Pagan Diversity

Ravenwood Church has announced that their founder, Lady Sintana, has passed away. Although her name may not be as familiar to readers as some other Pagan elders, Lady Sintana was instrumental in the movement towards getting Wicca recognized as a legitimate religion. She spent a number of years in court trying to get Ravenwood recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit church, and worked tirelessly to help bring about public acceptance of modern Pagan religions.

Born Candace Lehrman White in 1937, Lady Sintana started Ravenwood Church and Seminary of Wicca in the 1970s in Atlanta. As you can imagine, this wasn’t entirely an easy process. Nonetheless, her perseverance and tenacity allowed her — and Ravenwood — to flourish despite constant harassment. Her work years ago paved the way for many groups in today’s Atlanta Pagan community.

The Pagan community has lost yet another elder, and my condolences go out to Ravenwood and to Lady Sintana’s loved ones. May her crossing be a peaceful one.

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My parents have like, no extra money & I have NO Wiccan Supplies.
I was wondering if there’s different options that require little to no money.
P.S. I’m 17 and a beginning Eclectic Wiccan, not like that helps answer my question…
Haha.
:]
OhMGee, you people suck !
=O
OhMGee!
I can’t believe the responses I’m getting.
I DON’T BELIEVE IN CHRISTIANITY AND NOTHING YOU TELL ME WILL CHANGE THAT! SO STOP TELLING ME TO TURN TO GOD AND ALL THAT CRAP!
Yeah, idiot, I’m doing this to be cool!
Are you dumb?!
This is the path I feel was chosen for me.
It has NOTHING to do with being cool.
Half of my friends and family no NOTHING about this.
I haven’t came out of the ‘broom closet’ yet.
… OMG people are so dumb…!

I’m not Wiccan, but I am a poor college Pagan and have perfectly cool rituals using random things I keep in my home. For Beltaine, my friend and I just grabbed some ale, apples, honey, candles, incense and tiny candies and ended up with a full day ritual. Wicca is known for being highly ritualized, much like Catholicism, when it isn’t always necessary. I think generally the most important part of any religion is to acknowledge your deity/ies and to give them some sort of offering. Deities get that you may be terribly poor and generally appreciate that you took the time to do something for them.

If you’re REALLY big on supplies, you can get affect yet impoverish supplies scamming from your parents’ kitchen (a cup or fancier candle holder for a chalice, steak or butter knife for an athame, lighters/matches, herbs or kidnapping old flowers your dad got your mom and she threw out when they got old) outside (herbs, wands from twigs, stones etc), thrift stores, dollar stores, grocery stores and wal-mart (they actually have a lot of cheap incense and oils in their craft and home goods-candle section).

If you can afford a book, "The Urban Primitive" is a book that outlines what my friends and I call "Hobo Magik". It specifically cites ways that you can do pretty much anything you could ever want without spending a dime (for example, to get flower petals go a florist’s dumpster, using broken bottles and stones to represent the elements or protect your car with a dragon spirit) and if you do have a small bit of money, it gives cheap alternatives to a lot of expensive things. It’s definitely worth it if you want to use a lot of magik and spend as little as humanly possible.

I was wondering if people believe that spells and magic really work.

yes.

After nearly two decades of experience. I absolutely believe that spells/magic really work. Of course, it’s true that you need to be very careful to define your intent properly, or else it may work in an unexpected way.

It is also true that occasionally a spell will not work, generally due to one of a few reasons. (1)Inexperience on the part of the spell caster – improper direction of energy, poor job at defining intent, etc (2) The spell has been cast in an improper magickal environment. For example, you can likely hit a target with a ball from 10 feet away, however, hitting the same target in a blizzard reduces your chances significantly. The blizzard doesn’t mean it can’t be done, just that it’s not likely to be done in that environment. What do I mean by "improper magickal environment?" one that contains a good deal of energies that will work against you (such as detrimental astrological influences, activating a spell in an area with too much discordant energy around, etc)

Many Blessings,
Mercale