Oh, well.
Good thing I'm a Witch. Any time something like this happens I'm
also gonna pay attention to its metaphysical meaning.
For example, I finally found out why my back has been
hurting. When I sat twisty in my chair 3 weeks ago I irritated the IT bands
that run from my knees, along the outside of my thighs, up to my pelvis. Turns
out running puts extra stress on those bands. It's a common injury for
runners. Who knew?
Fortunately, I found an awesome exercise for my IT
bands, and the back pain disappeared ASAP. Still, it's interesting I developed
tendonitis in the tendons that attach to my pelvis, which gave me back pain,
rather than the tendons that attach to my knees. Metaphysically, persistent
back pain means you're carrying too many burdens, and you need to drop them
now.
Duh! That's an understatement when it comes to my
life.
Then this weekend my sinuses came under attack. Metaphysically, a
stuffy nose means there's something you wanna do, but you feel it's impossible
or impractical. So the rhythm of your life comes to a screeching halt,
kinda like trying to breath through a stuffed up nose. Yeah, it ain't
happenin.
Guess you know what I did this weekend, huh? Never let it be
said the SexWitch can't learn from her mistakes. Especially when she's B&B
(can't breath, can't bend). So I made the necessary adjustments, dropped a
bunch of burdens, and put more faith in the impossible.
I'm also gonna drink a glass of club soda every day.
It's been 4 years since I've had a sinus allergy attack. Club soda was part of
my daily prevention routine, which I let slide last year. It keeps my ph
alkaline so a sinus allergy can't survive in my bod.
Nevertheless (despite being B&B) I've been a very busy
SexWitch. ~wink~
Last week I found out my "Blog Talk Radio" interview
with Kat Holmes ("Kat's Writing Pen") needed to be postponed again. Kat's life
has been full of crazy twists and turns this year. Bless her heart! So she and
I plan to reschedule for a later date.
However on February 19 at 9:00pm you can catch me on
Casey Ryan's show "The Cutting Room Floor." He'll be interviewing me about my
sexy books and wild life. Should be a blast! Afterwards I'll post the link so
you can listen to all the fun we had. This is the first time I've done his
show, and I'm totally looking forward to it. Screenwriters are his primary
audience, which is cool since producers come to me almost every year, interested
in making my novels and memoirs into movies or a video series.
Right now I'm working on an interview for Te-Erika Patterson and
her "My Savvy Sisters" blog. Her focus is empowering women, and if
you've read my memoirs and novels you know how important that is to me as well.
When this interview goes live I'll post the link for you.
Now for the subject of
this blog post. In January I did an interview for Margaret Shaffer's "Magikos
Studios" blog. It was a fun change for me. Most of the interviews I do are
about my books. But MS isn't a book review blog. It's a blog for Pagans
about being Pagan.
That means I was given
the chance to talk about my other life. Wow! Everyone knows the
SexWitch spends half her days in the Earth Realm and the other half in the Fey
Realm. But rarely do I get a chance to talk about my Fey life. This interview
was a real treat for me, and I thought you might enjoy it, too.
Happy Quickening Moon
Esbat!!
~smooches~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interview with Pagan Erotica
Novelist,
Laura Stamps
Laura Stamps is an award-winning Pagan
paranormal erotica novelist (Witches, vampires, shapeshifters, Otherkin Fey),
whose blog is wickedly naughty. Her work has been published in over a thousand
magazines, literary journals, and anthologies worldwide. The recipient of a
"Pulitzer Prize" nomination, she is the author of more than 54 books. A Wiccan
Faery Witch, Otherkin Fey, and sexual sorceress, Laura enjoys writing hot, sexy
novels about contemporary Pagans living in the Deep South.
I.
How long have you been Pagan?
In this lifetime I've been
Pagan since I was a child. I say that because even though my Earth Realm family
is Christian (Episcopalian) I am psychic and a high level Empath. So the
spirits (primarily the Fey) have talked to me 24/7 since I was a child. I
should add they've saved my ass numerous times, because my family was abusive.
In high school I practiced yoga, was a vegetarian, and followed a Hindu path.
I've also been a lifelong student of metaphysical law. That includes years of
studying the Bible, which I consider to be a fascinating metaphysical document
packed full of spells.
II.
What tradition /path do you follow?
