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TWPT:
Let's start with a rather basic question that
gets asked in most interviews just so that we understand
where it is that you are coming from. Tell me about
the evolution of Witchcraft in your life (early influences
and experiences) and do you remember a point in time
that it became obvious that this was "the"
spiritual path for you?
MN: I've had lots fun in recent
years researching the image of Witches and Witchcraft
in the popular culture of the 1960s, because those were
probably my earliest influences. In fact, I've
created a lecture based on recorded sound clips of the
period that I've given at various Pagan festivals. My thesis is that those years represent the "imaginative
childhood" of modern Wicca, or "Wicca's Wonder
Years." That's not to say that Witchcraft
didn't exist long before then, but I think it can be
argued that this was when it was coming out of the broom
closet here in the United States, and those media images
may have had an influence greater than most people think.
And they ran the gamut. The answer to the
immortal question posed by Glinda to Dorothy Gale, "Are
you a good Witch or a bad Witch?" was a resounding
YES. We saw both good Witches and bad Witches every
year when "The Wizard of Oz" was re-run on
network television. We were "treated"
to the idea of Witches as Satanists in the movie "Rosemary's
Baby" at the same time we were watching the adorable
nose-twitching Samantha on the weekly TV sitcom "Bewitched".
I personally remember being especially drawn to
Lori MacGregor, the "witch" in Disney's "The
Three Lives of Thomasina", as portrayed by elfin-faced
actress Susan Hampshire.
Of course those portrayals were all fiction. It
wasn't until I saw the movie "Bell, Book, and Candle"
(which occasionally aired on TV during the 1960's) that
my thoughts were jolted in a new direction. Of
course, that was fiction, too, but it got me wondering:
What if there really were Witches living and working
among us, secretly? What would they be like? What would it be like to be one of them? Then
came that pivotal moment for me, seeing Sybil Leek on
the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. True,
she didn't hold quite the same fascination for me that
Kim Novak had, but what she said made all the difference!
I hung on her every word. The premise of
"Bell, Book, and Candle" was true after all;
there really were Witches among us. Sybil Leek
was one. And she spoke of others. Also,
Witchcraft wasn't about Hollywood special effects. It
was about a "religion", a faith, a lifestyle,
a way of being in the world. I was captivated,
and I was off to the bookstore to pick up a copy of
Sybil's "Diary of a Witch", the first of many
books on Witchcraft I was to devour.
Then again, I had a long-standing interest in the
supernatural. I was fascinated by ghosts, haunted
houses and psychic experiences of all kinds, and seriously
considered the field of parapsychology as a career.
I was fortunate enough to find a group of high
school friends who were also into "the occult",
and together we held séances, calculated natal charts
and read Tarot cards. These interests had always
been difficult to reconcile with my Roman Catholic upbringing,
which tended to regard them as inherently evil in some
way. I knew better, even at that tender age, and
had the instinct that if something had to give, it would
be my religion and not my interests. After all,
if one's religion can't accommodate one's interests
and hobbies, what good is it? From my consumer's
advocate approach to religion, I suspect that my Catholicism
never really "took" in the first place,
although its stress on liturgical celebrations stood
me in good stead for my later studies. I began
to wonder which religion, if any, did have a place
for my interests, and could see them in a positive light?
Once again, I was brought back to Witchcraft.
I didn't want to become a Witch immediately because
I was still studying it, and a researcher should keep
a certain distance in order to maintain objectivity.
But after reading every book on Witchcraft I could
get my hands on, I could sense that my resolve was crumbling.
This religion, with it's reverence for Nature,
its egalitarian view of women, its positive take on
the supernatural, and its belief that any person could
connect with the numinous, was everything I had been
looking for. There was no blinding flash of light,
no sudden moment of conversion to this faith. Rather,
as is so common in Wicca, there was only the slow, creeping
realization that this religion already embodied the
beliefs that I had long held. The only drawback
was that it was called Witchcraft, a word that in the
1960s still held negative associations for many. But
that was something I would just have to deal with. So,
undaunted, I set out to do my part in reclaiming the
word. By the summer just before my freshman year
of college, I knew this was the right path for me, and
so dedicated myself formally to it, and never once looked
back.
