One thing that annoys me about most of the books I pick up on Witchcraft or Wicca is how many tools they say you need. How your alter should have a certain layout and how it should be filled with wonderous things that would leave a somewhat large gap in your wallet. So I tried doing it without all this but I felt like something was missing.

I don't believe that you need an idol to worship. A statue, a figure, prayer beads etc. In my opinion these are all props that shouldn't get in the way between your true connection with deity. When I'm out in nature, back against a tree, grass between my toes and water by my side I really need nothing to talk to deity or know that they are there. I do find it so much easier outside than I do inside.

Part of my developing my spirituality is trying to take time out each day to stop and meditate with deity, have a short prayer or just have something that connects me to that aspect of my life. I feel this will probably help me not stop within a month or so and get distracted by the next shiny thing that passes by. I had tried to this before but I found my mind wandered or I didn't have time etc. What I needed was something to be able to focus my energy on when I do pray or  want to connect.

So given that I can't afford to buy statues (which can be very pricey indeed), I thought - why not make one?

I saw a video on youtube last weekend by one of my favourite witchy channels and she had made some figures out of clay to go on her altar. I'm not very good with clay, I will admit, but I thought I would try something similar. Now to avoid me trying to make it with natural clay and end up painting it and making it a mess, I thought I would use Fimo polymer clay. It's something I had bought before to dabble in, when I figured out I'd done something wrong I gave up, then the next time I put it in for too long and I burnt everything I tried to make. But I wanted to do something, so I dug the Fimo out.

I started with the Goddess - I knew I'd have to mix colours for the God figure so the Goddess was easier in that aspect. I went with a very traditional shape - one which is a universal Goddess figure for pagans everywhere, and pretty easy to make. Once I had made it, and baked it I was pretty pleased with it. It wasn't perfect, far from it but it was mine, and the satisfaction I got from it was incredible. A small white figure I had made to honour the Goddess and it felt really good. I was really excited to make my God figure the next day.

Now the God is a tricky one. He's depicted mainly as a Horned God, and as my Patron is Cernunnos, this is something I wanted to depict in my figure. Generally there isn't a "simple" God figure. He's depicted as the Green Man mostly as a "simple" depiction but I wanted something to go with my Goddess, something that was similar. So I thought about it and came up with a dark green head, body and horns. The horns were the hardest bit to get right. I wanted to make them like Antlers and I am very pleased with how they came out. I made them separate from the body and glued them on after baking.

So here's my finished product!


Nothing fancy, simple figures that represent something I believe it!

I think making things for Witchcraft is brilliant. I feel like I have a personal connection to these given that I put my time, love and energy into making them. They are imperfect but perfect to me. Currently they are sat on my bookcase next to my witchy books as I lack an altar but I hope that will change in the future. I'd love to have a place to have my witchy things on, be able to use for rituals, spells or just daily devotion.

I am planning on making further things for my future altar, perhaps some symbols to represent the elements, a pentacle tile, any other suggestions welcome. Anything I do will be put on here, all witchy developments I'm going to blog about. I might also start a youtube Video blog but I'm undecided on that as yet. Will think about it over the weekend and again, keep you posted.

I do like that I'm feeling more confident in my beliefs though, and willing to put the time in to confirm them.

And now to finish on a chant I found on a website that I love.

I have been thinking again (oh no I hear you cry!) about many things, but mainly on belief, my beliefs and religion as a whole.


Why do we believe? I have been thinking of the differences in the days when religion were found and belief today. I do not believe that less people believe than back then, in a proportional basis. I believe there were always people who questioned things, and questioning is healthy. Questioning lead to science and without it, where would we be today? But before the questioning, before the science, miracles happened, prophecies were told and the end of the world came with every eclipse. People believed, because they didn’t know any better. They would never again see a total eclipse and know it to be a astronomical phenomenon that would occur over and over again. They believed that God was angry, or that the world was ending. Today, we’re more likely to grab those little plastic glasses generally given away free in news papers to witness this scientific event. Probably the only one we’d ever see.

So what leads people to believe now? Is the world all just undiscovered science? Or does what sparked religion all those years ago still confound us now?

