Why do we call it Mabon?

 While the Wheel of the Year isn't as universal as it was once depicted to be, many Pagans still celebrate the eight Sabbats as part of their religious observances.  And while many of the Sabbats have obvious names, either directly tying into their celestial timing or being named after a well recognized word or figure, Mabon is a bit of an outlier.

Though it is the autumn equinox, the time in the fall when there is equal day and night, the name Mabon is still quite popular and frequently used to refer to this celebration.  And while some may be aware that the name Mabon refers to a Welsh deity, a lot of people might not realize that there is no evidence that Mabon was actually worshiped in a way that would lead to celebrations in his honor...and that referring to the autumn equinox as Mabon is a very modern thing.

Now, the debate about the age and roots of Wicca and modern Paganism is something that many people have debated, and remains a hot topic in the witchy world.  I personally fall into the camp of it being a modern practice that is inspired by and rooted in more ancient practices.  I do think the things I do have ties to very old practices, but I do not think there is any kind of unbroken lines of practice dating back to cave people times (or even the middle ages).

I also acknowledge that early practitioners of Wicca and modern Paganism created a lot of the modern rituals and practices we participate in, including things like the unified Wheel of the Year.  Yes, many of these celebrations are very central to our ancestors lives in a general sense.  They had harvest festivals and spring festivals and winter festivals.  But many of them were simply referred to in those general terms.  It was the spring fertility festival, and whatever local deities were favored in a particular village were probably the ones honored.  

When creating modern traditions, there is a tendency to like to embrace patterns, and having eight festivals, timed around these great yearly seasonal times (and the times in between them) has a beautiful symmetry, and so it makes sense that when creating doctrine for their religious practice, people would aim to create a pleasing, regular set of ritual observances.  Also, we like naming things, so keeping to the generic names isn't as appealing as Naming each of them.

Enter Aidan Kelly, one of the influential voices in early modern Pagan history.  He was one of the big voices against the proclaimed historical lineage of Gardnerian Wicca (and it's proposed line of unbroken practice back into ages past), instead saying that Gardener created much of the religion he presented.

So how does he play into the naming of Mabon?  Well, he had a fascination with calendars and religious observances, and compiled the information he collected into a book (which eventually was published), but as a practicing Pagan, he also began too compile a Pagan calendar, gathering up all the various Pagan holidays and days of interest.

In doing so, he noticed that there were Gaelic names for the four major Sabbats, but no set Pagan names for the solstices and equinoxes.  He began to research and found connections to Ostara in the spring equinox, Yule in the winter solstice, and Litha in the summer solstice, but nothing so obvious for autumn.

Branching further out, he looked into the Greek calendar and found stories about Kore, which focused on her loss and recovery and explored the topic of death.  In Hebrew myth, the story of Abraham and Isaac follows a similar theme and is read at Rosh Hashanah, the new moon closest to the autumn equinox.

Aiden took this to mean that this equinox was strongly associated with this idea of facing death and returning, and he looked for a similar story in the myths of northern Europe.  He found it in the Welsh tale of Mabon, who is rescued from the underworld.

I think this convoluted tale about the origin of the name of the Mabon Sabbat is a great illustration of how modern Paganism is an interpretation of ancient practices.  We see a pattern we would like to honor, and then we research ancient ways to find things that would match and fit.  These become the practices we take forward, and soon they are just part of the path.

I do find it strange that even though this sabbat is named Mabon, very rarely do we actually work with Mabon as a deity, though the themes of death and rebirth are often very present, sometimes through the story of Persephone.  

Anyways, now you know where the name came from, and perhaps this will inspire you to read a bit more on Mabon (the deity) during this time of year, or to research how other names came to be.  History can have some very surprising twists, and it's not until you start looking into how things developed that you can see all the connections involved.

Writing letters to your ancestors

 

Ancestor work is something that is becoming more common, in witchcraft and Paganism.  While it has always been a part of some people's practices, other people are just coming to it.  A very common way to work with one's ancestors is to create an ancestor altar, and to keep that altar space and leave offerings, much like one might do to maintain a grave site (of course actual grave site work is an option, if you are lucky enough to live near family graves).

