Helen Pattskyn --- High Priestess
Everybody comes to the Craft in their own way, in their own time.
Everyone has their own story. This is mine:
I was raised in the Russian Orthodoxy; I loved it. Incense. Candles. Chanting. Pomp and circumstance... not to mention a really cool priest (seriously, Father Andrew rocked!) But due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up spending a few years in a Baptist church... the less said of that experience, the better.
When I was 13 years old, I read a book called Dogsbody by Diana Wynn Jones (it is one of my favorite books to this day).
One of the main characters in the story is the Welsh God of the Underworld, Arawn. My favorite scene is the depiction of the Wild Hunt: it culminates in Arawn's hounds running him down (in the form of an unearthly antlered "creature"), and tearing his icy cold flesh from his bones, devouring it. (The story is told from the point of veiw of an ordinary dog running with the hounds.) Moments later, the Hunter springs back to life, and takes his hounds (and the ordinary dog) back home with him. The image of that Wild Hunt has stayed with me to this day; when my copy of Dogsbody finally wore out a couple of years ago, I promptly replaced it.
When I was 17 years old, I found a copy of Scott Cunningham's Earth Power in a local book store. I was at once drawn to both Scott's gentle words and Robin Wood's gorgeous art work.
I didn't buy the book immediately, but I knew I would, "when the time was right."
A little over a year later, the time was finally right. Shortly after reading Earth Power, I ordered a copy of Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner, also by Scott Cunningham. I had to order it from the publisher; there was no World Wide Web (at least not like we have it today), and most metaphysical books were stuck in the "occult" section in the furthest corner of the bookstore -- clerks usually gave anyone who lingered there the stink-eye. I also became a regular at the few metaphysical shops I had discovered in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area, where I happened to be living at the time.
On Imbolc of 1988, at the age of 19, I dedicated myself to the Gods and began what has been one of the wildest, most fulfilling, frustrating, amazing, and empowering journeys I could ever have imagined.
I moved back to Oakland County and became involved in the local Craft community in the early 90's... the long story short is that after working with a couple of covens (and even founding one or two), I became solitary again for a bit, while I decided what *I* wanted.
During that time of hibernation, I caught back up with a long time friend, Sister, and former Covenmate and we got to talking... out of those talks, Silver Skein was born.
Silver Skein is founded on the belief that we are all equals before the Gods -- young, old, male, female, transgender, third gender, black and white and every shade in between, it doesn't matter... it is also founded on the belief that anyone who sincerely seeks after the Mysteries will find them. There is no "magic formula" -- I don't hold the keys to the Universe. No one does.
In my spare time, I am an avid backyard astronomer, writer of both original and fanfiction, artist, amateur seamstress and I maintain a wild "cottage garden" all summer long.
In 2007, I visited the Temple of Athene in Nashville, TN. Click HERE or on the side panel if you want to see some of the photos we took.
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I have recently been nominated for the "Children of Time Awards" for my Torchwood fiction. For that, I would like to offer a heartfelt thank you to all my wonderful readers!
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