b is for... my first Blogging anniversary!

Today's the day!

This is my very first "blogoversary" and I gotta say, I'm pretty excited for where this blog is going in the next year. I'm shifting my focus away from my own psychoses (ha!) and toward my art and writing, and my pagan path. Really, I'm not sure those three are actually separable.

I'm something of an animist, something of a polytheist; I use animal oracle cards and runes, and I'm learning tarot. My path, I believe, is visible in my artwork. That's especially true in the print I'm giving away today, titled Souls.

I have several projects going which I'll be blogging about: I'm working on building a primate deck, which I suppose will be a form of oracle cards, rather than tarot. I'll blog about my work with learning tarot via my new-ish steampunk tarot deck. I'm also helping Kourtney out with the Pagan Pages Blog Hop, and following along with the Pagan Blog Project. Occasionally, I peek in on the Pagan Blog Prompts and see what's going on there, too.

I've joined three reading challenges, too, just in case my blogging projects and the 19 credit hours I'm taking at the university don't keep me busy. They'll blend well with things I'll be reading, anyway, in the course of my studies and research, so it's not actually a big addition to my schedule. The buttons for those are on the left sidebar, if you wanna check them out (it's the Dystopian RC, the "This isn't Fiction" RC, and the "Get Steampunk'd" RC).

Speaking of steampunk... my fiction is going that direction. I'm hoping to finish my first story this year. I'll be adding some new poetry here and there, but that's not the focus this year that it was last year. I'm pleased with my first book of poetry, 40 Pieces, which I just finished at the end of 2012 and will be given away today. This year, my fictional story will be my priority.


If you're just stopping by to see who won the giveaway, here's what you're looking for: 

Congratulations to Magaly Guerrero of Pagan Culture fame!

Pssssst! Today is also Cletus' birthday. Pass on some birthday wishes on his blog!

a challenge for the pagan community

Here's a challenge:

"Write a blog post about what you hope to see for the Pagan community in 2013, and include what you are going to personally do to make it happen. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture, but be daring. Be brave with specifics, and even ways you're going to hold yourself accountable, it's for the good of us all, right?"

That's from That Witchy Place's facebook page. They're doing a giveaway and this is one of several ways to enter (the other ways are far less time-consuming!). Go ahead, check it out.

~

It's a good question, huh?

What I hope to see for the Pagan community in 2013... well... it's not a question I would normally consider because, well, it feels a bit presumptuous. And maybe that's indicative of a trend, or a pair of trends, we see in the pagan community. It seems that there is a spectrum of humanity that gets a central stage in the pagan community. On one end are the people who love to tell others what to do, and shout their news to anyone who might listen. On the other end, those who avoid giving such advice in an almost phobic manner. Most of us, I'm guessing, fall somewhere in between those two extremes. I'm perhaps a bit closer to the phobic end, despite being a blogger. I'm not a fan of telling others how to conduct their spiritual or even their public lives, and certainly not how to integrate those two areas of life. So envisioning a direction I think an entire community should go isn't exactly a natural exercise for me.

To attempt this, I'm going to tell myself that nobody's taking my words here as directives, which I'm sure is accurate. Hypothetically speaking, it might be nice to see the pagan community to...

hmm...

... to communicate better. Yes. To learn to listen without swallowing anything whole, nor disregarding anything whole; to learn to advise without assuming authority unless that authority has been conferred by your listener; to learn to hear each other with sympathy, if not empathy; these are the things I'd like to see.

As to how I plan to make this happen... that's actually easier than it might seem. Or at least, it's easier than I might think it seems. I has a blog, after all. But if I'm going to look at this as a proactive change, it has to be more than just continuing the same old stuff.

It's a happy coincidence that my first blogoversary is coming up in January. I'd already planned to refocus this blog to include more of my daily life. The Diary of Bones started out as a place for me to write about what I call my psychosis. I didn't expect anyone to read it. But... I have more than 3000 views in less than a year. So somebody must reading. And lately, my psychosis has been less prevalent in my writing. Obviously, I've started writing about other things. The focus has already changed. Now I'm just adding a little intent behind the momentum.

One of the things I've written more about (probably the topic I've been writing about most, in the past several months) is my spiritual path. In 2013, I'm going to continue writing with the Pagan Blog Project and sharing Project Pagan Enough. I'm also joining the Pagan Pages Blog Hop as staff. As I do move into 2013, I'd like to recall in my writing - and reading - the idea of better communication in our community. Every movement starts somewhere small. Perhaps this isn't revolutionary, but it's something that would strengthen our community and our members. Who's with me?