May 2013
BBI Media News
Publishers of Crone, SageWoman, and Witches&Pagans magazines.



Witches&Pagans #26 mailed April 24
Our Spring edition “Element of Air” has mailed to all subscribers U.S. subscribers should be receiving their copies by May 14; Canadians and overseas subscribers by May 24. Digital subscribers: your copy is ready to download now. (For customer support on downloading, call 888-724-3966 or check out our FAQ page.)

Summer is Come:
Power to the People!

by Byron Ballard
edited and reprinted from her blog
“The Village Witch” at PaganSquare.com

(April 30, 2013) I am sitting here with my back to my home altar and the sun is beginning to shine in through the curtains. The birds are braying for attention and licit love, and the greening of the world from three days of good rain is a good sign that winter is mostly behind us for this turning of the Wheel.

We have come at last to the final hours of April, which is rightly called the cruelest month. This particular April has seemed about ninety days long — even with opera glasses and a proper squint, I can no longer see Fool’s Day.

In the refrigerator, there is a big mason jar filled with sweet wood-ruff, strawberries and good white wine. “Summertime” is coming from our local NPR affiliate — a careful rendition that speaks less of hope than of persistence.

Greening, planting, worrying about the ragged fencing and the already-fat groundhogs that live in the hill — these are the morning musings for this day, the last day of old Winter. What shall we leave behind to compost? What shall we carry like nasturtium seeds in our pocketses, ready to plant in any likely — and some unlikely — place?

Most of us are not preparing for a fete on the village green but have smaller goals for our own to-do list. I will spend tonight (because I fit into the tribe that reckons a holy festival begins at sundown the day before) with friends as we say farewell to that old season of the inward spiral and welcome the Summer. Tomorrow I will spend time with a community of good folk at the old cathedral in the old village and we will raise the tree and dance the ring.

And on Saturday, my spiritual community will come together for a public ritual to mark this turning. Yes, a tree. Yes, a crown for the Queen and her Crone and her Maiden. Yes, feasting and talk and song.

But the real Beltane of my heart — and maybe of yours — is the heady frightful grip of renewed life. It is the painful green and the flooded creek. It is a short row of radish seeds that germinate impossibly in a day and a half. Beltane is remembering young days and wearing a flower crown, and it is likewise dreaming of the day when your rumpty-tumpty deep night fumblings are shared with another.

In the face of so much destruction of the natural world and so much disregard for life, Beltane is also an act of rebellion against the status quo. It says about us — as simple people, as a growing community — that we don’t give in to the death cycles imposed on us from Away, not in this season. We plant and know that the harvest comes — not in the stately march from Lughnasadh to Samhain — but bit-by-bit and day-by-day. We eat the impossible radishes in two weeks, we rip the dewy and crispy lettuce from the fat stem that sustains it. The hens fluff out and begin to lay again and life is there before us — irresistable, delicious.

Magical.

Let your Beltane be an act of vibrant, heretical rebellion against the forces arrayed against life. As the final inches of ribbon wrap snugly against the mythic and flowered tree, raise your defiant fist high in the air and shout aloud —

Summer is come! Power to the People!

ImageByron Ballard is a writer, urban farmer and Appalachian witch. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, four cats and a demanding garden. Read her blog The Village Witch at PaganSquare.


Special Deals for May, 2013


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SageWoman 64
“Prayer & Invocation”
Digital Edition $4.95, Save $1.00

This controversial issue sparked a long-running reader’s debate: is prayer a practice only of “traditional” religions like Christianity and Judaism? Our answer was a heartfelt “no” as this SageWoman issue celebrates the connection between deity and devotee among women of all spiritual paths.

We begin with Lee Pelham Cotton’s gentle invocation “Kneel and Kiss the Ground,” Mary K. Wilson’s paen to movement prayer “Sacred Dance: Prayer in Movement” and then touch Patricia Lynn Reilly’s poetic “A Prayer for Our Daughers.”

Galina Krasskova’s “The Alchemy of Prayer” stirred debate because she addresses her devotion to a male deity, while the quiet confidence of Leni Austine’s “Conversations with the Divine,” and Spirit’s “Leaping in the Arms of the Goddess” provide gentle counterpoints. Finally, Carrie Cooper reclaims the rosary for non-Catholics in her essay, “Garlands for the Goddess.”

Finally, Diana Paxson celebrates one of the oldest Hindu goddesses, Sarasvati, source of the scriptures. This extraordinarily rich issue is full of ideas, rituals, stories, and resources for any woman who wishes to explore how we communicate with the Divine.