TWPT:
What kind of support did you receive from family
and friends in your pursuit of this new path?
MN: LOL! As far as my family
goes, none whatsoever! I remember my mom telling
her friends that it was "just a phase" I was
going through. Thirty years later, she was still
telling people it was just a phase! Pretty darn
long, for a phase! As far as my friends, reactions
ranged from skeptical to inquisitive. But it would
be another year or more before any of them took a step
on the same path.
TWPT:
Tell me about the Pagan community that existed
around you in those early days and what kind of involvement
did you have with it?
MN: That's an easy one. There
was no Pagan community in those days. I was
solitary because that was my only option. When
I first decided to become a Witch, I knew of no other
person who had made that choice. I was totally
alone. It wasn't until I got to college that I
would even meet another Witch. In my freshman
year, I probably met two or three others, also solitary.
And by the time I graduated, I had probably met
no more than a dozen who seriously claimed Witchcraft
as their spiritual path. There were no covens
other than the ones my friends and I tried to form.
And although I had evidence of older covens in
the area, I was never able to make solid contact with
them.
TWPT:
Was writing an interest that was with you from
the beginning or was that something that you grew into
as you matured?
MN: Well, I've always admired
a well-turned phrase. I was an avid reader as
a kid, and would have loved the Harry Potter books,
had they been around then. As it was, my favorite
authors included J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. LeGuin, Lloyd Alexander, Evangeline Walton, Alan
Garner, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, etc. But
my all-time favorite was T.H. White, and I still think
his "The Once and Future King" is the most
perfect book ever written. Ray Bradbury wasn't far behind. I also read
a lot of non-fiction, especially in the areas of parapsychology,
folklore, mythology, comparative religion, and general
science. I even enjoyed reading the professional
journals in those fields. I never thought of myself as a writer and certainly
never considered making it my career. On the other
hand, I did like writing stories for my own amusement
when I was young, and was first published in my high
school newspaper--an article on the history of Halloween.
In my senior year of high school, I was editor
of the school newspaper, a role I re-lived many years
later as editor of "The Lantern's Light".
Over the years, I've become more comfortable with
writing, although I still have a hard time writing to
a deadline, or to just fill up space. I'm the
type who needs something new to write about before putting
pen to paper--some new discovery or obsession--then
I will bore you silly with my scribbling.
TWPT:
From what I read about you on the web you seem
to have quite a passion for teaching others the wisdom
that you have learned over the years through your research,
when was it that you felt a need to share your wisdom
and how did you go about making that happen (teaching
at Columbia and Kansas City in the 70's and 80's)?
MN: It started through sheer
serendipity. Or Fate, if you prefer. In
my first year of college, I noticed a course being offered
at the Communiversity (their Free U.) called "Witchcraft
and Magic". I went down to enroll in the
class, mainly as a way to meet others with the same
interest. In a moment of bravado, I volunteered
to be a teacher's assistant, if he needed one. The
enrollment clerk asked me how much I knew about the
subject and, after some conversation, he informed me
that I would be teaching the class, because the original
teacher had left town unexpectedly! I had my first
class later that same week. Twenty years later,
I was still teaching the same class! But in the interim, I discovered I truly loved teaching
and, being a bit of a ham, had a knack for it. Over
the years, I've met some of my best friends through
the class. And yes, I also love sharing what I've
learned. Just like I like sharing movies, music, and all my
other interests and passions with my friends. I
think it's a Librarian thing.
TWPT:
You ran a bookstore back in the 80's called The
Magick Lantern, what was it that you wanted to accomplish
with the bookstore? Tell me about The Lantern's Light
and what role it played in getting your writings out
to those who would benefit from them?
MN: Well, being a bibliophile,
I always wanted to have my own occult bookstore. Kansas City didn't have one at the time and, when
the opportunity presented itself through a business
partner I met through my class, I jumped at the chance.
I felt strongly about maintaining its integrity
as a book store and not getting into a lot of boutique
items, jewelry, crystals, etc. (which may not have been
the wisest decision from a purely business perspective),
and at its peak carried over 1200 titles! That's
a lot for a specialty bookstore! No less a specialist
than J. Gordon Melton called it one of the most impressive
collections he'd ever seen!
