I know its early, but I wanted to post this now before I get too busy and forget. 

Wishing you all a wonderful Yule
Blessings To You and your Family
Sandie

http://www.wicca.com/celtic/akasha/yule.htm

Deities of Yule:  All Newborn Gods, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses, and Triple Goddesses. The best known would be the Dagda, and Brighid, the daughter of the Dagda. Brighid taught the smiths the arts of fire tending and the secrets of metal work. Brighid's flame, like the flame of the new light, pierces the darkness of the spirit and mind, while the Dagda's cauldron assures that Nature will always provide for all the children.
Symbolism of Yule:
Rebirth of the Sun, The longest night of the year, The Winter Solstice, Introspect, Planning for the Future.
Symbols of Yule:
Yule log, or small Yule log with 3 candles, evergreen boughs or wreaths, holly, mistletoe hung in doorways, gold pillar candles, baskets of clove studded fruit, a simmering pot of wassail, poinsettias, christmas cactus.
Herbs of Yule:
Bayberry, blessed thistle, evergreen, frankincense holly, laurel, mistletoe, oak, pine, sage, yellow cedar.
Foods of Yule:
Cookies and caraway cakes soaked in cider, fruits, nuts, pork dishes, turkey, eggnog, ginger tea, spiced cider, wassail, or lamb's wool (ale, sugar, nutmeg, roasted apples).
Incense of Yule:
Pine, cedar, bayberry, cinnamon.
Colors of Yule:
Red, green, gold, white, silver, yellow, orange.
Stones of Yule:
Rubies, bloodstones, garnets, emeralds, diamonds.
Activities of Yule:
Caroling, wassailing the trees, burning the Yule log, decorating the Yule tree, exchanging of presents, kissing under the mistletoe, honoring Kriss Kringle the Germanic Pagan God of Yule
Spellworkings of Yule:
Peace, harmony, love, and increased happiness.
Deities of Yule:
Goddesses-Brighid, Isis, Demeter, Gaea, Diana, The Great Mother. Gods-Apollo, Ra, Odin, Lugh, The Oak King, The Horned One, The Green Man, The Divine Child, Mabon. 

I thought I would put the link to the Store Facebook for you all to check out
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Sacred-Well/201806749893629, lets hope I did that right!!!

First off let me apologize for the delay on my part for not updating. 
I am sorry, life just got in the way and to be honest I got lazy.
Newsflash-- The Sacred Well now has a Facebook page, I do hope you will give it a look and let me know what you think.  It is that time of the year again, and I am happy to inform you all that I do have some exciting new stock.  I have recently acquired "Manifistation" Candles, and they are divine, sold in votives only but the feedback on these is amazing, clients have let me know that they are getting up to 8hours burning time on them.

I also have in stock new Soy candles.  Other new items are Anne Stokes wall tiles, and for my belly dancers, a new line of skirts and accessories. I shall post a photo of the skirts.



Well there they are, ( I'm getting better at this )

Also I have some special sales on for Christmas, so please stop by the shop and check it out, or stop by just for a visit. 
Hope to see you all soon, 

Off the beaten path.

One of the most difficult questions a person can face in life is that of their spiritual path. Which one will you follow? Or do you forge your own? Is it possible to learn from cultures that are not your own without appropriating them? How do you even know where to start?

There are no easy answers.

I am of the opinion that while you can turn to others for advice, nobody can definitively tell you what is right for you. This doesn't seem to stop people from asking, however, and that can be frustrating for both the seeker and the person whom the questions are posed to.

Probably the first step in finding a path for yourself (yes, you have to do all the work yourself) is to familiarise yourself with the many religions of the world. Websites like Religious Tolerance Dot Org  or Sacred Texts both contain overviews of most world faiths.

It's not really my aim to provide a ton of information on some of the more popular religions - I feel that if you're truly interested in one of the Judeo-Christian faiths, Buddhism, Hinduism or Sikhism there are people who are far more knowledgeable on those topics than me! There's also the advantage of being able to find a church or temple fairly easily, where someone will no doubt be happy to help you.

