Think magic has to be hard? It requires no expensive tools or elaborate ritual. If you were here for yesterday’s Take 30 you know the drill.

The first step in more balanced and effective ritual or magic is tuning yourself to the greater, cosmic energies all around us.

One simple way to do this is to take 30 seconds each day to tap into the power of one of the eight directions at a certain time and ask for guidance. 30 seconds! What could be easier?

This short meditation and prayer practice can even be shared with non-pagans. It works regardless of belief system.

Tuesday morning, between 7 and 9 AM, face North East and take 30 focused seconds to connect with the energy of dissolving blocks in your life. That’s it!

Tuesday’s Forecast: All things must come to an end as nothing is permanent.

Today is the very last day of a 10-day cycle. Unfortunately, the feeling of being tied down and being caught up in the drama and the problems of others will be highlighted today. Today is a reflection of your experience of the last 10 days, illuminating what needs to be dissolved. The best way to navigate this Groundhog Day is to just slow down, observe and learn. Lay low and just let the world move along without trying to change anything. Remember to be patient with both yourself and others, as not everybody around you is aware of what is unfolding around them, so tempers could be frayed and unpredictable.

Pagans can be a notoriously credulous lot, but me, I don't come from believing people, and I'm not a believer myself. Among the things that I don't believe in (astrology, an afterlife, Christian charity...) are leys.

I simply don't see the point of believing in ley-lines that exist only in imagination when, in fact, virtually all of us are surrounded by real-world lines on the landscape.

They're called trackways, or greenways.

I live on one such myself. These days it's paved over and called Lake Street, South Minneapolis' major east-west artery. But originally, it was an old Indian track that led from the summer village at Bde Maká Ska—White Earth Lake—down to the Mississippi River. And back again, of course.

Pretty much everywhere has old trackways of this sort, contouring along the Land from one important place to another. Probably most of them were old animal trails first and became human trails later.

“Much has been written of travel, far less of the road.” So begins Edward Thomas' lyrical book The Icknield Way, his biography of the ancient greenway that runs NE-SW across England from Norfolk to Wiltshire. Named for the Iceni—Boudicca's people—the Icknield way leads Thomas on a lyrical journey through history, lore, and Land. First published in 1930, it has never since been out of print.

Think magic has to be hard? It requires no expensive tools or elaborate ritual setups. This short meditation and prayer practice can even be shared with non-pagans. It works regardless of belief system.

If you were here for yesterday’s Take 30 you know the drill. The first step in more balanced and effective ritual or magic is tuning yourself to the greater, cosmic energies all around us. One simple way to do this is to take 30 seconds each day to tap into the power of one of the eight directions at a certain time and ask for guidance.

30 seconds! What could be easier?

In the mail yesterday, my Covenant of the Goddess clergy credential renewal arrived, along with—I kid you not—my very own vial of Covenant of the Goddess lip balm.

Vanilla flavored, no less.

Well, I receive these gifts—as the ancestors used to say—with both hands, i.e. gratefully. Now I can continue to hatch, match, and legally dispatch in the eyes of the Great State of Minnesota, a Land where winter lip balm is pretty much a way of life.

Still.

In the old days, Christians used to fight (and sometimes kill) over whether the Spirit proceeded from the Father, or from the Father and the Son; or whether the Son was equal to, or lesser than, the Father. Substantive issues.

Now, of course, they fight about gay sex.

In the old days, witches used to make poisons, medicines, and flying ointment: pharmacopoeia.

Now we make lip balm.

I shake my head. Perhaps the days of the heroes and demigods are behind us. How are the mighty fallen.

Think magic has to be hard? It requires no expensive tools or elaborate ritual setups.

If you were here for yesterday’s Take 30 you know the drill. The first step in more balanced and effective ritual or magic is tuning yourself to the greater, cosmic energies all around us. One simple way to do this is to take 30 seconds each day to tap into the power of one of the eight directions at a certain time and ask for guidance.

30 seconds! What could be easier?

Sunday afternoon, between 1 and 3 PM, face North West and take 30 focused seconds to connect with the energy of self-awareness.

That’s it!