"The Lantern's Light" was the store's in-house
newsletter/journal. It was very primitive by today's
standards (put together on a Commodore-64 computer),
and very text-heavy--but with high editorial standards.
I published it eight times a year, coinciding
with the holidays, and it served as a vehicle not only
for my own work, but for many other talented local writers,
poets, and artists. Yes, it played an important
role in getting my writings out to the public, but it
was not the first Kansas City newsletter to do so. That
dubious distinction belongs to "The Rune".
TWPT:
Your bio mentions that you are a member of the
Coven of New Gwynedd. Is a coven how you prefer
to pursue your path and what are the strengths for you
of participating in a coven as opposed to celebrating
as a solitary?
MN: Actually, the Coven of New
Gwynedd is long since moribund. Even though I
was a founding member, I never considered myself as
its leader, and I made sure to keep the Communiversity
class totally separate from the coven. Unlike today, when many Wicca 101 classes function
as outer courts or training classes for an associated
coven, mine did not. Even though it was an extensive
12-week course, it was informational only, and contained
no hands-on training. Very occasionally, someone
from the class approached me about joining the coven,
and we'd treat this on a case-by-case basis. New Gwynedd was fortunate in having a succession
of astonishingly gifted and capable High Priestesses,
so my role in the coven was merely supportive. Which
was precisely how I liked it. In our Welsh tradition,
it is the High Priestess who "runs" the coven
and chooses her own High Priest and, eventually, chooses
her own successor.
After New Gwynedd disbanded, I was often asked to
attend gatherings of other covens. And although
I felt deeply honored to be their guest, I never seriously
considered joining another coven because, in some strange
way, I still felt myself to be a part of New Gwynedd.
I know it sounds silly, but one of my more noticeable
personality traits is a strong sense of loyalty. Even
when the thing I'm being loyal to no longer exists.
As for coven work versus solitary work, both has
its pros and cons. And I think most people need both, at one time or
another in their spiritual journey. However, I
do think a person is more solidly grounded if they spend
some time as a solitary before they join their first
coven. Working alone gives you a chance to build your
confidence, and figure out how "magic" feels
to you, how to manipulate the "energies".
Unfortunately, I see too many young people today
take their first step onto this path by joining a coven.
They learn the coven's way of doing things, but
they never learn their own. And Goddess help them
should the coven disband! They are totally adrift. They
may not even know how to cast a Circle on their own.
One should never be afraid of being a Witch alone,
even though the path may seem more difficult. But
inner strength is your reward. And if, later on,
you do find a compatible coven to join, or decide
to form one of your own, you'll have something of substance
to bring to it!
TWPT:
You obviously recognized the power of the internet
even in its primitive state which was the early BBS's.
What role did that early BBS have in disseminating your
early drafts of your essays on the Witches' Sabbats
to the readers of the world who were eager to read them?
MN: LOL! Actually, I don't
think most of us did recognize the power of the internet
at the time. That came later, and it came as a
shock. Back in the days of the BBS's, the internet
was a purely local phenomenon. You connected to
another system via phone lines, and no one wanted to
pay long distance charges to call a BBS in another city.
So we all put up our own BBS's. I was sysop
of The Magick Lantern BBS, which was run from my bookstore
in the evenings, over a blazing 300-baud modem! It
was one of several BBS's in the Kansas City area that
catered to magical and arcane interests. Another
one of them, Tapestry BBS, run by my dear friend Lady
Shyra, was one of the first to "echo" its
entire message base to similarly themed BBSs in other
cities, by dialing them up in the wee hours of the morning
when rates were cheapest. They, in turn, would
echo them further.
In this manner, people could carry on conversations
across the country, although it might take a day or
two for a response to bounce back. If you've ever
seen "101 Dalmatians", this was the computer
equivalent of the "twilight bark". Early
BBS's also hosted text file libraries, and these were
also echoed from one system to another. Tapestry
BBS hosted my Sabbats articles and it was from there
that they were so widely disseminated. Believe
me, it was quite a shock when, some years later, I fired
up my first "web browser" and discovered that
my articles had literally migrated all around the world
on the internet!
