Author: Dianne Sylvan

Devotional Witchcraft 101, Part 2 – To Whom Do I Pray?

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

Strap in, this is gonna get a little wordy.  I’m not going to cut too much though because this is important.

I used to be your bog-standard Wiccan duotheist – God and Goddess, Moon and Sun, all that stuff.  Before that, I spent time as what we used to call Dianic (I have no idea if that’s still the term) meaning I only revered the Goddess.  I was influenced by a series of novels that still affect my spirituality today (The Strands of Starlight series by Gael Baudino). 

By the time I was working in a coven I’d returned to duotheism, and for a long time had a relationship with a particular face of the God, whom I called Jeff (just for expediency among humans since He didn’t really have a name).   I also had a yearlong experience with a dark face of the Goddess that started out amazing but ended very badly.  

When I wrote The Circle Within I espoused a form of panentheism, although I didn’t know the word yet (people were very happy to tell me after the book was published, lol).  I described it as the belief that Deity is within the universe as well as outside it – that everything is Deity, that nothing can be disconnected from Them because we They are us and everything beyond us. 

In the years leading up to my return to Paganism and my adoption of Unitarian Universalism, I went through all the usual questions and doubts one does when one is a thoughtful believer in a dark decade of the soul.  Is God good?    How do you account for suffering?  Do we really have free will? And so on.  I wasn’t satisfied with any of the answers, let alone how they would apply to duotheist Paganism (which was quickly distilling back down into something more like monotheism).

Then, quite unexpectedly, thanks to my UU minister, I ran headfirst into Process Theology, and realized that, holy shit, it has a name!

I won’t go too deeply into the subject as it would become very dry very quickly, but I have come up with my own take on it that adds in more personal stuff I’ve experienced.  I’m still exploring the entirety of process theology, but the basic concepts have helped me to crystallize a lot of what I already felt about how the sacred works.

The essence is this:  Deity is a verb more than they’re a noun.  Revelation and creation are continuous, and that Web I mentioned in the post about “what is magic” – the Web that is all possibilities and probabilities – is the Goddess’s being (Or God, or Goddess/God, whatever lights your candle).  Since She is that Web, and the Web is in constant flux, that means deity also evolves.  It does so through us and through creation.  In a universe like this we are subject to a lot of circumstances based on our lives intersecting with others, but all beings have some creative freedom or free will.  We simply don’t act in a vacuum where free will is so cut-and-dried.

Deity in my way of thinking has a different character from the mainstream  – She is by nature benevolent, but not omnipotent or perfect.  Omnipresent, and omniscient more or less, yes, but as Her creation is a process that never ends, that means She is subject to the Web as much as we are.   This helps me settle the question of whether or not God is good – to me, I’ve always sensed Her as loving, even if it’s not always pretty, but with the evil in the world I couldn’t reconcile Her nature with reality.  Looking at it from this angle I can.

She knows everything that is happening in the Web at every moment, including the millions of possible outcomes for our choices, but because we have freedom, She can’t know which of those possibilities we will choose until we choose them. 

She may not be omnipotent, but she’s still pretty damn potent – Deity works primarily through influence, showing us beauty and joy and love and the value of compassion to encourage us to choose those paths, rather than thundering down domination or intimidation.  She doesn’t force us to do anything.  Therefore the answer to “God, why do you allow suffering to exist?” is, “Well…why do you?”  Humanity didn’t wake up one day and decide the world should be like this.  Millions of choices got us here.  That same divine creative freedom is the only thing that can save us.  

There is an element of randomness at work in things as well; in most cases you can trace how something happened back through the choices of the people connected to it, but sometimes rocks fall and everyone dies.  The chain of events that led those rocks to fall is far too long or distant for us to see, but She sees.  There is causality for everything, but not necessarily inherent meaning.  Humans are the meaning-makers, so it’s our job to take what happens in our lives and make it mean something to us.

All of this is very brain-intensive, and that may lead you to think my relationship with the Eternal Unfolding is something purely intellectual, but you’d be mistaken.  She speaks and moves through everything that exists and through all our potential and creativity.  We can work together to shift the waking world in ways that are positive and benefit myself and others.  

