The Pagan Community is one filled with diversity and individuality - characteristics we celebrate. Our religious beliefs are often quite disparate. Yet, although we walk different paths, we do so in harmony with one another. We connect - often deeply - on a spiritual level. And it is through our spirituality that we become more than just a community. We become a family.

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Discrimination
By Axiom

...Discrimination is such a pervasive element in our society. It has a natural place, there's no doubt of that. It helps us form bonds and community by creating a sense of belonging through our similarities. "We are the same", and of course the inference is "not like them". It helps create a competitive urge, and inspires people to change and seek out new ways.

Subtle discrimination is normal and healthy....
Extract from Myth, Magic and Madness

Alban Hefin
By Nokomis Dream

Mention the word "Druid", and people often conjure up some picture of a bearded, shrouded figure, more mysterious than can be described. I confess that all of my life, that's almost exactly what I pictured. A group of little people wearing hooded cloaks, dancing around a bonfire. Somewhat like Rumplestiltskin meets the Hobbit. Now, I don't say this to be cruel or funny- not at all. It is a serious description from an uninformed person. And we at The Pagan Heart are working towards acceptance and inclusion for peoples of all faiths and practices, right? So I bring you this month some of the Midsummer rituals of the Druids. Two of my very dear friends are practicing Druids, and I count myself blessed to know them.
Extract from Festivals and Holidays

Oppression
By Axiom

This has been an interesting couple of months. I am seeing more and articles about religious opression - the fundies calling out about how their rights are being ignored and their faith insulted; non-Christians screaming about discrimination by the fundies on every matter from here to the sun; and non-fundie Christians coming out to protest the lumping of themselves in with the fundies.

Everyone has a bone to pick. Everyone is suffering....
Extract from Crossroads of the Pagans

Artwork

Share your art - whether visual or written - with the community - guidelines can be found in the Submissions Guide

"One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings." ~ Franklin Thomas

Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice, along with its counterpart in winter, is one of the oldest continuously celebrated festivals. Many ancient monuments charting the course of the sun still stand testimony to our race's ongoing fascination with astronomy and the journey of various bodies across our skies. Paintings and rocks show the precision with which our primitive forebears marked time, the changing seasons, the path of the sun.
Extract from Festivals and Holidays

Midsummer Reflection
By Diancecht Goibniu

Midsummer, also known as Summer Solstice is my favorite sabbat. Not because it is a celebration of masculine energy, but because it is the time of year when I truly take notice of the amazing transformations my children have gone through over the past year.

My oldest daughter seems to have grown two feet over the past year. She is becoming quite the young lady, full of sassy attitude and an amazing compassion that has the ability to humble anyone. She's recently learned how to tie her own shoes and skip bars on the monkey bars, not to mention her ability to finally able to swing by herself on the swing - much to the delight of her mother and I....
Extract from Festivals and Holidays

Working with Energy
By Catherine M.

...A true healer acts as a conduit for energy, drawing it into his or her body and then releasing it into the patient. But many of those working as healers have never been formally trained, or studied, and instead of using the energy about them, they use their own, drawing upon reserves and ultimately leaving themselves drained. This not only exhausts the healer, it leaves him or her open to illness and to empathic drainage.

Empathic drainage happens when a healer connects with a patient, uses personal energy to heal, and then suffers a semi-permanent connection to the patient. Over time the patient continues to draw energy, and if left untreated, the link can become permanent....
Extract from Tools of the Trade

Whispers in the Dark
By Katya

After Catherine asked me if I would consider writing an article for the magazine about my experiences as a Dianic witch, I spent some time trying to decide if I wanted to (despite the tradition in Dianic worship of openness and confrontation, I am notoriously reticent about discussing my faith with people I don't know). And even if I decided that I would, what in Artemis's name would I talk about. Then I read a few editions and decided I might start here - in Whispers in the Dark. Very apropos for me....
Extract from Editorials

From the Desk of
Albineus Equinus

Solstice Joy to all our readers - those who celebrate it in some form or another. To the others, we hope you are having a wonderful summer and whatever you do observe, hope it is/was wonderful.

My family and I had a wonderful time - we celebrated our blessings. As a father, the summer solstice has special meaning to me. I belong to a path that venerates the masculine energy of the sun, viewing him as an All-Father, responsible for fertilising the Earth and warming Her so she can bring forth new life. To me, the summer solstice marks the peak of His power. He reigns in full glory, but facing the coming winter. This is not a cause of fear or resentment - for as with all things, life is cyclic. The Sun will return after the slumber time.

Like the God, I am celebrating my children, watching them grow, their bodies changing and reaching towards the sky like young trees. Their season is still newborn. Not mine. I am closer to my own midsummer than springtide these days. So I celebrate the solstice with a new understanding. The continuing cycle of life and all it means, including the passage of time. My wife glories in her role as Earth Mother in our home and I glory with her in my role as Sun Father. Our children celebrate it as another year closer to all the things they want to do - and Shelby and I mourn the loss of childhood while craving the coming years. It is so hard to live in the moment with children sometimes. A paradox I know since in the moment is often how the young exist.

And this is the other lesson I take from the solstice - it is the time of standing still and just being with my family.

In light and love,
Albi
Managing Editor
   

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