TWPT:
Could you expand on what the internet has meant
to the Wiccan/Pagan movement over the years since those
early BBS days and what it has meant for your writings
in particular.
MN: I think the value of the
internet to the Wiccan/Pagan movement has been inestimable.
Until the advent of the internet, the flow of
information was always through hierarchical models.
You had to have some political clout to be heard,
in order to have access to the media, to publishing,
etc. This hierarchical approach naturally shuts out
groups with alternative perspectives, people with minority
visions. The internet changed all that. Now,
anybody can put up their own web page and the whole
world can view it. And if that web page provides
quality content, then it's going to become popular.
As an example, take a look at The Witches' Voice
web site. It provides a mind-bogglingly massive
amount of quality content, and it is executed brilliantly.
The result is that it has naturally risen to the
top and become the most popular Pagan/Wiccan web site
on the internet. The internet's non-hierarchical
structure fits beautifully with Wicca's non-hierarchical
philosophy.
When it comes to my own writings, I am very fortunate
to have written a series of essays that are "perennials",
articles that people seem to enjoy referring to and
consulting year after year. I'm not challenged
with creating entirely new content for my readers every
week. All I have to do is occasional editorial
tweaking, or the occasional additional essay. Like
I said, I don't like to write new articles unless I
have something new to say. So I guess you could
say I provide a kind of reference web site that is basically
unchanging and always there for people.
TWPT:
Tell me about your fascination with holidays and
celebrations and what it is that draws you to study
and write about these events.
MN: I'm not sure I can answer
that without quoting from the Preface of my book, because
I wrote it to answer that very question. But in
a nutshell, I have always been crazy about holidays,
ever since I was a kid. And I think the thing
I like most about them is the way they have the magical
ability to transform mundane time into sacred time.
Actually, it's almost as though time is suspended.
You don't go to work, you don't go to school.
Instead, you suddenly have time to spend with
your family and friends, and you focus on those things
in life that really matter. You put up decorations
to signal this shift in mindset, and you celebrate along
with others. It's then you are making the memories
you will most treasure throughout your life.
TWPT:
When was it that you decided that the Wiccan/Pagan
community could do with a series of articles that would
condense the major holidays and celebrations down to
some basic points? How did you originally get the word
out about your writings and what kind of interest was
there in these articles in the community at large?
MN: Well, it didn't happen quite
like that, because it really wasn't my decision. I
was teaching my Witchcraft class at the time, and two
students of mine had started a Pagan-oriented publication
called "The Rune". It was published
eight times a year, to correspond with the Sabbats,
and they approached me about writing a series of articles
dealing with the history and folklore of the holidays.
Since I had already done an article on Halloween
for my high school newspaper, and a similar article
about Yule for the newsletter of the Kansas City chapter
of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I was pretty
sure I could pull it off. So, I re-tooled those
two older articles and wrote new ones from scratch,
continuing to tweak them as the years went by.
I really never did anything to publicize the articles,
beyond publishing them in local newsletters and posting
them on my BBS. From there they were echoed around
the country and eventually around the world. However,
one important decision that I made at the start was
very much in the spirit of the early years of the internet,
i.e. that all information should be freely available.
So I decided to let anyone who wanted to post
my articles on their own web site, at no charge. I
was more interested in getting the information out there
than making money from it. I asked only that people
promise to leave my name attached to it, promise not
to edit it in any way, and promise not to charge anyone
for its use. That decision garnered a lot of good
will toward the articles.
The interest was pretty intense from the start, because
there's a lot of information in those articles that
you can't get in most books on Witchcraft, even in books
devoted to the holidays specifically. People noticed
that and responded to it very positively. Of course,
today there are whole books devoted to each of the holidays.
But people still needed a source of information
for all the holidays together, where the information
on history and folklore was rather densely packed. My
articles still fill that particular niche, providing
a condensed reference source for both students and teachers.
TWPT:
Do you still see books as one of the main sources
that our community has for educating itself about our
history, general practices etc or has the internet taken
over some of those chores originally associated with
books?
