Tag Archives: pentacle

Setting Up An Altar

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One common question newer Wiccans have is about altars. Many of them want to create an altar, but don’t know where to start. Some traditions have specific ways of doing things. If that’s the case, do what your tradition requires. If not, the easiest thing to do is find something representing each of the elements.

Place a symbol of each element with the direction associated with each element. You may need a compass for this. This can be done cheaply or you can spend a lot of money. Here are some ideas for altars:

  • A candle for each element, in each color of the element.
  • Something simple for each element: a stone for earth, a feather for air, matches for fire, and a cup for water.
  • Salt in a bowl for earth, incense for air, a candle for fire, a bowl of water for water.
  • A pentacle for earth, a wand for air, an athame for fire, and a cauldron for water (see ritual tools).
  • You could have come a written symbol of each element.
  • You can put a corner shelf in each corner of the house or a room, one for each element.

If you have them, you can also honor deities on your altar. They typically go in the center of an altar. Some traditions state whether the Goddess or the God is on the left or on the right side of the altar.

  • You can find a mini statue of your deity.
  • Find what color is associated with your deity and place a candle of that color there.
  • Find what stone is associated with your deity and place it there
  • Find a drawing of your deity.
  • Create a representation of your deity, whether drawn, carved, or molded.
  • Find another symbol of your deity and place it there (a cat for Bast, a Thor’s hammer, etc.).
  • You can also create a separate altar for each deity.

There are other items you can include on an altar.

  • An altar cloth can help set the tone and keep your table or shelf protected from incense, candle wax, etc.
  • A bell. They are sometimes used during rituals.
  • Offerings to God’s or Goddesses.
  • Something that needs to be charged energetically.
  • Essential oils.
  • Plants.
  • Ritual jewelry.
  • In-progress spells and energy-work.
  • Decorations for the upcoming Sabbat or Esbat.
  • Anything else that you think helps you spiritually.
My personal altar is made from a repurposed TV stand

To Those Who Discriminate Against Pagans

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Dear Discriminator:
If you ever dropped a friendship because you found out your friend was Pagan, if you ever fired someone (or encouraged someone else to fire someone) because they wore a pentacle to work, if you ever told your kid not to play with someone because your family were witches, if you ever yelled at a stranger for worshipping the devil because they had a “my other car is a broomstick” sticker on their car, if you every called someone a witch, this letter is for you.

I don’t know what it is that you believe and I don’t care, because it is my opinion that religion does not make a person a good person. That seems to be where my beliefs differ from yours. Many folks seem to believe that your religion makes you a good person and if you are in the wrong religion, you are a bad person. That, and I expect that you don’t know or understand anything about Paganism. You probably just heard “pagan” as a bad word priests and pastors tend to use for non-believers. You probably heard the section of the bible that reads “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. So all you knew from this was that Pagans and witches were bad. They were people to avoid.

Most Pagans are not like you. They just want to worship how they want to worship and be left alone about it. They don’t want to convert you. They aren’t interested in anything other than acceptance. Unfortunately, acceptance is difficult to come by. There are so many Pagans, myself included, who have to hide what we are from the world because we are afraid of some very real repercussions. I have been fired twice for being Pagan. I know parents who have had their kids dropped by friends whose parents don’t want them playing with a Pagan. I have had strangers see my pentacle and yell at me for being a devil worshipper (back when I used to wear it in public). I just want to be myself and be left in peace. I don’t know why, but that doesn’t seem to be possible for people like me.

Pagans, in general, believe in multiple deities and are nature worshippers. The deities vary from one generic Goddess and one generic God to all of the gods from a pantheon (such as Greek, Norse, Celtic, Egyptian, etc.) Is that really that scary? Sure, some cast spells, but it’s really just focused prayer. We can’t turn people into toads. We just feel like a prayer is more likely to manifest if we do it with candles, incense, and crystals.

Pagans, in general, arrange their own worship. We are our own priests and priestesses. We don’t have churches and prefer to be out in nature. We are really very harmless. Most believe in the rule of three (everything you do comes back to you times three), similar to the Golden Rule (do unto others what you would like others to do unto you).

A lot of modern holidays were based on Pagan ones. Halloween was based off of Samhain, the Pagan celebration of the dead. At Christmas the wreaths, decorated tree, the jingle bells, the candles, and the gift-giving came from a number of Pagan holidays from Yule to Saternalia. Easter egg dying and chicks and bunnies came from Pagan holidays welcoming the spring. Sure, most modern Pagans have a few other holidays that also focus on the seasons of the year, but our holidays focus on what is going in nature at the time. Many also follow the moons and celebrate either the full or new moon.

