8 Interesting Facts About Purim

This weekend, the Jewish calendar turns to the Purim festival. Purim is a trickster holiday in that it is a time of jokes, riddles, masks and merriment. While not everyone celebrates Purim or even knows about it, it is a fairly popular holiday. I myself celebrated Purim as a child in Hebrew School and knew that it related to the biblical book of Esther, but I was not aware of the rich symbolic and mystical traditions and legends surrounding it. I also did not have the opportunity to explore the biblical and scholarly texts with the feminist and renewalist perspective I do today. So to help you celebrate Purim, here are 8 interesting Purim facts for your pleasure!

Mamzer Magic : Jewitch Voodoo Protection Powder

I want to share an interesting psychic protection recipe I've come across. I recently ran into an old friend who is on a unique spiritual path. When we were younger, we explored Paganism and Magic together at the tender age of ten. He wrote in my Book of Shadows, which I still have.

Hallowe'en : Pagan Power!

Hallowe'en night will be here in a few hours, and I'm very, very scared. Oh, not of all the phantoms, witches, and monsters that will be roaming the streets - although I'm sure they'll be giving me some good scares when I pass them by on the sidewalks. No, I'm afraid of anti-Pagan prejudice and those who practice it with impunity. I'm afraid of the people who burn books, unlawfully dismiss employees and break up families in the name of God.

The Big Fat Mess - The Controversy of Messianic Judaism

When, after years of denial, I finally admitted to myself that I adored Jesus, I wasn't very comfortable with that fact. I'm still uncomfortable with it. In fact, I cringed when I wrote the first sentence of this post, and I've cringed each time I've read it since. I was committing the ultimate sin. Jews have been persecuted, quite literally, for thousands of years. And the most enduring and brutal persecutions have been perpetrated by Christians in the name of Jesus.