Let’s Talk About Sex

From the looks of it, it seems to me that we’re going to have to talk about sex.  This is mostly because I’m getting requests left and right now that people have found me, the sexy Pagan nymph that I am. 

 

 

I have a couple things to say about sex, freedom, and modesty as a Pagan woman and a Witch.  I love a good throw-down as much as the next lady.  Believe me, men, we ladies love sex more than we let on, especially American women.  I have lived in this country long enough to know that there is a vast difference between the American view of womens’ sexuality and how it is seen and treated in other parts of the world.  We are over sexualized constantly while being shamed for having any interest in it at the same time.  It’s quite an upsetting paradox.

 

Thankfully, this Serpent Witch isn’t dominated by this way of thinking.  I want to have sex when I want, with whomever I want, as often as I want, in whatever positions I want, and I don’t want to get any guff for it.  I want to suck dick.  I want to finger my girlfriend while I lick her clitoris.  I want to have an orgasm.  I want my partner to have an orgasm.  I want to masturbate against a tree at the base of a waterfall under the light of the full moon while the fish in the stream nibble my toes.  I want the right to say “yes” to whomever I want without being told that I should be ashamed of it.

 

I want the right to say “no” to whomever I want without fear of being raped.  Just because I enjoy sex, does not mean I always want to have it, or have it with you.

 

Basically, I want what I want, when I want it, and there is nothing wrong with that when it comes to a person’s sexuality.

 

All that being said, I’m also going to admit that I am extremely picky about whom I share my vessel with.  Some Pagans believe that sex is a free-for-all, and that’s just fine with me.  That doesn’t mean we run around humping every person we find attractive.  There are tales about orgies in the woods where everyone just sticks their wick in whatever hole is available, or accepts every phallus no matter who it belongs to, but while we try to be as primal as possible, it is foolish and dangerous for the modern Witch to simply share fluids with any possible mate who proposes. 

 

I’m not going to preach about waiting for love, or marriage (bwahahahaha), but give yourself freely when it feels right, and safe.  Have enough of a head about you to not put yourself in a situation where your sex may be taken from you.  This goes for men and women, because even though they won’t talk about it, men can be raped.  It can and does happen.  I can only speak from my own experience, and cite the stories of others, so it’s easy for me to speak as a woman, but men also deserve to own their sexuality.

 

The bottom line is: it’s your sexuality.  You have the say.  No one else does.  It’s your choice, your pleasure, and your happiness.

 

 

-Jade

The Spirituality of Not Caring

Someone: Eww, do you see that?  That black guy is kissing that white girl.

Me: So?

Someone: Well don’t you think that’s just wrong?

Me: No.

Someone: It’s wrong to mix the races.  It sullies the blood and the spirit.

Me: I don’t really care what they do.

Someone: So you think it’s okay?

 

No.  No, I don’t think it’s okay.  I also don’t think it’s not okay.  I just don’t think it concerns me, ethically, morally, spiritually, or otherwise.  I don’t care about race, race mixing, religion, people of different religions getting married, gay people getting married, gender, transgender, bathroom signs, labels, or really anything else.  Some people spend way too much time getting all up in arms about what other people do, and that’s just not my style.

 

Someone: Okay, well, what about some black person who wants to join my organization and worship my Gods?

 

Also doesn’t concern me.  As it concerns your organization, you can let them join up or not, but what I want to know is, why would someone want to join an organization that would socially alienate them in the first place?  If someone is looking for community in their faith, why would they insist on inserting themselves into a community that doesn’t want them there?  I wouldn’t. 

 

I have been looking for a blog topic for two days now, and this one probably never would have come up if someone hadn’t asked me to think about these things in the first place.  It wasn’t a blog suggestion, but something that I now have to wrap my brain around, because I hadn’t really thought about it before.  Race and all those other things aren’t really on my radar.  The Serpent Witch has more important things to do with her time than care about what other people are doing, or how they’re relating to each other.

 

Take a lesson from this, because if you are spending time actively hating or acting against people who are different from you, you are an asshole.

The Serpent Witch knows that, while she is a goddess in her own right, and centered in her own power, she is not “GOD,” and therefore has no business judging other people.  Keep your green, warty noses in your own spells where they belong, and not in other people’s lives.

 

How will you ever find yourself if you are busy focusing on hating someone else?  There is a lot of freedom and power in not caring about how other people live their lives, and your spirituality does not need to include views on how other people live their lives.

 

 

-Jade

Tears in My Wine

There are tears in my wine tonight,
Nothing in life is turning out right.
If I resort to drinking beer,
That’s when it’s time to get out of here.


