Woman stabs foot during ritual

I just read a news article about a woman stabbing her foot with a sword during a Wiccan Ceremony. You can read the article here.

Woman runs sword into foot...

What I don't understand is why do this ritual in a cemetery? Even though the article doesn't bash Wicca, the fact that they were performing the ritual in a cemetery could feasibly lead to more misinformation about Wiccans. I can hear it now, "Wiccans must be evil, they perform their ceremonies in cemeteries. They must be doing black magic", etc.

Of course, I could be wrong and nothing will come of this.

Pagan Bashing

I am appalled that NBC has allowed one of it's commentators to get away with her pagan bashing comment on the Today Show. Is religious intolerance now acceptable on national television?
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25368216#25368216

Pagans are not bad nasty people. We are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We are your co-worker. We donate to charity, we help our neighbor. We are out there and except for those few that are in it for the shock factor, you can not tell us from anyone else. We care about the earth, we care about what is going on in our society and the world. We love our families and our friends. We work, we laugh, we play, we cry. In short, pagans are no different from any one else.

If you feel that religious intolerance has no place on a national T.V. show I urge you to sign the petition that you will find HERE

Or you can send an email to the commentator HERE

No matter what your religion is no one should have the right to bash it. After all religion and spirituality are a personal choice.

The pagan within

If you saw me on the street you would have no idea that I'm pagan. I don't wear a pentacle. I certainly don't dress all in black with black lipstick and finger nail polish, in fact I don't wear any makeup, I have never felt the need to. I am very put off by the kids that dress in goth like style and claim to be pagan. It seems to me that for them the claim is just for the shock factor. Of course I could be wrong about that, but that is the impression I have gotten from the few that I have met.

I know several pagans both in person and online that are like me and dress like normal people. They aren't out to shock people.

I am not Wiccan. I do not necessarily celebrate the Wiccan Sabbats. I have never understood why the equinoxes and solstices are considered minor Sabbats, they affect me much more than the Major Sabbats do.

I quietly go about my life following my own spirituality. I say spirituality not religion because I don't consider it to be a religion. It is my way of life, whether I am doing magic (yes I left off the 'k') or at work, painting, fishing, cooking or praying. I am a pagan every hour of every day.

If one were to ask me what makes me pagan I would have to say I believe in both a God and Goddess. I belive in reincarnation, I believe that there are ethereal beings out there that can help us or hinder us, and it is up to the individual to either accept the help from the helpful entities or remove the hindering entities. I believe that I make my own reality, sometimes I just don't know why I make the reality that I am living.

There are probably more reasons why I consider myself pagan, but at the moment I can't come up with them and I think I have listed enough.

Just remember that you can't know someone just by looking at them.

Taking My Power Back

Lately it seems like everything I try to do ends up not working and when I think things are getting better I get kicked in the teeth.

I got to the point were I was feeling defeated. I just didn't know how much it showed until last night at work when two different people asked if I was okay, because; one said I was too quiet (which I don't get, because I am usually quiet any way) and the other said I wasn't my usual bubbly self (funny, I don't consider myself bubbly).

So, today I said okay, I have been feeling defeated lately, but I have to remember that I can make things happen for me and not let them happen to me.

I have been wanting to move up to Support Manager for over a year. Tonight a co-worker and I went to the Store Manager and told him that we would both like to learn and be licensed for the fork lift and the scissor lift, and I told him that I wanted to learn anything that would help me to be able to move up. I'm glad I did, the night manager will be teaching me and Melissa the things that we want to learn and need to know. She said any night after the 10:00 meeting to bring her a list of what we are interested in learning and she'll make sure that we get the training. So there, I am taking my power back, and I am not feeling so defeated right now.