Deity itself is formless, genderless, faceless; but They are more than happy to enter into symbols and images humans have created so that we can relate to it.  To my view that means your god could be YWVH or Thor or Quan Yin or David Bowie  or Dream of the Endless or all of those at once; they all stand for the same force, and act kind of like an icon in that the picture you click on connects you to something a lot bigger.

Relationship is key in process philosophy and theology.  We exist in a web, remember, not each dangling at the end of a single string.   In this sense God is also in how we treat each other, how we interact, and how we codepend.  All beings live in relationship; that includes humans and nonhumans.   Everyone contributes to the Web and makes small changes with their lives that can ripple into big changes.  Everyone is inherently worthy and of value.

I’m sure there are plenty of nice theological arguments against the way I see things, but honestly?  I don’t give a damn.  I’m learning as I go, experimenting and experiencing.  This way of looking at Deity and the universe makes sense to me and to my spirit.  I feel like if it’s a positive influence on my life and helps me to grow, who the hell cares if God is one or two or the Seven Dwarfs? In the end, someone’s belief about God is less important to the larger world as someone’s behavior based on what their God persuades them to do.  

She wants to see you be brave.

As for my Goddess?  She is essentially dual – one dark half, one light, each governing different times of year.  The two facets bleed into each other quite a bit. There’s not a hard division.  I separate the two just to give me a more useful seasonal calendar.  Most of the time we meet in a forest during either a Full or New Moon, and in that place the sky swirls around like the Aurora Borealis combined with Van Gogh’s The Starry Night.  What does She look like?  Honestly? Kind of like Sara Bareilles.  

If this sounds a lot like the Persephone in the Shadow World series, well…it should.  The books and my life draw from each other.  The Web, the Forest of Spirits…yeah, that’s all “real.”  Did I make it up?  Hell yeah I did.  But as I was getting into the symbolism in the novels, those images began to bleed over into my practice, and finally I realized that She had been there all along, waiting for me to put it all together.  The “real” one isn’t a vampire goddess, of course, but hey, Nobody’s perfect.

Devotional Witchcraft 101: What is Magic, Anyway?

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

In these posts I’ll be talking about my own particular personal tradition.  I call it Devotional Witchcraft, and it blends concepts from Wicca, Unitarian Universalism,  general NeoPaganism, process theology, natural magic, a wee bit of ceremonial magic,  a bit of Eastern thought,  my own imagination, and a dash of pop culture.  (Combine in a neurotypical brain and shake well.)  As always, I am speaking purely from my own 30 years of experience in the Witchly arts.  Others view magic differently and have very different histories.  

I’ve been asked a number of times over the years, “If magic really works, why aren’t Witches all rich and happy?”

The question itself, I feel, both ignores how many different ways there are to have a fulfilling life and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how magic works and what it is for.

My current definition of magic:

The art of using metaphysical energies to influence probability.

The universe exists as a vast web of probabilities that is woven in every moment.  Any given choice you make could yield a dozen different possible futures depending on the others involved, the complexity of the issue, and how much energy and work you put into it.  The idea when doing magic is that you are trying to tip the scales so that the possibility you want to see manifest becomes a higher and higher probability.

Now, depending on how many other influences there are on the situation and the strength of the opposition to your desires, you have a better or lesser chance of getting what you want.  A lot can get between you and your ideal life, especially yourself! 

That’s why we add tools, colors, herbs, et cetera; every natural ally and layer of symbolism you enlist increases the energy you have to work with to put toward your goal.  In my tradition I also ask for help from the Goddess, but not all Witches (or other magical practitioners) work with deities and some work with other sorts of beings.  

Meanwhile, while your spell is cooking, you also get off your ass and work for the goal in the mundane world, because the idea is to increase probability, not wait for stuff to fall in your lap.  

For example:

You have decided you really, really want a new job, so you do a big complicated spell to get one, then sit down and wait for phone calls. 

Will that work?

Highly unlikely.  I mean it’s possible – anything is – but it’s incredibly improbable. 

How do you make it more probable?  You do things like looking at job listings, talking to contacts in whatever industry, then putting in applications and interviewing, following up, yadda yadda.  You know, you do the work.  

