Cauldron Blog Project

So, another year, another new thing!  The people who run the Pagan Blog Project have decided to not run it in 2015, and I had originally planned on just keeping on doing it on my blog, because I did have fun with it, was challenged by it, and it kept me on point with getting posts up.

However, one of the forums that I am a member of has decided to do their own version of it, so I am doing that this year!  It's similar but a bit different, so I figured I'd make an introductory post to explain the differences, and then a bit about my vision for how I am going to approach the project this year as well as a bit more about my own path and self.

The Cauldron Blog Project will still support 2 weeks dedicated to each letter, just as the PBP did, but there is no hard and fast number of posts for each letter.  If I want to write just a single post every two weeks that is fine, if I want to write 10, that is also fine!  I plan on aiming for one a week, but will commit to at least one per letter, and will do more if I feel moved to do more.

In addition, we are adding in a monthly theme post, so each month, those of us participating will pick a topic and we will all write a post on the same topic.  I am pretty excited about this one, I love reading other people's thoughts on stuff, and having everyone write the same topic should be great.

I added a little widget thingie on my blog that will link to The Cauldron forum (to the specific thread for this project), and it is a really great forum, so if you wanna check it out, I highly recommend it.

So, in 2014, I just went in head first, with any topic for the posts that popped into my head.  My personal path is pretty eclectic, so my interests range far and wide.  But I definitely consider myself a Norse centric fusion witch.

What does Norse centric fusion witch mean?  Well to start with, I have worked with Odin and Freyja pretty much my entire spiritual life.  When I was just learning, about two decades ago, picking a god and goddess to devote yourself to was pretty standard.  I was reading everything I could get my hands on, and when I read their names out loud, I got physical shivers down my back...and sometimes still do.  They called to me, in a way that no others have (though I have felt moved to work with other deities along the way, just not so strong and so persistent a call).

But I don't consider myself a Heathen or any other flavor of official Norse Pagan.  It's not that I don't find the practices lovely and moving, but more that I feel that I dip into too many other pools, and I don't devote myself to ONLY Norse stuff.  I don't feel like I qualify as a pure Norse practitioner, so I don't like to label myself that way.  I think it only leads to misunderstanding and necessary arguments. 

Norse is at the heart of my practice though, so I do consider myself Norse centric:  it is the flame at my heart and it is the beat underneath everything else.  And a good friend of mine once described his brand of eclecticism as fusion, because even though he draws from multiple sources, the ultimate goal is to have everything blend together and harmonize, not just lots of bits in a bag.  I feel that definition very much, and that is definitely a goal of mine, to have a path that works with all the different things I am drawn to.

And I fully consider myself a witch, have since I first read about the practice of witchcraft.  My religion is Pagan, but my practice is witchcraft.  It is witchcraft flavored with a lot of different things, from chaos to ceremonial to folk traditions, but it is ultimately witchcraft.

So, why explain all of that?  Well this year I am going to focus my letter posts on Norse things, from my perspective.  They will be how I view the world, the deities, the mythology and my path.  They may include fusion ideas, but the heart of every letter post will be Norse.

The monthly topic posts may be Norse centric or they may be more general, it really will depend on what kind of topics come up.

So this is my intro for the year, this is my plan, and for anyone who wants to come along, I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them!