MN: LOL! I remember Gavin
Frost once said to me that the true greeting from one
Witch to another is not "Blessed Be!", it's
"Have you read...?" And I think there's
a lot of truth to that. Witches love books. Most
of them have large personal libraries. Margot
Adler made the same observation in "Drawing Down
the Moon" that, despite the way Witchcraft seems
to cut across other demographic boundaries, one thing
all Witches have in common is that they are readers.
They are "scholars without degrees".
How will the internet affect that? I think
it will be a long while before we all agree with Egon
Spengler that "Print is dead." Yes,
Witches will use the internet and use it well, especially
since a surprisingly high percentage of them hold careers
in technology. But they also embrace tradition.
When they're not surfing the web, they're watching "Antiques
Roadshow". So I think Witches will always
retain a special fondness for this physical artifact
we call a book.
TWPT:
When was it that you decided that your Witches'
Sabbats articles should finally make an appearance in
printed form?
MN: I assume you mean in book
form, as opposed to their earlier appearance in newsletters?
Well, once again, it was not my decision! I
was contacted out of the blue by Witchcraft author,
the late Ellen Cannon Reed. It turns out that
she had long been a fan of my writing and had often
used my articles in teaching her own Witchcraft classes.
At that time in her life, she was attempting to
launch her own publishing house, Solar Crown Publishing,
and asked me if she could publish my articles in book
form. I agreed but, due to circumstances beyond
her control, the project never got very far. So
there the matter lay for many years until, once again,
I was approached by a publisher, Acorn Guild Press.
This time, all the pieces fell into place, and
it became a reality.
I must say that they were being extremely courageous
because it was really an open question as to whether
people would want to pay good money for a book when
the bulk of the material in it was freely available
online. And still is! So this was really
a test case. But whenever we polled people at
Pagan festivals, the answer was always an enthusiastic
yes! Add to that the beauty of the book itself,
those lovely illustrations by Heather Lloyd, the wonderful
layout and graphics and the editorial tightening that
my publishers Jim and Kel brought to the work, and you
end up with something that most Witches would want to
add to their libraries.
TWPT:
Were there any changes that you made during this
transition from what has existed on the internet all
these years into book form?
MN: Well, you must understand
that I've made little changes and tweaks all along.
I considered these articles to be living documents.
And so I was constantly correcting small errors
or tightening the wording. However, as we prepared the text for this new print
edition, we did much more extensive proofing than ever
before. We were surprised to find some errors
(like a dropped word) that had gone unnoticed for years.
Also, there are some words and names that can
be correctly spelled in more than one way. We
made these consistent across all the articles. And we
made punctuation and formatting uniform across the essays.
It's amazing how much time I spent working with
my publishers on style sheet questions, like where to
follow it and where to make exceptions. In the
end, I can honestly say that these texts have never
been in better shape than they are now, in this print
edition.
TWPT:
You also included some new material in the book
beyond just the articles on the Sabbats themselves.
Tell me about what you decided was appropriate articles
to include with your classic Sabbat materials.
MN: Yes, there are a number of
articles in addition to the "classic" Sabbat
materials, some of which have been on my web site for
a while, some of which are on my web site but still
relatively new, and some that have been created especially
for this new print edition. All of them relate,
in one way or another, to the Sabbats.
In the first category we have "Re-Thinking the
Watchtowers", "Ten Years Gone", and "Two
Witches". Some readers have had a hard time
seeing the connection of the Watchtowers article to
the Sabbats but to me they are intimately connected
because of their correspondences. Since many Pagans
attend Pagan festivals during holidays, it seemed fitting
to review a festival experience, in "Ten Years
Gone". And "Two Witches" was an "inspired"
little modern fairy tale that takes place at a Pagan
festival. I wanted to include it in this volume
mainly because it's the only piece that shows the "other"
side of me, the side that's not just a pedantic scholar.
In the second category, there is "The Ever-Widening
Circle: A New Pattern Glimpsed in the Holidays".
Even though it is on my web site, it is one of
my newer essays and, in importance, I rate it almost
on a par with "The Death of Llew", since it
represents a unique contribution to the field, something
I haven't seen anywhere else.
