The history of American Paganism - with so many invented lineages, so many solitary practitioners, so much resistance to staid definition, so much hiddenness - can be hard to decipher. But in Her Hidden Children, author Chas S. Clifton relates many never-before-told stories of the origins of Paganism and Wicca in the United States, describing the people, publications, and organizations that allowed Paganism and Wicca to take root and become "nature religion." With a timeline, glossary, and photos of important figures, Her Hidden Children is important for any student of Paganism or American religion.
Bath salts are easy and fun to make. The materials are relatively easy to find and don't have to cost a lot. You can really be creative in how you package the finished salts, too. And they make great Yule presents!
This interview was first published in Mystic Wicks Magazine Vol. 1 Issue #5, March 2007.
Raven Grimassi was born in 1951 and is the author of many books on Wicca and witchcraft. His book "The Wiccan Mysteries" was awarded Book of the Year and First Place Spirituality Book by the Coalition of Visionary Retailers in 1998. Other books by Raven include "Italian Witchcraft," "Hereditary Witchcraft," "Spirit of the Witch," "Wiccan Magick," "The Well Worn Path" book and deck, as well as many others.
Q: In your autobiographical entry in your "Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft" you talk about coming from an Italian family witchcraft tradition. What is it like learning witchcraft from family members?
Raven: It is probably like growing up in any religion, whether one is raised a Catholic, Methodist, Jew, or whatever. Your parents teach you what they believe. It is easier when you are young, but as you get older, well, then you ask questions and you question things in general. I think some parents are better at handling that than others are. In my teens I explored other belief systems, and for a while I was involved in Eastern mysticism. But I always came back to the Old Ways. The one thing that was different growing up, compared to my friends and their religious belief, is that I was not at liberty to talk about the Old Ways. Catholicism was the veneer for me for many years.
The Great Goddess Tiamat is often depicted as a great serpent, whose coiling body surrounds, permeates, and supports all that exists. The material world is one half of Her body; the unseen worlds make up the other half. She is immanent in all of creation, omnipresent within and without us.
Tiamat is inclusive, as all is part of Her body, holding a portion of Her primal essence. She is immanent in the world, but transcends our realm to that of eternal spirit. She is the whole of the Universe, all the things seen and unseen, known and unknown. There is no knowledge or action that is apart from Her. She is the Great Serpent, forever twisting and coiling, shedding and renewing Herself. She engulfs and digests, gives birth and nurtures. She is the Mother of All, and the End of All.
As Her nature is one of inclusiveness and transformation, we partake of Her power by acknowledging Her importance in our lives, and by honouring Her. And as Her priestesses and priests on Earth, we too can perform the magick of engulfing, digesting, and bringing forth those things in need of rebirth. We perform this magick in Her name, to bring about peace, harmony, and greater love in this realm. We are not destroyers, but transformers, who change that which oppresses us into that which sets us free.
As eclectic witches, we can put the transformational magick of Tiamat into practice. We do not need to limit our ritual work to techniques, myths, and ideology from any one tradition, myth system, or culture, but can draw and adapt from any and all sources, as they are all ultimately aspects of Her, as expressions of devotion to the Divine. Arguments over specific names for deity, and whether a practice or technique is "pure", lose sight of this essential Oneness. However, as eclectic witches honouring Tiamat, we will usually find that practices will need to be modified slightly to be consistent with our personal belief structure or moral standards. There are no sources of material that are off-limits to us, but we do need to examine our sources critically, and perform our magick to consume, digest, and then bring forth the material in a way that makes it our own.
“Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, Who’s the fairest of them all?” - Snow White’s wicked stepmother
If you stand in a bathroom at night with a lit candle in your hand, look in the mirror and say “Bloody Mary” three times, you’ll see the ghost of a murdered woman behind you in the mirror. - urban legend
Honoring "She who is called among men Artemis, Astarte, Athene..."
It has been said by some Wiccan authors that mixing mythological pantheons is bad and should be avoided at all costs. The usual argument given for this admonishment is that each pantheon, indeed each deity, has very specific features and should be treated individually. To equate one goddess with a similar goddess from another pantheon is seen as disrespectful. Each deity, it is argued, deserves to be treated as an individual. Bringing together deities and elements of worship from different pantheons is confusing and results in muddled worship and ritual. (1)
This argument appears, at least on the surface, difficult to refute if we want to honor the deities as vibrant, powerful, and alive.
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