

I believe that this is possible, otherwise our deep trust in our own ability to create with the Universe is challenged. We are able to impact our environment to its benefit and detriment and thus to our own. If we cover in the Earth and create metropolises to allow for the comfort and convenience of modern-day human existence, this necessitates that we require these things to exist and to be nourished, when in fact these designs and ideas derive from the notion that we are somehow above and beyond all that surrounds and pervades us. However, I do agree that one can step onto a road and place an offering, cast Circle in a living room and create change in the midst of a busy office-space (and indeed we should!), and this is because we are able to bring forth and remind all things that they are inherently sacred. For instance, when I drink water that comes from a tap and may be potentially unstable, I sit with the water and imbue it with vital life-force once more whilst praying to the water that it remembers its original purity (versus original sin). As is written of the Goddess Persephone and her mysteries - Pure I come from the Pure Below.

I truly believe that the majority of Pagans live in cities nowadays because that is where we are meant to be - raising consciousness that will affect the communities at large. Reminding each and every one of us that we are divine, that is all of the Holy Mother and thus should be approached with deep abiding respect - perfect love and perfect trust for self and all.

I’ll conclude this blog with a quote from my interview with Tricia of Gaia’s Garden based in Victoria, Australia (for the full interview visit www.gaiasgarden.com.au and click on podcasts) and another simple reflective quote from T. Thorn Coyle. See you next time

From Gaia’s Garden interview:

On the nature of Paganism:

“We use the word tradition in the NeoPagan sense of the term, in that it means what denomination means for Christians. Our tradition, though we believe it is as ancient as the stars; we didn’t create it so much as respond to need of the spirit and the natural world. Paganism never imposes anything on Nature; it always derive its culture and and its ritual from what we see happening in Nature. The beautiful thing about Paganism is that it is Nature-based, therefore it’s constantly recreating itself; constantly manifesting in different ways and different varieties. Though we are based in the most ancient forms of understanding and exploration of the cosmos, we inherently have to be new and new and new. Life is always renewing itself.”

“Spirit is where we are, in every moment. Because spirit simply is.” T. Thorn Coyle.

Holy Mother, in whom we live, move and have our being. From you all things emerge and unto you all things return. - Feri Blessing.

P.S. Spirited: Taking Paganism Beyond the Circle is a finalist in the Wicca/Paganism category for the COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources) 2010 awards. The winners will be announced on Saturday, the 26th of June, in the States. Yay!

I woke up this morning and had a shower, before I showered I read a few pages of Raven Grimassi’s Wiccan Magick. Yesterday I finished reading Magick in the West End by Kala Trobe, the witty and insightful English Witch whose occult anecdotes both inspire and challenge. The day before that I finished reading Modern Wicca by Michael Howard (on the day that I also conducted a workshop in Brisbane – Initiation and the Path of the Shamanic Witch), one of the most recent endeavours to illustrate the evolution of both esoterica and persona aligned with the revival of the Craft in Britain in the 20^th century. Simultaneously to this, I am studying flower essences for hatred, resentment, bitterness, over-worrying, depression and meloncholy, for an exam at uni today. My mind is also in a few places concurrently…thinking about my Imbolc handfasting to my partner Greg; mentally organising (involving copious e-mails) my impending tour of the US for my most recent book (By Land, Sky and Sea); thinking about the blessed aspirants in my coven and the upcoming new moon esbat; and also receiving messages on my phone about yoga and meditation tonight, as well as Hermes, Odin and Kali revelling in wonder and wyrd with a fellow priest. All this and I haven’t even taken out a candle, lit it and muttered anything in psuedo-Latin.

Obviously I could do all of the above (especially the reading of Pagan and Witchy texts) and be no more magickal than the average check-out chick at the local supermarket (then again, she could be calling up and commanding Goetic demons in her bedroom at night). It’s all in the meaning; the feeling, too. I could contextualise it this way:

I once described spellcraft as acknowledging, accepting and affirming magick. Well, being a Witch is those three thing s as well. We have to acknowledge, accept and affirm Magick in order to celebrate it. Through this divine process emerges a magickal-awareness of the cosmos and we align with the hidden potencies (the Gods, the Immortals, the Spirits) and become allied. When I say I have friends in high places, I often mean it quite literally, if not, energetically/esoterically/spiritually.

If, as Mircea Eliade, has postulated – that the universe is multi-dimensional by its very nature/structure and that those who are called shamans are the individuals endowed with the magickal skill to be able to traverse the worlds – then I am more alive than most. I am alive to my purpose. At my most recent workshop (mentioned above) a friend and fellow WildWood priestess mentioned that shamanism is one of those defined set of skills meant for the gifted. Absolutely, I would agree. However, the world is different now. We have 6.3 billion people and growing, versus the scattered nomadic tribes dotted around the planet in the Palaeolithic. There are far more shamans (Witches, mystics, priest/esses, etc.) alive and working today because there are, by comparison, so many more people. I happen to be one of those shamans…Witches…shamanic Witches!

