Raise the Horns

27/12/2023

A response to The Atlantic Article: Return of the Pagans:

We are all kin, children of the same earth, and within each of us lies a spark of something truly divine. But the humble person is smart enough not to dictate the gods/god or creed a person might (or might not) worship.

We are all kin, children of the same earth, and within each of us lies a spark of something truly divine. But the humble person is smart enough not to dictate the gods/god or creed a person might (or might not) worship.

20/12/2023

Happy Yule to all of you and a joyous Day of the Grape!

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Yule is the ancient Germanic celebration of the Winter Solstice, and means "You will," which was a phrase said with a lot of regularity this time of year.

"You will be cold."
"You will get frostbite."
"You will shovel the snow outside the mead hall."
"You will drink mead."
"You will get presents."

And people did get presents, and had gotten presents on the Winter Solstice long before that too. 2000 years before the first Yule celebration the Druids used to gather at Stonehenge on the morning of the winter solstice. There, under a large pine tree set up in the middle of the stones (which is where the Christmas Tree comes from obviously), they would receive gifts from the Arch-Druid thanking them for all their hard Druid work.

According to the Roman historian Blimey the Elder the Arch Druid would:

"wear magnificent robes of red trimmed with white, his long white beard giving him the appearance of a sage who knew the mysteries well."

When the Arch-Druid was done thanking his flock he would travel to all the villages around the magnificent monument on a sled pulled by a team of reindeer, handing presents out to all the good little pagan girls and boys. From this custom the legend of Santa Claus was born.

Winter time celebrations have generally featured a lot of drinking, and this includes Christmas. While generally thought to reference Jesus Christ ("Christ's Mass"), a more analyzed breakdown of the word reveals something else entirely. Christ is actually a shortened version of the Greek word "Christo," which is a grape varietal the Greeks used to make wine. "Jesus Christ" was literally "Jesus the Grape" and "Christmas" means "Day of the Grape." It wasn't so much about anyone's birthday, but an excuse to drink wine.

The ancient Egyptians celebrated the Winter Solstice as a holiday commemorating the union of the goddess Isis and the god Osiris. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the story of their courtship includes this passage:

“With berries of red he courted her. With berries of white he won her love. Like a missile he entered her and she felt his passion from her head to her toes.”

The berries written about in the Book of the Dead grew along the Nile River and were named after their union. That plant is mistletoe and has been sacred to Druids and later the holiday of Christmas ever since.

No matter what you do or how you celebrate, I wish you and yours a most blessed Yule and/or a joyous Day of the Grape.

20/12/2023

Tonight we are talking about our favorite / specials! You can bet your ass I'll be talking about a red nosed reindeer. Watch on my page or at the link in the comments.

15/12/2023

Join me and some awesome people at noon Pacific and let's talk some YULE!! I even have a new Krampus sweater for this!

Register now for Llewellyn's Virtual Author Forum: Celebrating Yule on crowdcast, scheduled to go live on December 15, 2023, 02:00 PM CST.

19/10/2022

There is no one goddess of the Witches and no one god of the Pagans; but there are a few deities that everyone out there in the magical community should know.

22/08/2022

The Facebook algorithm means you will not see this, but sometimes it's nice to go go back and just do some stream of consciousness writing. A Witchcraft that doesn't grow and change is not a Witchcraft I want to be a part of.

A Witchcraft that doesn't grow, doesn't allow for change and innovation, doesn't allow room for new ideas and expressions is just not really Witchcraft.

09/06/2022

Would I like to get paid for all of my work? Absolutely, but ultimately it's my decision as to whether or not I go to a festival or event. Sometimes I go simply because I like the event or the people there, and I always know the terms when I sign up to do something.

Would I like to get paid for all of my work? Of course, but ultimately I get to choose what I do, and don't do.

24/05/2022

Ten years of writing the Raise the Horns blog. I can't believe it's been that long, and I've aged horribly since starting.

My ten years writing this blog have been a profoundly life changing experience, complete with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

04/04/2022

Fake accounts? Check. No way for creators to verify themselves? Check. Instagram loves that we use their app, but doesn't give two sh*ts about us.

I realize I'm just a man pi***ng in the wind, but Instagram often sucks hard, and clearly doesn't care about the content creators that bring us to the platform.

Numerous scam accounts? Check. No way for Witch content creators to verify themselves? Check. To put it simply, Instagram does not care about Witches and Pagans.

08/03/2022

This is an excerpt from my latest book "The Witch's Book of Spellcraft" which has been out for a week or two now, but it's "official" publication date is today!

To put it simply, a poppet is a puppet used for magickal purposes. Poppets are almost exclusively used to represent a specific individual (including oneself) or ideal. Poppets are often associated with negative forms of magick.

24/12/2021

It upsets a lot of my Pagan and Witch friends, but I grew up celebrating Christmas so it's hard to completely give up.

I'm a Pagan who celebrates Christmas, I know that bothers a few folks out there but I think my reasons for celebrating it are valid. Holidays are what we make of them, and at my house we continue to make Christmas memories.

