In this Circle, Rightly Cast....

I've got a lot of Witchy Stuff. There's no denying it. In 25 years of practicing the Craft, I'm accumulated a fair bit of Witch Kitsch, Altar supplies, Sacred Tools, and SpellBits and Pieces. They have been purchased, gifted, made, acquired, inherited, and found.

They range from blown-glass chalices to pine cones, handpainted crystal inlaid wands to feathers, porcelain witch statues to a cast iron athame - hand-made incense to hand-carved stone candlesticks. I have cords for knotting, charcoals for burning, wax for sealing, fabric for bundling, twigs, stones, assorted plant and animal parts (claws, fur, teeth), little tiny bells, a magic mirror or two and a partridge in a pear tree. (mmm... one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong)

I got stuff. I need none of it to practice my Craft and live my faith, but at times, it does make it easier. I prefer to Craft my Prayers and symbolize my magical intentions, but I can pray just as well by myself alone with nothing but my intention and my Connection to Source.

If I was to do my Magical Aquiring all over again, I would do it differently. Of course, I'd have to "know then what I know now". So let me write a letter to my Younger Self - and see if I can help invest the flow of the Goddess' abundance a little more frugally than I have in my life journey.

Dear Baby Pagan,

You're going to read a lot of books that tell you a lot of things - some congruent and some contradictory about what you need to "have" to practice your Witchy Craft. Let me fill you in on a little secret. You can ignore them all. At least most of the time. And at least for the first 5 years of your faith practice.

Most of the time - the best way to empower your magic is to find the tools of the Craft, the props, the bling and the stuff that works best for YOU - not what a books says you need. Otherwise you'll invest a lot of money in acquiring a wide variety of things that you will use only occasionally - and you will have to keep and store your treasures as befits sacred things - which can be a pain in the broom bristles in today's highly mobile society.

Here's my best advice to you - "know thyself." Stop laughing. I'm serious. Learn what symbols speak most loudly to you for every concept in the Craft and acquire those things that have meaning - deep potent personal meaning for you - that connect you to the Goddess, the God, the Elmeents, the Directions, and to your intentions spiritually and magically.

The tools don't make your magic right or powerful - you make your magic right and powerful. You can take time to learn about yourself, and learn your Craft, and build a personal meaningful powerfully symbolic Magical Cabinet.

I'll write again with some ideas - I know how you hate long letters.

The Earth wastes nothing, and we should follow Her example,
The Frugal Pagan

The Cost of Your Craft

I was going through my bookshelves, putting things in some semblance of order this past week (the post-holiday cleanup), and mentally started adding up what the cost of this one shelf of books added up to and then kept going (I have many many shelves of books).  Talk about a reality check on what I had invested in my religious practice and study over the years - and I didn't even get to the Magical Cabinet of Stuff and Things (candles, incense, tools, statuary, candlesticks, herbs, oils, bottles, etc...)

Many of my books are old friends, bought many years ago, and certainly cannot be replaced for the same price I paid for them.  They have my notes in the margins, the occasional autograph if I've been fortunate enough to meet or study with the author, bookmarks or sticky flags (or badly bent spines) showing me where the really important stuff is.  I don't even have a comprehensive list of all the books I own anymore. 

I then opened up the Magical Cabinet of Stuff and Things and did a very quick mental count of the cost of what that would cost me to replace the contents that I have been accumulating for about 25 years.  I have hundreds of dollars of incense alone - given that each little package is about $5 (I like the good stuff) and I have an assortment of scents for every magical occasion) - not to mention the essential oils (high quality steam distilled), beeswax and parafin candles - etc - and then there is the hardware of candlesticks, altar cloths, incence burners, jars of herbs, trays of crystals and minerals, and drawers and shelves of other weird and wild stuff (feathers, shells, bits of leather, string, cord, fabric, all the stuff to do the symbolic work of my faith).

Then I looked around at the many gifts I have received of chalices, statuary, braziers, more incense holders, etc.  for doing handfastings, house blessings, baby blessings, requiems, menarche ceremonies, etc etc... and contemplated having the world's largest pagan garage sale. (sorry, not going to happen).

While all of these materials are not Necessary for the practice of my Craft - it certainly makes it more "fun".  I love to do magick, and "make my prayers" - having a tactile relationship with the symbolic manifestation of my request, or offering, etc is important to my faith practice.  It doesn't (and can't) exist soley in my head as a mental endeavor - there often needs to be some external active work done as well, and the energy raising that goes with it.

So - going forward, how do I integrate the values of a Frugal Pagan into all the stuff and things I need for my religious practice?  In the next couple posts, I will be exploring the Magical Circle from a Frugal Perspective.

"Nature uses as little as possible of everything" (Keppler)

The Frugal Pagan