So in conclusion, Pagans aren’t people to be feared, we are pretty harmless, we just want to be accepted. For those of you who have a faith, please do what your faith would consider to be right. If Jesus could accept and hang out with prostitutes, you can accept and hang out with Pagans.

If you have any questions about a Pagan in your life, please ask them rather than shun them.

Brightest Blessings,
Autumn Stoneflower

Freedom of Religion?

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I’m going to start this post by stating that I live in the U.S.A..  This is relevant because here we supposedly have freedom of religion.  Basically, The First Amendment to the “United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws which respect an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion….”  There is also a clause preventing workplaces from discriminating on a number of factors, one being religion.  The exception is if the employer is a religious institution. 

Just because the laws say there shouldn’t be any discrimination against religions, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.  It just means that employers can’t mention your religion when they fire you for it.  I’m pretty sure I have been fired for my religion at least twice in my life.  It could have been more than that, but when I get fired because I’m “not a good fit” with a school district, yet they kept a teacher who literally held a student forcibly against a wall and lied about his knowledge of the subject matter he was supposed to be teaching, it’s pretty clear there was something off about their explanation of my firing. 

Why is this coming up now?  I was chatting with my husband the other day.  He couldn’t understand why I enjoyed watching The Good Witch.  I explained that not only is it the most accurate portrayal of Paganism that I’ve seen on TV, but also that I have a dream of one day of moving somewhere and finally being accepted for who I really am, Paganism and all.  My husband flat out told me that it would never happen.  I held back my tears and told him I needed time to myself.  He assumed it was for another reason and I let him.  When I got there, I cried.  I cried for all of the times that I have had to move.  I cried because he had almost dashed my hopes that it was possible to be accepted in a small town for being Pagan. 

While I have gotten good at hiding it from my employers over the past 5 years or so, my son will be starting pre-K in the district I work in before I get tenure.  I had a choice.  I could hide my religion from my son or I can live my truth at home and hope that when the time comes, I will have been there long enough that they will overlook it.  I refuse to hide who I am from my son, so that’s the option I’m going for right now. 

Having to hide who I am in order to get (and keep) a teaching job really hurts.  It’s not like I would ever teach my students about my religion.  I just want to be able to wear a pentacle to work without worrying about being fired.  I want to be able to take my holidays off of work without fearing that I will lose my family’s sole source of income. 

It really pisses me off when I see some of my Christian friends complain that there is a “war on Christmas” because people say “Happy Holidays”.  Really!?  Christmas is a national fucking holiday!  Or when they complain that they’re being discriminated against because they can’t pray in schools.  Uh, actually, the students can.  They just can’t have it be led or required in any way by the school or any adult.  Not to mention if I had a dollar for the number of times someone on the Pagan Parenting group that I’m part of complained about the promotion of religion by someone at their school, I would be rich. 

I’m just sick of feeling like this.  I’m sick of hiding who I am.  I’m sick of worrying about losing my job if I do anything to even hint at being Pagan.  The gays had their chance at rights.  They’re working on transgender rights now.  I just wish there was something that I could do.  But there’s already a law that’s supposedly protecting me.  It just doesn’t.  Please comment and tell me that there’s hope.  I want to know that there are some open Pagans out there — preferably in small towns and teaching positions, that are actually accepted for who they are. 

What is Paganism?

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The root of the word “pagan” originally meant to live in the countryside.  Many years ago, when Catholicism was spreading throughout the cities of Europe, those that lived in the countryside still worshiped the “old Gods” because Christianity hadn’t yet spread to the more rural areas yet. 

Today, Paganism is basically the revival of the worship of the old Gods and the traditions that came with them.  However, Paganism is often a modern take on old religions.  While it may have some similarities to some of those old religions, they rarely look to recreate exactly how worship was done originally.  Different traditions may have specific ways of doing things (such as Gardnerian Wicca), but most of their traditions aren’t much more than a century old. 

Because there are so many sects and traditions of Paganism, the only things they really have in common is that they are polytheistic and worship nature.  There are also eclectic Pagans that take what they want from whatever religions they want and call it their own.  I consider myself an eclectic Pagan, but I mostly practice Wicca these days.

