Archive for the ‘Christian Witch’ Category

This is probably one of the biggest controversies in Paganism and Christianity.
Can you be both a Christian and a Witch?? Yes! of course you can! Sheesh, there
really aren’t any rules out there saying what you can and can not believe!!!
Though there are plenty of people who would LIKE there to be rules about
spirituality and religion, the fact is, there isn’t!

So, the question remains, how can someone be a Christian Witch? Aren’t they two
diabolically different religions?

Of course this all depends on the person’s definition of each of these
religions. That should go without saying. But it should also go without saying
that religion and spirituality are totally private and individual! But that is
beside the point of this article.

What is a witch, pagan, Wiccan? There are more definitions of these words than
there are of Christians! But basically the tenets of Witchcraft, Paganism and
Wicca are the belief that everything in nature is Divine including ourselves.
There are those who believe in one God or Goddess, there are those who believe
in many, and there are those who believe in none (or that all Gods are really
one God). But there is no hard and fast rule about who, what, or how to believe
in Divinity, except that all things are a part of that Divinity. You’d think
that magic is another tenet, but it’s not really. Most Witches, Pagans and
Wiccans use magick as a way of communicating with the Divine, but certainly not
all of them do. That is a personal decision. Most pagans don’t believe in Satan,
and none worship him as their God! But this is also a personal choice, not a
rule. So basically this is what witchcraft, paganism and Wicca are… yes
there’s a lot more too them, but most of it depends on what tradition you belong
to, or what the individual believes.

So how does Christianity fit in with Witchcraft and Paganism? Doesn’t one of the
ten commandments say not to worship false gods or other gods? Well, first of
all, if you’re going to be a “Christian”, lets talk about the only “rule” that
matters in Christianity. Jesus and the blessing. To be a Christian, you have to
believe in Christ as the son of God (or *A* son of God, hehe). That belief, is
the blessing that gives you “ever lasting life”. Living by the law of the bible
doesn’t give it to you, because the Law is set up for you to LOSE!! “Those who
live by the law, will be judged by the law, and ALL WILL FALL SHORT”. Period,
end of discussion. Don’t try to be a “good Christian”, don’t worry about
sinning, cuz you really can’t stop sinning! (all of this according to the bible)
You’ve got this blessing, this special gift of belief and that’s the only thing
that matters. So does it matter if you disobey every single commandment?? Of
course not! Because you can’t expect to be alive and not sin! No this doesn’t
mean go out and be a horrible person, it means that you can’t expect yourself to
be perfect!! And if these laws are the only thing keeping you from committing
crimes, and from being a truly horrible and evil person, you’re not going to be
able to keep up the charade for very long anyway!

So, ok.. the two basics of the so called “opposing” beliefs are “All things in
nature are part of the Divine” and “Belief in Jesus as the Son of God”. hmmm…
they don’t seem so opposing anymore do they?? yes there is a lot more to these
two religions, but these are the basics of them.. the very foundations. I could
go on about the similarities between them, but I just wanted to state how they
are NOT contradictory in nature, and that it’s very easy to see how you can be
both a Christian and a Witch. I’ll probably write about more specific things in
another article. But I think this is a good start.

I was asked by someone, to answer the question “Why am I a Christian Witch?” My
first thought was that I am because it fits me. There’s really not much more to
explain than that. After all how do answer the question “Why is a rose a rose?”
You can’t, it just is!
 
But then I let it stew in the back of my mind. I realized that there is a lot
more to it than that. My beliefs aren’t just arbitrary beliefs that I just came
up with on a whim! The beliefs I have today are because of all the learning and
growing I’ve done my entire life. And they will continue to change as I learn
and grow in the coming years.
 
I was raised Christian, but with an extremely open minded ideology. My mother
taught me and my siblings to question everything, including the bible and her,
and figure things out for ourselves. When I was a teen ager, my mother, my
sister and I started learning more about Christianity and other religions and
beliefs.
 
I started reading about using crystals for meditation, and about past lives.
things started clicking and making sense to me. And all of it fit into
Christianity. I never believed in trying to be a perfect person.. I always knew
that you couldn’t fit that mold.. you could try, but being human meant NOT being
perfect. I believed in Jesus, and I knew that this was all that I needed to hold
onto, and I did.
 
So I started exploring more and more into “New Age” stuff. Reading everything I
could get my hands on, practicing the things I found. There was so much that
spoke to my heart and soul. I discovered some books on witchcraft. I devoured
every page. This touched my heart like nothing ever had!
 
Now I realize that everyone talks about how the bible says tons of things
against witchcraft. there are several ways to look at that. One main thing is to
recognize that not everything is supposed to be taken literally. So why start
with witchcraft when there are plenty of other things in the bible that are much
better to take literally. And really if you’re going to take one verse literally
then you have to take it all literally.
 
