Welcome to Magickal Media!
Now that Imbolc / Candlemas is past, we're slogging through the last of winter and awaiting springtime. How do YOU survive the winter months? What do YOU do to celebrate Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras / Carnival, and at long last, the Spring Equinox? Please drop us a line!
Keep checking back, because there are NEW articles, features, links, photos and media in every edition.
Event Coordinators: Please remember to add YOUR event on our Calendar page, using the handy form.
Please send healing energy to our CEO, Dave Aldag as he recuperates from reconstructive surgery on his foot.
NEW In this Issue:
Keep watching the Magickal Media news feed on the blog to find the latest news from around the world for Pagans, Wiccans, Heathens, Druids, Shamans, Polytheists and Earth Religious people. http://blog.magickal-media.com
- Top news on the News page each week
- Daily news on the Blog
- Links to notable Pagan blogs and interesting websites on the Links page
- These news items are presented with a link, a short description, and no editorializing. Readers’ comments are welcome.
- There may be editorial opinions on the Editorials page from time to time. Opinion writers wanted; you will receive a free ad for one month!
- No other Pagan news service offers ALL the news of interest to Pagans… check out the news each day!
A new Fairie Witch Inside - This time about Celtic Reiki on the Resources page.
Learn how to make a Witches' Protection Bottle on the Spells and Magick page.
A new article on the Tarot from Pearl Annie - this one about My First Tarot Reading - on the Spells & Magick page.
A new Herbal How To from Ellen Lord on the Nature page. Read about Elderberry and its uses.
On the Calendar page, gatherings and festivals from around the country. You'll also find Press releases and announcements about events. Enter your event into the calendar.
On the News page, links to the most important stories and articles of the past week.
On the Links page, notable blogs and interesting web sites which will appeal to Pagans.
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Recently, there has been a great deal of controversy over religious expression, religious establishment, and religious bullying within the public schools. Some issues involving Pagan children have made national headlines. Read about two of these cases, and follow links to several more occurences in "Religious Civil Liberties and the Public Schools" on the Articles page.
Valentine's Day Legends and Lore on this page.
Are you about tired of winter? Read "Beating Winter Blahs" for some ideas on how to survive the snowy season on the Resources page.
"Crossroads" - A meditation after the holiday of Imbolc by Lorelei Greenwood on the Paths page.
Before Valentine's Day, there was Lupercalia - read about the possible origins of Valentine's Day on this page.
And what about Leap Day? There is an article about that too here on the Welcome page.
The movie "The Wicker Tree" is in theatres, universally reviled by critics. Instead of wasting your money on that film, Malcolm Brenner suggests 13 must-see Pagan movies which are much more interesting, accurate and fun, including the original "The Wicker Man". Read "Thirteen Movies Every Pagan Should See" on the Media page.
Echinacea is on every pharmacy shelf, but what exactly is this popular herb? Can it really boost the immune system and even help to prevent the common cold? Find out in Ellen Lord's popular column "Herbal How-To", on the Nature page.
A new regular column by Pearl Annie on the Tarot. This one is all about The Chariot on the Spells & Magick page.
The Plow Play is an older tradition in the British Isle that may have Pagan roots. Read an article about this custom, on this page, with photos of the Magickal Media crew doing our own Plow Play, and visit the links for revivals in the UK today. NEW! Watch a Magickal-Media Video Production of "The Plow Play" on the Media Page.
The Footsteps of Spring: Brigit's Light Returns - An article about the Goddess and Saint of Ireland, known as Brigid, for the Imbolc holiday on the Paths page.
A new poem from Carnelian Gray: "Brighid Visits" on the Poetry page.
Three new Thornton Burgess stories on the Kid's Stuff page and an introduction to them: "Why Animals Do That" on the Parenting pag.
New music from Celia - the rough cut of her new album "For the Asking" and a new single "Bridget's Song" - both on the Media page.
Instructions on How to Make Brighid Crosses for Imbolc on the Resources page.
For Imbolc, an article about the Goddess Brighid on the Paths page.
An Imbolc Ritual to Hestia on the Rituals page.
Taking Yourself Too Seriously by Ethan Pulka on the Articles page.
Magickal Moments for the Mundane new for Winter on the Spells & Magick page.
A new column from Aurora Brierley - The Faerier Witch Inside. This month on "In Search of Balance", on the Resources page.
Chapter 5 in the serialized novel by Susan Kae on the Fiction page.
And of course lots of new blogs, and websites on our Links page and the Top News stories of the week on the News page.
Be sure to check out world holidays on the Calendar page.
On the Media page, tune in to Pagan Radio.
See our searchable events database.
