Snooze, Lose, do something New

 

Ah, Procrastination..

I’ve been calling my particular brand of Wicca a “Greenwood Tradition” for about 15 years, and I haven’t been writing down what makes it different than standard British Traditional Wicca.  I did a quick Google search 10 years ago, and didn't find anyone else using it, so I kept calling what I do Greenwood.

Now, I’m ready to start the writing project and go public with it.  The catch?  Someone in Canada is already using the name for their tradition, and has 5 covens in the tradition.  I'm certainly not going to pitch a fit about it, they took a good idea and ran with it.  I didn't act on it, and so someone else created a tradition with the same name that appears to be going quite well for them.

So, having learned that lesson and thought about what to rename what I do, I have now updated my Witchvox profile and am posting here for the first time the beginning of the Riverwood tradition of Wicca.

The city I live in has 2 rivers running through it, and a lot of trees, so I honor the spirits of my hometown in the name.  Rivers bend and flow, with calm places and rapids - much like life.  And trees grow, change to adapt to their surroundings, survive lightning strikes, and remain beautiful.

The Riverwood tradition is an evolving thing, changing to adapt to the needs of the 21st century witch, and dropping from the practice things that no longer work.  The focus will be on celebrating the cycle of life, helping the members of the tradition grow and heal from past experiences, and live in harmony with the elemental energies around us.

Blessed Be!

Weather magic myths

I was talking recently with a new friend and made an off-hand comment about stopping the rain long enough to get somewhere dry, when she gently chastised me for even considering it, quoting the line about "not knowing what it may cause elsewhere".

That idea, believe it or not, comes from an old episode of I Dream of Jeannie.  I haven't found any reference predating the show to anyone believing it's true, but that's not the whole basis of my belief that it's just bunkum.

I live in California, on the west coast of the United States.  In the midwest, there are tornadoes and hail storms that we don't have here.  On the east coast, there are hurricanes that we don't see here.  I can have a perfectly sunny day while on the east coast they have 90mph winds with driving rain and homes being ripped apart and floating away.  Their weather doesn't affect my weather patterns.

So, if natural weather patterns on the east coast or in the Sahara Desert have no impact on my weather here, why would anyone expect any weather magic I do to affect my local environment to have a greater impact than Nature herself?  It's not logical, and the facts don't back up the myth.

I have about a 70-80% success rate with the weather magic I've done over the years, and it's stayed pretty consistent.  But I don't kid myself - if Mother Nature decides we're going to have a certain type of weather, and she's insistent about it then there's nothing I can do to change it.  I'm humble enough to know my limits!

I don't expect everyone to believe me, I think some people need external, artificial limits to their belief structures.  But let go of the fear about it for goddess' sake, I'm not going to single-wandedly bring about Global Warming or the next Ice Age.