Hello All, This week has gone a lot smoother then I feared. Actually it went a lot smoother then I had hoped. I'm not ashamed to admit I was a bit nervous about doing two newsletters. I would like to thank all those who submitted things for either/or newsletter. You all got thanked already but I would like to do it here as well. I will admit I am pushing the boundaries of stated goals a bit in this issue. The article is by a Christian Witch and her views on magic. I found it very interesting and I hope you will as well. I would also like to wish everyone a slightly belated Ostara. My daughters and I spent the evening of the 20th roasting peeps and eating them between graham crackers. (I had milk chocolate with mine.) I think the funniest part with the roasting of the peeps was when my oldest said to one as she skewered it "die Peep die." I admit it I am raising children with a twisted sense of humor. My husband is still on the road but I got a postcard from him yesterday. (He calls almost daily and sends postcards.) This one had the Cherokee Alphabet on it. I thought it was pretty neat. I need to get myself an album for my cards like I have for the girls. Currently I have them in the same box as I have my crystal cards (for doing readings) but if I keep adding post cards I'm not going to have space for my crystal cards. So until next time, Blessings of the spring be yours. Sheila K. Watkins Editor: Whispers of a Stone Circle See last page of this newsletter for submission guidelines, forwarding guidelines, where you can subscribe to Whispers and copyright information. ~*~*~*~ LIFE By Torch The artist wields the chisel. Scarring the surface. The scars defining. Creating a form. Removing bits that hold it back. Cutting deeper with each blow. Releasing the inner contours. Becoming a whole. The creation becomes. Recognizable as an entity. Existing on its own. Becoming a one. The creature takes flight. Moving about the plane. Momentum building to frenzy. Becoming a movement. Abrasives in the atmosphere. Colliding at great speeds. The movement altered in response. Becoming a core. The inertia expended. The chassis loses its hold. Crashes down to the ground. Becoming an old. Rotting into nothingness. The old slips away. Reverting to its components. Becoming a new. The artist wields the chisels. Creative once again. The cycle continues. As new turns to old. ~*~*~*~ Cool Link(s) of the week: Pantheist's Dictionary http://www.pantheist-index.net/dictionary.html Frequently Asked Questions about Pantheism http://members.aol.com/Heraklit1/faqs.htm Various -theism definitions: http://www.geocities.com/sttpharmd/hissoc/religion/beliefsystems.html Varieties of Religious Belief: http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/blfaq_theism_main.htm God and god beliefs: http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/lshulman/URBELIEF.html Theological Dictionary: http://www.carm.org/dictionary.htm Pagans and Theology: http://www.soulrebels.com/meg/theology.html Philosophical Vocabulary: http://education.cant.ac.uk/renet/Philosophy/POR/por7.htm Monotheisms, Quasimonotheisms, and fine shadings: http://cyberspacei.com/jesusi/inlight/religion/belief/monotheism.htm ~*~*~*~ An Unconventional Witch A Different Path of Magic By Mina I would like to preface this small article with a note that this comes from my own personal experiences, and opinions. They relate perhaps to only myself, but hopefully you will at least find them interesting. Now, on with the article. Many people have problems dealing with things they do not understand, or that fall out of the standard range of what is considered normal. Situations such as those are shunned as they occur, any display that might prove that the realm of the supernatural is very much with us in our daily lives is often greeted with ridicule and scorn. Those that believe things outside of the norm are labeled weird at best and often times far worse. I am a Christian Witch. The technical term I suppose for what I am in the realm of standard Christianity is heretic. At least, that is what someone that professes the beliefs I do would have been called in this very county in 1692. What I believe is at its root quite simple. I believe that God created this world, and all the things within it, including magic. It is there for each of us to tap into to the extent of our abilities. Magic is not a force for evil, as the Church has taught over the centuries, but a natural gift of God to his people. Like the wind over water, it is a moving creation waiting to be appreciated by those that have the touch. Magic is natural, in and of itself a force that each person can find their own connection to, whether slight or great. I am of Irish descent, and still carry a full fourth in blood. There is a long-standing tradition in my family of small, though useful strange abilities. There is also a long-standing tradition that one is never to speak of such