96 illustrated pages, released Spring 2004. Table of contents in PDF format. Available in either classic-paper or digital editions. Instant download edition $4.95 thru-May 31. Save a buck.


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PanGaia 44
“Pagan Ritual”
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We need rituals. We need ways to mark the milestones of life, all the important changes that make up our journey. In this classic issue of PanGaia, we feature articles which delve into the rituals of Paganism, both ancient and contemporary.

Our cover story “Gifts to the Gods” investigates the topic of Pagan sacrifice in the ancient world while “Sun Dance” is a detailed look at this traditional Native American ceremony. There’s also ideas for lovespells, instructions on building a outdoor altar, a ritual for a “dumb supper” (to commune with our beloved dead,) a detailed look at Canaanite traditions, an encounter with Pan, a discussion of teaching underage Pagans plus MUCH more.

Let our authors sweep you away to far-flung worlds and inspire you to re-invigorate your ritual practice. 80 pages, originally published in summer of 2008. Table of contents in PDF format. Available in either classic-paper or digital editions. Instant download edition $4.95 thruMay 31. Save 17%.



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Crone Chronicles 30

“Emergence/Emergency”
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Is aging a process of inevitable decline or the opportunity for a creative burst of transformative energy?

Or both? In this issue we examine the question of how the process of becoming crone can be a catalyst for suffering, redemption, renewal and rebirth.

Reaching across the gap — or even the gulf — between generations, authors Barbara Lewis, Ann Rarich and Carlotta Tyler describe how they found awareness and strength in “An Open Letter to Our Daughters.” After many years at the forefront of feminism, they reflect on how the experience of their daughters differs (and sometimes, echoes) their own. Bridging a different kind of gap, Gwen Morgan-Jones writes of her experience as a member of both the Christian and Pagan religious communities in her article “Consider Yourself a Priestess.”

The descent into the unknown and the return to Light are the subjects of three more personal articles: “Spiritual Emergence” by Lynne Namka, “Moving through Midlife” by Kiki Suarez, and Carol Rosin’s continuing story (which began in issue 38) of her journey into the belly of the military-industrial complex “Burning in the Belly.” Plus more short stories of defeat turning into victory, despair into triumph, this gutsy, robust issue of Crone Chronicles will bring out the fighter in us all. 72 pages, edited and published in Spring of 1997. Classic paper edition $4.87 thru May 31. Save 30%.


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PanGaia 16
“Summer Magick”
Paper Edition $4.87, SAVE 43%

Summertime, and the livin’ is .... magickal. This issue of PanGaia comes very early in the history of the magazine, and the boundless optimism of this issue demonstrates that youthful enthusiasm. (It’s certainly the only issue we ever published with a naked man on the cover!)

Our cover story this issue “The Beast Within: Shapeshifting and Animal Spirits” casts light on the legends and realities of magickal shapeshifting as a shamanic practice. Continuing in the vein of working magick in the natural world, editor Diane Conn Darling interviews the Rainforest Information Centre leader and leading deep ecologist Australian John Seed, with special note of his work in creating the transformative eco-ritual “the Council of All Beings.”

The natural magick of Litha is the focus of Jae Sheddy’s personal essay “Summer Solstice: Gift of the Goddess” while loremistress Diana Paxson’s article “Living with the Lesser Gods” focuses on wights, brownies, and other house spirits that are the most common mystical beings that our ancient ancestors experienced in everyday life. Ms. Paxson asserts that we moderns can restore that ancient bond and offers a full ritual for honoring the household spirits of your very own home.

Magickal psychology and Goddess spirituality hidden in the tales of King Arthur? Just so, says, Anodea Judith in “What is in the Cup? Questioning the Myth of the Holy Grail,” while “The Mythic Language of Crop Circles,” examines a variety of the most popular forms of these mysterious summertime sculptures. Plus reviews, Pagan short fiction, the Sacred Marriage of Beltaine, summer stars, the magick of native Hawai’i, Pagan comics, science vs. mysticism, letters from readers, and so much more. Edited by Diane Conn Darling and published in the summer of 1998. 80 pages. Original paperback $4.87 through May 31, Save 43%

MORE PAPER SPECIALS FOR MAY

SageWoman 38 “Women & Animals” SageWoman 50 “Our Wise Blood” newWitch 14 "Wendy Rule" SageWoman 62 “Courage”

SageWoman 38 “Women & Animals” $8.76. Save 20%

SageWoman 50 “Our Wise Blood” $8.76 Save 20%

newWitch 14 "Wendy Rule" $3.99 Save 43%

SageWoman 62 “Courage” $4.77 Save 40%

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