#YouTube Pagans

[ccthegoddessblog]

Rituals vs. Spell work: Understanding the Difference

When delving into the mystical realms of magick, it’s essential to grasp the distinctions between rituals and spell work. Let me illuminate these concepts:

Magical Practices (Spell work):

Definition: These are simple workings—everyday magics that don’t necessarily involve elaborate rituals.

Duration: They can take seconds to a couple of hours.

Intent: They have an intention, an end goal, and a magical act.

Examples: Taking a magical bath, divination (like tarot), reciting a spell, meditating, or lighting a candle.

Ritualistic Level: Not very ritualistic; no casting of circles or complex spells.

Rituals:

Definition: More elaborate magical works with structure and specific components.

Duration: Longer than practices due to their complexity.

Purpose: Assist in walking between worlds, raising significant energy.

Components: Often involve casting a circle, calling quarters/elements, and invoking spirits or deities.

Examples: Full moon rituals, spell bottles, transformative magics, protection spells.

Spells:

Definition: Spells consist of words or phrases with a specific intention.

Components: Usually involve words (or emojis) and focus on a desired outcome.

Purpose: To signify, relate, or talk—directing energy toward a goal.

[creature-wizard]

Important things to know about Wicca

Wicca is a 20th century religion influenced by the witch cult hypothesis, which is now discredited.

Not all witches are Wiccan, much less subscribe to models of divinity and magic popular within the Wiccan movement.

Even among witches who are Wiccans, beliefs are highly diverse.

Historical paganism and folk magic practices were very different from Wicca, which is very much a product of the 20th century culture it developed in.

Dr. Angela Puca has a short video explaining Wicca's origins here:

[martiverseart]

[Mohan Ghale's journal] One of the thing I liked the most about Far Cry 4 was the final plot twist, and boy oh boy how cool would it be if you could ACTUALLY decide to switch sides after the last quest. So, to quench my thirst, I decided to make an animation about it!

[nariarts]

Hey! Could you help my favourite band win an award?

This is North Atlas, and they're nominated for a Scottish Alternative Music Award. If you like them, please vote! If you don't like them, please vote anyway, I'm not above begging!

Voting closes on Wednesday evening so I'm praying this Blaze goes through fast!!

If you like alternative, metal, industrial, you might enjoy them. They're influenced by Nine Inch Nails, Biffy Clyro, and Bring Me The Horizon. Their music is focused on mental health, particularly anxiety and neurodivergence.

They're very pagan, and their imagery in videos, photos, and live shows is phenomenal.

Please vote!! And if you see this after voting is closed, please listen anyway! I love them and want more people to listen to them!

[cavorta]

"Witchy stuff I SUCK at! // #FailTales"

The Norse Witch has made a video on YouTube "Witchy stuff I SUCK at! // #FailTales" – link below - and invites witchy content creators or practitioners to talk about the witchcraft or pagan things they struggle with, on their social media. So here are the witchy things I struggle with, never have tried or have given up entirely: 🔴 I do not continuously celebrate the Wheel of the Year festivals. I have written a blog about this (link in the comment)

🔴 I cannot keep up with the Moon phases and I do not do anything special with them.

🔴 I suck at being a good plant parent. Never have been. Plants have come and gone, several have died in my care and recently I have given up on buying new ones. I am not much of a green witch.

🔴 I do not have the discipline, the motivation or the spoons to sit down daily (or even weekly) to do astral travels or meditation, getting into a trance or something similar.

🔴 I do not do Tarot spreads or Oracle card spreads often and I by far do not know all the meanings of the Tarot cards. Instead, I look them up.

🔴 I do not do all the exercises in all the witchcraft/pagan books that I own.

🔴 I do not work with astrology and crystals at all.

🟢All of that being said, I do have a daily practice, but it is very simple and quick to do - lighting three tea lights for three different causes, saying three prayers. When I am not at home, I do it in my mind, without the tea lights.

