Page of Pentacles

Congregationalist Wiccan Association of BC 5196 Moscrop Street Burnaby, British Columbia V5G 2G4 www.cwabc.org

C.C.C.C.C.W.W.W.W.W.A.A.A.A.A.B. C.B. C.B. C.B. C.B. C.

#21- January 2007 c.e.

$12/yr, included with membership.

What day is the day that we know that we hope for or fear for? Every day is the day we should fear from or hope from.One moment Weighs like another. Only in retrospection, selection.We say, that was the say. The crucial moment That is always now, and here. even now, in sordid particulars.The eternal design may appear.

T.S. Eliot “Murder In The Cathedral” Section II, lines 56-62.

The other day, while doing trance work, Iconnected with one of my female God friends and astrange thing happened. The Goddess felt weak andtired. In fact, she asked for my help. Howdisorienting. These Gods are supposed to be alwayson! Always strong, always beautiful, always loving,always wise.Hm.What does the Charge of the Goddess say?“And thou who thinkest to seek for me, know thysearching and yearning shall avail thee not unless thouknowest the mystery: that if that which thou seekestthou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find itwithout thee. For behold, I have been with you fromthe beginning; and I am that which is attained at theend of desire.”That which I seek is within me. The Gods havealways been with me.So much intermingling. I feel rudderless and ask for my Goddess friend to appear, and she does – butshe is weak and needs me. So I help her – and inhelping her I gain strength.That which I seek is within me. She, the greatGoddess, is within me. If she is within me, then, tosome degree she is me. If she is me, and I have allher presence, strength, beauty, love and wisdom

Shadows

By Isabella Mori Continued next page Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Continued next page Shadows Shadows Shadows Shadows Shadows

Looking Ahead

by Sam Wagar

Well, after almost three years, our church is wellbegun here in British Columbia. The stirrings of otherprovincial branches can be heard in Alberta andManitoba as well. And I, optimistically, can hope andexpect that we’ll still be doing this for many years.I’m going to take my editorial prerogative, here at theend of one year and the start of another, to look ahead.How shall we be serving the Gods and Theirpeople? Not through serving the church primarily – itis a means to the ends of service, a place of comfortand spiritual nourishment of its members and friends,nothing more, but certainly also nothing less. We arealready a good force in our communities, a shelterand a home for an increasing number of the Gods’people. We can expect, and plan, that we will growboth in numbers and friends and in the number of Temples that we have.Although most of the original founding membersand the clergy ordained this year will still be alive andactive for a long time, new leaders will emerge aswell. Some new leaders are already emerging in ourTemple Councils and projects.Although the average age of people involved in thechurch will stay young if we are fertile, hold onto our

2within me, then she also has all my shadow sideswithin her: my feelings of aimlessness, my lethargy,my darkness.Now the fact that the Charge of the Goddess is inmy Book of Shadows makes much more sense to me…You know how it is – a lot of these things makesense on an intellectual level. Of course I know thatour spiritual journals are called the Book of Shadowsnot just because it’s such a cool witchy title. And I’veread and to some degree understood some of CarlJung’s writings on the idea of the shadow: that we allcarry our dark underbellies with us, and that ouremotional and spiritual health and progress are relatedto how well we acknowledge and work with the dark,shadowy aspects of our psyche.But it’s always good when this intellectualunderstanding gets lifted into heart-and-soul-feltreality. Actually, it’s paradoxical – I imagine theintellectual comprehension as a muted, slightly unrealunderwater type of knowledge, and it’s only when arealization that comes from an even deeper placepropels me that I get thrown up out of the waves intothe bright light of reality. Phew! Gasp! It’s likecoming up for air!It is fitting that in thinking about this article I hadthis dream: I approached a roundtable of stern andserious-looking judges, and walked past them to abarn, where I encountered a vicious mass murderer.He attacked me and I could not help but stab him.However, as much as I stabbed, I was unable to killhim. Finally, I reduced him to a mass of blood andgore, but he was still alive, was still threatening to killme. I decided to carry him out into the open, past the judges, for the whole world to see. Even though I wasnow facing life imprisonment because it looked like Iwas the vicious murderer, having brought this demonout into the light, I felt much freer and calmer. (As Iwoke up, I did wonder, however, what it would havebeen like had I not defended myself against thedemon by attacking him in return but instead touched,even embraced him.)Choosing the path of the Gods of any religion isnot easy. Often it’s a joyous path and then there aretimes when it’s scary and arduous. But one thing Iknow much better now, much more in my bones, isthat walking past the shadows on this path, pretendingthey don’t exist, is going to make it harder to emergeinto the light of What Is. By acknowledging myshadows and the shadows of those around me,including the Gods in my life, I gain inner freedom nomatter how constrained my outer conditions mayappear. And honouring the shadows helps towardsbeing an instrument in helping others gain more innerfreedom, as well.

Isabella Mori is a practicing psychotherapist inVancouver. She welcomes comments and questionsthrough email at moritherapy@shaw.ca, through her website at www.moritherapy.com, or through her blog atwww.moritherapy.org.

