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

....Paganlite. Apt description I think. Lite being the commercially acceptable term to use for products that aren't "really" light in fat or sugar or whatever - thus the use of lite rather than light - but want to seem so. Reminds me of quite a number of the Pagans I meet these days.

Some fall under the Fluffy Bunny umbrella, but not all. I am bumping into more and more people who've put a bit of effort into learning their chosen brand of Paganism. They walk the walk, talk the talk, and chant the chant. They know their marjoram from their marigolds, their Wicca from their Picts. And yet something isn't right....
Extract from Myth, Magic and Madness

Being a Kitchen Witch
By Christine

The idea of being a Kitchen Witch enthralls me but I never quite manage to do it. Most the time I'm too busy to remember to "focus my thoughts" as I stir the pasta sauce, or I feel so silly reciting some charm over the dough I'm kneading for dinner rolls. But there is one area in which my inner witch comes to the fore and that is in the arena of passion.

I don't know if it's the ancient association of food with love and lust or what. But when it comes to cooking and naughty thoughts I am so there. And, if I do say so myself, I am very good (or should that be wicked?) at it. Many a passionate night has begun innocently enough at the table....
Extract from Kitchen Witchery

Greek Harvest Time
By Iphegenia

It is important to remember the power that is Demeter - she stopped the sun. She is an awful goddess to be feared as well as loved. A part of this day is celebrating the power and wildness that is Demeter. She reminds us that being female is an awe-inspiring thing. We are strong and fierce as well as loving and kind. We do not give up ourselves in marriage or motherhood but add to who we are. The bonds of mother and daughter should never be forgotten or dishonored....
Extract from Festivals and Holidays

...Aside from the spiritual and emotional value of this festival, it is also a time of thanks - the second harvest is in, we have gathered more of the earth's bounty and are building our supplies to last through the dark winter months of cold and need. We offer thanks to the Earth Goddess, make offerings to her and her consort, and celebrate her bounty....
Extract from Festivals and Holidays

Botanical Gardens
   

Whispers in the Dark
By Kim Nielson

When I started walking my path I had reservations about making it widely known considering the environment that I live in, and my desire to not be confused with the freaks and weirdoes that you find in Paganism. I wasn't one of them, I was just me, working to support my family, going about my daily life trying to be the best person I possibly could be and I didn't think my spirituality was anyone else's business really....
Extract from Editorials

Fluffy Bunnies - Good or Bad?
By Axiom

....The worst example of this I came across was a man wanting to create some herbal lotions for sale at his craft stall. He wanted to create a magical and relaxing blend...primary ingredient being Hemlock. Not only did he have no herbal training - the full extent being that he bought oils in the supermarket he liked, mixed them together and added them to baby lotion - he wasn't interested in getting any. He just wanted a list of ingredients that would help create a "relaxing" blend and they needed to go well with Hemlock because he wanted to use it. He'd read somewhere it was a powerful magical herb....
Extract from Crossroads of the Pagans

Empty Handed
By NiteSage

This is a short list of the tools I own; Athame, sword, altar, chalice, tarot cards, crystal ball, runes, pendulums, smudge sticks, dream catchers, candles, incense, crystals, semi precious stones, jewelry, pentacles, charms, wands, staffs, statues, and a broom. I also have the tools for my tools; incense burners, candle holders, snuffer, mortar and pestle, a compass, bags, jars, boxes, sheaths, scarves, etcetera, as well as miscellaneous spell components of every kind imaginable....
Extract from Tools of the Trade

Artwork

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From the Desk of
Albineus Equinus

Welcome to another issue - the Equinox edition. The issue about balance.

It's interesting how life works - sitting here pondering the theme of this issue, and the spiritual aspects of this festival as I decide what to write, I notice some of the submitted material. A memory of coming out as a Pagan, the offerings of a Warrior as he walks his difficult path, discussions on life and death. Balance making itself evident in what has trickled into the magazine this month. Even the simple increase in male writers.

Then I look outside this tiny sphere. Beyond the magazine to the world and what I see is imbalance. The hurricane in the States, the war in Iraq, the bombing in Britain, the deaths in so many places. Where is the balance here? Where is the joy to offset the pain?

I have been pondering this for some time and I came to the conclusion that the balance is there, right before us. I just didn't see it before. Balance surrounds us at all times, even when it seems we are most out of synch - how often is our imbalance made psychologically worse by seeing someone else's good fortune? Or our celebration marred by the knowledge someone else lost out? Unconcerned with our feelings, nature corrects the scales anyway that works.

And that's what I have come to see in all this. Nature doesn't care about human emotion since emotion is not a part of nature's scale. Life and death. Full and empty. Hot and cold. These are the things nature concerns herself with. We live in a world filled with imbalance of a human nature - overpopulated and stretched thin, we force nature to conform to our distorted view of what is right. But nature is an inexorable force that will not be dammed, or deflected, or halted, or permanently forced out of her path.

I had forgotten the truth of existence - that night is mated to day, death to life, evil to good. Without one there cannot be the other. Our world is filled with so much human life that an accounting has to be made. And so we are seeing it.

Balance - in its joy and its sorrow - is inescapable.

May the gods bless those who have died over the last year, comfort those left in sorrow and pain, and help us find our way back to balance.

In light and love,
Albi
Managing Editor
   

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