But another way that may feel very familiar to some of us is to build a connection through writing letters.  As a child, I was required to write letters to my relatives.  Anytime I received a gift, I had to write a thank you letter, and it couldn't just say thank you, I had to talk about what was going on in my life and ask about what was going on in theirs.  Of course I did have to thank them as well.

As a military family, we moved regularly, and so I also remember writing letters to friends.  I think my generation was the last to really write letters regularly, and I definitely wrote letters to friends during the summer, when we would visit family on vacation.

In high school, I not only wrote letters to boyfriends when one of us took a trip, but we would often keep journals, sort of collected letters, where we would write to each other, and then when we were back together in person, we'd exchange journals and have basically a bunch of letters to read all at once.

Writing letters isn't a new thing, in magical practice.  It's often used in message spells (where you write a letter to someone and then burn it), or banishing spells (same process, different intended outcome!).  But we can also use the letter writing process as a way to build a connection to our ancestors.

Letters give us a structure to work with, when we are opening up lines of communication.  And because our ancestors are no longer with us, it gives more freedom in how they respond.  We can write our letter, and then just like when we mail a letter, we have to wait for them to receive it and get back with us.  Using letters like this, you will want to stay open and aware of possible replies, which may come to you in the form of dreams or omens, or you may want to wait until you feel like they are ready to respond and then sit and freewrite their response.

Just like most practices, ancestor work isn't all about just asking for stuff, it's about building up that relationship.  You can start small, in kind of a 'get to know you' sense.  It may help to write to ancestors that you knew, maybe you have a grandparent or other relative that has passed over that you can write to.  Start by filling them in on what's been going on in your life, and then maybe ask how things are for them.

For someone you have never met, it might be helpful to think of it like writing a new pen-pal (or meeting someone new online).  You can tell them a little about yourself, and then ask them about their life, about what they like and don't like, or things they enjoyed doing.  Actually, those are great questions for people we knew in life as well, as we often don't know as much about our relatives as we think we do (especially if they passed when you were little, as a child you probably didn't think much about what the adults in your life enjoyed).

With a practice like this, I would highly recommend ritualizing the writing process.  Get a notebook dedicated to writing your ancestors (it doesn't have to be fancy, but I would definitely keep it for this practice alone), or make a box to hold your letters in.  You may want to buy nice stationary or keep a special pen for this.  I also recommend hand writing them, no matter how messy your handwriting is (the lovely thing about writing to ancestors is your writing doesn't have to be legible!), although you could write digitally, I just don't feel like it lends as much weight to the practice.  Because we don't write by hand as often, choosing to do it for this practice makes it all the more special.

And just like keeping up with a pen-pal, you will get better results from this practice if you can keep it regular.  Setting aside a particular day to write to your ancestors can be helpful, though of course you can always write extra letters if something significant comes up.  If life should keep you from writing for a while, acknowledge that in your next letter.  Remember a heart-felt apology goes a long way!

You also don't have to write to your ancestors individually.  I would often write to my grandparents in one letter, and with ancestors you can take a similar approach, and you can even take it to a much broader range.  You might write to all your ancestors on your father's side, or all your female ancestors.  You might write to all your ancestors from one of the countries you have roots in, or to your ancestors from a particular time period.  If you want to start really broad, you can simply write to all those who have come before you, all your ancestors together.

Forging a connection with our ancestors can feel like connecting to family roots that we were not blessed to have met.  It can be rekindling a relationship that we had lost and keeping in contact with a beloved family member who we have lost.  It can help us explore our heritage and consider how different our lives are today than the lives our ancestors lived.  It can create a sense of home and belonging, no matter where we are and who is around us.

Variable daily practice

 

I've written before about daily practice, and it's a topic that comes up a lot.  It's something that many people struggle with, and finding a way to practice daily that works for you can be a process!  Now, over the years I've developed a morning and evening routine that works for me, but I always feel like I want to do more.  I'm definitely someone who struggles without structure, but I don't always want my spiritual practice to feel too structured, if that makes sense.

