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Friday, November 06, 2009
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Current mood:  accomplished
Arsenic & Old Lace....
Happy November!....
 ....
Happy November! ....
Ah,
November. It's one of my favorite times of the year, and not just for
Thanksgiving! For me, this time of year marks the change to when I am
more focused on the home, family, and friends.
November seems to be a bit scarce on holidays. On a secular level in
the USA, we celebrate Thanksgiving. For modern Paganism, most of us
have already celebrated 3 harvest festivals but one more never hurts!
Even so, you don't find many modern Pagan celebrations during this
month.
Most of the regular Sabbats or celebrations in
modern Paganism are fairly solar focused in their emphasis. Being
without a formal holiday this month lets me focus on more personal
aspects of my practice such as my devotional work with regards to the
importance of friends and family. This often takes the form of
meditations and ritual designed around, not the solar myths but instead
around the lunar cycle. As they occur this month, their order is Full,
Waning, New, and Waxing.
I find it particularly
empowering to prepare myself with a ritual bath prior to starting my
devotions, whether I have a full ritual planned or just a simple
meditation. Ritual baths work by bringing the mind and body into
alignment with your intention. .... .. .. To encourage you to try this wonderful and easy way to focus, we're giving our members special discounts on our entire selection of AG Ritual Baths. Save 15%!....  Upcoming Events - A Befana Yule ....
.... Join Vinnie and the Society of Elder Faiths
in celebrating the Winter Solstice - Yule, the Return of the Sun! This
year we will be presenting a "Befana Yule" ritual.....
Date: ....
Friday, December 11th.... Time:.... Doors open at 6 PM
Orientation at 7 PM.... Place:.... Brigham Hill Community Farm.... .. .. Befana
is the Italian "good witch" who brings gifts of the season to the
children. She represents the Goddess of the Hearth who gives renewal to
the Sun. She is also the old crone who connects us to our Ancestors and
the cycle of life, growth, and renewal..... | New & Noteworthy - Spell Casting Shop and improved Site Navigation.... .... We're
going to be instituting several new "collections". These collections
will be groupings of products by a common theme. We'll still have all
of our old "departments" like books, music, and candles but we thought
that since we do have over 6000 items, designing collections would make
it even easier for you to find what you need. Our newest collection is
our Spell Casting Shop where we've assembled everything from full ritual kits to those hard to find ingredients like coffin nails.
Site navigation has been improved! Come by the site and see the
marvelous job that Mike did with redesigning our UI for more intuitive
menus. We have added menus on the homepage, search, and product listing
pages to make it easier to navigate to specific categories or
subcategories. You can always find where you want no matter where it
appears at the site.
Come by and let us know what you think!.... | About Arsenic & Old Lace.... .. .. Founded
in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1981 and now exclusively on the web,
Arsenic & Old Lace is dedicated to providing quality products and
advice to the Pagan and Wiccan communities. We have become one of the
best known occult supply shops in New England and one of the most
trusted places to get quality supplies and gifts. We strive to provide
the best possible service for our customers. ....
You can choose from over 6000 products and save 5% or more off retail prices.....
| Arsenic & Old Lace.... Rev. Vincent Russo.... Proprietor.... | | |
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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Samhain Practices
One of the nice things about working in Salem is that I get to be exposed to Witches from all different paths and get to discuss how they celebrate the season.
In one of the Traditions that I practice, we hold a formal ritual that is both celebratory as well as a magic working. A special altar is set up with photos of our beloved dead and may include poems and written remembrances. We call to our beloved dead to return to us and we toast them, remember them, and honor them. In addition, we invoke the Queen of the Underworld and her Lord Hades so they may part the Veil while we call to all those souls who have passed on since last Samhain. We do this so we may usher them across and guide them to the next stage in their journey.
In another of the Traditions that I practice, we have 2 cauldrons on either side of the altar. The first cauldron is for us to burn petitions or prayers that represent those things that we are done with for the year and ask them to be taken away as the old year ends. These prayers are always expressed as positively as possible such as “obstacles to prosperity” rather than “financial hardship”. If the prayer is for the greater community or the world, we might petition for something like “take from us unnecessary war and suffering”. In this way, we work magic on a personal as well as a universal level.
The second cauldron is for the burning of petitions related to Justice, again both personal and universal. We ritually call to the Gods to redress the wrongs done to us and the wrongs that we may have done to others with the firm goal of Justice and redressing balance. We never work for vengeance, only Justice. If we feel that there is no need to have a cauldron of Justice for a particular year, sometimes one cauldron is used for personal petitions and the other is used for universal petitions.
The Strega also feel that Samhain is a time to “dress your best”. You dress in your best to make the best impression, you serve your best food for your ancestors and your living family, you toast them and each other with you best wine, and you prepare to end the old year “as your best”. In this way, you enter the New Year with all things in order.
What sorts of practices are important to you at this time of year?
Benedizioni,
---Vinnie
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Monday, October 26, 2009
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Repost -
http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/75/37.php
Observance of Wiccan New Year Ends in Religious Discrimination Suit
In a complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut, Gina Uberti
alleges she was unfairly terminated for practicing Wicca, known as the
largest of neopagan religions.
October 23, 2009 Observance of Wiccan New Year Ends in Religious Discrimination Suit
Last Halloween, Gina
Uberti took vacation days to celebrate the Wiccan new year in Salem,
Massachusetts, the town infamously known for the witch trials of 1692
that ended with the hanging of 14 women. Less than a month after
Uberti took part in the festivities of Samhain, one of the holiest days
in the Wiccan calendar, she was fired from her job as a district sales
manager for Bath & Body Works.
Uberti
alleges in the lawsuit that her boss said just before she was fired,
“You will need a new career in your new year. … I will be damned if I
have a devil worshiper on my team.”
Uberti says in the suit that
her troubles at work began shortly after she returned from her trip to
Salem. Her boss lamented that Uberti had chosen to go on vacation
during a particularly important week at work, Uberti said. Uberti said
her vacation had been approved by another manager a year in advance and
that she had taken that particular time to celebrate a Wiccan holiday.
“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Uberti’s boss, Sandra Scibelli said, according to court documents.
Until
she was fired November 20, 2008, Uberti had worked for the retailer for
eight years, first as a manager in the company’s Milford, Connecticut,
store and then as a sales manager from her home in nearby East Haven.
Uberti
filed charges in February with the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, which granted her the right to sue in September.
Bath & Body Works is part of Limited Brands Inc, based in Columbus, Ohio.
“We
are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate against race,
color, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, citizenship,
age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status,” says Robin
Hoffman, specialist, external communications for Limited Brands.
“Additionally, we do not comment on pending litigation.”
Uberti’s
lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for emotional distress and damage to
her career as well as lost pay, vacation days and pension benefits, as
well as other restitution.
Tal Marnin, an attorney with White & Case in New York, says U.S. law prohibits religious discrimination regardless of whether the religion is widely practiced or not.
“The
employee has to show she is a sincere believer and that her attending
the ceremony was part of her religious observance and practice,” Marnin
said.
The company would have to show Uberti’s absence caused it an “undue hardship,” Marnin said.
The
Wiccan new year, Samhain, takes place the same day as the Celtic new
year. It is considered one of the four holy festivals, or Sabbats,
according to the complaint. Uberti says in her complaint that for the
previous six years she had received and taken time off to make the
annual new year’s pilgrimage to Salem.
Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act protects covered employees from discrimination on the basis
of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
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