So how does that spell you did actually help?  Well, think of it as another thing you’re doing to add to the mix to get the job you need.  You already do things like rehearsing for your interview, boning up on the company itself, and looking swanky when you go in to meet the interviewer.  Now, you’ve also added magical energy to the pot, and that gives you a boost.   The more you put into the spell, the bigger the boost.

Will it miraculously land you a job?  I’d be lying if I said it can’t.  It’s happened to me.  Most often, magic works through coincidences and “it just so happened” events more than through the ostentatiously miraculous.  Things happen faster and turn out better than you expected. You seem lucky to the outside world.  Magic likes to put the right amount of pressure in the right place at the right time, and to make connections between things that might not otherwise line up.  

Whether someone appears happy or wealthy or not, you have no idea what they’ve overcome already with the help of their magic.  We are each a work in progress.  We have to choose where to put our energy, and sometimes spellwork isn’t a priority.  If you’re like me, you have an illness that is every moment sapping your will to endure, so you can’t always get it up, metaphysically speaking.   Sometimes I choose to use my inner resources on magic, and sometimes I just have to go to bed and try again tomorrow.

Magic is an art and a tool, not a fairy wand that poofs your desires into existence.  When you really want something, you do everything you can to help yourself get it; if you’re a Witch, that means have additional means at your disposal.   

At the same time, magic is not (in my experience) just imposing your will on the universe to “make” things happen.  Magic is a sacred art.  You use not only your own energy but that of nature and, when I do it at least, help from the Goddess.  My view of deity is that god is a process, not a thing – constantly changing, unfolding, evolving, and always seeking to experience the world through Her children.  (More on my theology in future posts.)  

Some people think that magic is just in your head, that it’s all imagination and not “real.”  I say, “…so?”  Whether the energy I’m moving around is objectively “real” or not, shit gets done.  Not to be all Matrix-y or anything but “what is real,” anyway?  Working with magic is empowering and uplifting and helps me become more of the person I want to be.  Whether I’m right about how it works or not is, honestly, irrelevant to me.  A worldview with gods and magic makes sense to me and moves my spirit.  I don’t expect anyone else to believe what I do.

(I’ll be pointing this out again when I talk about God, by the way.  Stay tuned. ) 

Ten Things I Love – Minis Edition

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

This time on TTIL I wanted to show off some of my favorite things I’ve made for my dollhouse project, which has been going on for nearly a year now.   I thought I’d show you some of my favorite individual tiny things, most of which I made myself.

1 – The Memory Box

The house belongs to a character named Willow, a Witch who inherited the tiny little place from her now-deceased grandmother (also a Witch).  It’s a mix of new things Willow brought and the somewhat weathered stuff her grandma left behind.  This particular box will be either under the bed or in the clothes armoire; it’s a collection of pictures, articles, and other things the grandmother was saving, a box of memories.  I had a BLAST making this – finding pictures and newspaper pages to shrink, making the box itself.  I’m so happy with how it turned out.

The box is just chipboard (think cereal box) with a woodgrain patterned paper. It looks a little janky in this picture but it’s fairly realistic in real life.
Newspaper clippings, letters, photos, a Valentine, postcards, Grandma’s astrology chart, and a fan from some event or another…making these tiny items and aging them was so fun. A few things were probably saved by the Grandma’s mom, like the headline of the Titanic Sinking. I ended up saving out a couple of pictures to frame for the bedroom walls

2 – The Wind Chime

There are a lot of cool things on the patio, but probably my favorite is the wind chime I built out of toothpicks, string, and wood.  The dragonfly image (a charm) repeats throughout the house.  The chime even makes a tiny little tinkling noise when you disturb it (granted so do I if you scare me badly enough).

3 – The Bird Feeder & Birdhouse

I ordered the hummingbird feeder from one of the many mini shops I love on Etsy but then I thought hey, I could absolutely make one of these for other birds.  The feeder is a clear tube glued into bead caps, filled with a variety of spices and such that looked like bird food.  The birdhouse I built out of popsicle sticks and wood coffee stirrers.