things outside of the family, because others that do not have the abilities simply would not understand. My mother, a woman that has faith so pure that her aura literally shines with it, can lay on hands to a degree, but rarely does so for fear of ridicule or rejection ... or worse yet, the fear of being used for such abilities. Her touch can soothe headaches, nausea, calm fevers, and leave one with a sense of being loved. Yet because of the attitudes displayed towards magic in the past or the expectations that only priests or prophets should be able to heal, her gift is far more limited than I feel it could have been. Part of that, is fear. My first encounter with my own abilities happened when I was about eleven or twelve years old. A girl in my baby brother's class had disappeared, and the whole neighborhood had turned out to search for her. After walking up and down a bit by the lakes, I tugged my Mom's sleeve and said .. "Mom, tell them to stop looking, she's dead. She's in the lake." My mother of course was horrified, and told me not to say that. We walked about ten feet from where they found her, her ball still floating on the water where she had gone to try and get it. Afterwards, my mother gave me the speech. "Don't tell anyone, that you knew she was dead ... they won't understand." Afterwards, I discovered other innate abilities, and my connection with the magic of the world around me. It was as if this event opened the floodgates so to speak. Mostly, its smaller things ... a small healing touch, which I think, will grow with time and use, the innate call to learn and use herb lore, the call to the rituals to focus the magic I can use. To me, it is a real and living part of me, to use these gifts. To simplify my definition of what I am as a Christian Witch, I believe that the magic and the part of me that uses it comes from Him. The organized church has done much over the years to steer away from questions that might involve magic, other than to decry it or try to lump it all together under the umbrella of Wicca or Paganism, or even Satanism. I've known many fine followers of the Wiccan path, and other sorts of Pagans, but I don't believe I've ever met a true Infernalist. But then, and once more this is simply my opinion, what I have experienced regarding the organized Christian church has been fairly negative. "Judge not lest ye be judged" is by far more often shown to be ... "I will judge you if you are not exactly like I am." and churches are far more often filled with "Sunday Christians" who do terrible things all week and then beg for forgiveness on the weekend. I by far prefer my own path ... if you cannot pray where ever you are, you have far more problems than who is going to file your tax refund and whether or not one can write off tithes as charitable contributions. That was something that I never felt comfortable with, growing up. The idea that one must be in a specific building in order to find a connection on a spiritual level with God always struck me as wrong on many levels. As I grew older, I began to research the religion as it is practiced, and came to many of my own conclusions as to the true purpose of organized religion. Many well-known men and women have gained great wealth and temporal power by espousing the beliefs of Christianity, and stressing the need to tithe to the Church. Perhaps at first this was meant to help support the poor, but as so often happens, it became "ten for me and one for them" and to a truly spiritual person I feel that there should be nothing more chilling than a televangelist spouting a fire and brimstone sermon on TV Beware the false prophets indeed. That small first internal thought, that this sort of thing was just not right led to others, discoveries that the elders of the churches I went to and spoke with knew little or nothing about the faith they were supposed to love and nurture made me realize as well, that some people would rather be led than to truly know what is out there for them. Which to me is very sad. God created such a wonderful world, full of majesty, mystery, and Magic ... and these sheep will never see it. I suppose its fitting that ministers often call themselves shepherds, yet far too often I see that they are not shepherding their flocks, but simply blinding them to the world. I refused to be blinded, and opened myself instead to the Magic. So I am a Christian, and I am a Witch. That works for me, where it might not for others, and I am at the heart comfortable with my faith and what I am. ~*~*~*~ Announcement(s): Feel free to forward announcement as you wish but please keep the total post together. Announcing for the April 1, 2002 special edition: The humor edition of Whispers of a Stone Circle http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhispersOfAStoneCircle/ What is eligible: Deliberately cheesy poetry, Spoof articles on any pagan subject, Wildly inaccurate History whatever