The pentacle is often used as a symbol of Pagans.  Contrary to popular opinion and various horror movies, this symbol is not Satanic in nature, not even when it’s upside-down.  In fact, the majority of Pagans don’t believe in Satan, similar to the way that the majority of Christians don’t believe in Thor (as a God, not as a Marvel character).  The points of the pentacle symbolize the five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit.  The circle represents many different things to different traditions. Two examples are the Wheel of the Year (the fact that the seasons are cyclical) and the Circle that is often created in which  rituals are to be performed.

Many people wonder what sort of moral code of ethics Pagans follow.  I’ve heard someone ask, “Without a Bible or Commandments to follow, how do you know how to be a good person?”  The answer is we don’t need those things for us to be good people.  We don’t need the guilt of sin or the fear of the afterlife to make us into good people.  Most of us (as people, not as Pagans) already know what is right and wrong without a written doctrine.  However, there is a general precept that whatever you do comes back to you times three.  I have an amendment to that notion.  Whatever you do comes back to you as many times as you need to learn your lesson.  Wicca also has the Wiccan Rede which reads, “Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: ‘And harm ye none, do what ye will.'”

Some Pagans believe in reincarnation and others don’t.  There are many Pagan explanations of where we go when we die.  Some believe that we go to the astral plane where our afterlife is what we make of it.  Others believe we get sent back again to live other lives.  The Rainbow Bridge that seems to be a common idea recently for explaining where pets go when they die actually has Pagan roots. 

Ritual Tools

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One thing that I find is that the more experienced I get, the less ritual tools I need.  I will list some of the more commonly used ritual tools in Wicca and their uses.  Also, all tools should be consecrated (cleansed).  Usually this is done by the four elements (passing it through incense, passing it through flame, sprinkling water on it, and sprinkling salt or earth on it). 

This is actually the one I have on my altar

Athame – Pronounced “ah – thah – meh” , this a ritual knife.  Different traditions have different ideas about what this should look like.  Some state what color the handle must be, what it is made of, or whether or not the blade should be double-edged.  It is associated with the element of fire but some traditions believe it is associated with the element of air. It is often used for channeling and directing energy, cutting things for ritual purposes, and sometimes for casting a circle or calling the elements. 

Wand – This is probably the most famous ritual tool and appears in many movies about witches and wizards.  However, magic doesn’t happen like that in real life.  The wand has little to no power of its own.  Like the athame, it is a channel for energy and is also used to direct it.  Unlike the athame, it’s usually made out of wood and is associated with the element of air but some traditions associate it with the element of fire.  There are many traditions that state how long a wand should be or what should or shouldn’t be added to the wood.  It is usually used for casting a circle.

Chalice- This usually represents the element of water.  It can be used to share ritual drinks.  It can also hold liquids that are used as an offering on an altar.  It can represent a womb or a vagina in various workings as well.

Pentacle – This usually represents the element of earth.  It can be made of ceramic, wood, or metal depending on your preferences or that of your tradition.  A pentacle has the symbol of a five pointed star surrounded by a circle.  Contrary to popular belief, it does not have to be ‘point up’ or ‘point down’.  I haven’t seen it used often in rituals and believe that its primary purpose is to help provide grounding and to be a symbol of spirituality.  Sometimes it is kept in the middle of the altar as well.

Incense – Incense varies based on the herbs and the scents.  While it is considered an air element, the uses vary based on what type of incense you are using.  For example, sage is usually used for cleansing and purification. 

Candle – Candles usually represent the element of fire, but their uses can vary depending on their color.  For example, they can be used to represent the four elements if you choose candles with colors representing each element.  They can also represent a God or Goddess.  They can be inscribed with symbols, herbs, or oils for a purpose and burned to achieve that purpose.

Cauldron – These are also often associated with witches.  Cauldrons can be used similar to a chalice to represent a womb. They are associated with the element of water. They can also be used to combine herbs or “potions”.  Mostly, I have seen them used to burn pieces of paper with words written on them.

Salt – Salt is sometimes left as an offering in a dish or used as a cleansing/purifying agent.

Crystals and gemstones- Crystals are often chosen for a purpose (for example amethyst is used to promote the psychic abilities).  Gemstones all have different uses and affiliations, similar to incense.  Clear quartz can be imbibed with power and used for a specific purpose.  They can also be used to represent the different elements or a specific deity.