Lucid dreaming has long been an interest of mine but I haven't put a lot of effort into it. I recently started some practices from Robert Moss' book Dreamgates and my dreams have been longer and more intense.

I edited this article for Circle Magazine to remove a reference to self-harm. It's presented here without that edit, but all other suggested edits have been preserved.

One of the first things I did as a new Pagan was roam the hills and woods near my home looking for flower faeries. I felt, at the time, like I had seen a few, as well as the faery of the tree in my back yard. When I did my self initiation as a solitary eclectic Wiccan (I don't call myself Wiccan anymore) I used fronds from a local willow tree to form a circlet to wear. Weeping willow is still sacred to me to this day. I'm typing this with a willow frond in henna on my arm, and "willow" remains part of my magickal name.

I've been writing for Pagan Activist for almost two years, and in that time I've barely mentioned Paganism, other than to say that my awe at the cycles of life and death has informed the way I look at Gaia, Demeter, Persephone, and Artemis.

That's because I've always been suspicious of religious ethics. An obvious reason is that it's impossible to prove which, if any, gods are the right ones, so how can we be sure which religious ethics to follow? But Socrates explained the deeper reason better than I can.

The new year has passed but the calendar date isn't really important to me. Heck, I just sent out my holiday cards a week ago, though I had them in plenty of time for Christmas. So I like to think that I took my time to think about my goals instead of going off half cocked.

I recently bought a copy of the book The Wisdom of Hypatia. One of the dangers of working at Quest Bookshop is that I want to buy everything. But after just reading the back and flipping through it, I knew it was exactly what I wanted.

To be an activist, very often, is to be angry.

An activist is a person with a sacred vision of the world that they are trying to manifest. That means living in a world that runs counter to what you hold most sacred. Otherwise, what are you acting for or against? And in my experience, activists aren't just working for a world that would be nice, but fighting for the world that they believe should be. That’s not always emotionally easy.

It’s the harvest season and my garden seems to be slowing down. This has been my first season gardening and I’ve been thinking a lot about Demeter, the cycles of the Earth, and our place in all of that. In fact a good part of this post was inspired by a gardening comment I left on one of Michelle’s posts and conversations I’ve had about it.

Recently I took a road trip to the Smokey Mountains with a group of friends. On our way back to the cabin after sightseeing the driver said, “Oh is this the street?” and made a wrong turn. Another friend in the back seat started to berate him for about five minutes. Which is actually quite a lot if you’re on the receiving end, or stuck in the car listening to it. He probably felt justified in the rant because the driver should have known better.

An acquaintance of mine feels a strong spiritual connection to bees. They are a sacred animal for her. She supports work to help curb their diminishing population, and I assume she calls upon them as spirit allies. It's very common in Pagan, shamanic, and other communities to call upon the guidance and protection of animal spirits. When we were discussing veganism, she told me that she could never become fully vegan because honey is very important to her due to her spiritual connection with bees.

My review of one of my now favorite films, Ninotchka, was published in my college's academic journal. The assignment was to study and review a social protest film. I almost picked Gorillas of the Mist because of its animal rights message, but decided to try something less familiar. I'm glad I did because it's a brilliant film and introduced me to Greta Garbo.