I could list off a whole slew of things I'd 'love' to do daily, as I'm sure many of you can.  But I also feel like if I haven't actually started doing these things daily, maybe I am not quite as called to them as I think I should be.  It's kind of the idea that it if were important enough to me I would find time to do it.  And yet, life often gets in the way, and we find ourselves working with the time we have instead of being able to do all the things we wish we could do.

I also feel like some things just aren't really practices that I need to do every day.  Now here's where I struggle a whole lot.  If I do things on a regular basis, I can remember them.  It's why I blog every Wednesday, because if I just aimed for 'once a week' without setting a particular date, then the odds are I wouldn't blog regularly.  Knowing that it's Wednesday and that means I need to blog makes it something I don't even have to think about, it's just something I do.  

But a lot of spiritual tasks don't really fit into that mundane form of scheduling.  I may feel a need to cleanse more than once a week sometimes, but if I know it's scheduled for a certain day, I might feel it's okay to put it off until it's regularly scheduled day.  Other things just feel weird when scheduled, like working with my ancestors.  I don't want to ever feel like it's a chore, and "It's Friday, so I guess I gotta work with my ancestors today."

I use habit trackers in my daily planner, to help encourage me to build the habits I want to grow into a daily practice.  My daily planner does contain some of my spiritual stuff, but it's mostly just everyday stuff.  My tracker there includes things like:  moving (aka doing something physical for health reasons), reading (engaging my mind), writing (being creative), posting in Ky's Crossroads (building community), and other things like that.  My goal in this tracker is to tick everything on the list off every day.

I've learned to be kind to myself with trackers, and though the goal is to do everything every day, that rarely happens.  But each day is a new opportunity to do each thing, and that works for me.  When it comes to spiritual stuff, I didn't want the goal to be do every thing every day, but rather I wanted to go more fluid.  

This is what I ended up with, and though I've just started it, I am really enjoying it so far.  I made myself a list of the basic categories of 'stuff I do,' things that could be done in a day with no need for previous planning.  Kind of off the cuff practices.

By putting them in a tracker, I can use the list as a springboard for daily practice.  With this tracker, my goal is to do at least one thing every day, but which thing is completely up to what I feel I need that day.  The list becomes a suggestion, ideas for inspiration.

But also, the tracker itself lets me look back over the whole month and see what types of activities I was drawn to, or maybe to see what I hadn't done that I might want to do in the next month.  It's a way to check in with my daily practice and see where I am.

Because I wanted to work on my daily practice, I started what I am calling my Witchy Logbook, which has my variable daily practice tracker in it.  This book is to help me manage my daily practice, all the witchy stuff I may do (or think...more on that in a minute) in a day, and keep it all in one place.

When thinking about a regular spiritual practice, I often come back to the moon cycle.  I love how it naturally flows through a whole cycle of work, and gives structure without being too strict.  I had an image saved on my computer of this version of a moon cycle, which I really loved and wanted to work with, so it's the first thing I put into my book.  I really like how it alternates yin and yang for each of the phases, so there are active and passive spaces built in.  I also love how it has little affirmations for each, to help remind me of what the energy of that phase is.

Then, because I kind of wanted some other type of reference on the opposite page, I copied in this rune poem I had found.  Again, it's just something I really liked and thought would be fun to have in my book.  I'm still thinking of this book as my everyday carry (my daily planner really isn't an EDC, it's a "lives on my desk where I work" book), so having things in the book I might want to reference regularly just fits.

  I also knew I'd want to have a key, or some way to find specific things I might be looking for.  I remember finding this method of indexing (because I didn't want to do page numbers and traditional indexing), where you color code a strip on the edge of the page, then you can just fan your pages and look for pages with the color you want on them.  If you look closely, you can see that the first page is coded for Reference, as it has the moon cycle info and rune poem on it.  As I love symbols, I also added in some symbols so I can see what a particular line might include.

 

Then I get into the meat of the log book, where the daily work really lives.  As you can see in the cover image, I highlight the date line, to separate different days, and then I add in notes or thoughts or records of what I did that day.  When I started this book, I really didn't know how I wanted to use it beyond 'spiritual BuJo style log', so there are lots of orange 'ideas', where I was just thinking about what might work and brainstorming.  I did know that I wanted to note the moon phase, so I drew that in after every day line.