I am not Christian, or Jewish, or Sikh. I am pagan, and have been for well over ten years. I discovered paganism via Wicca during what I like to think of as the occult boom in the 90s, when I was a teenager. As hard as it is to believe, back then the internet was not ubiquitous, and it was not entirely commonplace to have an online presence. That was for nerds, which I was. Even so, the internet back in those days was a much smaller place, and information (good AND bad) was not so readily available. This meant that my main exposure to pagan religions and witchcraft came through books.

Not all books are created equal. And some books, while they may contain some good information, also contained revisionist history and outright falsehoods. As a teenager I had not yet developed many critical thinking skills, and I tended to believe most anything a book said. After all, it was published! It wasn't until years later that I discovered some online sources that helped dispel some of the claims I myself had been regurgitating as fact.

That's one of the things I have learned over the years: when you first start out, you're going to be a little over zealous. And you're going to say some things and honestly believe some things that might make you cringe later on.  And that's okay. I think it's a normal part of a person's development. (Now, if ten years in you're still spouting the same nonsense, THEN you have a problem...)

It's important to know a little about your sources. For example, a lot of older books claim that Wicca is hundred of years old, the remnant of an ancient nature religion. This is something that has been pretty well debunked - Wicca was created by Gerald Gardner, circa the 1950s. Does this make the entire religion bunk? No! And does it mean all those old books are useless? No again! Knowing the story behind something means we can look more objectively at it is all. There is a long history of occult groups fudging the truth about their lineage, and Wicca was simply no exception.

Read books. Realise books are not perfect. Look up those books you're reading online - there are some great pagan book review sites out there! Ask other people what they've read, what resonated with them. Read websites too, but always remember that while books at least in theory have editors and people who check the material beforehand, literally anyone can make a website. (Says the girl with the blog... ahem.)

Paganism is pretty vast. Wicca is perhaps the most well-known religion under that umbrella, but it's far from the only one. There are what are called reconstructionalist religions, which attempt to recreate the ancient religions of Greece and Egypt and others, and and eclectic pagan paths that don't have much official structure.

And to confuse you further, not all witches are Wiccan! I know I'm not.

Anyway, if you're thinking paganism might be for you, here are some resources that I've found over the years:

Seeking: This is a website that has a wonderful overview of Wicca and Paganism. The site is easy to navigate and up-to-date.

The Wiccan Church of Canada has a great FAQ page. Its focus is primarily Wicca, obviously, but it does touch on paganism as a broader umbrella term.

The Cauldron's Pagan Primer is another great overview of different pagan religions. Not sure what the difference is between Asatru and Discordianism? This is the place to go. The forum is also a great resource, and has a wealth of interfaith and magical discussions.

Wicca for the Rest of Us: A Wiccan site (duh) but one that has an emphasis on GOOD history, and does not engage in some of the unfortunate Christian-bashing some sites fall victim to.

Obviously these are not the only sites out there, but they are good solid ones to start from! Now, about those book reviews I mentioned...

Pagan Book Reviews

Pagan Bookworm

Pagan Librarian

That should do you for a while, eh?

- Mama

Practical Magic.

Well hey there, internets!

We've been pretty busy in the new year, hence the lack of posts. But rest assured, we here at the Sacred Well continue to get in new goodies and of course we'd love for you guys to come check em out!

One of the newest books we've picked up is one your humble webmistress insisted on getting a copy for herself: Spiritual Cleansing: A Handbook of Psychic Protection by Draja Mickaharic. If you find Dion Fortune just a little too complex and out there, this may be the alternative you've been looking for. Mickaharic lays out many unpretentious and effective methods for spiritual first aid, drawing from several different practical traditions.

While we're plugging good sources of news-you-can-use,  I'd like to point ya'll in the direction of a podcast! It's free, it's informative, and it's entertaining! It's New World Witchery! The hosts are from the south of the USA, and so hoodoo figures quite strongly in their practice, but they both also studied Wicca and have a well-rounded approach to practical magic. I highly recommend the show.

That's all for now, dearies!

- Mama