Today is the anniversary of Scott Cunningham’s death. For those of you who don’t know him, he was a prolific Wiccan author. He wrote many books on the Craft of Wicca and was a guiding light for many who walk the pagan path. I hope that wherever he is these days, he is shining in the light, knowing that he helped many people, myself included, with his wise words.
13 Goals of a Witch
13 Goals of a Witch
by Scott Cunningham, Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner, 1988
- Know yourself
- Know your Craft (Wicca)
- Learn
- Apply knowledge with wisdom
- Achieve balance
- Keep your words in good order
- Keep your thoughts in good order
- Celebrate life
- Attune with the cycles of the Earth
- Breathe and eat correctly
- Exercise the body
- Meditate
- Honor the Goddess and God
Full Moon Names/meanings
Full Moon Names and Their Meanings
Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names.
• Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
• Full Snow Moon – February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.
• Full Worm – March Moon As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
• Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
• Full Flower Moon – May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
• Full Strawberry Moon – June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!
• The Full Buck Moon – July July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
• Full Sturgeon Moon – August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
• Full Corn Moon – September This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon.
• Full Harvest Moon – October This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.
• Full Beaver Moon – November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.
• The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon – December During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.
Spellwork: Day of the week correspondences
MondayThis is the day best suited for dream magic, healing and spells or magic involving memory, purity and virginity.
Tuesday
This day is best suited for initiation rites, spells of protection or to gain wealth, or magic involving enemies, prison and war.
Wednesday
This is the day best suited for spells of communication, business and travel, or to rid oneself of debt, fear or bad habits.
Thursday
This day is best suited to rituals of marriage or spells to improve marriage, honor and oaths, harvests, riches and treaties.
Friday
This is the day best suited for spells and rituals of beauty, love, sexuality, harmony, family life, friendship, pleasure, fertility and growth.
Saturday
This day is best suited for magic involving freedom, life, protection, gifts, building and real estate.
Sunday
This is the day best suited for spells and magic involving creativity, fortune, self-expression, hope, beauty, victory and money.
The Descent of the Goddess
The Descent of the Goddess (attributed to Gerald Gardiner)
In ancient times, our Lord, the Horned One, was (and still is) the Consoler, the Comforter. But men know him as the dread Lord of Shadows, lonely, stern, and just.
But our Lady the Goddess would solve all mysteries, even the mystery of death; and so she journeyed to the Underworld.
The Guardian of the Portals challenged her: “Strip off thy garments, lay aside thy jewels; for naught mayest thou bring with thee into this our land”. So she laid down garments and jewels, and was bound, as all living must be who seek to enter the realms of Death, the Mighty One.
Such was her beauty that Death himself knelt, and laid his sword and crown at her feet, and kissed her feet, saying: “Blessed Be thy feet that have brought thee in these ways. Abide with me; but let me place my cold hands on thy heart.”
And she replied: “I love thee not. Why dost thou cause all things that I love, and take delight in, to fade and die?”
“Lady,” replied Death, “it is age and fate, against which I am helpless. Age causes all things to wither; but when men die at the end of time, I give them rest and peace and strength, so that they may return. But you, you are lovely. Return not, abide with me.
But she answered: “I love thee not.”
Then said Death: “An you receive not my hand on your heart, you must kneel to Death’s scourge.”
“It is fate, better so,” she said, and she knelt.
And Death scourged her tenderly. And she cried: “I know the pangs of love.”
And Death raised her, and said: “Blessed be.” And gave her the fivefold salute, saying: “Thus only may you attain to joy, and knowledge.”
And he taught her all of his mysteries, and he gave her the necklace which is the circle of rebirth. And she taught him all her mystery of the sacred cup which is the cauldron of rebirth.
They loved, and were one: for there be three great mysteries in the life of man, and magic controls them all. To fulfill love, you must return again at the same time and at the same place as the loved ones; and you must meet, and know, and remember, and love them again.
But to be reborn, you must die, and be made ready for a new body. And to die, you must be born; but without love, you may not be born.
And our Goddess ever inclineth to love, and mirth, and happiness; and guardeth and cherisheth her hidden children in life, and in death she teacheth the way to her communion; and even in this world she teacheth them the mystery of the magic Circle, which is placed between the world of men and of the gods.
The 13 Principles of Wiccan Belief
The 13 Principles of Wiccan Belief: (as adapted by the Council of American Witches in April, 1974)
1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters.
2. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with nature in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.
3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called ‘supernatural’, but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all.
4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity – as masculine and feminine – and that this same Creative Power lies in all people and functions through the interaction of the masculine and the feminine. We value neither above the other knowing each to be supportive of the other. We value sex as pleasure as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energy used in magical practice and religious worship.
5. We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconsciousness, the Inner Planes etc – and we see in the interaction of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magical exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.
6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership.
7. We see religion, magick and wisdom in living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it – a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft – the Wiccan Way.
8. Calling oneself ‘Witch’ does not make a Witch – but neither does heredity itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seek to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and without harm to others and in harmony with nature.
9. We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it.
10.Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be ‘the only way’ and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.
11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our present and our future.
12.We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as ‘Satan’ or ‘the Devil’ as defined by Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.
13.We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being.