Links: The Norse Witch’s video:

My blog „Adapting the Wheel of the Year“ https://cavorta.substack.com/p/adapting-the-wheel-of-the-year

[coinandcandle]

CrashCourse on YouTube is doing a series on religion! This weeks episode is “what’s the difference between magic and religion?” I think if you’re looking for a basic understanding of religion and whatnot, this series will be helpful!

[xboobayaga]

Vígundr - Loki

[objectspod]

Surprise! We're on hiatus while Greg and Dana are on tour, but to give you some Haunted Objects Podcast in the meantime and to celebrate some news about "The Unbinding", our live special on The Curse of the Catskills Crone just dropped!

While hiking off the beaten path in New York's Catskill Mountains, two hikers stumbled upon a disturbing statue hidden inside a cave. Then, all hell broke loose.

To celebrate Tubi's free-to-watch debut of our scary-as-hell documentary "The Unbinding", join us for this special LIVE episode of The Haunted Objects Podcast! Featuring previously unreleased footage, interviews with the cast and crew, and more surprises, this episode is stuffed with exclusive insight into the making of Planet Weird's first feature-length film... and our most frightening paranormal investigation yet. Plus, the Brotherhood of Magicians returns with a limited edition merch drop set to disappear faster than you can say "abracadabra".

Time to lace up your hiking boots and prepare to suffer a witch, because we're heading into the mountains to break the curse of the Catskills Crone!

Watch "The Unbinding" for free on Tubi:

[ninevehsage]

New music from Finnish band NOIDUIN 💜💜💜

"Noiduin is a Finnish Dark Folk act hailing from Pori, located on the Western coast of Finland. Noiduin draws its inspiration from Finnish mythology and folklore, and the songs are often based on ancient Finnish spell poems."

[blackbacchus999]

Dionysos I God of the Festival

Absolutely Beautiful Documentary on Dionysus!

[elegantshapeshifter]

Steven Dillon's conversion to Christianity: what does it mean to Hellenism and Pagan Community?

Steven Dillon, the author of "The Case for Polytheism" and "Pagan Portals - Polytheism: A Platonic Approach", recently returned to Christianity.

This event made me think a lot. I think this event can teach us that the more you are concerned with "the One" and you think it can respond, the more likely you will go towards monotheism.

The point is that "the One" is us, and is "a thing", not "somebody".

The One is not a person. This is the reason why we worship the Gods, they are persons.

The One, the All, is so big that the idea that it can listen is nonsense.

Monotheism emerges when you think the entire universe can listen to you. Polytheism is the humbleness to understand that only certain parts of the Universe can listen to you.

And when you think you are talking to the One you are always actually talking to a part of it.

This is the reason why Christ, Yahweh, Allah, etc. are parts of the One and not the One.

Even attempts to interact with the entirety of the One are just interactions with parts of the One, ie one of the many Gods.

This is confirmed by Aleister Crowley's experience, we can read from the Liber Astarte Vel Berylli that he considered Allah, Christ and Yahweh as Parts or Aspects of the One, exactly as other Polytheistic Deities, and not as the All/the One in its entirety:

"Let the devotee consider well that […] Christ and Osiris be one […]".

"As for Deities with whose nature no Image is compatible, let them be worshipped in an empty shrine. Such are Brahma, and Allah. Also some postcaptivity conceptions of Jehovah".

"[…] the particular Deity be himself savage and relentless; as Jehovah or Kali."

-

Moreover, Dillon was (is?) Platonic, and the problem is even worse, because sadly the reaction to the problem of evil is very similar between Platonism and Christianity.

However, the Stoic (and maybe the Hindu and Buddhist) worldview completely destroys the problem of evil, because if the Divine is good and we simply don't perceive the goodness and that is what evil is, ie ignorance or misperception, then the problem of evil is solved.

If we, instead, perceive the evil as something real and the Gods as totally good not evil, the problem of evil remains.

-

Finally, a Pagan that comes back to Christianity usually doesn't know history very well, and is unaware of Natib Qadish, ie Modern Canaanite Religion or Neopaganism.

If you listen to Natib Qadish (ie Canaanite and Israelite Polytheistic Neopaganism) and Wathanism (Arabian pre-Islamic Polytheistic Neopaganism) practitioners' voices, you cannot come back to Christianity.