There are a few things I tried that I am definitely going to be continuing.  I am doing daily intentions, making a conscious effort to set my energy for the day.  I am writing down prayers and ancestor communication (and may get into write and respond with this, we'll see).  I am keeping notes on my moon work, on how I am working with the different phases as they come along.

And I love having all my future ideas handy, so I can read back through them and see what I might like to try, when I'm feeling like doing something brand new.  I'm going to have to figure out a way to note when I've worked with something, but for now, just having all those ideas gets me excited!

I still feel like this is a practice I'm growing, and yet I'm really loving it so far.  I feel like having a variable aspect to my larger daily practice really encourages me to branch out, to do different things and to go with how I am feeling instead of simply following a strict schedule.  I love being able to look back and see what I did on different days. 

I think the most important takeaway from this idea of variable daily practices is that we each have to find ways to practice that works for us and our life.  And that may mean breaking the mold a little bit and trying different things to see if one of them takes hold.  Daily practice is an established thing, both in the spiritual word and in my own life, and yet I felt like having a set daily routine wasn't fully serving my needs, and so adding in this log and the variable practice tracker lets me expand and adjust in ways that a set daily practice simply doesn't.  So, if you are looking for more out of your daily practice, and this idea of a variable practice sounds interesting, give it a try! 

Researching the 'whys' for deeper study

 One of the first thing many people do, when they start to study witchcraft, is to look into correspondences.  Many of us have lists and lists of different stones, herbs, colors, times and animals that relate to different energies.  This is one of the foundations of spell and ritual work, and often when you read books, they offer up these correspondences with no context.

We learn a list of words that are associated with a thing, but we never know why those things are connected.  Sometimes, we can figure it out at least partially, like the fact that roses are associated with love, because roses are considered the 'traditional' romantic flower to give someone, but does anyone know why roses were put in this role?

Beyond correspondences, there are a host of other parts of practice that we just accept as face value.  We are told we need to cast a circle to do spell work, that we should celebrate certain days, or that we should craft our own tools.  Often, the reasons why we are expected to do these things isn't ever explored.

And the whys are SO important, for a variety of reasons.  Firstly, you really shouldn't be doing a lot of stuff if you don't know why you are doing it, especially if your source isn't one you trust.  It's one thing to listen to your parents when they tell you that you should do something, but picking up a book that tells you to do something is another story.  We often trust books and online sources because the implication is that if it is in print or online it is valid, and yet that is completely not the case.  Anyone can post stuff online, and in this day of self-published books, anyone can get their thoughts printed out.  There is no vetting process for these things, and if you blindly follow the instructions of any book or internet source you come across, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

By asking the whys, we can see the roots of a practice, and the reasoning behind it.  Then we can decide for ourselves if this makes sense to us.  And sometimes we do need to take that leap of faith and try something to see if it will work for use, but if we have asked the right questions and found out more about why the practice is being recommended, we can see if there are any warning flags.  Sometimes practices are recommended that are downright dangerous, and sometimes they are innocuous and harmless, it is only by really seeing what is being done and why that we can tell the difference.

But also, uncovering the why's behind stuff makes the information more real.  If I am looking at a stone and it's list of correspondences, it can be quite hard for me to remember many of them.  If, however, I do my research and try to figure out why each quality is associated with that particular stone, I start to build connections that make sense.  I learn the stories behind the associations, I discover the experiences other people have had with it, and that helps me to remember what goes with what.  It also makes the information more solid to me.  If I just see two words linked on a page, that connection is quite weak.  If I read a story explaining it, I'll remember parts of the story, or the emotions behind it, when I think about the connection, making it that much more powerful when I'm actually using that connection in my work.

Researching the whys also gives you focus in your study.  At some point, we realize we have lists of correspondences, books of spells, information on rituals, and we may be already doing the work, and the question becomes what to do now.  If we don't start taking some of our studies deep, we simply skim along the surface and our practice might start to feel rote.  We might be doing rituals, but they actions feel hollow because they don't mean anything to us.

