Raven's Reflections

Purpose

This website came about due some issues I was having with a pagan community that I was a part of. I simply began writing one day as a way of venting, if you will, and that rant turned into a pair of essays in 2003. From there, slowly, this website came about.

I am going to keep a collection of rants, essays, links, and book recommendations. Most of it written by me, though some individual articles will be written by others who I've secured the permission of to host their work on my site.

Updates

5 June 2005: As part of getting back into the swing of things myself, I have written a new article titled The Mountain about doing exactly that.
27 March 2005: I just added an old (2003) essay that I wrote titled Women in America.
26 March 2005: Ack! I really let this fall by the wayside. Look for a new essay in the next couple of weeks, I also updated the webcomics section under links.; Updated a bunch of links that were broken just with the passage of time.
28 October 2004: Due to recent events on a clergy list I belong to, I have added a disclaimer at the bottom of this page emphasizing that these are my views only, and not those of any group I am affiliated with.
21 October 2004: I've finished setting it up so that by pointing a news aggregator at any page on the website it can detect the RSS feed.
20 October 2004: This site is now syndicated for those of you who use a news aggregator.
9 September 2004: Some minor updates all over the site.; New essay! Deities: For a Good Time Call...
20 August 2004: Updated the links page and did some more essay polishing.
19 August 2004: I've updated style sheet for all of the web pages. The navigation bar shouldn't appear now when the page is printed.
18 August 2004: Updated the Book List section of the website just slightly.; More work on a few essays.
17 August 2004: Fixed a bunch of minor issues and improved the wording in some of the essays.; Added the About the Author section and updated the links page.
16 August 2004: One of my essays has been listed on Daven's Important Essays page over at Daven's Journal!

About the Author

I am 25 years old and was raised Episcopalian, having been baptised at around the age of eight and confirmed at around twelve or thirteen. In my senior year in Roman Catholic High School I stumbled across Wicca, used it as a Non-Christian Religion for a school project, and have been practicing it for around seven years.

In terms of training I am largely self taught on information, but I never really grasped astral or energy work until I found a teacher and practiced as part of a coven for a few years. Since then I have attempted to further my skills in this regard, taking classes, reading, and practicing.

In the community I've gone by several names, and recently started going with Hrafn (Hrefna in some circles).

Some of my current personal interests in terms of magic and religion are (in alphabetical order):

Astral Projection
Defense
Kabbalah (both the spiritual and magical sides)
The Link Between Parapsychology and Magic
Northern European Paganism
Seiðr and Rune magic
Tricksters

Future Essays

In Progress

Gender as a Spectrum (20% done)
Respectfully Integrating Óðinn and Freyja into the Wiccan Framework (10% done, this one will be enormous when it is finished).

Ideas

Names -- The significance of taking a new name.
Shadow Work -- Know thyself.

Compatibility

The fundamental idea behind the layout of this website is minimal but functional. Minimal use of pictures, no frames or anything fancy in terms of layout, etc. I also want it to be viewable in a large array of web browsers and systems, so if you have problems send me a screen shot and details about your system and I'll see what I can do. It won't look quite right on Internet Explorer 6 for Windows due to a lack of support for CSS or the Q tag, but it should still be accessible, readable, and usable.

Recommended Browsers:

Apple's Safari
KDE's Konqueror
Mozilla's Firefox

Again, any browser should display this site and its content readably, but some are going to provide a richer experience than others.

Disclaimer

The views represented on this site are those of the author and should not be taken to represent the views of any organization that author has ever been affiliated with unless indicated specifically in the text.