Who I Am

Aunt Bunny

If you're going to take my advice on books, you might want to know a little bit about me and my beliefs. So:

• I consider myself a pagan.
• I don't belong to a trad. I didn't get initiated by someone else. I don't follow any particular relgious historical tradition.
• My beliefs are vaguely Wiccan, vaguely Native American, vaguely earth religion.
• I believe in a Deity immanent in all things, which manifests as something bigger than the created universe.
• I believe that that Deity manifests itself in many ways to many people.
• I believe that that Deity manifests itself to me as Female (Goddess) and Male (God). Because It/They are the creators of the universe, I refer to Them as Mom and Dad as well as Lord and Lady and God and Goddess.
• I believe that They also manifest in less all-encompassing forms, such as Grandmother Moon and Grandfather Sun.
• I believe that They care about what happens to humans, and that They love us, having birthed/created/imagined us.
  (God/ess split Him/Herself into many parts that S/He might have friends.)
• I believe that we create evil as well as good in the world, and that evil and good are meaningful concepts.
• I believe that we have the choice to choose to increase the goodness in the world, or decrease it, and They will help us if we ask.
• I believe that Life is sacred, and all living things are sacred.
• I believe in the cycle of life; I eat meat and plants with reverence, and wear cloth and leather with respect.
• I follow the Wiccan calendar, I celebrate god/esses and hero/ines on days sacred to them.
• I mix and match gods and goddesses to my purposes, seeing all of them as facets of the Immanence, but being very careful to be aware of their essential personal natures.
• I follow what I can learn of old earth practices.
• I cast spells and make prayers, to connect me with the Immanence and to change myself and my world. I do drawing down the moon on the full moons. I practice ritual, but not ceremonial magick.
• I learn what I can of other's beliefs, but my time is limited. I try to study, but I have started studying what other pagans believe.
• I am self-initiated, and I teach others what I know and believe and have learned, in the spirit of sharing (or so I hope), not proselytizing.
• I use herbs (magickally, aromatically, and medicinally), stones, totems, and other folk magic, both European and native american, to help myself and others.
• I maintain a healthy skepticism, about all these things, and try to avoid excessively new-age or cutesy things (aka wiftyfarkle stuff).

If my tradition had a name, I would call it Farmwife white witchcraft. It leans heavily on the traditions of the 'white witch' of Christian times, who used her charms, amulets, and medicinal herbs to help her neighbors. I am not ashamed of being white or European, and I have no great prejudice against Christianity, though I no longer belong to it. I am 'folk as live in Housen', farm stock, and I feel a special connection to agriculture, though I enjoy the wild as well. I am especially influenced by the cults of the Earth Mother(s): Demeter, Ceres, Moist Mother Earth, the Corn Mother, etc.