Whenever I feel in a witchy rut, like I don’t know what to do next, or simply stalled in my practice, I go back and re-read the Witches Sequence of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
Nothing will teach you more about witchcraft than Granny Weatherwax.
‘I don’t hold with paddlin’ with the occult,’ said Granny firmly. ‘Once you start paddlin’ with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you’re believing in gods. And then you’re in trouble.’ ‘But all them things exist,’ said Nanny Ogg. ‘That’s no call to go around believing in them. It only encourages ‘em.’
— Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
‘The thing about witchcraft,’ said Mistress Weatherwax, ‘is that it’s not like school at all. First, you get the test, and then afterwards, you spend years findin’ out how you passed it. It’s a bit like life in that respect.’
You may have heard the myth among Neopagans that the “snakes” that St. Patrick drove out of Ireland was a euphemism for driving the Pagans out of Ireland. The above link finally puts that myth to rest as Celtic Polytheism was prevalent in Ireland for 900 years after St. Patrick’s time.
Today in Ireland and in the United States, St. Paddy’s Day has become more of a secular Irish Heritage Day. If you are Celtic polytheist you may decide not to celebrate since the holiday was meant to overshadow Ostara, or you may decide that celebrating Irishness is something your deities would approve of as an addition to the Equinox Festivities!
If you come from Irish Heritage, as do a high percentage of Americans, you may decide to celebrate the hardiness and wherewithal of your ancestors to traverse the Atlantic in hope of escaping famine and finding a better life, only to have to deal with discrimination from American-born through the 1940s and 50s.
Amethyst's Archive 