Tomorrow I am going to sit in my uni’s library and finish two assignments due the very next day. Not very magickal? Well, consider that while I do it I will be reflecting my mind back to events such as drawing down ancient wolf-cloaked deities and emerging from the Samhain circle needing solid ground to recover from something obscured in memory (whilst watching 20+ Witches frolicking in a circle to the ambient glow of candle-light). And yes – I will also very much be astralling out to Hermes every now and then for a bit of r and r. Perhaps I’ll even aspect the Great Lord for a while, just to give my assignments that extra oomph.

Gede Parma

Llewellyn, 2010 (released the 1st of October)

Discover the shamanic roots of modern Witchcraft and experience a profound deepening of the soul. Divided into three parts corresponding to the Celtic realms of land, sky, and sea, this unique book introduces readers to the ancient Celtic trinity while exploring its associated Greek, Hawaiian, Hindu, Stregheria, and Wiccan customs.

Develop basic magick skills in breath work, grounding and centering, omen walks, and celebrating the body through dance. Learn methods for expanding consciousness and working with energy, including astral projection, clairvoyance, and aura balancing, and ultimately enact shamanistic practices of trance, vision journeying, channeling, and oracle reading.

Buy at:

Amazon - www.amazon.com

Llewellyn - www.llewellyn.com

http://www.gaiasgarden.com.au/

And click on podcasts to listen to an interview with Gede Parma.

Wild Blessings~

I decided that it would be a ripe time to commit to Blog no. 4! Just as well, as the Equinox is just two days away. For those of us in the southern hemisphere we will be celebrating the Autumnal Equinox - Mabon. Our friends in the northern hemisphere will be rejoicing with the renewal of life and the triumph of Light once more as the festival of Ostara is marked. Speaking of which, look out for the next Llewellyn Sabbats almanac coming out in July this year - I wrote the Ostara section!

Lately I have been winding up my shadow work which I began in late January after Christopher Penczak’s Australian tour wrapped up. Christopher had outlined the process of his suggested shadow work in his Shamanic Witchcraft and the Dark Soul workshop on the last day of the 2010 Pagan Summer Gathering (hosted by CAW Australia). I believe the shadow work is also outlined in Christopher’s Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft. Just briefly the process (which is highly self-directed and determined) involves the blessed art of ‘venting’ several times a week. In four columns entitled (generally): Anger, Fear, Jealously and Shame (I changed shame to resentment), one writes their corresponding ‘negative’ or shadow emotions. I have personally found these sessions highly reflective. Many times I have speedily tabulated my emotional spectrum of the day, involving many internal diatribes against myself and others; and other times each column was very sparsely adorned with these shadow-swept feelings. I have found that during the 9 weeks (which culminate this weekend for the Autumnal Equinox, and in my tradition - the Descent of the Goddess) I have cultivated both an ecstasy in the unleashing of raw emotions I have often been too ‘zen’ to confront or to allow, and I have also felt as if I am flowing down a river towards a sheer drop - a torrential waterfall that will break me…clean me. I have felt absolutely terrified at times, but I will persevere.

I have danced with my Shadow many a time, but never in such a facilitated and prolonged manner. I have discovered that there are such things as righteous anger (as potent as the blackest storm), poisonous envy, HOLY HOLY fear and wounding or inhibiting resentments. I have revealed parts of myself to close friends that have been terribly-good medicine; and through reflection I have mirrored back pieces of their own deep selves. In this time my partner and I got engaged, and my best friend and I exploded at each other with the Veil lifted and the necessity of truth and honesty driving the insistence. I have been surrounded by the medicine of the Dragonfly - the dispeller of Illusion, or rather the opener of the Eye towards the sacred Truth. I have uncovered another depth to the Mighty Sword that Persephone gifted to me all those years ago and which I understood to be my personal symbol of healing and resurrection - of reclaiming and banishing. The Sword of Light - of Initiation, of Illumination - the Sword that renders us Void. The Sword which strikes through, swift as lightning, to the beating core of the Living and in Tower-like fashion destroys those patterned and paradigmed notions, to arouse the willingness inside each of us to open the Book of Truth and read. These things are of course deeply and irrevocably personal, and my writing of them here today may not be communicable in the least - but it is still what is of me, and as such there may be at least some meaning dredged from this expression…

So, as I walk towards my death and embrace the infinite possibilites of the Cosmos, I shiver with the arousal of instinct and know that I will be torn asunder - it is only Hope which can kindle that life-flame within me to align me once more with my Deepest Self, my Core which is THE CORE, THE DANCING CENTRE, and open me ever to the Mysteries.

