It has been a quiet week mostly due to my body arguing with the menopause, then succumbing to a sinus infection with the added bonus of a cold sore. No big drama lama stuff, just annoying enough to put me out of action for a few days.
Do your homework!
My thoughts for the week are about research and sources. Prepare yourself for a mini rant…
When I was writing the Pagan Portals Sulis book just out of interest I Googled to see what correspondences folk had given for the goddess Sulis. The results were sadly not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. There were several websites giving information about Sulis, her history and correspondences such as offerings, herbs, crystals etc. Firstly the information seemed to be the same on each site, not just the same but exactly the same, definitely copied and pasted from one to the next. But perhaps more importantly no sources or references were given on any of the sites, now this is important and here’s why. There is nothing…absolutely nothing found in archaeological digs at the Roman Baths in Bath that gives any kind of information about the goddess Sulis and what she liked, disliked, how she was worshipped or what her correspondences were. There are no written myths, legends or history about her, there are no stories passed down verbally from generation to generation – nothing, nada, zilch, zip, zero.
Offerings have been unearthed from the springs in Bath, mostly items such as pewter dishes, that have her name on. There are of course her famous ‘curse tablets’ some of which are addressed to her and there are a few altars in situ bearing her name. We also know from archaeological digs that the Romans built a temple for her on the site of the Roman baths. But that is the extent of the factual and historical information.
My issue is this, don’t put out information such as correspondences or associations for a deity if there is no evidence and make it look like fact. I read some very strange and bizarre associations for her that had no relevance or connection to her whatsoever. With any deity, it is about building a relationship and getting to know them and their characteristics and each person has their own way of working with the gods and each one will have different likes and dislikes. But this is personal and how each individual works with them, it is not fact, it is not historical, it is not backed up by any evidence whatsoever. And I am very happy for folk to share their own personal gnosis and ideas, in fact I do so for Sulis in the book, but I make it very clear that it is my own view from my personal experience with her.
Which leads me onto research and sources. Whenever I am writing a book or an article I do a lot of research, and I mean, a lot. In the modern days of the internet, information is available at the click of a button, but just because it is on a website does not make it a reliable source. Just recently I have seen a huge amount of misinformation and absolute garbage that has been lifted from websites and used in essays, some even copying and pasting entire sentences from a Wiki article! It doesn’t take much time to double check a fact. Wikipedia is useful, however it is not necessarily a reliable source for factual info. It only takes a moment to check a few websites to see that a lot of information is merely copied from one site to another, none of them having any sources stated. There is a reason a lot of publishing houses insist on stating sources for information in books, there is also a reason a lot of them will not allow sites such as Wikipedia to be used as references.
Isn’t it worth taking a bit of extra time and effort to find the correct information?
OK…enough of me being grumpy and on a rant!
Elvis has nothing on me
A random photo from the archives, back in 2008 when I had short spiky hair and obviously got my hair dye from the same supplier as Elvis. A bit of a mini photo shoot in our back garden. The cloak is the first one I owned and was made by my very clever mum. The besom came from the Goddess and the Green Man shop in Glastonbury, I remember carrying it down the high street wrapped in brown paper just like a Harry Potter owl delivery!
How much?
I have a couple of workshops this weekend – one online for the fabulous College of Psychic Studies and another in person for a lovely shop, Crystal Wicca in Kent. People sometimes ask me about pricing for these events. Generally I am not involved in setting the prices when I run courses hosted by others, but the fees are calculated based on costs of hosting/running the event, time taken to advertise and of course all the preparation that goes on behind the scenes to put it all together. For example, on Saturday I am running a three hour online workshop. It has taken me the best part of a day to put together the information, layout and image presentation. Today I will also spend some time gathering together supplies to use during the workshop (it is on spell casting) and then of course I will be online for 3 hours tomorrow running it. For the in person workshop on Sunday, it has taken me again the best part of a day to put together all the information plus extra time getting all the supplies together for the crafting to do on the day, along with print outs. It is also a fair drive from me, so I will spend close to 5 hours in the car on Sunday getting there and back. Then of course the 4 ½ hours running the workshop. All of these things take a lot of work in preparation and behind the scenes.
Myself and the KW team do of course try and balance out the paying gigs with free stuff too, with my personal blog, the KW blog and the online chats and talks we do, hopefully it opens up to everyone across the board.
Stuff
Join me on my Wednesday morning chats if you are free, replays are on my author fb page and my YT channel.
You can also find me on this blog and on social media. If you think I can help with anything please do reach out. We are all part of a community and it is an honour to be here with you and to support each other.
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