Continued Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Looking Ahead Continued Shadows Shadows Shadows Shadows Shadows

kids and provide a welcoming place for youngfamilies, they, and we, will age. Some of our oldestmembers, and people in their families, will come toneed help to live their lives, and some will die of oldage. Some will become ill or be injured and disabled.Our young people will also grow older and most willmarry and establish families. Their children will needto have a place here in our church. Some of us willget better jobs and make more money while otherswill fall on hard times. Compassion and caring foreach other will, I expect, grow into caring for othersoutside of our community.So we need to be prepared to celebrate and mournall of the passages of life together – the funerals,wiccanings and weddings – and to offer goodreligious education for children and young adults. Wewill provide support for individuals through the trialsof life. We will mark life’s common passages frombirth to death for individuals and their families.We’ll need to be aware of emerging needs andopportunities for service to our community, andprepared to work with an eye to those needs. We arehere on this Earth not simply for ourselves but to findand express love, love for others, which is whatcompletes us as individuals and as a church.Our Mother Earth will suffer from continuedpollution and Her creatures from habitat destructionand we will increasingly be called to environmentalstewardship and advocacy.The programs and activities just beginning in thevarious Temples now will grow in coming years, if they are well matched to the hurts and hopes of thepeople in our communities. We will continue to bringpeople together to learn about the Gods active in theworld and our lives, and to celebrate together in publicworship. The centre of all that we do is fostering thespiritual life in individuals, families, and communities.We will help our members and friends in buildinglong-term committed relationships and marriages andin raising their children. We will celebrate and supportchildren and old people, and make places for themboth in our rituals and the structure of our church. Aswe value the equality of women and men we will notsupport sexism aimed at either gender, nor deny thedifferent needs and experiences of the two sexes. Aswe value the natural world, we will seek tounderstand humanity as part of nature, to live inharmony with her and to encourage healthy and

Temple News

Vancouver-Burnaby Temple

The New Year brings a new schedule for ourOpen Circles. Since our experience and that of otherTemples suggests that many people prefer to gettogether to celebrate the Sabbats, Temple meetings in2007 will happen on the Monday before the Sabbat(Thus, eight times a year rather than monthly.) Thethemes of the rituals will be tied more closely to thethemes of the yearly cycle. The next circle will takeplace on January 29th for a celebration of Imbolc andBrigid. As usual, we will gather in Burnaby atMetrotown Mall’s Community Room near Old Navyat 7:00 pm.Despite the pull of Boxing Week sales, theDecember coffee meet drew a group of nine togetherfor discussions of books, movies, patriarchy inAncient Greece, and various other topics. In 2007, wewill continue to meet on the last Friday of each monthat Sacred Space bookstore/café on Pender. (StadiumSkytrain Station near Tinseltown)The Temple Open Circle on December 11 was abit early for a Yule celebration so we focused onpreparing for both the pleasures and the stresses of the holiday season. Among others, we called FatherChristmas, Frau Hulda, and Scrooge all of whomhave something to teach us about generosity, growth,and honouring the child within each of us. Weanointed candles with Clarity and Harmony oil tosupport us during this season. Yule memories andplans were shared around the circle with old friendsand new.Sam and Anne were both able to spend some timewith their children in December. Sam’s sons Gwydionand Julian visited for a few days just before Yule.Anne’s daughters Audra and Claire made severalshorter visits and Anne has been able to spend sometime with them in Abbotsford.New Year Blessings of Health and Happiness toall,Anne and SamPriestess and PriestVancouver-Burnaby Temple/CWAannedore@shaw.casamwagar@shaw.ca

South Okanagan Temple (Penticton)

Now that we have finished with our Yulestuffing...err...feasting, I’m hoping everyone is readyto concentrate on new projects for the spring. Now isthe time to plan, now is the time to dedicate somethought and action to projects leading to goals andsuccess. In our home, the days after Yule is spentreorganizing and cleaning. On the surface this seemslike such a noble, spiritual thing, but really, with twokids that have just received a ton of loot and ourhouse having been the focus of such a huge load of guests and frivolity, it’s kinda rather necessary.In my home, Yule is a day of open visiting andfeasting and frivolity. We have had our 2nd OpenHouse Potluck dinner and it really went off withoutmuch of a hitch at all. Again, we saw peopleunknown to us originally, had even family drop in thistime! and we had a 18 adults and we had a gaggle of kids underfoot to liven the air with their laughter andscreeches and fun! I got some ideas for next year,being that some of the kids got hopeful of even moregifts...I think we’ll add a visit from the Oak King nextyear...poor Mike, I might be asking him to play therole...LOL, unless someone else comes along to joinin the fun...and I do have some ideas! We also mighthave to rent space for next year, because if thisexpansion keeps up, I just won’t have room unless Iown a mansion! LOL Thank you to all who joined us,you made it special and magickal. To those who couldnot make it, you were there in spirit and we love younone the less for your absence, you can’t behappy city life, which also expresses the divine andour nature as social animals. Respecting and learningfrom gay and lesbian sexuality and life and otherminority sexualities, we will help to strengthen theserelationships on the basis of mutual love and long-term commitment.CWA will become a mainstream religious body.We will be this by both working to change themainstream to suit us, and by centring our service onthe life cycle experienced by everyone.Religion is a whole life commitment. Not a “phaseof your life” consumer option, but something that livesthrough a life from birth to death and beyond. Buildinga community of young adults centred on party-heartyactivities with lots of enthusiastic sex in the bushes isone thing but it’s not a religion. Helping people to livefrom a values centre as children, youth, young adultsthrough to old age, understanding all of the passagesof life and sharing them together - this is much moresatisfying.And I’m looking ahead more than just a year withthis dream I share.In the New Year, may we be blessed with loveand courage, wisdom and compassion. Blessed Be.