On February 20 through 23, 2025, ConVocation will celebrate its 30th year as a Michigan convention for magical people. First founded in 1995, ConVocation has been hosted in various hotels around southeastern Michigan before finding its new home in Ypsilanti in 2024. Moira Payne, ConVocation 2025’s Program Chair and President of the Magical Education Council of Ann Arbor, hopes this new home will be permanent.
Posts filed under Pagan
Sacred Oak and Dove: The Ancient Oracle of Dodona
Far away in the mists of ancient days, there once dwelt a band of extraordinary trees with the gift of prophecy: oaks with the power of human speech, answering the needs of mortals who journeyed far to seek their wise counsel. This sounds like a folk tale, but it is not. Deeply rooted in archaic Greek myth, these oaks also lived in history as the first and only oracle existing in Greece for many years. Ancient mythographers remembered the priestesses who tended these oaks as the first females on earth who ever sang their own compositions; their companion nymphs were compassionate nurses for Zeus, shielding him in his vulnerable infancy, and henceforth revealing his will to mortals. In the remote and mountainous terrain of Epirus in northwest Greece, from the second millennium BCE, this sacred forest grew in the mystical sanctuary of Dodona.
Apostasy: Terraforming Tradition as the Crow Flies
Apostasy isn’t easy. I grew up in a rural community in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. We attended a backwoods United Methodist church which, as far as backwoods religion goes, was not the worst. While I was not barraged every Sunday with hellfire, brimstone, speaking in tongues, or snake handling, our church services were characterized by oppressive silence both literally and philosophically. Alienation and gossip were the means by which order was enforced. All are condemned to whatever degree one cannot conform.
Your Nodal Axis Knows
Years ago, my friend Lorraine and I were comparing junior high report cards which, back then, were much more than a letter grade representing your academic successes and failures. Teachers actually wrote a list of everything they wanted your parents to know you were or weren’t doing. In my case, the list was long and critical.
Astrologically Speaking~The Fab Five: Our Outer Planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
Moving beyond Mercury through Mars, the outer planets typically are going to have a less personal effect on us in the everyday sense. The longer orbits of these planets mean they don’t change signs as often so they will be in the same signs as people around our same age or in our same generation. For example, if you were born between 1998 and 2011, you have Neptune in the sign of Aquarius.
Be You Not Afraid: Redeeming the Most Feared Major Arcana
As I was offering tarot card readings at a local flea market, I was approached by a woman of 75 years who said she’d never received a reading before. I told her I’d be happy to be her first, and she said, “Just as long as you don’t pull the death card.” Lo and behold, she shuffled the cards, and Death was the first card I pulled.
Goddess of Borderland, Mistress of Crossroads--Pokeweed-Hekate
Having watched the moon set with the sun’s rising, the ancient lunar goddess Hekate is on my mind. And near the Huron river path this morning, a pokeweed plant reaches upward offering a message and posing a hieroglyphic sign as she raises her arms in slender scarlet sleeves. Fresh green pendants nestle beside fully ripe ink-purple fruit on her supple limbs where she drapes luxurious flowing tresses, trailing glossy clusters from slender stems. Wildly flowering, the goddess and plant step from forest edge as one to emerge into the waking world. Hekate dances within her chosen ally pokeweed, just as ancient Greeks thought nymphs ensouled their trees in mutual lifelong union.
The Quartz Crystals in Our Lives — Necessity, Healing, and Magic
For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with quartz crystals. They call to my heart and sing to my soul. I have them in most every room of my home. As a spiritual person, I believe in the metaphysical and healing use of crystals of all varieties. My favorite crystal is clear quartz. I love the beauty and clarity of these faceted wonders of nature.
The Parliament of World Religions Returns to the Shore of Lake Michigan
Religious leaders from around the world converged on the shore of Lake Michigan this past summer for a convening of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. For one week, the McCormick Center, which normally plays host to auto shows and pop culture conventions, was filled with priests, pastors, monks, nuns, rabbis, imams, swamis, and various other devotees of world religions.
Out of My Comfort Zone: Answering the Call to Rest
At the beginning of this year, I did what many of us do when preparing for another trip around the sun. I set about visioning, but also taking real stock and looking at the reality of the health of my enterprises, my finances, and my body. My approach to the known challenges, I decided, was to bring in freshness of perspective, make some pivots, and then put my head down and work it. My retail business and its educational programming are currently at a critical juncture, and they really needed my undivided attention and energy. Therefore, plans for personal development (i.e, retreats, trainings, coaching), travel, or casual socializing were put on hold. I felt good about this plan. I love my work. I want my business to thrive, and I needed a big turnaround in terms of finances. So, I grabbed my oar. However, a naughty word kept creeping into my thoughts…Sabbatical.*
The Witches of West Michigan Offer Spiritual Community for All
Just a decade ago, being casually invited to such an event would have been unthinkable to me. There were no public-facing witchcraft groups within easy reach of my Michigan hometown at the time. Even though I knew many local people had an interest in the Pagan spiritual arts, practice groups were generally underground and by invitation only.
Psychic Shields - Protecting Yourself from Negative Energies
The moon hid behind clouds in the night sky, as I stumbled my way through fresh snow headed for the barn. Even using my cell phone as a flashlight, I was barely able to see two steps in front of me. Crossing the threshold in the dark, I could sense the mold and mustiness that clung to the wooden structure, which appeared quite new. I reminded myself to even my breathing, while searching for a light switch, which I finally found behind the door.
Sacred Smoke: Smudging, Smoke Cleansing, and Purifying Your Space with Intention
Smoke permeates the air. You can see its path and how it spreads. There can be no place that is missed in a place where there is smoke. In so many ways, the smoke takes our hopes and desires and carries them away to be spread across the world. Given this, it’s not surprising that it has been used in spiritual and religious ceremonies around the world and across virtually all cultures. The first recorded use was with incense used by Egyptians as far back as 2500 BC, but it was also being developed in practices in China at the same time. Religious use of incense is prominent in Buddhist, Taoist, and Shinto shrines. These practices saw the burning of incense to be a way of purifying the surroundings and bringing forth Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Gods.
Double Double, Toil and Trouble: The Appeal of Witchcraft and Paganism in the Modern Era
You see it in Newsweek, CNN, and other news websites that report on spirituality and esoteric culture like Quartz and Gaia. You see it through phenomena such as Instagram’s 300k+ subscriber feed to Hoodwitch, Youtube’s explosive growth of tarot readers, and gray or shamanic witches offering online tutorials and looks into their family traditions of Celtic witchcraft, and Wiccan seasonal ceremonies. Wicca, witchcraft, and paganism have long had an important perch within Crazy Wisdom Bookstore’s book sections, and local Wiccans, witches, and pagans have long been written about in The Crazy Community Wisdom Journal, but all these related areas are experiencing exponential growth, both locally in earth-religion-friendly Ann Arbor and on the national scale.