Another thing most people talk about is the whole commandment of “Do not worship
any other gods before me”. Ok.. first of all, right there God is saying there
ARE other gods!!! OK, so I do ALREADY believe that the Christian “God” is what I
call “The Universe” which is that higher being that has no limits and no gender
and is *ABOVE OTHER GODS*. So I am following that commandment.
 
No, the commandment does not say “do not worship any other Gods but me”, it says
“Before Me”. And THEN the commandments say do not worship “false” gods. Yeah,
that’s like money, drugs, sex, ect. Things that control you that shouldn’t have
control over you… even religion can do that! Which is why you should take
EVERYTHING in moderation!
 
Anyway, the more I learned about witchcraft the more I loved it and felt like I
was coming home to it. I never felt like witchcraft and Christianity were in
opposition. I felt like they combined beautifully, and I still feel that way. So
basically I’m right back where I began this little entry, I *am* a Christian
witch because that’s what fits me.

I changed my store page and added some widgets.  The store is through Amazon, which for now, is the easiest way to add books and other items to my site.  So I hope that you’ll visit it.

The first thing you’ll see, underneath the link to the main store page, is the specials that are available.  It’s four books that are on sale for around 35% off.  I don’t know if those are randomly seleted, so you’ll have to check it out often.

Under that little widget, you’ll see what I consider to be the “Best of the Law of Attraction” & “Books No Pagan Household Should Be Without”.  Most of these books are ones that I personally own and has guided me on my own personal journey.  Some are ones that I would like to own, but haven’t had a chance to purchase them yet, however I do know enough about each of the books to recommend them to you!

Lastly what you will see is a lovely slideshow of different products for your spiritual journey.  Jewelry, altar accessories, herbal products, and much more.  I’ve selected many things that I hope will inspire you and help you along your journey or at least will make your journey a little nicer.

Brightest Blessings

Christine

This is something that I often do around my house for protection, clearing, and cleansing.  I’ve used this visualization many times to keep negative thoughts out or get rid of them out of my household.  I’ve found that it helps to take some of the burden off of my shoulders when I”m concerned about the area I’m living as well.

Close your eyes and relax.  Breath deeply and consciously and take yourself into a mild meditative state.  Not too deeply as you need to be able to focus on the crystal walls.  But deeply enough that you’ll be able to stay focused on the task at hand despite outside disturbances.

Once you are relaxed and feel focused and ready, start concentrating on your house and your property lines.  If you’re in an apartment feel with your mind the outside walls, floor & ceiling of your apartment.  Stretch your consciousness out to those limits until you can feel them as if they are a part of your skin and body.

Now, slowly concentrate on one side of the limits.  Visualize a large crystal wall coming up from the ground, rising out of the ground, along side your property or apartment limits.  See how the wall shimmers in the light as it grows.  How thick is your wall?  As the walls continues to slowly grow higher, fill it with loving energy, saying to yourself “Let only good come within these walls”.

Once, the wall is as high as you’d like it to go, find the side of it with your mind.  Now start stretching the wall along side the next limits of your property or apartment. Pull the wall across the limit, filling it with positive energy and repeating the line “Let only good come within these walls”.

Keep stretching the walls around the property until you are now enclosed within these walls.  If you’re in a house, you may not feel the need to create a bottom or a top for your box.  If you’re in an apartment you probably will want to create a top and bottom.  Follow the same guidelines for these walls as you did the others.  If you’re in a house and want to create a top and bottom, be sure to stretch the bottom wall down into the core of mother earth so you do not loose connection with her.  The top should go as high up as you feel comfortable. 

Once you have finished creating all the walls you want, continue filling the walls with positive thoughts and vibrations.  Be sure to tell the walls that they are a filter for negative thoughts and actions.  They are to let out the negative thoughts, and let in any positive ones.  This will keep the negative thoughts from stagnating in your home.

You shouldn’t have to re-establish the walls unless something  happens to make you feel like they need to be redone.  However, when you are meditating, you should always infuse the walls with more positive thoughts and vibrations.  It often helps me to go to sleep, to lay in bed and concentrate on the walls and re-enforce them at night. 

If something happens to make you feel like there is a leak or breakage somewhere in the walls, you can fix it easily.   Just stretch your mind out to the walls, and slowly run your mind up, down and around the walls till you find the weak spot.  Fill that spot with loving vibrations until you feel the hole is complete again.

I hope this helps in some way to keep your home feeling healthy, safe and positive.  It helps my home  .

