Candles:
    Candles are an essential part of the witchy/pagan cupboard. They come in all sorts of colors and scents and shapes. The ones that I typically use are tapers or smaller candles in containers. I also prefer unscented candles, especially for spell work. If the candle is for a specific celebration or sabbat I will use scented candles for ambiance reasons.
    Certain colors mean certain things, however I wont tell you what the colors mean because that is all up to the practitioner. When you need a certain color for a spell you are doing, meditate or think about the color that you feel is necessary or colors. Sometimes I use more than one because the spell seems to need those certain colors.
    There are a multitude of shapes that you can get them in. There are everything from tapers to container candles to figure candles. Each shape and type of candle are for special occaisions and can be used for many spells. Sit with each one to figure out the purpose of each.

Jewelry
    Jewelry is the pagans best friend. Personally I have a few items that I wear as jewelry. I currently am wearing a faery stone/holey stone/hag stone, and a pentacle around my neck. I also am wearing a bracelet that is made with special intentions. I also wear a few rings but not all the time.
    Jewelry can be of many forms and with intentions it can be made to do many things. If you are not comfortable wearing pagan type jewelry out in public you can make the same intentions that would be included in pagan jewelry in everyday costume jewelry.

This is the second installment. I apologize for the lack of content but some sort of bug is going around and I am not feeling that well.

Hope you check in next week for the next installment.

Also have you checked out my latest youtube videos???
I have one for the upcoming giveaway, and one discussing Changes and

Earlier today I was asking my guides and guardians what todays blog should be about. I should tell you however that I was driving at the time. Having multiple guides talking to you through visual pictures is not that good of an idea because one of the visuals actually blinded me while going 55 down the road. Message taken.

So this is my take on pagan tools and their purposes:

Athame:
    This is the tool that I think most pagans get worried about. An athame is basically a double edged knife, it can be decorated with a multitude of symbols and colors. In the books that I have read there are references about having two athames, a black handled one and a white handled one, one for ritual use that isn't for actual use and then one for ritual use for plants and things to cut. This I find completely not necessary, for if you devote one athame for just general ritual use that is completely fine. I also think that the material used for one is all up to the practitioner, and can be made of anything from metal to wood to class to anything really. Also the consecration of an actual tool in my book does not have to be as EXTREME as some of the rituals in the pagan books that I have. Cleansing of this tool can be very simple. My athame is made from a piece of wood and has a triple goddess symbol on it with vines wrapped around it.
    An athame can be used to set up a boundary for a circle, it can also be used to cut a "doorway" in the circle you created it with. You can also use it to put out your candles if you don't have a candle snuffer, this is because of energies, will get to this later. Also you can use this to harvest herbs from your garden or any place you get them from.

Wand:
    This tool is, I feel, completely up to the practitioner. I use this every once in a while. I have this tool and every tool on here but I seldomly use all of them in one ritual or any of them at all.
    Within the past month or two I was on a facebook page and there was a post about the types of wood that should be used for your wand based on the month you were born in. It then disheartened me that there were people that were freaking out because of the wood that was recomended for them was unavailable to them. Also there were people that already had one and were conflicted into thinking that their wands were no good. If i were to follow everything that was written in a book I would be in many many debts to this world. I will get to my point at the end of this post.
    This tool can be made of a variety of materials, ie.; wood, metal, stone, clay etc. MIne is made of a mystery wood from my yard.
    This tool is used to direct energy. You can also use them to mix your concoctions with them, so you can add intent and energy into them with your wand. But make sure that whatever you are mixing is not going to be affected by the wand or vice versa.

Pendulum:
    This tool is something that I have multiples of and all pagans have at least one thing that you can make a pendulum. A pendulum is only a weight suspended from a string or chain. The ones that I have are made of stone. You can view them in my newest YouTube Video. I also have one or two glass ones.
    You can use this tool for divination purposes. First you must calibrate your pendulum. To do this all you need to do is hold it by the end of the chain or string and ask it aloud or in your mind to show you yes no and maybe. Once you know this you can ask it a multitude of questions and you can have them answered. I will actually be making a video on specifically pendulums and there I will explain more.

