Yoga Wicca Buddha

Exploring a personal, eclectic path by looking at the intersection of three great traditions.

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Archer

Archer

 
Archer has been trying to make sense of religion since her parents first abandoned her at Sunday School in the 60s. She’s a mom, yoga teacher and repository of useless bits of information on ancient religion, spiritual practices and English grammar. Check out her column “Connections” in Witches and Pagans.
 

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My Pagan Saints

 

On Hallowe’en I carve a pumpkin and give out candy. That same night, the Pagan feast of Samhain, I honour my ancestors beyond the veil. The next day, All Hallows, I honour my favourite saints. 

 

Saints you ask? Oh yes. You can take the girl out of the church, but you can’t take the church out of the girl. So I have saints too, just Pagan ones.

 

But what is a Pagan saint?

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Great list! I love the quote by Symmachus, and the choices of Feynman and (the admittedly fictional character of) Spock a
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    I'm so excited to learn about Thomas Morton! Thank you as always for your kind words and knowledge-sharing.

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
How Deep Should You Dig?

“Now it seemed like everyone suffered from some trauma; they just didn’t know it yet.” (1) 

 

Trauma awareness does indeed seem to be everywhere these days, spurring the use of trigger warnings and encouraging the adoption of various practices, from analysis to hallucinogenic journeys, meant to help uncover and heal it.

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  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thanks as always Jamie! Very interesting about stoicism and Buddhism and Marcus Aurelius. (You know, whenever I look up Spock's ph
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Great article as always. Those spiritual exercises sound pretty intense, but I'm glad they helped you. Who among us [adul

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Magic of the Alphabet

Do you remember learning your letters as a child? When my kids were little we had an alphabet puzzle, very simple, where the letter shapes fit easily into their spaces. Playing with them as an adult I fell back into a sensory reverie—I loved the feel of them. They were fun to manipulate as objects, and the satisfaction of clicking them into place remained with me, bringing me back to a space of childhood sensitivity to the physical world. 

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, It's so cool that you're writing about this. Sometimes I also find myself staring at the letters in a word, just fascinat
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    That's really cool! I'll have to check that book out.

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Longing for the Apocalypse

 Way back in 1975, when I was 14, I’d already had two years of study with a Jehovah Witness friend. I was a bookish child, and her challenging of my beliefs led to my flirtation with the small colourful books full of Bible facts that the Witnesses used in their evangelizing. The lush illustrations and easy quizzes satisfied my curious, literal, pre-teen mind.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Oedipus Complex

I snap to attention as I approach the customs booth at the border. As I roll down the window and proffer my passport, the officer asks if I’ve “ever been inside.” It’s a nerve-wracking moment. “Inside?” as in jail? Finally I realize I’m being asked to pull over for a search. I’m so freaked out that I run up over the curb and strip a tire.

 

Basically, I turn into a puddle of worry when faced with any kind of official authority. I have this vague but powerful feeling that I am about to be found out and apprehended for some unknown, unintentional or overlooked shortcoming. And I don’t think I’m alone. Perhaps that’s why the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus is still so powerful. 

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  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Wow, that is some deep analysis! And I loved hearing about the cursed necklace and its modern analogy--full of relevance.
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Yeah, I occasionally read the Canadian papers online and stream CBC. I'd learned about the controversies surrounding the
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Jamie, your comment about the Oedipus movie is so relevant. At this time in Canada we are dealing with a terrible sin done in our
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Solid gold, and eternally relevant. Thank you. We can perform the purification rituals, we can remove the metaphysical

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Quantum Physics is Saving My Life

I’m stuck. Living in the Toronto Covid “hot spot” is in no way as exciting as it sounds. I’m 24/7 with someone I love dearly, but who perversely insists on being the exact same person day after day. We walk the same streets day after day (masked) and go over the same topics, day after day.

 

In other areas, I’m plagued by a sense of uselessness and impatience. My group endeavours require slow-moving consensus, all over the eyeball-dessicating Zoom. Every now and then there’s some drama that drags even this virtual action to a standstill.

 

I want something to happen! 

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  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thanks Jamie!
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Great article as always, and so true. The 'higher causes', as the Platonists called the realms of the Goddesses and Gods,
  • Meredith Everwhite
    Meredith Everwhite says #
    This was delightful and very refreshing, thank you! This is the kind of insight and thought process more modern pagans need to hav
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thanks so much Meredith.

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Tragedy, Magic and Grammar

The calls for magical intervention kept coming, interspersed with medical updates that were presented as progress, despite all evidence to the contrary. There’d been a tragic accident, and a young person was on life support, unresponsive. Emotional emails flew back and forth, many filled with hope and confidence in the power of magic and affirmation.

I participated at first. But when we were asked to use a spell formula affirming the miracle of a complete recovery, I stepped away. I worried that we were asking too much, that this person's nearest and dearest were going to be either devastated or exhausted by their hope against hope. Energy was being expended at a rate that would inevitably demand a crash. Perhaps even a soul was being held to earth when it was time for it to fly free.

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