As to the new material in the book and not available
elsewhere, there is a lengthy and somewhat technical
article (including diagrams) called "Marking the
Sabbats", that deals with the position of sunrise
and sunset at each of the eight Sabbats, and how one
could set up alignments to mark them. There is
also a fairly lengthy "Preface" to the book
which details my own personal fascination with holidays
and their customs. I wanted to make this a very
personal statement, to counterbalance the rest of the
book, which is not. Several readers have already
commented that this part is a "fun read".
I have also added a lengthy bibliography at the
back which, I think, will be a major surprise to many,
inasmuch as there is a strong emphasis on the writings
of folklorists from the turn of the last century, rather
than the usual references to modern Pagan authors. And
of course, there is that beautiful Foreword written
by Wren Walker of The Witches' Voice. That lady really knows how to put words together!
TWPT:
If you had to explain to someone what you view
your role in the Wiccan/Pagan community as encompassing
with your writings and articles what would you tell
them?
MN: I see myself mainly as a
teacher, both lecturer and writer. But not one
who is content to merely regurgitate the usual Wicca
101 material. I like to do original research and, when I feel I
have made significant discoveries or connections, I
like to share that with my students and readers. And
I insist on viewing myself as a student, too. I
certainly don't "know it all". Nobody
does. And, more importantly, I would never want
to! How dull! There will always be new answers,
always new questions. Learning stuff is one
of the great joys of life, and I never want it to end.
TWPT:
Do you see your book as a starting point for those
who want to delve deeper into the history of the holidays?
What would you recommend as the next step for one of
your readers who wanted to pursue the holidays as a
course of study?
MN: Yes, I do think my book could
be a good introduction for someone who wanted to pursue
the history of the holidays. I suppose the next
step for readers who are really serious about it is
to check out some of the sources I've listed in the
bibliography. And you will note that I do not
limit myself to just one type of source. There
are liturgical histories of the Catholic Church, there
are modern social critiques, there's material from contemporary
historians, there's archaeoastronomical research, there's
tons of stuff from the folklorists of the 1800s.
And I guess that's one bit of general advice I would
give. Just because you are interested in Pagan
holidays, don't limit yourself to Pagan authors. Walk
right past the Pagan section of the bookstore or library
and check out the folklore section. Check out
the astronomy books that deal with megalithic alignments.
Look at books that cover the ritual calendars
of other religions, including the highly liturgical
traditions of Christianity, such as Catholic, Orthodox,
Anglican, etc. Learn to read between the lines,
translate concepts from one religion to another, fit
the pieces together and try to see the unfolding patterns.
TWPT:
How did your association with Acorn Guild Press
(publisher of the Witches' Sabbats) come about and what
did you think of the process from beginning draft to
finished published product?
MN: I actually had a personal
connection with one of the two founders of Acorn Guild
Press. In his younger days, he was a student of
someone who had been a student of mine. So we
have this apostolic succession thing going. Beyond
that, we became good friends and have kept up a lively
email correspondence over the years. He actually
approached me some years ago about publishing a book,
but I dawdled. I can be quite the procrastinator
when I put my mind to it. But then I decided we
might as well see it through, and we were off and running.
The whole process was wonderful. It felt very
collaborative. They allowed me input at every
stage of the book's production. I teased them
about it, saying they were setting themselves a bad
precedent. But I've since learned that their approach was quite
intentional. This is the kind of publisher they
want to be for the Pagan community. And from an
author's perspective, what more could you want?!
TWPT:
After all of these years of study, teaching and
writing about the holidays do you still find new and
interesting things about the holidays that you seemed
to have missed over the years and does this give you
a sense that you will never be completely done on this
journey of learning?
MN: Indeed I do! The classic
example of that is the chapter called "The Ever-Widening
Circle". There was a larger pattern that
was formed when you looked at the folk customs associated
with each of the holidays. And it had been just
quietly sitting there for years, waiting for me to notice
it! It's the most incredible sense of discovery
when something like that happens. A real "Eureka!"
moment. But then again, one could say that I had
prepared the ground for it, through years of study and
research.
Geez, I certainly hope that I will never be done
on my journey of learning! You know, one of the
guiding philosophies in my life comes from my all-time
favorite book, "The Once and Future King"
by T. H. White. It's the scene where a very depressed young Arthur
comes to Merlyn and asks him, "What's the best
thing for being sad?" And Merlyn replies
that the best thing for being sad is to learn something.