I quote that I have loved, loved, loved recently is:

“Guard the Mysteries; constantly reveal them” - Lew Welch

And, right NOW, I am listening to:

“Mother darkness, Mother of Light,

Earth beneath us, soul in flight,

Songs of Love, and Love of Life

Guide us to our Heart.”

- Unknown

Deep and Wild Blessings~

Last night I had the privelege of attending Lisa Kenny’s PAN-sponsored Witches’ Ball! A whimsical and musical night which brought the wild ones out to revel in the glory and blessedness of the Old Ones and their manifold Ways. I was pleased to see the community out in force with over 100 attendees spiral-dancing and chanting to the Goddess under the musical and magickal direction of the eternally-enchanting Spiraldance band from Adelaide. CAW, PAN, WildWood, Circle Coven, Alexandrians, Discordians, HedgeWitches, Shamans, Fam-Trads and those elusive heathens all together in one Irish pub is something to celebrate! Slan to Lisa Kenny, the newly-elected president of PAN QLD for all her hard-work in organising the successful event and in spear-heading the direction of the new PAN QLD committee which was elected today at the AGM in Brisbane, QLD.

On the 31st of January (Lughnasadh) I was again priveleged to attend and volunteer as a healer and performer at Pagan Hearth’s (a newly-formed Pagan association in Queensland) High Summer Harvest Festival. The Lughnasadh Gathering was held at the old Kingston Butter Factory, and despite the on-and-off-again rain, the event drew a vital and substantial crowd of both Pagan and non-Pagan inclination. Workshops, stalls, food, singing, music, children’s activities, raffles and a ritual run by the beautiful and grounded Earthwyrm Coven of Mudgeeraba were enjoyed by all in attendance. The healing and reading tent (which I had the joy of serving at) were a priceless additive to the festival, and offered $10 readings and healings (the cheapest I’ve ever come across, and both readers and healers were highly skilled at their arts).

It would be remiss if I did not mention the illustrious Christopher Penczak and his 2-week Oz mid-late January tour in which he ran two soul-deepening and mind-enlightening workshops at the Pagan Summer Gathering (run by the Church of All Worlds). He also presented 2 full-day workshops in the Gold Coast and Brisbane respectively on the Celtic Mysteries of Cerridwen and the Cauldron and the Merlin of Albion, as well as ‘The Twelve Gates of Witchcraft’. I was honoured and lucky enough to attend all of these events and my own spirituality/consciousness has definitely been enhanced and expanded in every witch-way!

As I write this, I am gearing up for a bit of a mini-tour. I will be teaching all-day workshops in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast (all of which are still open to registration, so if you are interested please e-mail me at spirited_services@hotmail.com). For the past few months or so I have felt the great need to convey the message of “Witch, walk thy talk!” Thus ‘The Spirited Life: Walking the Talk of the Witch’ workshop came about, and I can’t wait to start the travelling and the teaching. Teaching is a role that ever brings the teacher to the humble realisation that we are always students. I’ll be teaching and touring Oz again in July/August, before I decide to flip hemispheres and fly off to the UK/USA from September onward.

Wild Blessings to you all~

 1. Beltaine has been and gone (for those of us in the southern hemisphere) and we (the Coven of the WildWood) celebrated with style!

2. My next book (second with Llewellyn) will be published in late 2010 and is called By Land, Sky and Sea: Three Realms of Shamanic Witchcraft.

3. I am greatly looking forward to speaking at the Parliament of World’s Religions in early December in Melbourne! *will also be doing a workshop and a signing at Magick Happens festival in North Melbourne*

4. The Gregorian year of 2009 is winding up and so is uni, my day-job with retail, living in Brisbane, and my time with the Coven of the WildWood as an active inner court member…

Now…one at a time…in numerical order (as listed of course…somewhere a Virgoan has cursed me :P!)

 1. Beltaine, in the WildWood Tradition (and in many others), is the time of year when our Lord and Lady (the Stag-Horned God and the Crescent-Crowned Goddess) come together, are married and perform the Great Rite. This union of sun and moon, of earth and seed, initiates the season of summer and stirs the primal forces of darkness from their slumber. At the Summer Solstice the Holly King will lead the Wolf from the shadows of the WildWood to the battle-grounds of Litha where the Wolf and Stag King will battle. Beltaine is also the second time in the year when the Veils are truly thin - however, the warm weather draws the wild Fey folk into the ‘mortal’ realm, not the Beloved Dead…many would say they are one and the same

The Coven of the WildWood gathered together on October 31st in the centre of Brisbane City and gathered together some 20 Pagans for a Faerie parade of revelry, drumming, song and dance. We wound through the city in costume and colour and brought wild magick and fey power to the city. When we arrived at the ritual site another 20 Pagans joined us in our ritual celebration of the sabbat in which we honoured the drawn down embodiments of the God and Goddess, danced the belpole around them to honour their handfasting and raise power, jumped the cauldron of fire, kissed the bull and brought forth his sweet abundance (candy!) and passed the kissing sticks to one and all! We rounded this all up with a Beltaine/Halloween party where much fun was had!