In fact, Christianity doesn't make any sense: Yahweh is a Storm God that comes from Edom to Israel through the Kenites or Shasu, which were nomads. His name meant "to blow", and so he was a variation of Baal Hadad.

In the origin, El was the father of Baal/Yahweh, and his sister was Anat and his mother Asherah. Later, El ie the Sky God and Yahweh ie the Storm God, merged and so Yahweh was seen as the husband of the Goddess Asherah.

In fact in Kuntillet Arjud it's possible to see blessings by "Yahweh and his Asherah". Moreover, even the Bible (read The Book of Judges) witness that people worshipped Asherah/Astarte and Baal together with YHWH.

In Elephantine in Egypt there was a Jewish temple for Yahu-Anat, ie both Anat and YHWH.

So how can Jesus be the son of the only God Yahweh if Yahweh was never a monotheistic God before the Josiah's reform that made Judaism monotheistic?

If Judaism is originally polytheistic then Christianity makes no sense.

By reading the "Cycle of Baal" we'll discover the origin of the Biblical Deity (or Deities?).

I end my dissertation with some interesting quotes from the Bible:

Jeremiah 7:

"17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven."

Jeremiah 44:

"17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

"19 The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”"

"25 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have done what you said you would do when you promised, ‘We will certainly carry out the vows we made to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.’"

[survivethejive]

Why did Celts of the British Isles build over 4000 hill forts during the Iron Age? The answer may have something to do with the conflict between those Bronze Age cowboys who maintained traditional pastoralist transhumance lifestyles, and those in the forts who depended more on arable farming. This can also explain why British Celts were the most lactose tolerant people on Earth at that time. In this documentary I visited Barbury Castle in Wiltshire, Castle an Dinas in Cornwall and several other magnificent Iron Age hill forts.

[tengritexas]

The Web of Life: The Way in Which Everything is Connected

Ill link a song here at the end for ya too :>

The web of life is an idea that originates from multiple practices in paganism. In Tengrism, the web of life believes all things are connected. By extent whatever you do to the web, you also do to you! (And vice versa)

There have been multiple theories about this web concept. Topics including "web collapse" in which the web destroys itself through things like mass extinction events. The topics and implications of the Web of Life are truly endless!

The key ideas for the web of life to keep it simple for ya are as follows:

-all life is connected to one another (snakes, grass, birds, ants people)

-there is no way to "seperate" yourself from this web only ways to minimize/maximize your effect on the web (for better or worse)

-However you affect the web, you affect yourself! (Vice versa aswell)

Heres a song from the shaman Snow Raven, who has a song on it :> see ya next time!

[smudgingpumpkins]

BELTANE

May Day / Fire Festival

When is Beltane?

It is celebrated on the first day of May, marking the near-beginning of summertime. May 1st is roughly the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.

What does Beltane mean?

"Beltane" can be inferred as the Gaelic word for "bright fire." It signifies that the days are growing longer and warmer, and welcomes fertility, life, and love. The veil between the human world and the spirit world has become thin, connecting us to fairies, nature spirits, and the dead.

Who does Beltane celebrate?

One may worship any fertility deity on Beltane, including Cernunnos, the Celtic God of vegetation, fauna, and fertility; Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers, fertility, and springtime; and Belenus, the Celtic God of the sun, fire, and healing.

----------

BELTANE TRADITIONS

Work with stones that activate the heart and spirit, including rhodonite, rhodochrosite, rose quartz, emerald, and jade.

Use fresh, sweet-smelling flowers and herbs like roses, dandelions, lavender, mugwort, woodruff, and spearmint, all in which promote solace, pain relief, self-love, and spiritual healing. Mugwort may be beneficial to relieving colic and pain during mensuration.

Prepare and consume meals with honey, mint, and lemon, each considered aphrodisiacs. This mix of sweet and refreshing marks the revival of flora and fauna in the warming months. These three ingredients are also relatively hardy and are available year-round, symbolizing vitality and spirit.

Decorate and adorn yourself with soft pinks, greens, whites, and yellows.