Birds in this neighborhood will be fed a mix of nigella seeds, caraway, and some poppy seeds. Actual millet was way too big.
Just…too cute. I painted it to match the kitchen furniture to bring the color throughout the first floor. I like how it’s weathered and aged looking like it was there long before Willow arrived

4 – The Lavender Plants

This was so fun.  I found a video tutorial on making miniature lavender and decided to give it a go – I love the result!  You shake up poppy seeds in ground up chalk pastel, then dip a floral wire in glue, stick it in the seeds, and swirl it around.  

The little terra cotta pot was purchased, but I made the silver bucket out of a condiment cup. The greenery is just reindeer moss – it’s not exactly like lavender leaves but it was the closest I could manage.

5 – Tiny Vegetables

I made a LOT of food for the kitchen, which I’ll show later, but I think the veggies came out best, as well as the bread. All were made with Super Sculpey. I especially love those tiny baby carrots. I’m amazed at how perfectly the color came out! There’s also the basket that goes on the cart’s shelf; I made that too out of hemp cord wrapped around a wood base, another thing I learned from a video (from one of my favorite YouTube miniaturists by the way). There are several of those baskets in the kitchen. I should make some more, it’s really fun.

These were all made from polymer clay and shaded with ground up chalk pastel.

6 – The Kitchen Island

This was one of the earliest pieces in the project after some other kitchen furnishings. The rooms I made ended up way smaller than I thought they’d be, so there was a lack of counter space in the kitchen. To combat that I made this little cart with a butcher-block-esque top. I carved the knife block by hand, and made the box of recipe cards out of some basswood (I think? Either that or balsa, I can’t remember which I had at the time). The cards were a printable and they all come out of the box. I had to mount the cart on some flat boards stained to match the kitchen floor because the whole thing kept tumping over forwards. It blends in well enough with the floor.

The knives themselves were purchased but everything else is handmade. I love how the knife block came out.

7 – The Journal and Other Desk Things

I made the desk of course (so far there’s only I think two pieces of furniture I didn’t build myself) but a lot of the accessories I ordered, like the TINY POST IT NOTES OMG and the Macbook. But I did make the journal and the pen with it; it’s supposed to be Willow’s notes (she’s a writer too, so she can live out in the woods in this cottage and still earn a living).  

The journal is just paper, with a coating on the cover to give it a sort-of pleather appearance. I made the pen from a toothpick.
Most of the desk accessories were premade, but I did make the ruler and the candle. Technically I bought the chair, but I did cover it to match the curtains in the room.

8 – The Coffee Table Tableau

I thought the coffee table should look like it was in the middle of some kind of activity and a Tarot reading would be cool.  The candle is a white crayon, believe it or not, in another bead cap.  I bought the iPhone and the awesome little mug (it’s a uterus flipping you off).   I also built the table itself.

I used a printable file to make the tiny Tarot, and I purchased the mug and phone. The mat under the cards is just paper.

9 – The Cat Tree (and cats!)

Willow has three cats – I actually haven’t named them yet, but two were painted to look like real cats I’ve known.  The tuxie boy is in honor of my beloved Owen who is no longer with me, but the awkwardly-striped kitty is meant to look something like the Honorable Fitzwilliam Q. Darcy III, the youngest member of the feline horde here at Scorpio Manor.  The tree took a couple of tries but I love how it turned out.  Note the tiny little catnip mouse – I made that too.  It required tweezers. The two painted cats themselves are 3D printed, ordered from another Etsy shop, and the white sleeping cat is ceramic and came from, you guessed it, Etsy.

Wow, that white cat looks huge and pink in this image for some reason. Weird. Felt, wood, a ton of PVA glue. I keep meaning to try and fix the Darcy cat’s face but I’m worried I’d make him look MORE cracked out.

10 – My Own Books

I could keep going – this whole project has been so fun and I’ve learned so many new skills and tools – but the final tour will likely be several posts with lots of detail, so, I stopped at ten today.  

When you make all the books for a 1:12 scale shelf you can make them whatever you want.  I decided to include my own!  I printed the covers super tiny and glued them around bits of either wood or paper.  The paperbacks in front are about 5/8″ tall. They didn’t turn out as nicely as I wanted them too but they’re still pretty nifty, I say.