Sunday’s Forecast: Today’s energy cycles shine a brilliant light into ourselves and our relationships with other beings and the wider world. Our sub–consciousness thoughts project themselves onto others and society; for good or for ill, we then form our view of the world. What goes around comes around! We create and manifest what we think.

As the center of our own social group, we attract like-minded souls and we form circles of friendships around these thoughts. In order to really see what you think, have a good look at your circle of friends and influences. Do you like or dislike what you see?

This self-awareness (or lack of it) can be the starting point for undoing obstacles— or creating them. So let’s collectively unravel what’s holding us— and our societies— back. True humanity is filled with compassionate warmth, a love for all beings which attracts others, rather than a power dynamic. This is a good goal to aim for in all of your relationships, mundane as well as spiritual.

For help on this journey, connect to the energy of self-awareness by facing North West between 1 and 3PM. At this time, say a short prayer, mantra or set your intention to ask for guidance on how to improve your relationships and your life by discovering who you are and what you can change about yourself, first. You are the center of your own worldview. Be patient with whatever lessons or insights are reflected back to you today!

(Can’t find North West? Well, look up. The sun will be almost directly above your head, toward the southwest. Now, turn around and turn a little to your left. Or look a bit to the right of where the sun sets, about 1/8th of a turn on a circle. You’ll be roughly in the neighborhood.) If you can’t make the group time, just join in at the closest point that day before midnight.

Is there an anthem of the Pagan Revival?

Short answer: No, although it sure would be nice to have one.

Probably the closest we get to a New Pagan anthem is “Gwydion Pendderwen”'s 1981 We Won't Wait Any Longer:

We Won't Wait Any Longer

We won't wait any longer,

We are stronger than before;

We won't wait any longer,

We are stronger!

We have trusted no man's promise,

We have kept to just ourselves,

We have suffered from the lies

In all the books on all your shelves,

But our patience and endurance

Through the Burning Times til now

Have given us the strength to keep our vow.

Chorus

You have grazed away the heather,

You have razed the sacred grove,

You have driven native peoples

From the places that they love;

Though your greed has been unbounded,

You have felt the pangs of shame

Each time you trod upon the Mother's name.

Chorus

Though you thought you had destroyed

Each memory of the ancient ways,

Still the people light the balefire

Every year on Solstice day;

And on Beltane and at Samhain

You will find us on the hill,

Invoking once again the Triple Will!

Chorus

Through the ages many peoples

Have risen and have gone,

But dispersed among the nations

Of the world we linger on.

Now the time has come to take

The sacred Cauldron of Rebirth,

And fulfill our ancient pledges to the Earth!

Chorus

Kudos to Gwydion, who considered himself a Muse poet in the Gravesian tradition, for being the first to dream of a fine, rousing anthem for the New Old Religion(s). Alas that his aims generally outpaced his abilities.

As an anthem, We Won't Wait Any Longer hasn't aged well. The Pagan World has marched on in the last few decades, and the song's specifically Wiccan imagery reads more exclusively now than it did then.

Likewise, while fully endorsing the song's sentiments, I've always felt that it was weakened by the fact that it specifically addresses itself to...whom? Christianity? The Church? The non-pagan world in general? In any event, to them: the bad guys of our story.

To this, my attitude is: Why make our enemies the center of our discourse? F**k 'em! Let's direct our anthem to ourselves, or to our gods.

Well, there's no reason why, as New Pagans, we need an anthem, or—in what is, after all, the Wonderful World of the Many—anthems. Perhaps some day someone will write one that we can all get behind.

Until such a time (if any), my own nomination for New Pagan Anthem goes to Daniel Pemberton's We Shall Go Home/Song of Exile*, from the 2004 film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Think magic has to be hard? It requires no expensive tools or elaborate ritual setups.

If you were here for Friday’s Take 30 you know the drill. The first step for balanced and effective magic or ritual is tuning yourself to the greater, cosmic, divine energies all around us. One simple way to do this is to take 30 seconds each day to tap into the power of one of the eight directions at a certain time and ask for guidance. 30 seconds! What could be easier?

Saturday morning, between 9 and 11 AM, face North West and take 30 focused seconds to connect with the energy of expansion. That’s it!