Incorporate animal imagery (e.g., figurines, photographs, drawings, et cetera) of birds, cattle, stags, and other creatures associated with crop, fertility and strength.

BELTANE ACTIVITIES

Create and/or wear a flower crown. Use seasonal flowers--especially white, yellow, and orange flowers to represent fire--and decorate your hair with them!

Take a ritual bath: add lavender, coarse salts, mint, and rose petals to your relaxing bath.

Light a fire. Safely light a bonfire and indulge as you would like: sit and chat by the fire, feast over it, or safely dance around it. You could also take a blank sheet a paper, write down one thing you would like to achieve in the year to come, and then toss it into the flames.

Dance around the Maypole. The maypole is a ceremonial folk dance performed to ensure fertility and union. People dance around a tall wooden maypole and weave colored ribbons by walking in a circle in opposite directions from each other.

Make a Beltane altar. In the center of the altar, add an image/icon of a fertility god(dess) of your choice, and decorate around it with seasonal flowers, bells, burning candles, soft colors, and sugar or honey.

Get creative with recipes! Carlota Santos, who is the author of Magika, recommends drinking freshly made lemonade and baking buttery sugar cookies!

Carlota Santos’ Beltane Cookie Recipe

[coldalbion]

You need to watch this talk if you're concerned/interested in what AI/ML does to, with and for us

Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of AI

Fantastic deep dive by an old friend of mine, formerly of these parts. It's not just about religion, but also the stories we tell, are being told, and tell us which give rise to the world we'r e in Right Damn Now, by a wonderful Black scholar. Do you want Nkisi, Solomon, talismans, the history of daemons, disabled folks and spaceflight, corporate technosocial theologies and ontologies in a so called "atheist" Sillicon Valley - overpolicing and military use of Machine-Learning-as-omniscient Gospel, Mary Shelley being smarter than most readers (historical or otherwise)?

It's all here, and a cool Q & A at the end, with juicy citations and jumping off points. Damien writes elsewhere: "Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" at the Pitts Theology Library at Emory University's Candler School of Theology - Emory University but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online!

This was such an amazing conversation, and the audience provided some really wonderful questions to think through and with. I'm so thankful to have gotten this opportunity and such a receptive and engaged audience for a topic I've always thought was crucial, and which I think will only be more important in the coming years:

Seriously engaging with tools and concepts from comparative religious studies, mythology, ritual studies, and the occult to help elucidate both major contextual cues about a LARGE swathe of past and present-day "AI" and tech culture, and also potential insights for how to both react to and shape those contexts.

I hope you enjoy it:"

Seriously, watch it.

[tears-of-amber]

Beltane Activities List:

(These are the things I’ll be doing on May 1st, these are simply ideas, obviously adapt them to your craft and belief system)

🌼Buy some fresh yellow flowers

🌼Play my Beltane playlist

🌼Research Fairies

🌼 Go Outside and meditate

🌼Wear Ribbons or flowers in my hair

🌼Light a candle

🌼Put a log on the fireplace

🌼Do some flower picking (With Jörd’s permission)

🌼Eat fresh fruit like strawberries

🌼Dance to music (like my playlist or this YouTube video that I link here) https://youtu.be/JjbV0wvGVDA

🌼Have my study ambience be the dead of night’s Beltane ambience altar (linked) https://youtu.be/Q18JUCVWOV8

🌼Take a ritual shower

🌼Do a meditation that is specifically for Beltane

🌼Do divination using a Beltane spread

🌼Display a Beltane vibes Oracle or tarot card on your altar

🌼Be childlike and enjoy everything!

🌼Work with stones like

-Carnelian for enjoyment & creativity

-Citrine for sunshine positivity

-Garnet for love and grounded abundance

-Staurolite for working with the faeries or Alfr as well as lucky attributes

-Unakite for connecting with nature spirits and the energy of spring

🌼Drink lemon water!

🌼Make art inspired by this pagan festival (draw faeries, flowers, bonfires, maypoles, etc)

🌼Have chamomile tea with honey before bed!

That’s it! 🌱🌼🌾🔥