Christine

Parenting in this day and age is not an easy thing to do, add to that being a Pagan Parent and you’ve got a whole new challenge on your hands. As Pagan parents we are not only faced with the everyday challenges, but the worry of someone deciding that our religion isn’t “safe” for children and trying to take them away from us is a huge cloud over us. We not only have to decide how to raise our children in our religion, but how to keep them safe from those who would harm us because of our religion. It’s not an easy task and one that some Pagan parents have opted not to cover by keeping their religion hidden from their children. Though this is certainly an understandable path to take, it is a sad one indeed. Silver Ravenwolf put it best “What kind of religion are we practicing if we can’t share it with our children.” in this essay and speech, I hope to not only touch on why we should share our religion with our children, but ways to do just that. At the end of this essay I will give examples of a Ritual, craft projects, spells, & chants that you can do with your child as well as reference books and websites.

The biggest concern for most Pagan parents is someone finding out that we are pagans/witches and they will try to take our children away from us. This is the scariest thing in the world that could happen to a person. There are many ways that a parent can protect their family from this happening. The first thing that all Pagan parents should do is bookmark every Pagan site they can find on the web. There are many, and all of them have fought and won many a battle for pagan parents. Mostly they have contacts in every area that you can get a hold of if the need ever arises. If you happen to be in an area where you feel especially vulnerable to attack, locate your local Unitarian Universalist Church. Often they have a CUUPs (Coven of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) Chapter, and by belonging to a church of sorts, few people question your religion then.

What I have done in raising my two sons is talking with them. Just like with anything else that is inappropriate for public discussion, I’ve talked with them about how our religion and beliefs are to something we discuss when we’re in the store or restaurant or at someone else’s home. I’ve explained to them that not everyone understands other people’s religions and it can sometimes upset other people. I then explain to them, in appropriate ways for their ages, the different religions. I show them how we should tolerate differences, and accept other people, but also teach them that not everyone believes that this is the right way to treat other people. It’s not an easy subject, but they do understand, however you will have to remind them when it is and isn’t ok to discuss religion.

Some parents have decided to completely by pass this step by not sharing their religion at all with their children. Although I don’t agree with this, I do understand it. However, my belief is that if my religion isn’t good enough to share with my children, why am I in it myself? I know my children can understand that you can’t discuss everything you want, anywhere you want. And the more they understand about our religion, the more they will understand about others.

So how much do we share with our children of the craft? Do we let them practice magick? Go to rituals? What is there for children to do in what sometimes seems a very Adult religion? Yes, I share all of this with my children, depending of course on the nature and circumstances.

Rituals

I go to many public, semi-public and private rituals, as well as do my own at home. Depending on my level of participation, the type of ritual, and the level of child-friendly atmosphere of the ritual, I decide if I will bring my children or not. Some of the public rituals that I have attended are such that children would have a hard time understanding what is going on, might be disruptive, or could get scared or disturbed by the nature of the ritual. If there is going to be children activities I take my children, if not I leave them at home and we celebrate on our own. Some rituals are wonderful for children to attend and set up so that children will have as much fun as the adults. When I am going to have a main part in a ritual, I generally leave my children at home because my concentration needs to be on the ritual, not on how my children are acting for whoever is taking care of them. Rituals that I do at home are the same. I have created rituals that are just for my boys to do with me. I have created rituals with specific parts for my sons to do. I have also done rituals where I have had to be completely separated from the rest of the family so as not to be disturbed. This is usually much harder for me, because my sons like participating in my rituals at home and don’t want to leave me alone. So only when it’s absolutely necessary, do I exclude my sons from a ritual?

Spells and Magick

Spells and Magick are simply interactive prayers. I do allow my sons to work Magick with me and on their own. I have taught them the laws of Karma, the three fold law, and to harm none (which isn’t always easy for a 7 yo who is angry at his brother for not sharing a toy). I have also taught them that the power of their thought and energy is very strong and shouldn’t be used lightly. When I do Magick, that they can be involved in, I let them help me by putting their energy into the workings. I have given my sons herbs and tools to accomplish their own spells. Mostly their spells are simple, they want a particular toy, they want their brother to play nicely, and they want more time with mommy. When we do spells together for these goals, generally we just do a little meditation and focus our energy on the goal. Sometimes we gather the herbs and we burn them together.

Introducing the Gods to children isn’t as difficult to do as one would think. There are many movies and books out there that are useful to a Pagan parent. My youngest was introduced to the Egyptian God Anubis through the movie The Mummy. From the first day he saw that movie, even though Anubis was only mentioned briefly in it, my youngest son has been a devoted worshiper of Anubis. What I have done to encourage this is found every book I could on Anubis and the Egyptian pantheon. There are plenty out there for both children and adults. I’ve also searched plenty on the Internet, looking for as much information about Anubis as I could find. In the long run, mostly what have come in handy are my own gut feeling and my sons.