It is the only thing that never fails. And the
only thing we can never exhaust. No matter how
down in the dumps you are, learning something new will
always cheer you up. And there is always something
new to learn. It has worked wonderfully well for
me.
TWPT:
Do you still do Pagan festivals during the summer?
What is the motivation for you to head out to these
festivals and spend time among the community?
MN: Actually, I've never done
a lot of Pagan festivals. Typically, I only go
to them when I'm asked to deliver a keynote lecture,
or some such. I don't do camping well and, although this is heresy
for a Pagan, I'm not a very outdoorsy sort of person.
That's not to say that I don't love to be out
in nature, but I also like to be able to return to my
own hearth and home whenever I wish. And it's
not to say that I don't enjoy spending time among the
Pagan community, but swatting mosquitoes and hopping
over snakes can be distracting. Plus, I'm a fussy
sleeper and have a hard time dozing off when not in
my own bed. Some Pagan, huh?! LOL! But you know what? Our distant ancestors
started building houses for a reason. I've often
wondered why we don't have the occasional Pagan Festival
at the local Plaza Hilton? It's not like there
isn't precedent; the SF and Fantasy conventions have
been done that way for years! And it would be
great for a winter festival, wouldn't it! So let
me know if you want to invite me to a festival like
that! ;)
TWPT:
Do you see The Witches' Sabbats as your last word
on the holidays or will there be more writings from
you in the future to further expand the information
that you have sent out with this book?
MN: Those who know me well know
that I never have a last word on anything. It's impossible to shut me up. LOL! But
I do think this will be my only book on the holidays.
Future editions may contain additional information
but, since I've packed as much information about the
holidays as I can into this one book, I don't foresee
any other books on the topic. There are plenty of good books out there that cover
what to do for the Sabbats, from rituals to Sabbat cake
recipes, so I don't see a need to replicate that.
TWPT:
I know that the book is not due out until September
but are you getting advance interest in finally having
this material in a book format that folks can keep in
their library for reference?
MN: Actually, the book is already
out! All of the online retailers, like Barnes
and Noble, Powell's, and Amazon, are already shipping
it. If you don't see it at your local bookstore,
ask them to carry it! Or ask them to special order
it for you. If retailers need ordering information,
they should check out www.acornguild.com
, my publisher's web site.
Yes, lots of folks seem to want this material to
be published in hard copy.
For one thing, my web site occasionally exceeds its
allotted bandwidth and becomes temporarily unavailable.
A book never does that. It's always there
on your library shelf, unless the person you loaned
it to forgot to return it again.
TWPT:
Beyond The Witches' Sabbats are there any other
subjects that you might like to tackle in the format
of another book in the coming years?
MN: Absolutely. Yes. I
already have enough material lying around already written
that I could easily publish another three or four books
without half trying. As to the subject matter,
I will let that be a surprise. But I can assure you that, once again, it will be
stuff not typically covered in most "Wicca 101"
books. I think most of us are ready to move beyond
that.
TWPT:
To close out this interview are there any last
thoughts that you would like to share with our readers
about your book, folks you'd like to thank or wisdom
that you'd like to share from your journey so far?
MN: I want to thank YOU for doing
this interview! These have been really insightful
questions and it's been great fun for me to answer them.
There are many other thank you's connected with
the book, but hopefully I have covered those in the
book's Acknowledgements. The one thing I'd like
to say to your readers about my book is that I hope
they enjoy reading it. It's packed with detailed information, but I have
tried to make it fun, so that reading it is a romp.
As to parting words of wisdom... Just remember
that Life is meant to be celebrated! And our holidays,
the Witches' Sabbats, are the perfect excuse for doing
so. And in today's world, we need all the excuses
we can get! So make the most of them! And Blessed Be!
TWPT:
Mike, it has been a pleasure talking to you and
I would recommend to all of my readers that if they
are not familiar with your material from the web and
even if they are they should consider adding this book
to their library as a reference on the holidays of the
Pagan year and pull it out as each holiday approaches
to refresh their minds on the meaning behind the celebration.
Good luck with your book and I hope that it does very
well for you and for Acorn Guild.
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