We can take any part of our practice deeper by starting to research the whys surrounding it.  Whatever thing you are most interested in, start asking yourself questions about what you are doing...and why.  Why should this herb be harvested at this time?  Why is this part of the animal connected to this energy when the rest of the animal isn't?  Why is this element tied to this tool?  Why is this symbol on this tarot card?

The really interesting thing about exploring the whys is that you may find that sometimes you will uncover reasons that just don't work for you.  White is always associated with purity, innocence and goodness.  And part of my brain knows this and accepts it, but the larger part of my brain connects white with emptiness and uncertainty.  It is my personal connection versus the collective connection.  By knowing the whys behind the collective, I can see how they just don't work for me.  I can then ask the follow up:  if I don't like this connection, what does this thing mean to me?  And that becomes my new focus of study, and builds a practice that is tuned to my own way of experiencing the world, making it a much more powerful connection in my personal workings.

And even though I don't connect with the collective associations with certain things, there is power in being aware of them.  When I work with others, I often tap into those collective associations, and it becomes a matter of translating them into my own system, so that I can work with the group (instead of becoming a disharmonious element in the group).  Or, if I know something just absolutely doesn't work for me, I can suggest an alternative, and explain why it would work to the group.

The more questions we ask, the more whys we uncover, the deeper and more full our understanding of our practice will be.  We will be more informed and more able to adjust and adapt, because we know where the roots of our practice lead to.  We aren't just repeating what we have been taught, we see the bigger picture, the web of connections, and we can choose our own actions with forethought and deeper meaning.

Science is ever evolving

 One of the things that has become quite clear, in recent times, is how little people as a whole understand how science and facts work.  One of the things that separates science from faith is the ability to ask questions with answers.  Faith seeks to question that which can't be known, it asks the big questions, the ones that don't have answers.  Faith is about asking the questions because in exploring what the answers might be, we discover truths that we wouldn't otherwise know.

Science, on the other hand, is about trying to actually answer questions.  Sure, sometimes the questions are big, but the point is to figure things out, not to simply question.  Where people tend to get lost is that answers aren't absolute.  Just because we answer a question today doesn't mean that tomorrow a different answer might reveal itself.  

And here's the tricky part.  When we find a new truth, we have to accept that an old answer is false.  What we don't need to do is declare the old answer a lie.  At the time, that answer was true, as far as we knew it, and we acted on that truth as best as we were able.  Life isn't static, we are constantly changing and growing and discovering new stuff, and as we do, we need to learn how to adapt to this changing truth.

This is a lesson that will serve people well in all areas of their lives, because as I just stated, life is ever changing.  I am not the same person today that I was yesterday, because each moment that I exist I experience something new (even repeated items are 'new' in that it will be the millionth time I've done that particular thing), and each new experience changes how I respond to future events.  

The thing is, we can look back and see how things were wrong and still acknowledge that, in the time in which that information existed, it was what was we believed to be true.  Being able to separate truth as we know it now from truth as it was believed then is a huge concept that plays a vital role in our understanding of history.  We can look back and see the thoughts of the day, and see how people thought they were taking just and honest actions, and at the same time we can recognize how we have learned new truths that make those actions unthinkable in the current day and age.

And here's the other thing:  we can't hold back from acting on the truth of the day, just because we know that it's not complete!  If we wait until we feel like we know everything, often the moment for ideal action will have passed.  All we can do is take the best action we can, in every moment, based on the information we have.

This means staying current on information as best as you are able.  It means reading and being open to new facts, new theories, new ideas and new truths.  Just because something has been an accepted truth for hundreds of years doesn't mean we can't suddenly realize that it's not actually true.

This can be really hard to move on from, especially when we change how we fundamentally view the world.  This means we may have to abandon what we thought were very basic concepts, and completely start over, figuring out what is what from the start.  And this kind of radical change is pretty scary, and often involves admitting that we may have done things in the past that weren't noble or honorable or even ethical.

But just as we can let go of old ideas, we can also let go of the guilt we have for our past and past actions.  Even if we thought we were doing something right, if we realize we did something less desirable, we can apologize to people we may have hurt.  Making amends for prior actions doesn't mean you need to keep beating yourself up today, it simply means you are acknowledging your own growth, and expressing your desire to be better to people who may have suffered because of you.

