by Susun S Weed

I didn’t lose it all in the recent USA downturn, but, like many others, I watched my material wealth shrink this past year. Am I worthless because I’m worth less? Of course not. I’m worthwhile, no matter what I’m worth financially. Having less money doesn’t have to mean having less joy or less abundance. I didn’t lose my job – since I am self-employed, I know I won’t be laid off – but work has slowed down, giving me time to appreciate the many ways abundance pops up in my life.

Tips and Hints from Grannie Burton

The great Mysteries at Eleusis are one of the most astonishing stories in human history, because they are still mysterious in so many ways.  It seems that over two thousand years of initiation for both men and women, young and old, rich and poor, no-one ever talked about what happened in the Rites.

by Alex Chaloner

Introduction

The esoteric philosophy of Helena Blavatsky and Alice A Bailey both advocated the idea of the seven rays. These mysterious rays have been described as “seven great divine Emanations, Aeons or Spirits”¹ and “Seven Holy Ones, self-born from the inherent power in the Matrix of Mother Substance.”² It is said that each ray holds a unique quality which manifests in the universe and throughout all of creation.

by Elizabeth A Kaufman

For Witches, such as myself, Pagans and other followers of the Old Ways, Hallows (also known as Samhain or Halloween, among other names) marks the third, final harvest and a new year. It is a time of introspection, withdrawal and honoring the Goddesses known as "dark", the Crone or Hag. As Winter draws near, we begin that journey down and within. The scent of woodsmoke, drying herbs, apples and spices fill the air. Out of doors, the temperature has dropped and chill winds begin to stir; leaves crackle beneath our feet as we walk through field and forest, drawing in the aroma of the season, a not unpleasant decay. Autumn, the Grand Dame, makes Herself known to us.

by Barbara Barnett

I was studying ‘Awakening Osiris’ by Normandi Ellis. This is a new translation of the ‘Egyptian Book of the Dead’ an ancient classical writing of western spirituality. In the 21st century the world seems to be moving at a very fast pace and we struggle to keep up. It is easy, in this situation, to lose sight of our spiritual origin or to forget the close connections there are between the natural world and the spiritual world. This book seeks to reinforce those connections and to remind us to seek our spirituality as much in the natural world as in the heavens.

by Leslene della-Madre

As a young woman in the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, I lived in the heart of the rising tide of change in Berkeley, California, where I was a student at the University of California.  I feel it is important to include some of my background here because my journey to becoming a mother was shaped by my own experiences and explorations into consciousness transformation in those days. My real education at that time, however, was not in the classroom.  It came from being in the streets, going to “love-ins” in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, dancing and “tripping out” at the Fillmore, adventuring in nature, traveling, using sacred entheagens and living in community. There was no time like the 60s in our recent history before or since.  This time of tumultuous social upheaval was truly deep and profound in many ways. Everywhere I went people were into exploring consciousness and the true meaning of life. Much of this collective searching was reflected in the music and art of the time, with messages of “turning on, tuning and dropping out.” A synergistic awareness of going “back to the land” and “back to nature” as the “thing to do” swirled about in the air like clouds of incense smoke, wafting through every crack and crevice of our homes, thoughts and dreams.

The Reclamation of the Sun in the Feminine Circle and Healing from the Phase of Supremacy

by Lauren K. Clark

For many years the Sun has become symbolic as a beacon of enlightenment and nourishment in various eras and cultures of the ancient world.  The sun was viewed in many areas of the world as the symbol of hope; and as that which would save humanity from the darkness, and all of the evils which were considered to be associated with it.  In various ancient civilizations, (specifically where there was still the stance of the sun as the divine feminine, but with careful analysis can understand the progression of male-centeredness and domination) we are also presented with the sun in the masculine form.

A Novel by Clarise Samuels

And so my personal saga was about to begin. Sigurd was about to arrive.

Chapter 3: How Sigurd Slew Fafnir

But not right away. Sigurd was being unavoidably detained. I was lying on the top of Mount Hindarfiall, rumored to be somewhere in Frankland, but in fact was in the area later to be known as Sweden. As I lay there, a tortuous circle of flames angrily reached for the sky at hellish temperatures. The walls of a small golden castle had magically appeared, and within its circular rotunda, I lay on a bier as if I were dead and lying in state. The thunder and lightning, which had accompanied my arrival, were rolling away in the distance. The setting sun hung wanly in the metallic blue sky like a thin sheet of orange paper pasted against the pale background. It was quiet. It was eerie.

Reviewed by JP Evans

Crossroads is the debut album of Jenna Green - a collection of original songs.  The songs tell stories of inner searching, finding solutions and solace through nature, the wisdom of the ancients, mystery and inner strength.

Reviewed by Geraldine Charles

This is a fascinating book. Nobody ever really explained to me exactly who is the father of Persephone/Kore and I must confess that I never gave it a thought until I read this book. But even in the stories I did know there are plenty of hints that something very different was going on, and a visit to an archaeological museum in Sicily a few years ago, a museum which was absolutely stuffed to the rafters with images labelled as Demeter and Kore, had led me see the two as dual goddess, with daughter and mother almost impossible to separate from one another.

We certainly couldn’t miss this and managed to visit Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum on the last weekend of the exhibition, a trip well worth making.

“We” being Rachael Clyne, author of many great poems and articles in Goddess Pages and Geraldine Charles, a joint editor of the magazine.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that photography was not allowed, but the multi-talented Rachael borrowed my pen and immediately started sketching on whatever paper we could find and once home she turned those sketches into some excellent drawings, as you will see below, complete with her impressions

While there, we bumped almost literally into Paul and Sylvia Williment – Paul is our printer and I lost no time in asking him to write down his impressions, too.  The result is this review of the exhibition.

Reviewed by Geraldine Charles

This book is magical.  Seriously.  It worked on me in a very subtle way – I love science fiction and set about the novel with my usual SF brain in gear, but quickly found that I was becoming engaged with the story in a very different way.  For as the time-travelling priestess Mira follows her own destiny to come to a time some 7,000 years in the future, to a neighbourhood which could belong to any American or European city, she finds herself strangely drawn to Suzanne, a photographer who has almost given up her calling, almost settled for a dreary day job and unsatisfactory marriage.  But what I felt was the ageless quality of sisterhood and the eternal nature of spirit calling to spirit.