This is all that I will be posting for now, make sure that you tune in next week for the next installment of tools that pagans use. I will be sure to add some of the tools less commonly known to people of this practice.

So the issue I had from above about me and debts to the world and having every tool. So this has always been an issue to me because not everything that a book says resonates with me personally. Seeing some of the people freaking out because they didn't have something that some book or website said they had to. In my personal opinion I think that the best tools that anyone could have are the ones that you make yourself. Also find something that resonates with you. If you find that a bone athame works best, then use it. If no tools work, go right ahead. If you feel uncomfortable with any sort of tool, don't use them. Its a very simple thing, if you like it, stick with it.

Ryan Danke
Healing Tree
Owner

This is a question that I frequently ask myself as I grow throughout my journey, and I hope that you ask yourself the same thing just as frequently. But first lets look at the age old question, what is a pagan?

Now when we look at the definition society gives us looking at the definition that a common website defines us as we can see that they demonize us, no pun intended, and not humanize us. Why is this? Something that comes to mind is the way Hollywood portrays us.

Lets take a look at witchcraft and paganism throughout the past years and how its portrayed through Hollywood and the press. First of all I am generalizing any form of media in the form of entertainment as "Hollywood" I'm not saying all these things are coming from Hollywood by any means. Anyway some of the shows and movies that I have watched or heard about that depict any sort of pagan or witchcraft;

Heres a list;
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Secret Circle
The Season of The Witch
The Craft
The Wicker Man
Wizard of Oz
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Snow White and the Huntsman
Red Riding Hood
The Wizards of Waverly Place
Harry Potter Series
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Bewitched
Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
Avatar
Some Scooby Doo
Practical Magic
Hocus Pocus
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Charmed

This list could go on and on, now something that I have really found true to all if not most of these movies/tv shows is that all of these people were, "proverbial closet witches", meaning that nobody knew that they were into witchcraft but when they were "found out" it seemed to be a witch hunt all over again. I don't get why Hollywood portrays paganism and witchcraft in such a "closeted way". Its no wonder why people take years to come out of the "broom closet".

Also look at the definition of paganism that I supplied, if someone came up to me and told me that they were pagan, I would look it up and the place I would look it up first would be dictionary.com or wikipedia, it would turn me off right away. Not to mention all the derogitory words put into the definition, just the tone of the writer who wrote the definition would make anyones skin crawl.

The reason I brought up the definition of paganism and withcraft and the movies depicting thus is a testiment of what are we as pagans and witches are showing others of what we are as people and as a spiritual entity in the world of religion.

Now I dont want to point fingers but looking at the recent comments of some people that are leaving some of the comments that they are to the public pagans on the world wide web and specifically on youtube and some. They are becoming so rude. Also some pagans and witches are becoming so petty to start stealing peoples posts and ideas of their businesses and making carbon copies of their businesses. (Disclaimer: if this site is anywhere close to someone elses it is completely coincidental) Anyway look at how we view ourselves as pagans, look at how our paths are taking us. Are we the same as the others exactly, or are we just making an illusion to make ourselves seem that way.

I don't want to seem as if I am making a rant or anything but this whole blog post is coming from spirit and I don't actually plan on editing any of it. This is how I am feeling about the current situation of "what does pagan mean to me". Sometimes when I read the comments and blogs of others, I feel bad about even identifying as the same religion as they do. It is pathetic. If you really identify as pagan please take some time and really identify with who you are and what are your beliefs, also take a look at your past and realize why that no longer identifies with you.

So here is what paganism means to me. I am ging to do this in short little things so I dont have to worry about sentences;
I believe that paganism is more than a religion, its a way of life
being religious is being afraid of deity, being spiritual is being one with deity
I work with the energies of the earth to help aid me on my journey
Their is a divine energy that is both male and female that is also two seperate entities that created one another creating the goddess and the god, so they are the same but seperate
The rule of three, so mote it be
All religions are a way up the mountain
Your spiritual path is your own choice
A connection to nature and energies around you
Reincarnation and Past Lives affect you
Karmas a b*&%$
These are some of the things that paganism means to me and some of my beliefs of being pagan?
What are yours?

Ryan Danke
Healing Tree
Owner

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