I think part of why we often struggle with the idea of science and 'facts' changing is that we want the world around us to be stable and solid and eternal.  When things change, we have to change with them, and sometimes we fight back against that change.  If we learn to shift our perspective instead to one of discovery, where each change is a brand new world to explore, a brand new set of experiences and ideas to play with, we may find that the change becomes exciting instead of terror inducing.

Nothing in life is certain except for change.  And so, we need to stay mindful that long established thoughts need to be challenged from time to time, just to make sure they are still valid.  No matter how long we have stood by a belief, if we can't honestly look and see if it's still true based on what our current life experiences have taught us, then we aren't fully embracing it...we are just hiding behind our habits.

Redefining group work

 When we speak of magical group work, we typically have an idea of what that means.  We may think of a coven that regularly works together, or it might be a festival where strangers gather and do ritual together.  But almost always it is a physical space where multiple people work together towards a common goal.

And it makes sense that this is the traditional model for group work.  I started my spiritual journey a quarter of a century ago, right at the start of the internet (okay, technically the internet had been around for a handful of years before that, but it wasn't really a thing, and in the early days occult stuff on the internet was really sketchy), so everything was done in meatspace.

In fact, distance learning of any kind just wasn't done.  I often heard things like, "if it was really important to you, you'd find a way to travel to the group you want to work with," or stuff like that.  It was basically accepted that 'making it to meetings' was part of your responsibility as a witch, and that not being able to drive an hour or more each way for every coven gathering meant you weren't dedicated.

But, in the time since then (and especially over the past year or two, with the pandemic forcing people to find new ways of doing things), our ability to gather digitally has exploded.  Where we used to have emails and message boards (yes, I'm dating myself), now we have a million options for live chats, for live video streams and video calls.  

Now, if you have been hanging out with online magical communities you will know that digital group work isn't a new thing.  Worldwide planned rituals and spells have been going on pretty much as long as there has been internet (probably before that, but it's much easier now)!  The fantastic thing about working this way is that you aren't constrained by space (or even time), and everyone who wants to participate can. 

 

But in many ways, this is still a form of solitary work.  Each participant will do their own ritual (either following a set form or really making their own), and mostly just the focus of the work is shared.  While the benefit of having many people working towards the same goal is there, the sense of community isn't as present.

However, doing rituals in real time takes things to a whole other level.  It creates a sense of interaction and community that is missing from previous ways of working together remotely.  Being able to call and respond or to see what other people are doing makes it feel as if you aren't just doing your own thing.

 

But community and group work isn't always just about one-off rituals.  Many groups have formed entirely online, building true bonds of friendship and connection that people used to get from covens and other local groups.  

 

A lot of people still struggle with the idea of 'online friends', people who you have never met in person but who are real and true friends.  Speaking as someone who has quite a few, really awesome and long term online friends, I know that they can be just as real and important as people you have met face too face.

 

In the same way, people you work with and discuss magical things with can be just as important to our paths and practices, even if we only know them online.  We can work closely with people, share our insights, breakthroughs and concerns.  Our online groups can be just as supportive and nourishing as physical groups.

 

Plus, you have the added convenience of being able to work around the other parts of your life.  One of the greatest things (in my opinion) about online communication is that it doesn't have to happen in real time.  I can message someone or make a post, and other people can respond when they are able.  I can 'talk' with people in very different time zones, and a conversation may take a bit longer, but it expands your circle, it lets you share ideas with people who have very different daily experiences.

 

Even planning real-time virtual events is often easier than trying to plan a physical meetup.  It removes travel, which can add a lot of time to an event (and might exclude some people straight off, if they don't have reliable transportation or child care or the like).  It is much easier to fit in a half hour video call than it is to try to carve out a five hour block of time to cover travel, socialization, setup and clean up...and actually doing the thing.

 

As a magical community, we've changed our attitudes towards solitary work, and it is no longer seen as something that people do because they can't find (or be accepted by) a group.  Being self-taught and eclectic doesn't have the stigma that it used to have. It is high time we start adjusting our views on group work in the same way.  Groups come in all types, and working with others can be done in many ways to fit many different people.  It make take some getting used to, especially if you aren't that tech savvy, but it is well worth the effort to try different groups and find one that works for you!