Today I feel the world is largely of blind faith. I mean no offence to those with other beliefs but when you look at the Christians, the Muslims, and all those with a holy book, I feel they just take the word in the book as gospel. And there it in my opinion a lot of truth in that. You get people like Fred Phelps who seem to digest the bible but look at how they use it? Picketing everything they can from rockstar’s funerals, to Comicon, to funerals of those who died fighting for their country. God hates this, God hates that. And how come those reading the same book (unless I’m muchly mistaken) who sit there saying God loves everyone? Is there any effort in these religions?

I’ll stick with a general conception of Christianity for this bit, not going to get bogged down.

Christianity, you are christened when born, and if your parents so wish it you go to Church every Sunday until you feel you might be old enough to make the decision that that’s not where you want to be. Or there are those who have no thought about it and carry on being Christian until they die, not of any miracle or anything that has snagged their attention, but because it’s what they have always believed. So they are born, live and die Christian. With no thought to follow any of their thoughts, they believe blindly in this “Word of God” this book you can buy for £12.99 from WHSmiths. And I look upon it with a sceptical mind, with this world of science, I do not see how these things can have taken place, and I see a lot of it as just stories.

I’m not going to comment on the other religions with holy books, I have very little dealings with them but having been christened, attended church, Sunday School and studied it fairly extensively in school I feel a familiarity with it. And that is my view.

So I look now to Paganism. Paganism is an umbrella term as such for countless different forms of religious belief and thought. There is no “holy book” for paganism for one, they are fairly new in the world of religion, Wicca was only founded in the 50’s. So what makes these people believe when there is no holy book?

I still consider myself fairly new to the world of Wicca and Paganism. I have had an interested for many years and I have been reading for many years though I don’t believe I have found my “niche”.

So I believe, and why? To be quite honest with you, I’m not all that sure. Having studied many areas of Paganism it just feels right. Many people call the feeling like they are “coming home”. I know this feeling, I know it well. And so I believe in a God and I believe in a Goddess. This equal balance in divinity as there is in the natural world. For every male half there is a female half, without both there wouldn’t be the life on this earth. Even those who reproduce themselves have male and female parts. All through nature, flowers, trees, animals, insects, the earth its self has split male and female. Yin and Yang. Its all part of the balance of life. I find the God and the Goddess easy to believe in. It’s not hard to see why people believe in that part. Neither do I find it hard to believe in energies. Everything has an energy, even rocks and crystals. It is these energies that are used to perform magic. Energy is generated in ritual through a number of different ways. It can be raised by voice, by dance, drumming. The energy is told what we want done through spells and it is released into the universe to do our bidding. The magic bit, that oddly, is the bit I find hardest to believe. I’ve had little to no experience with direct magic, it’s not something I find myself comfortable to practice. I wonder if its because of my lack of knowledge or if its because I find myself linking magic still to Harry Potter.

I feel I need to connect more. Many people in the online communities I’m on have daily devotions and alters and find they connect more. I’m wondering if I had this if it would help. The only way I’ll get around my disconnection with magic is to practice it myself. Then I can feel myself if I’m comfortable with it or not. And I think that will contribute to which path I take.

Currently I view Wicca as where I want to be. I know that this is probably as its where I started. Scott Cunningham’s Wicca: A guide for the solitary practitioner was the first book I picked up from a bookshop and committed myself to read. It was also bought on a day of great significance in my life and I feel that it’s someway connected. I believe I would be quite happy in the Wiccan path if I could just get past my block on magic. Perhaps my next stage of development can be setting up an alter. Dedicate a little time a day to meditate on what I seek. Clarity.
And yet, while I sit here pondering beliefs I still have a strong basis in Science. I don’t take everything to be some sign of the divine. I know it can’t be. And I think it’s hard having such a interest and belief in science and having a belief in something like Wicca where the concepts have been around for centuries.

But going back to the blind faith. Do pagans have blind faith? I don’t think so. I think that paganism is not something people stumble on really. People are not recruited to Paganism the way that other faiths advertise and try to recruit. They are there by choice, and that choice is personal to them. But something made them believe in this, something that isn’t a book written centuries ago. To have faith in paganism you have to look deep within yourself and find what it is that lies in that that makes you believe. You can’t follow blindly as it is you that makes the decisions, you that chooses what to believe. It is not dictated by a “messenger of God”. I suppose that is why I feel comfortable in it. It’s dicated by me. The main principle of Wicca is “An harm ye none, do what thee will.” Which sums up what life should be about to me.

I'll keep on trying, reading, believing. I'll try new things, daily time to stop and think about what I seek.

Something has to stick sooner or later.