Double, Double, Toil and Trouble...

I am a full, card-bearing member of a coven.

The Coven is my newspaper at my alma mater, and I started my journalistic career there. I dug and delved into complex issues, participated in scrums, created leads, headlines and cutlines and put it all together in a pretty package day after day, week after week, for two years. I can honestly say that the experience ranks up there with my best moments.

About two months ago, I entered a coven of a different sort. Members: two. I know you're supposed to have 13 but we are just at the beginning, my friend and I. Every coven has to start somewhere. So, start we did.

I had gone over to catch up. I had also expressed my interest in exploring new religions. In a previous post, I had written "Compassion is my new religion." It's still the case, but with this compassion comes a curiosity of other religions - Pagasim, Hinduism, Buddhism and even Wicca, which sort of flows along the same lines as Wicca, worshipping the earth and the sky and all the elements in between.

My first Wiccan circle experience was a little disconcerting. It involved salt, knives, candles and a call to Mother Earth to show me a sign. I had been debating a life path at the time, wondering outloud what my next step should be in a certain situation. So, after calling on the North, South, East, West, Fire, Water, Mother Earth, Father Sky, I raised the question and asked for a sign. A flickering of lights, a loud noise - it could have been anything. What happened next was anything short of eerie.

I'm not going to tell you what the question was. To do so would give away trade secrets and perhaps hurt feelings in the process. I will tell you that I got my sign - loud and ever-feckin' clear. Steps away from where I first uttered the question, hopefulness full on my face, fear quivering in my eyes, there was a loud, fluttering noise and then a small, well-contained crash. A flickering of lights would have been enough, but apparently Mother Earth decided I needed a firmer answer: my friend's painting of Mother Earth had fallen off of a wall, a place of honour it's held for months. And there it was lying on the floor, moments after I had opened the discussion - "Should I... Will I... What should I do..."

To say I was freaked out was an understatement, but I was also intrigued - intrigued enough to buy an "Intro to Wicca" book. It's not to say that I will enter the coven forever, but it's certainly another realm to examine, along with meditation, compassion and anything else that brings enlightenment and balance to my life.

Happy Spring, bloggers. The season is a-changing and so am I.