In honor of books...

 I saw a meme the other day that questioned why we don't have awards for books the same way we do for movies or T.V.  Sure, we have lists, like the New York Best sellers or awards like the National Book awards, and of course getting on Oprah's Book Club is a huge thing.  But wouldn't it be fantastic to have awards like, "Most exciting plot twist," or "Best supporting character"?  

I've ranted before that the written word isn't given the same attention and hype that other forms of artistic expression are afforded.  Actually sitting down to read is often seen as tedious or something that people can't afford to take time to do.  Audio books are huge, promoting the ability to consume a book while you drive or run or do chores or whatever else you want to do while listening to the book.  

People will drop five bucks on a coffee (ugh I really hate that comparison, as I almost never pay that much for coffee..but yeah), some music, a picture...but not a book.  People will flip through magazines and look at the pictures, but books filled with nothing but words turn them away.  They will stop scrolling to read a dozen memes, but not bother to read a post that is more than a sentence long.

As an avid reader, I often feel sorry for people who don't read.  Books engage you in a way that many other forms of education or entertainment just don't.  Reading a book is a physical thing, and it is very different from reading on a device/computer (as much as that is a convenient way to read, it is missing part of the experience).

I've been a reader since....well since I could read.  My bedroom has always featured book shelves, and getting new books is a pleasure that is like nothing else for me.  I am also a rereader.  Sure, there are some books that are a one and done for me, but most of the time books are read with the intent of reading them again in the future.

There is something rare that happens when you reread a book.  You are experiencing the same information, the same story, and yet it is different.  Even if you read the book and then immediately read it again, the act of reading the book changed you.  You will find that parts of the book will read differently now.  It may be because you know what is coming, and so you can see hints of foreshadowing.  Or perhaps the end of the book made you change how you think and now you read the beginning with that altered perspective, leading you to even more insights.  Or maybe, you just find comfort in knowing where the tale will go, in experiencing your favorite scenes and characters again.

I love books in both their pristine and brand new form and also when they are well used and worn.  There is something very alive about an old book, about the way the pages have weathered, about how the spine is broken and the marks that have found their way to the cover, and the pages within.

I'm one of those horrible people who bends page corners and writes in their books.  And while I love me a highlighter, I've come to prefer underlining with colored pencil (less bleed...but it still catches your eye).  I am absolutely fascinated when I find books that other people have written in, I love peeking into other people's heads, especially when it's a book I am interested in.

And while I have a thing for beautiful old books (I mean who doesn't love a leather bound volume with ribbon bookmarks, gilded pages and that wonderful ripped edging!), I also appreciate modern mass-market books.  There is just something absolutely lovely about a clean white page with crisp black letters printed on it.

As a Pagan, I find books particularly magical.  They are a way to transmit a message, not only across space, but across time.  I can pick up a book written by someone hundreds of years ago, that has been translated into a language I can read.  I can write out my words and know they will live beyond me.

Not only that, but I can create something in my mind, describe it and share it with other people.  I can make a world come to life and someone else can find refuge in the place I have created, interact with the people I dreamed up and feel emotions I imbued into my writing.  If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

My love of books also translates to a love of journals.  There is really nothing quite like a brand new journal, a blank book full of potential and waiting to be filled with whatever I want (or need) to put in it.  Just like printed books, there are absolutely wonderful, hand-crafted journals, but simple composition books or spiral notebooks make great journals as well.  The power is in what you do with it, not it's physical form.

I think we use books as tools so often, but we rarely stop to acknowledge them as such.  In the list of tools, we often have the blade, the cup, the wand, the broom, and the list goes on, but often books are left off.  Or if they are mentioned, it is in a very limited capacity:  the Book of Shadows.  But I know that I use a ton of books in my practice!  Especially as a solitary practitioner, books are my teachers, my companions and my students (journals!).

So, I just thought I'd write a little piece, in honor of books.  A listing of the many reasons why books are amazing and why I feel they are undervalued.  And a small reminder that if you work with books, in any form, to remember their impact in your life.