Question of the Week #1

Welcome one and all to the first install of Questions of Week here on The Modern Pagan Magazine. I want to start off with a bit of history to give you all an idea of just what we are building on. Three or Four years ago I noticed that a local e-group I belonged to was starting to slow down. The discussions became rarer and new topics started to appear less and less. I complained a couple of times and then tried to get things going a few different ways. You see I am a strong believer that if you want to complain about something then you had better be willing to step up and do something about it. The Question of the Week was my solution to the problem of silence.

The initial post was entitled ‘Question of the Day’, say I had high hopes and an unrealistic view of what was possible. By the end of the day it was re-posted as the Question of the Week and it kept going from there week after week. It’s moved along with the group a couple of times as it tried to reinvent itself but in the end it had run its course with that audience. My thanks to everyone who has read and taken part the Questions of the Week before this without you this wouldn’t have been possible. Please rest assured that none of your answers will ever be included in any future questions, those answers where yours at the time you gave them and hopefully offered insight into your own practices. Most recently it has become a fixture of my personal blog and a part of an on-going project for future publication. I wanted to bring it to a large audience and the fine people here at the Modern Pagan have given me that chance.

So the idea behind these Questions of the Week is that each week on Monday I will be posting a new question. All of them will be tied in some way to paganism and while in some cases the connection maybe obvious in others it might be a bit more of stretch but trust me they are all connected to it. For all of these Questions of the Week there really is no right or wrong answer. The act of taking the time to think about the question and come up with answer is the real benefit from the question. In some cases you may feel you know the answer straight away and in others you may really need to think on it. Either way take the time to explore your thoughts on the subjects and put them down in your own blog if you have one or notebook if you don’t. As we take part in answering the questions we will dig deeper in to our own faith paths and hopefully in time come to a better understanding of why we do things the way we do. Rather than just doing them that way because it is the way it is done.

Be sure to stop by and comment on the page including your own blog URL so others can in turn visit you and see your answers. These questions make for great blog prompts as many of my blogging friends will attest. The more people who do it the more our own understand of the path as a whole will grow because we will see other people’s answers. If you can comment on their answers as well after all we all love comments and knowing that other people have take an interest in what we are doing.

To any and all Canadian readers, Happy Thanksgiving.

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Questions of the Week #1

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This first Question of Faith comes to you on behalf of our wonderful dog Ginger. After finishing off the introduction, explanation of how this will work, and its history. I started to pace a little bit trying to come up with the first question. There were a number of different options available to me but I knew that the first one had to be something special and also something fun that would encourage people to take part. Ginger just sat there watching me as I walked back and forth with an innocent face that just wanted to be petted and maybe know what I was doing as well. When I paused and reached down to give her what she wants and pet the top of her head the idea struck.

Witches in myth often have pets as a part of their story and a few Craft books mention them as well. But rarely are they given their true due and offered any in depth discussion. How does your family pet come in to your own practice? I’ve known people who put them outside before ritual while some people close the door behind them before starting to keep them out. Still others let them wander about as they wish coming in and out of the circle like it wasn’t there. In my own house we tend to let them wander in and out and do as they please with the exception of Ginger the dog which does tend to get a little overly excited by everything. Well to be honest she gets overly excited by, well anything really.

If you do let your pets or familiars, if you prefer, wander about during ritual have you ever paid any special attention to how they act during the course of the ritual. It’s not at all uncommon for us to be cleaning up after the ritual and finding a cat or two just hanging out under the alter table. I’ve also seen kittens go in to overdrive during an energy building ritual. So many different things can happen with pets in circle and during rituals. I’m sure that we all have stories of pets and the relationship with magic I for one would love to hear some of them.

Regardless of whether you have an open access policy or separate your pets from magic and ritual what led you to that decision. We may never have given any serious thought to why we do what we do but there has to be some type of reason for it and it’s important to know that reason and not do things just because.

The search for an answer is the best part of an answer.
Randilin
P.S. – If you have a picture of your pet among your ritual or magical tools why not share it with the world?

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This question was originally written August 24th 2009, Ginger passed away and traveled on to the Summerland two weeks
later and is missed by her whole family