A few of the books I made, like The Stand and the Sandman, are openable and have actual pages. Most are just covers glued onto wood or cardboard.

Oh, and I should say the runner up is the Hitachi Magic Wand, but I already posted a pic of it in my March Update post. Even a 1:12 scale gal has needs.

Project Post – Apothecary Style Jewelry Cabinet

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

I’ve decided to start doing more posts on my various art and craft projects – honestly I don’t know why I haven’t been.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m building a dollhouse, but this post is not about that exactly. The thing is, once it’s finished it has to go somewhere, and the only place I could think of was on top of the armoire in my bedroom. (It’s not tall.) Unfortunately right now that armoire is home to my jewelry. Idea: Replace the jewelry boxes I made during quarantine with what I’ve always wanted, something apothecary-style, and put it on a shelf by the door where there is about a foot of spare real estate.

I shopped around on the internet but to get the exact thing I wanted would have cost around $120, which I didn’t really want to spend. But my roommate mentioned seeing a little drawer thingie in unfinished wood at Michael’s, so I went to their website and checked it out. Bingo!

Pictured to the left – I ordered two of these for less than $10 apiece. I removed the silly ball handles and feet, and glued the two pieces together.

Meanwhile I ordered some fancy teal wood stain: SamaN brand interior water-based finish in turquoise. It was kinda pricey but sooooo gorgeous.

I stained the outside of the wee units and drawers, then used regular teal paint on the inside of the drawers. I lined those with some scrapbook paper I already had and they look so cool!

I also ordered some lovely little drawer pulls to replace the silly balls. They’re smaller than a lot of the other ones on the market, which was important since I didn’t want the pulls to cover the entire drawer fronts. The whole unit is maybe 9″ tall so I didn’t have a whole lot of space.

I did go over the whole thing with some sandpaper to distress it a little; it was looking all shiny and new and that would never do. I faded out the edges of the drawers and the corners so they’d look a little worn. I loved the effect!

Last, I made little labels to go in the label holders, and now my new jewelry situation is ready to receive. I just have to move all my jewelry over – I may still hang something on the wall to hold necklaces, it just depends on how much I have. Some things I never wear can go in the bottom larger drawers – or I can declutter them! What a thought!

I love it. LOVE IT.

March Recap – Depth Year Update

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

Time for a review of March’s Depth Year efforts.  I have to say this month went a lot better than February, though I’m clearly still a work in progress (in all things!).  

No Buy categories:

I did great in all but one! 

Books – None

Washi tape – None

Miniatures – None (just supplies)

Food delivery- Sweet baby Jesus,  I’m still really struggling here.  I had some really bad brain days this month, and it’s almost impossible to properly feed myself when I’m in the Shit Pit.  I think barely being able to get out of bed is an acceptable circumstance for food delivery; I just need to cut out all the other occasions, like, “Because it’s Wednesday.”  I did manage to stanch the bleeding in the second half of the month which I’m hoping is a positive trend.  

Winnowing categories:

Tarot decks and oracles – not yet

Books – not yet

Cookbooks – not yet

One of the bedroom miniatures, submitted without comment.

Clothes – I gave away three entire grocery bags full of clothes!  My closet is literally half empty.  I was extra relentless – if I hadn’t worn it in a year it went in the bags.  If it didn’t fit it went in the bags.  I gave the whole lot to a woman on my local Buy Nothing group

Altar stuff – not yet

Art supplies – not yet

Also this month I made some progress on the dollhouse (I’m going to do a big tour soon, I just want to get the top floor back wall on so you’re not looking through the house at my roommate’s chair) – I got her altar and Witchy shelves made and installed and they look SO COOL.  

And, I started/completed another unrelated project, an apothecary/library style jewelry cabinet.   There’ll be a separate post on that too.

The altar and Witchy shelves; I made most of it, including the candles.

So……How About April?

This month I’d like to:

1. Continue improvement on the whole food delivery thing, preferably not do it at all.  

2. I didn’t get back on my meditation/ritual wagon as much as I’d like in March either, so that remains a goal.  My hope is to do meditations of 20 minutes (or so) at least 3 times a week, and sit at my altar (for any reason or just to chill) at least once a week.   Amazing how quickly life gets in the way of that!  I do things rather sporadically but I need to make it a habit again.