21/12/2021

A smattering of my favorite titles from 2021 (or at least 2021 adjacent). I think I say a little about 15 or so books here.

Everyone's tastes are different, but here are my favorite Witchcraft and magickal books from 2021.

20/12/2021

More than ever, we need hope.

Christmas Witches, alcoholic apple drinks, and Oak Kings don't share a whole lot of similarities on the outside, but a closer look reveals something else. Nearly all of our most cherished Yuletide traditions share one thing: the idea of hope.

19/12/2021

Yule Logs were once a very big deal, and in some ways, are now more popular than ever.

For centuries the Yule Log was one of the centerpieces of Christmas and Pagan Yule celebrations. It was more than the heart of the Yuletide fire, it was used for magickal purposes too!

19/12/2021

10 Ways to make the most of your Yuletide celebrations.

I've always thought of Yuletide as the "most Pagan" of all holiday seasons. So many cherished holiday customs have survived from pagan antiquity into the present day and Midwinter is full of Pagan and secular stuff that makes for great rituals and celebrations.

19/12/2021

Yule might be my favorite sabbat to celebrate because there are so many different ideas and traditions that can be incorporated into its rituals.

Lights, snow, gifts, battling brothers, wassail, carols, partying, Lords of Misrule, mystical gift- givers, the longer days, trees, logs, the sun’s rebirth . . .. . Yule probably has the longest and most varied list of things in which to build rituals around. For this reason, it’s become a favor...

19/12/2021

That thing your family does at Christmas? There's a good chance it's Pagan.

Christmas has long been a combination of both Christian and ancient pagan elements, but where did the individual traditions we associate with the holiday come from? Are they all Christian? Are they all pagan? Maybe some of them are a bit of both . . . .

18/12/2021

Yuletide and Christmas are full of misinformation. Here are four examples.

The Holidays are a popular time for misinformation, and most of it's spread with the best of intentions. It's fun to think that Jesus and Horus are brothers or that Santa is more mushroom trip than Saint Nicholas, but that doesn't make it true.

18/12/2021

Is there a Horned God at Yule? You bet there is!

I'm not telling you that the Krampus is the Horned God of Yule, but he certainly can be.

17/12/2021

This is probably my favorite Yuletide related piece ever. I just love it so much!

This Christmas, when you hear people lament the lack of a traditional Christmas ask them for some ale or cider while pondering who will be play the Lord of Misrule. Because fornication, heavy drinking, and subverting the social order are what a traditional Christmas is all about.

31/08/2021

Let's say I could pick three people to rewrite three classic Witchcraft books . . . these are my choices!

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2021/08/rewriting-witchcraft-overlooked-authors/

Every once in awhile when I'm between books I take questions from readers. I used to do this on Facebook, but now I mostly do it via my Patreon page. This

18/08/2021

John Beckett recently suggested that rocket scientist Jack Parsons might have been the most important American occultist of the 20th Century. I'm not sure that's the case, but it got me wondering, who is America's most important occultist?

America has a long history of magick and occult practitiones, but who has been the most influential over the past 200 years or so?

29/07/2021

I know some of you LOVE Lammas, and that's great. But I've always had trouble getting excited about this particular sabbat.

Lughnsadh isn't an ugly duckling sabbat simply because we are disconnected from agricultural cycles. Beyond that usual explanation here are some reasons why Lughnasadh isn’t as popular as some of the other sabbats.

02/07/2021

I find "What If" scenarios fascinating, and I've applied a few of those to the magickal community I love so much!

Imagine a world with "Druidry Today" and not "Witchcraft Today" in 1954. Ponder an alternative Witchcraft spread by Jack Parsons in the early 1950's. And what would we have done without Llewellyn and The Green Egg in the 1970's!?!?!?

What if things in the Pagan and Witchcraft world's had unfolded just a little bit differently? Would we all still be here today? Maybe Druids would be more abundant than Witches?

10/06/2021

On Saturday I blogged for the first time in over a month. I'm excited about things opening back up, but I'm also wary. I don't think my coven's rites will look like they did back in 2019 at the Summer Solstice.

s the days grow longer, vaccination rates slowly tick up, and COVID cases fall, it seems as if Paganism is ready to reopen.

27/04/2021

Our Beltane fire this year will connect me both to the past and to where we are in the present. May its flame purge the past and promise a better tomororow.

23/04/2021

This is the first (possibly last) excerpt from my next book "The Horned God of the Witches." This is the first book I've ever written that I really want YOU to read! I'm so excited about it coming out in just a month and change from now.

This excerpt is about the development (and shelving) of the Horned God within Wiccan-Witchcraft traditions. There's a similar chapter later in the book dealing with the same theme in Traditional Witchcraft.

For those who scoff at Wicca today, I think the original conception of the Horned One in that tradition is radically different from how he's often seen today. Anyways, I'm thrilled to be sharing this little bit of the book with you.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2021/04/from-horned-god-to-the-god-the-horned-one-in-wiccan-witchcraft/

Over the course of fifty years the primary male deity of Wiccan-Witchcraft gradually shifted from the Horned God to "The God." What's the role of the Horned One in Wicca today?