The celebration of “Carnaval” with masks, feasting, costumed parades and parties takes place each year in Nice, France on Feb. 15th. This may have arisen from the Roman celebration of Lupercalia, which occurred on the same date. Masks are worn because anyone can get away with wild, outlandish behaviors without being known, to indulge in excesses, and for personal transformation. Some may cross-dress or wear costumes, as well. A replica of the “King Carnaval” head is made of papier mache and paraded through the town. This may originally have been a Pagan representation of a deity, or it may have been an effigy of an actual ruler.
Mardi Gras in America can be traced to the French-Canadian explorer, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, who landed south of New Orleans in 1699, calling the area "Pointe du Mardi Gras." He also established the city that became Mobile AL in 1702. In 1703, this town celebrated the first American Mardi Gras. The holiday observances in New Orleans began much later, but soon outstripped all other celebrations. The earliest reference to a Mardi Gras "Carnival" is written in a report to the Spanish in 1781. By the late 1830s, New Orleans was holding parades of masked revelers, carriages and horseback riders to celebrate the holiday. The observance has occurred annually rbrt since, with a four-year interruption during the Civil War. Today, New Orleans hosts one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in the world.
Cards: Scoffed at by many as a “greeting-card holiday”, there will be more than one billion Valentine greetings purchased and sent worldwide. This custom likely began when Charles, the Duke of Orleans, wrote a note to his beloved while imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415. During the 1700s in England, it became a fad to pass Valentine's notes. During the 1840s, a woman called Esther Howland crafted valentines made of lace and paper, with rhyming messages, hearts and flowers, for her friends. These became so sought-after that she began to make extras for sale. In the mid-1800s, cards were so popular were that factories began to mass-produce them. Hallmark produced their first Valentine's Day card in 1913. Each year, the US Postal service creates a new “love stamp” around V-Day, and schoolchildren send hundreds of thousands of cheery greetings to their peers. 85% of all valentines are sent by women.
Cupid: We’ve all seen the cute little baby Cupids floating on white feathered wings, shooting arrows of love into the hearts of the lonely, but where did this legend come from? Cupid was / is the Roman God of sexual desire, affection, attraction and love. His Greek incarnation is Eros, from which we get the word “erotic”. Cupid’s name comes from the Latin “cupido”, which means desire. He is also called “Amor”, which gave the Romance languages the word “Amour” or “Amore” for love. Cupid is the son of Venus, the Goddess of love and hope, whose day is Friday, whose flower is the rose, and whose colors are red, pink and cream. However, Cupid is also the son of Mars, God of War.
Candy: The Aztec emperor Moctezuma believed that chocolate made him more virile, and thus downed gallons of it in a bitter drink. Chocolate is still considered to be an aphrodisiac, a word that comes from the name of love Goddess Aphrodite. Chocolate which is sold in a heart-shaped box may cost a dollar or two more than normally packaged chocolate, yet the message of love is priceless. 47.5% of all Valentine’s gifts are candy. This includes the Necco brand “Sweethearts”, the little heart-shaped mints with printed messages, offered to schoolchildren nationwide. Invented in 1902, “conversation hearts” are the most popular candy sold, with more than 8 billion manufactured each year. As Shakespeare said, “Sweets to the sweet!”
which was taken from house to house. Participants often sang, danced, played music, performed a dramatization, and begged for “money for the plow” which was used for a charity. In Christian times, this was sometimes a light in a church called a “Plow Light”. During years when the economy was poor, it may have been a way for workers to earn money. Young men called “Plow Jacks”, “Plow Stotts” or even “Plow Witches”, wearing rags or funny clothing and with blackened faces, would threaten to plow up the front yard of anyone who refused to give an offering. 
On Plow Sunday or Monday, plowing games and races were and are enjoyed, dances were held, including the Morris, with attendant feasting and drinking. The Ploughboys are sometimes accompanied by a Molly or Malkin, a man dressed as a woman who performs a lively rustic dance. Sometimes a person dressed in a costume made of straw, called a “Straw Bear”, proceeds the dancers. The custom of the Plow Play was first written about in the sixth century, when some plow jacks got into trouble for plowing up the kirkyard in Scotland. The tradition all but died out early last century, except in the most rural areas of Britian and Ireland. Recently, the Plow Play custom has been revived by communities for fun and tourism, as well as by neo-Pagans as a type of sacred ritual to honor the land. (Please see the links below.)
You can try this ritual for yourself, or with your family or coven – if no plow is readily available, you can decorate a garden cultivator, or make your own plow from two broomsticks and cardboard. Adorn it with silk flowers, ribbons, tinsel and streamers. Paper flowers can also be used, if your plow is kept indoors. This tradition has helped to bless our home and make our garden fertile for years.
