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Firepit Update Letters
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April 30, 2003
Bright Lady, what a busy month it’s been! It’s only been a few weeks since my last update, but the time has been well spent with inspiring and productive living. This is May Eve, tomorrow the Maypole ribbons will swirl, and the Earth turns her face toward the sun in anticipation of the warm weather to come.
Beltane is one of my favorite holidays for many reasons. First, I love the sense of joyous delight I feel when I celebrate Beltane with family and friends. Beltane is definitely a holiday to celebrate with community, whenever possible! It’s also important to me because my beloved and I handfasted on Beltane, so it’s a day filled with fond memories. It’s a day simply bursting with new life!
Beltane also marks the anniversary of the new Firepit. For several years the Firepit was maintained by my beloved, but it was exactly one year ago that I finally realized my dream of designing and maintaining my own version of the site. Using the HTML program Trellix (formerly made by Corel), and with tons of support from my beloved, I was able to see my vision of the Firepit become a reality.
This past year has been an amazing one for the Firepit. I’ve had thousands of visitors stop by, and the
feedback I’ve received has been both inspiring and humbling. I’m thrilled and flattered that the Firepit has won six web awards in this first year. I’m also honored that so many friends and strangers have taken the time to write me email with such glowing comments. The Firepit also had the honor of receiving a
positive review from
The Shadow Witch Web Review which has a wonderful reputation for honest, in depth, detailed reviews of pagan/Wiccan web sites. (I got nipped for having outdated information on the origins of the word “witch” and “warlock”, which I plan on correcting in the next week or so.)
The Firepit has more than doubled in size in the past year, and great care has been taken to revise, expand, and clarify each page of information. By keeping graphics limited to only small images of my own photos, I’ve been able to keep the site available as a free resource, meaning I don’t subject any guest to annoying ads that distract the eye or increase download times.
For the coming year, my goals are to continue to provide original material to the Pagan community that will inspire us all to a greater sense of community and personal growth. By questioning, exploring, sharing, learning, and discussion, we can all grow together toward creating a fulfilling life inspired by a sense of purpose.
It’s only been a few weeks since my last update, but I’ve actually added quite a bit of new and revised material since then. I’ve done a bit better at recording some of my recent journeys during meditation time, and I have two more to share. The first, “
Visit from Iris”, I add at the risk of sounding like a total “
fluff-bunny white-lighter”, since Iris is (I later learned) a Greek Goddess of the rainbow. Wasn’t I surprised when she showed up in my meditations! I also include another journey that I took to the
World Above, which was quite inspirational. If you’ve read my description of the night when I met the Goddess, you might want to take a second look. Now subtitled “
Embraced by the Goddess”, my epiphany experience was expanded at the request of Laura Wildman for her latest book “My Magical Life”. She’s a wonderful author of two other books, and I’m very honored to have my work included in her next project.
Being Beltane, I’ve also now added the text of the
new Handfasting ritual that my beloved and I created. We plan on renewing our vows on Beltane tomorrow, which marks our fifth year of happiness together. :) Five years ago, our first handfasting vows were witnessed only by ourselves and the God and Goddess. A year later we had a
formal celebration with our family and community as witness. This year we renew our vows privately to one another. Most handfasting rituals are written for an officiant and other participants. This ritual was designed with privacy and simplicity in mind. Enjoy.
I’ve rewritten and expanded the article on
Familiars, which will appear in the Litha edition of “
Elements Magazine”. I’ve also revised the article on
Creativity, to inspire us all to greater things. An article I wrote on Wiccan Ethics in magick has inspired a wonderful discussion on the
WWP Forum that I’m a member of. And just to keep us all from getting too philosophical, I found a wonderful humor piece that answers the question “
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?” from a variety of Pagan perspectives. I laughed until I got a stitch in my side.
So those are the new items for this update. Just yesterday I got a confirmation letter from Llewellyn to write two new articles for the 2004 Wicca Almanac, so I’m already looking forward to new ideas to explore and share with you all. The first article will be exploring the subject of religion and politics and how the two interact. The second article will explore the subject of initiation, and what it’s value is or should be within the Wiccan community. I’d love to hear your opinions on these subjects if you’d like to drop me a line!
Yet another long-winded update letter. Thanks for your patience, and for being so supportive during this wonderful year!
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