Best laid plans put into gear,
Even in the worst of times of year.
Things are moving pretty slow,
But I must run before I see snow.


Before winter winds howl and blow,
There is one thing that I know.
I cannot have roots like a tree,
My life was meant to be lived freely.


Before my time I must be ready to flee,
Lest things start looking grim for me.
I’ll run to a land where my future seems bright.
Where I will drink win with no tears in sight.

A Rant About “Karma”

Something that really grinds my gears is the “informal,” common, Western misuse of the word “Karma.”  This colloquialism is used in place of the phrase “divine retribution” to essentially mean the same thing, when the two are actually quite different.


Definitions of Karma that I agree with include “the force created by a person's actions that is believed (in Hinduism and Buddhism) to determine what that person's next life will be like.”  Also, “the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.”


I have now seen the following alongside such definitions:


Informal:
Destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.


This “informal” one is what kills me.  I understand that language is a fluid thing, especially the vernacular, but this one gets under my skin like YOLO and BAE.  When something bad happens to me, and someone says “it must be your karma,” I want to grab them by their collar and scream in their face about how they’re butchering the meaning of a major spiritual tenant that they have no business talking about, especially if they’re Christian, or any other oppressive faith.   It’s right up there with being Christian and going to a psychic.  They pick and choose which parts of their book to follow and which to turn a blind eye to, so it should come as no surprise that they have no issue disrespecting the beliefs in another faith; they can’t even respect their own. 


As for Pagans using this term incorrectly, I usually see it coming from those who are neither well-read, nor solid in their faith.  They are the eclectic Wiccans who “take what they like and leave the rest” without actually studying what they’re taking from.  This baffles me especially in Pagans who were Christians first, because many Pagans leave behind Christian faiths because they’re oppressive to their own people, not just people of other faiths.  Why, then, would you choose to believe in something that hinders your actions when you just got away from a set of beliefs that hinders your actions?


I ask my Pagan brothers and sisters to unchain themselves from this false karma, to open their wings, and soar!  Why is it so hard to believe that we’re not in this dimension to suffer?  Believe instead that we are here to know, to do, and to feel.  Fly high, Witches.



-Jade

Wiccans Have So Much Money

I’ve heard people remark before that “Wiccans must have a lot of money.”  Honestly this post is being brought on by my desire to indulge in some online shopping that isn’t really necessary, and though I’m not “Wiccan,” I feel the need to comment on the idea that you have to have all kinds of tools and custom-made gear to practice magick.  Anybody peddling such wares isn’t going to be happy when they see me giving away this secret, but I’m an daring individual who’s ready to blow the whistle, so here it is:

 

You don’t need all that stuff to do magick.

 

Now there is a whole other camp of people who believe that you don’t need tools at all, ever, and that literally no one should so much as light a candle to get things done.  They might say that tools are for novices, or make you feel inferior for using them.  They might make it sound like only beginners “need” that stuff, and as soon as you reach a certain “level,” you simply won’t need more than your will to do the job.  I’m about to piss them off, too:

 

There’s nothing inferior about using tools and components to cast a spell.

 

Where do I fall on the spectrum?  Well, I like tools.  They help me focus, and I believe that they help me representatively speak to the universe through shapes, colors, and symbols that transcend mortal language, and better express my thought and intentions.

 

Why do they say that only new practitioners use tools?  Some people get to a point in their practice where they can sit down next to a stream, or under a tree, or even in their favorite bar somewhere and slip their mind into the right realm to affect change in the universe.  This does not make them better magick-users than you.  Not everyone can simply slip their mind into the kind of place that makes magick happen without something to focus them.  If you need to chant around a red candle adorned with runes and oil to get into focus for your love spell, that’s what you should do.  If you need to cast a circle in a forgotten glen full of candles and incense burners with a picture of your intent under a full moon with an owl on your arm and a staff in your hand clad in your hand-made robe, that’s what you should do. 

 

The truth is, a butter knife will work as well as the most ornate athame if that’s what you have.  In times when Witchcraft wasn’t the most popular thing in the land, Witches had to either hide their tools in plain sight, or simply use their everyday objects when the need arose.  If you were a peasant, and you got caught with a silver chalice, and an ornate, jeweled dagger, there was a much greater chance that you’d be arrested for stealing than Witchcraft, because the Pagans, the hill people, the common folk, didn’t have those things.  They used what they had. 

 

Thankfully those kinds of restrictions don’t apply in modern America where earth-based faiths and practices are on the rise.  So when it comes to tools and spell components, the Serpent Witch says use whatever you want, but don’t let anybody make you feel inferior for using them or not.