3.  Keep moving on the decluttering!  

Nothin’ But a Number

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

By the time you’re 45 you should have:

1 – A favorite form of ibuprofen

2 – An embarrassing medical issue involving your butt, belly, or business

3 – A slang vocabulary at least 6-12 months out of date

4 – An animal nemesis somewhere in your neighborhood, whether a marauding squirrel, yapping dog, or blue jay that always shits on your car.

5 – At least one extremely niche interest or hobby that always requires explanation

6 – A driving need to explain that interest or hobby

7 – Realized that you could have spawned half the members of your team at work

8 – A growing appreciation for the phrase “fuck all y’all.”

9 – Heard a song you loved from the 80s-90s sampled by an artist half your age

10 – An existential crisis every time the supermarket rearranges the aisles

Depth Year Check-in: February

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

I’ll be honest:  February was kind of a non-starter.  

Blog Posts require pictures now, right?

A nasty ice storm hit Austin the first week of the month and brought down half the trees in the city; this also knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people, including myself.  Our power was out for four days.  (This happened two years ago, if you’ll recall, only much worse.)  With no way to cook and our fridge out (I hope I never have to clean rotten food out of a fridge that’s had no power for a week ever, ever again!) we had to order out food several times, breaking my “no food delivery” part of the depth year.   I lost my grip on ordering out after that and did it oh, so many times.  Looking at the amount of money I spent it makes me even more determined to shake the habit!  

I’ve grossly violated a couple of other spending categories, but I didn’t do it with my own money!  I got a gift card to B&N and ordered three new books.   But no washi tape or Tarot decks!  Small victories, right?

I did buy a couple of dollhouse things, but they weren’t miniatures themselves; I downloaded some templates for a tiny project to go in the house, and I ordered supplies (wood glue, spackle, sandpaper, UV resin, and a mold to make jars – I tried 100 different ways to make little herb jars, but they all sucked.  I finally broke down and ordered a mold.  Witches need jars, yo.).   As I said, supplies are fine.  Hopefully this order will be enough of everything to finish the house!  My goal is to get it done by May, so it will be a full yearlong project.  

I am thinking maybe when the house is basically finished if I want to do one last order for little things to embellish or finish it off, that would be okay.   For example, I want to get my dollhouse character a pair of rubber rain boots to put on the patio.  Little things like that.  But I’d definitely set a limit! That kind of stuff adds up FAST.

(Don’t worry, I plan to post pics of the house and some of the miniatures I’ve made for it. I’m far too proud of the project not to share it everywhere I can.)

To sum up:  February = NOPE!  I’m not too upset about it; this month blew very similar goats to January.  In March I’m going to focus on three things:  Not ordering food delivery, working on the dollhouse upstairs, and getting back on my meditation practice, which has suffered horribly in the last couple of months.  

What are you hoping to do in March?  Drop a comment if you’d like to share.  

The 7 UU Principles and Paganism

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

Now let’s explore how the 7 Principles of Unitarian Universalism interact with Pagan beliefs and ethics.   You don’t have to dive too deeply to see how compatible the two are.

1st Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

2nd Principle: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

3rd Principle: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

4th Principle: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

5th Principle: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

6th Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

7th Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

There is also an 8th Principle in the process of becoming an official thing:  Journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.  

As a progressive, a feminist, and a proponent of process theology, the 1st and 2nd Principles are kind of a given.  Even a terrible person is a person with the same right to exist with dignity as I have, and they became what they are both by their own choices/mistakes and by the systems and institutions that helped them become that way.  That’s just reality, not an excuse; but knowing how a toddler got a gun doesn’t stop you from taking the gun away, does it?  

We all have some measure of creative freedom in our lives.  Principle #2 points out that our lives exist in relationship with others (meaning everything and everyone we interact with, human or otherwise), and (in my set of values) the only way to live within the Divine Web is to make sure our relationships involve justice, equity, and compassion. 