Be sure to join the Coven of the WildWood next year for a Beltaine celebration that will surely become an ongoing tradition of Faerie Parade, glorious ceremony and magick-induced after-party!

 2. By Land, Sky and Sea: Three Realms of Shamanic Witchcraft is the product of Irish inspiration, though the outcome is truly an eclectic, shamanically-driven guide-book in developing and honing in traditional Witch’s talents. Look forward to successful spirit-flight (astral travel), channelling (bring forth oracles) and becoming one with the Mysteries of the Descent…the book will be released in December 2010.

3. Check out more details on this in my ‘Appearances’ section. For more information on the Parliament of World’s Religions visit www.parliamentofreligions.org

4. My first year studying at the Endeavour College of Natural Health has concluded…and greatly looking forward to full-time study next semester (Bachelor of Health Science - Western Herbal Medicine)…I shall also be making the move to the Gold Coast, QLD and in so doing, will be forming a new WildWood group there - OakSun Grove. I am also launching a client-based, private practice in Holistic and Spiritual Guidance and Healing on the coast. Consultations include tarot reading, psychic/intuitive whole-health assessment, chakra realignments/balancing, survey of psychic ‘attachments’ and communication with guides/totems/deities/spirits etc. to receive information and knowledge to translate into life-wisdom. Perhaps I could be of service…

Wild Blessings! - Gede Parma~

Please visit www.dragonseyetours.com for more information.

Wild Blessings, Gede Parma~

http://passionrituals.blogspot.com/2009/10/octobers-featured-occultist-gede-parma.html

Also two new interviews have been posted in the Books section. Check them out!

Wild Blessings~

I had a creative impulse today to finally start my long-awaited regular (perhaps even fortnightly…or whenever it strikes me) blogging for those who have the time to observe and read such cyber-postings.

For my first ever official ‘blog’ I’d like to comment on the topic of ‘Advanced Witchcraft’. I have recently finished Edain McCoy’s Advanced Witchcraft: Go Deeper, Reach Further, Fly Higher (Llewellyn, 2004). When I first began reading the book I had my mental defences up. I have read and enjoyed several of McCoy’s books, primarily her Mountain Magick (Llewellyn, 1997), however, as with any popular and well-known author, the flaws and cons of such an individual are definitely considered before all else. Regarding Edain McCoy, it happens to be a few historical inaccuracies perpetuated in earlier books (Witta: An Irish Pagan Tradition, Llewellyn, 1993) which condemn the author in the present. McCoy herself makes it quite clear that upon looking back at her first published book the cringe-factor is definitely present. We are all human, and we are all prone to mistakes. To Edain McCoy, if you should ever read this blog, know that it was your book Advanced Witchcraft, which inspired me to understand more fully that humans are perfect imperfect beings.

Advanced Witchcraft as a book itself is well worth the read. The target audience is, of course, Witches who consciously live their spirituality in each moment and are thus beyond the 101; beyond relying on book-learning or route-learning through training covens. Advanced Witchcraft isn’t about being bigger or better than other Witches or magickally-inclined beings, it simply implies a focus on aspects of the Craft that allow for the deepening of the spirit. The book provides a springboard of ideas, techniques and philosophies for the ‘advanced’ Witch to spiral into new and challenging paradigms of perspective. The higher you climb the greater the view you have. Ultimately however, living one’s Craft is neither about ascending or descending, but simply being…in the here and the now.

At the culmination of the book McCoy asks the reader (again) what she would now define ‘Advanced Witchcraft’ as. I closed the book and gathered my thoughts and intuitions and this is what I arrived at:

 An advanced Witch is a conscious being; an individual who self-actualises his divine interconnection with all in existence and celebrates and honours the Life-Force in all he does and is. An advanced Witch is wise because he understands that one can never understand anything – only in becoming intimate with the Great Mystery can we ever hope to come to know the self, and self is in all things. In all things resides the power we know as Magick, therefore he understands and sees himself as magickal, divine and worthy. Beyond all else the advanced Witch is human, and dances and wrestles with his humanity…in the here, in the now. 

I urge those of you reading this blog to define for yourself what advanced Witchcraft means to you. If you are only beginning this wild path of ecstatic mystery then simply breathe in the wonder of Magick and ponder upon what the word ‘Witch’ means to you. When we reflect upon what our spiritual tradition/practice/religion/philosophy/way of being actually means to us, we are able to perceive and receive an aspect of our own essence and thus we come ever closer to that infinite journey to know thyself.

Wild Blessings – Gede Parma~