 

-Jade

Our Time of Year

I was out wandering the other day when I ran across an old friend that I hadn’t seen since I moved back to the beautiful mountains of Vermont.  We caught up for a few minutes, and when we hugged, she said, “and it’s ‘our time of year.’”  He pulled away, winked, and then went into the store nearby.
 
“Our time of year.”


That phrase has been stuck in my head, popping back in over and over during moments of silence since it was uttered in my ear that crisp afternoon.  It’s September right now, and my favorite harvest festival, Mabon, is coming up on the 22nd.  Halloween will be just around the corner after that, and the familiar chill that makes us all feel a bit witchier will be in the air.  Heck, that familiar chill even makes non-witches feel a bit spooky, or more in tune with their witchy side.  I’ve heard it said that “there’s a little witch in every woman.”  I think there’s a little witch, or a little magick in every human, it’s just up to the individual whether they choose to acknowledge it or not.


When I see autumn decorations in the grocery store, it’s difficult not to just take home one of everything.  I could live all year with harvest corn hanging from my ceiling, dried corn stalks in every corner, pumpkins and squash on my doorstep, and a jug of apple cider in my refrigerator.  The harvest is a main focal point of many old Pagan faiths, as is the concept of death, and the underworld.  It’s no wonder that a season that focuses so heavily on those things is a favorite for most of us.  On the 22nd, I will be buying apples to place on gravestones, lighting orange candles, and doing some scrying. 


Divination is so much easier and clearer when the veil is thin, and it gets thinner with each day as Halloween approaches.  Some people think that the veil between worlds suddenly opens on Halloween, but really, it just gets thinner and thinner, and then waxes again after the holiday like the moon going back to full from new.  Nature sure does love its cycles.


Why does the Serpent Witch love this time of year?  The Serpent Witch uses her instincts and her connection to her Ancestors to write new spells and see the future.  As I mentioned before, the veil between this world and the land of the dead is getting thinner, and easier to pierce.  We can ask for advice from those who have gone before us more easily, see in our scrying mirror more easily, and cast our runes more deftly.  Our tarot cards seem to speak to us without us even having to reference the book for predetermined meanings.  We lay down at night, and our spirits fly in our sleep to dimensions beyond what we normally observe, and knowledge is imparted when we don’t even know we need it. 


Feeling the pull?  Tell me all about it!  Share your autumn experiences in the comments section.  Thanks for reading.

-Jade

The Serpent Needs A Blog

I thought what I needed was a website, and I tried to make it work, but it just wasn't what I was looking for.  This Witch needs something that's quick to update and not a lot of hassle.  It seems like I spend a lot of time on the internet, but I really don't.  I'm working in an area that has poor cell service and rare wifi.  I love to connect with people face-to-face, and not just on the world wide web, so I make a point to leave my house each day, at least once, to meet people. 


This post will lay the groundwork for the rest of the blog, so if you're new to my world, please read this, and tune in regularly.  Updates will be posted on my Facebook wall, my Facebook Page, "The Temple of the Jade Serpent," and my Twitter account. 


Speaking of which, I'd like to thank all my Twitter friends for putting up with my lack of updates.  Twitter is a dying medium for sure, and it really wasn't my thing.


So here's the foundation and things you need to know:


I'm a Witch.  In this instance, it means that I practice Witchcraft as an art, not a religion.


I'm a Mystical Omnitheist.  This is my religion.  I believe there is divinity in every living and non-living thing.  I believe that spirits can haunt and inhabit places and objects.  I believe in ghosts, and I focus many of my spells using their help.  I believe in other dimensions, and nearly every art of divination.


I don't eat pork.  It's not a religious issue, just a quirk.  I also don't drink milk.  I'm not a vegetarian, and I do eat lots of meat.  I believe that the animals who die to fill our plates are blessed, and giving us a blessed gift.  I have no qualms with vegetarians, vegans, flexitarians, and the like, except that I believe that they are missing out on a sacred gift by choosing not to eat meat. 


I don't believe in the Wiccan Rede, or the Law of 3.  I believe that threatening us with consequences for using our magick is a way to keep us from our power.  I don't know who was behind this conspiracy, but the reason modern magick is so dull and hindered is because of beliefs like this.  I believe that the Universe wants us to have everything we want, and especially everything we need.  I believe that "a Witch that can't kill can't cure."  That doesn't mean you have to "kill," but you should know how to defend yourself magickally, and in mundane ways.


So now that floor is open to questions.  I'd like to get this post out there, so spread it around.  What else would you like to know?  Do you need any magickal advice?  Are you interested in adopting the Ways of the Serpent? 


Find me:


emeraldspark@writeme.com
http://www.facebook.com/jade.nyx.10
https://www.facebook.com/jadeserpenttemple/




-Jade