The 3rd Principle is one of the things that drew me to UU in the first place:  As I said before, you can believe in whatever suits you as a UU, or nothing at all, as long as you share our values and are willing to work together with your fellow travelers to keep nudging that long arc toward justice.   With that plurality of belief comes the importance of Principle 4:  A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.   To me this means learning all you can about the varied ways humans interact with the Divine Web (free), but also respecting the practices of other faiths and cultures (responsible).  Cultural appropriation has historically been an issue in UU congregations as much as it has in Wicca and other NeoPagan traditions but both are working to address it.  

If you’re an anarchist at heart the 5th Principle may rankle, but then again, you’d be less likely to consider joining a  church in the first place, right?  UUs believe in the democratic process, though we acknowledge its flaws and how, in practice, it has become so corrupt in America in particular.  But it still seems like one of the best systems going, so as long as the system can be changed for the better, we’re all up in it.  

When it comes to Principle 6  I don’t know of any NeoPagan tradition that believes in racism, misogyny, environmental degredation, and homophobia.  But although I’ve never encountered an entire trad that held these beliefs but I have seen individuals and groups within the trad that did.  I usually refuse to call any path “wrong,” but if your religion does promote any of these things, it is WRONG.  WRONG WRONG WRONG.  It needs to go sit in its little circle of wrongness and be WRONG and stay away from me and mine. 

When we bring in the 8th Principle – in a word, antiracism – we really dig into our philosophies on justice and liberty.  Just as a lot of people don’t think legislation protecting women’s rights is necessary because the Constitution “already covers everyone,” there are people who think the 8th Principle is redundant based on the other already-existing principles.  But in truth, racism is so endemic to our society that you can’t just *say* everyone is equal and have it come true.  In our culture we have to actively work to create systems that are antiracist.  If deep down you believe in the American promise of equality and freedom, then looking around you must see we have neither, and it is our responsibility (everyone’s!) to change this.  

Ask the average (hahaha) Pagan UU which Principle they like best and many will probably say the Seventh, Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.  The contributions of Earth-based religions weren’t part of the earliest versions of Unitarian Universalism, but unlike a number of other faiths UUs are quite pleased to evolve with the times, so Pagan ideas about nature became one of the primary sources for UU wisdom.   The more intensely climate change ravages the planet the more important the 7th Principle becomes.  #7 also fits in nicely with my own concept of Deity and the universe – at the moment I call it the Divine Web – which governs every form of connection I have with, well, everything.  I’ll get more into the Web in a later post since it’s the fundamental metaphor of my personal tradition, but suffice it to say, I would have to name #7 as a favorite too.  

So…You’re a What Now?

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

When I tell people I’ve joined a church, they tend to stare at me like I’ve sprouted a second head.  After I clarify “It’s a Unitarian Universalist church,” I get one of two responses most often:  1) Relief that they didn’t miss the part where I converted to Christianity (then worry that this has indeed happened out of the clear blue nowhere) or 2) “So are you still a Pagan?  What does that make you now?”  If they really want to know, I tell them what I’m telling you:

I consider myself a Pagan Unitarian Universalist Witch. 

The order of the words there is important to me.  “Pagan” represents the inner circle of my spiritual identity, my actual beliefs about Deity and religion.  The outer circle is UU, how I come together in community with people whose beliefs lead them to the same conclusions about right, wrong, equality, and justice that mine do.  Everyone in that community has their own inner circle but we all connect through the outer.  

I like the feel of landing on the word “Witch” last, as the art and craft of causing change at an energetic level, using symbology and the power of imagination, is a way that I bring both the inner and outer circles into manifest reality.   

The thing is, I’m not a protester.  I’m never going to march in the streets or risk being tasered or make phone calls.  I have social anxiety around all those things that I find insurmountable – and for a long time it made me feel inadequate as a “social justice warrior” (an epithet I accept with pride), but I finally realized something important:

The world needs all the help it can get, in as many forms as it can come.  It needs letter writers and sign carriers and megaphone shouters and barricade breakers and advocates of all stripes.  It needs writers and artists.  It needs introverts and extroverts.  Administrators, organizers, workers within and outside systems.  It needs bake sales and pamphlets and prayer and divine light and sweat and all-night planning sessions.  