He has spent plenty of time talking with Anubis, and Anubis has done plenty for him. My son, one day, decided that Anubis was going to come and visit us that night. He was adamant about this fact. Said that Anubis would be stopping by at Midnight and that I was to awaken him as soon as Anubis got there. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t talk him out of this idea. I was not sure what would happen if Anubis didn’t show up. I settled myself down and meditated on what to do. Then an idea popped into my head that I should go to the store and look for a gift from Anubis and I did just that.

I went to Wal-Mart and started looking for something, anything that called out to me from Anubis. Suddenly I spotted a big black stuffed dog in the stuffed toy bin. It was on sale as well! This looked exactly like the type of dogs that are associated with Anubis. This was it! But, I knew I couldn’t go home with just one, so I started digging through the bin to find a second one, and came up with nothing. So I searched through the rest of the toy area, pleading with Anubis to send me something for my other son as well. I couldn’t go home with just one toy! Then, as if from heaven, there was the EXACT same dog just lying on a shelf in the middle of the department! I couldn’t believe it, no I could believe it, it was from Anubis himself. He had sent me to the store, he had given me the two dogs, and I knew that he was telling my son that he was with him.

When I got home, I wrote up a little note to my sons from Anubis, saying that he couldn’t stay, but he wanted them to know that he was there and protecting them and the dogs were a symbol of that protection. The next morning my sons woke up and were so excited that Anubis had been there and left them these two dogs to protect them. Anubis has done this many times for my youngest son, letting me and him know that he is with my son at all times. I make sure never to question my son when he says, “Anubis told me”, because I’m sure that Anubis did. The Gods will present themselves to you and your children when they are ready to, be open to what they have to say listen to your children and listen to your heart.

Creating a special Altar for your children can be a wonderful way to teach them about our religion. There are many ways to do this. One way is to take a box, you can either use a box already made or make one yourself with cardboard. Find material that your child likes to put on the sides and bottom of the box as an altar cloth. Either make it removable or permanent. You can also paint the box, both inside and out, instead of having material. Then you gather up things that your child identifies with the elements for the quarters, the god and goddess, and anything else that your child wants on the altar. Also come up with ideas for your ritual tools that are child-friendly. Instead of an athame, make your own wand by going on a nature walk and finding a branch from a tree that has fallen. Instead of candles get colored glow sticks or flash lights.

Whatever you decide to have in your Childs altar box, make sure they understand that these aren’t for playing with, but are for doing rituals and Magick only. Then the next time you do a ritual with them, have them get out their Altar box so that they can use their tools. Make it easily accessible to the child and make sure that you can change it for the seasons. Or instead of just one altar box, create several, one for general Magick, one for each of the Sabbats, one for Moon rituals. Be creative and let your child suggest, as much as they like, it is their altar box.

Another thing that most Pagan parents are concerned about is the socialization of our children. There are more and more children coming to open rituals, but is that enough? With the explosion of the Internet over the last several years, I have found many other pagan parents, and right in my own back yard. Many of which have regular gatherings. There is also a new and growing organization called The Spiral Scouts. This is an Earth-Based alternative to the Boy Scouts. This group not only gives our children ways to socialize with other Pagan kids, but also helps us parents teach our children about our religion! However, there aren’t many groups around the country, so you may have to start one yourself if this is something you’re interested in. They do everything that the Boy & Girl scouts do, but with a Pagan slant to it. However, if this idea doesn’t appeal to you, starting your own Pagan kids group isn’t hard. It takes a willingness to be organized, advertise and talk with other pagan parents.

Creating Rituals for kids is something that is rather new. More and more books are being written for the Pagan Parent, and they all have great ideas. To create your own kids ritual, take a look at your Childs interests. One parent I know created a ritual based totally on Poke’mon. That one show has taught the world’s children about the elements. But it’s not hard to find other cartoons, games, images that appeal to children to use for a ritual. Have fun with it and talk with your child about what they like, and if they’d have fun doing those things. Ideas that are always fun to use are water guns for cleansing with water, flash lights and glow sticks for fire, bubbles for air or water, playdoh for earth, and water balloons. Props in a children’s ritual is very important. Where we adults use props to get in touch with our inner child, props help to keep children focused in a ritual. Also, make sure there is something for each child to do, and depending on their age, try to stay away from anything that is long and boring. Meditations are not good to do in a children’s ritual, especially if the average age for the child is under 14. Instead u se music for energy raising. Have children dance around, sing, clap or bang on drums.

Above all else, keep things moving, fun and light hearted!