your little heart finds funny. LadyHighPriestessFaerieDawnLightbringer will edit the issue. Deadline: March 25, 2002. Judges: whomever I can con into helping me read through everything. Prizes: An honorary 1st 2nd or 3rd degree (depending on what place the person gets) in DanishWiccanGypsyGwyddonsBritishtradWelshroyalitygaelictradsNewAgeCrys talweareringllewellynfluffbunnyhophophopFamilyTrad complete with degree suitable for printing and framing. All submissions will be receiving an initiate degree as a thank you. Rules: 1) Submission must be an original work with the copyright still in the name of the writer. Copyright as always remains the author's but agrees to be published in the special edition if deemed the winner. The Winners as well as second, third and all runners up will be placed on a special website for the world to read. 2) I would prefer is submissions came in as the body of e-mail but if submitted as an attachment must be a .doc file and something I can read on MS word 97. 3) Author must submit under his or her real or craft name but also must provide a pen (goofy) name for the article to be published under as well as a fake bio for the pen name. The more outrageous the bio the better. The author's real name will be posted with the fake bio in parentheses unless the author begs to be protected from anyone ever knowing he or she wrote the submission. 4) Sections for the contest: poetry and prose, Articles, Other. Please place submission for April Fool's issue: Poetry & prose, submission for April Fool's issue: Article, or submission for April Fool's issue: Other as the subject line of the submission. 5) Submissions will be judged for creativity, originality, and humor. Bios will be considered as part of the submission. ` 6) Submissions should be made to: zeliziw@netins.net on or before March 25, 2002 ~*~*~*~ Writer's Biographies: Torch: This 30-year-old Pisces/Aries Rat uses the labels Father, Witch, and Pagan, amongst others, to describe himself. A life-long Florida resident (thus far), he has completed his first novel (with a partner) and is shopping it around for publishing. He has studied many paths and incorporated elements of most into his own dance through life. "I am human. I am witch. I am contradiction," says Torch. Melinda or Mina describes herself as "Blonde, bratty, and too cute for my own good ... was once told that I am a `candy coated hellcat'. My weaknesses are chocolate, my husband's pout, and a good book. I enjoy chatting with friends and sharing ideas. " She's a long term pagan from the central part of the United States. Sheila K. Watkins knew from the time she was 15 that she wanted to be a writer but did not really start writing until she entered college where she worked on her college newspaper and also worked as the editor of the feature section for one semester. She was also introduced to the love of writing poetry at this time. Fortunately for all of us most of the poems have been lost to the world of men. After college she worked several jobs during the next few years but none included writing. It wasn't until after both of her children had started school in 1998 that she went back to her love of putting words on a computer screen. Her first submission was accepted by publication by the IOWAN newsletter and it started her on the path of truly honing her work. In October of 2000, she founded and became editor of Whispers of a Stone Circle. ~*~*~*~ Submissions are always welcomed and can be made to: Zeliziw@netins.net In submitting materials writers are agreeing that if accepted I may post them in the newsletter and on the web page (whenever I finally get back to work on it.) Works submitted must be the writer's own work and they must still retain the copyright OR it must be verifiably public domain. Works can have been published before but please nothing that has been around over and over again. Copyright remains in the author's possession. The Author also realizes that they will not be paid. (If I had money I would be hosting this on something other then Yahoo.) If a submission is accepted, I will check for punctuation, capitalization and spelling in submitted articles. I will fix minor errors if they are present. I will NOT reword things (except for an occasional "an" for "a" and vice versa.) Poems are published as submitted. Forwarding information: If you chose to forward this newsletter, do so in its entirety, including copyright and contact information. People may subscribe to Whispers of A Stone Circle at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhispersOfAStoneCircle/ All articles, poems, etc, except where noted are copyrighted by the writers and are used with permission. They are not to be republished without the express permission of the writers. Contact information may be obtained by contacting the editor of Whispers of A Stone Circle at Zeliziw@netins.net Copyright (c) 2002 Sheila K. Watson. All Rights Reserved