And it needs Witches.  I view magic as a sacred tool that doesn’t take the place of other forms of action but augments it and can often tip the scales in subtle (and not so subtle) ways.  I can do magic to help draw attention to a cause and attract the right people to help.  I can push for greater kindness and compassion as well as nourish them in myself using magic and prayer.  And by joining a UU church, I can find new ways to use my other talents and aptitudes. 

As a UU I come into contact with all sorts of people that I wouldn’t have just practicing on my own, and that means I learn from them how to be a more effective change-bringer, and they learn from me as well.  Community is kind of a nice thing to have, even when you’re largely a loner like myself.  I love the opportunity to choose to enter into relationships with some of the coolest people I can imagine knowing.

Pagans are often very inwardly focused – most modern spirituality movements are, especially the nuttier the rest of the world becomes.  In the face of so much we can’t control, practices like Witchcraft give us some sense of captaining our own fates.  We focus on becoming happier and better people, which is a wonderful goal to have; but I think many of us forget to extend those vibes beyond our own Circles, or don’t realize that they can help other people besides ourselves.

The inner work is very important to me – coming into an authentic expression of life and manifesting change in myself and my own little world means I have more to offer “out there.”  But adding my own skills to a congregation of people who may not have the same beliefs or traditions but have many of the same goals for social change makes my efforts ten times more effective.   

I often feel overwhelmed by the enormity of wrong that my beliefs compel me to make right; but being able to work with others reminds me it’s not all my responsibility.   In fact, community is going to be what saves us if anything does – the ability to come together and find solutions.  It’s way easier to topple an ivory tower when you’ve got 100 others pushing with you.  

In this way those three segments of my identity come together to work as a whole.  There is of course one more very important aspect to my me-ness – veganism – but it’s not a separate aspect.  It informs all of them.  I’ll go into this more in future posts, but I consider my vegan practice deeply entwined with my spirituality, which then ripples out through both my relationships with others and the way I manifest change.  I feel like all of these things make sense, and work together as a living system, my own particular corner of the Divine Web of all existence.

Pagan UU Means…what?

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

This year I want to explore life as a Pagan Unitarian Universalist more thoroughly – it’s easy enough to say you’re one, and pretty easy to join a UU congregation without going too deeply into what that means as long as you’re enthusiastic about progressive religion and social action, but when you get down to it, how do the self identifiers “Pagan” and “UU”  connect?  Obviously the two are compatible since there are quite a few of us, but I want to consider what it means for my own personal spiritual tradition to be made up of these two things.

I consider Paganism the internal workings of my spiritual life, and UU more as outward workings.  Generally “religion” is what you do with other people; and “spirituality” is what you do on your own with your gods (or whatever).  UU is pretty outward-focused and makes the perfectly reasonable assumption that promoting social justice and positive change in the world benefits all of society, which of course includes you as an individual.   

If you’re not terribly familiar with Unitarian Universalism, the gist is that a UU congregation is not formed based on shared belief, but on shared behavior.  A UU church comes together and agrees on how to treat each other in what’s known as a Covenant.  Every UU church will have one, and sub-groups within that church will usually each have their own.  Again, it’s not an agreement about God or faith or any metaphysical concept – it’s a formal way of everyone agreeing not to be assholes to each other.

I also have a personal covenant just between me and my gods, which was the first UU thing that I decided to adapt to my own practice.   It’s about relationship as well – mine and Theirs, and mine with myself.  If you ever hear me say that I’m “out of Covenant” with myself I probably did something regrettable.

Unitarian Universalists follow what we call the Seven Principles, and draw spiritual inspiration from the Six Sources.  I plan to say a lot more about both but first I just wanted to share what they are so that in my next post I can burrow in.

The Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism

  1.  The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
  2.  Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
  3.  Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
  4.  A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
  5.  The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
  6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
  7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The 6 UU Sources

  1. Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.
  2. Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.
  3. Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.
  4. Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
  5. Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit
  6. Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

If you’d like more info on UU I recommend my church’s website  for a primer, and the Unitarian Universalist Association for a more in-depth look.  Our history’s pretty interesting as well.