I've been Otherkin Fey for
3000 years. Before that I was full Fey for millions of years. My Mother, Queen
Titania, chose a different path of study for me in this lifetime. Rather than
encouraging me to gain a degree in the Feri Tradition in the Earth Realm, she
directed me to study under the Fey in the Fey Realm. So my teaching has been an
Otherworldly combination of that, as well as Wicca, Taoist Alchemy, and Fey
sorcery. I consider myself a Wiccan Faery Witch, which is why I'm called the
"SexWitch." In this lifetime I'm aligned with the Egyptian pantheon, and Bast
is my Patron Goddess.
My bible is the "Tao Te
Ching." Titania was wise to insist on this, and I have studied numerous
translations of it for over 3 decades. It explains a lot about my loving,
laidback personality. BTW, if you're not familiar with Taoism, it is an ancient
Chinese nature religion. It's so Fey I swear Lao-tzu was Fey! My fav
translation of the "Tao Te Ching" is by Stephen Mitchell. His feels the most
Pagan to me.
III.
What is your opinion on
spells?
Spells rock! My training has
been one in which I have an intimate relationship with the Fey and many spirits
in the spirit realms. I fly into the Fey realm every night. I don't use astral
travel. I use Fey sorcery and my natural flying talent, so it's more like plane
walking or energy manipulation, since I'm fully awake in my Earth body when I do
it. Because I spend many hours every day in these realms, attending to my
duties at the Seelie High Court or having wild monkey sex with my Fey mate (hey,
a lusty Fey chick's gotta have some fun, right? ~wink~), I practice the
metaphysical laws in those realms that manifest spells. That means when I cast
a spell, I just do it. And it works.
IV.
What is your opinion on ritual?
Ritual is very important to
me. I perform two altar rituals every day, a Fey ritual every afternoon when I
get out of the shower (I work nights and keep vampire hours because of my
novelist career), and I celebrate every Esbat and Sabbat in the Wheel of the
Wiccan Year. I truly believe it is impossible to be grounded in your Pagan
faith without a daily schedule of ritual. It's what keeps us connected. It
reminds us every day of who we really are.
That's not to say I use a lot
of tools and implements to cast spells and perform rituals. I don't. Bast and
Titania sit on my altar, as well as items that are magickal and special to me.
You know how the Fey are. We love sparkly things. ~lol~ I perform Esbat and
Sabbat rituals in the state forest behind my house after midnight with my Fey.
I bring them honey gifts and pink sparkly things, and we dance under the moon
and chant and sing. The Fey are very gleeful and spontaneous, so I never have a
certain chant in mind. It's extremely intuitive. My Sabbat and Esbat rituals
consist of what comes to me at the moment. Because my ear is always open to the
spirit realms, I know I'm channeling what they feel I need to say at that
moment, whether it's in English or in the Fey language I also
speak.
V.
Do you think there is too much emphases on spells and ritual and not
enough on morals and daily living?
I don't think you can lump
all of that together unless you're Wiccan or you follow the Rede. Many Pagan
paths, especially the Black ones, cast spells with no regard to morals, and
that's the way some of those paths work. When you get into spiritual warfare
and you're battling demons or nasty critters, it ain't pretty.
As for me, I'm proud to be
Wiccan. I believe in moral responsibility in spellcasting. I follow the Rede
and the Rule of Three to the letter. That's not unusual since the Seelie High
Court has always put an emphasis on honor. It's what sets us apart.
I also stay away from Witches
who practice emotional, reckless, spell-flinging with no regard for the
metaphysical backlash. That's some scary shit!
VI.
What would you consider to be the biggest issues in the pagan community
and why?
I have no issue with the
Pagan community here in the Earth Realm. We're all different. We all follow
different Pagan paths. We all follow what makes our hearts sing, and I'm
totally cool with that as long as it harms none. The wonderful thing about
being Pagan is you can be as eclectic as you like. I'm not a political Pagan.
I'm only political in the Seelie Realm. The politics at the High Court keep my
plate overflowing.
VII.
Do you have any Pagan role models, if so who and why?
Not on Earth. My role model
is Queen Titania, my Mother.
VIII.
If you could say one thing to the pagan community as a whole what would
it be?
Chill, baby, and love, love,
love! Don't take this Earth Realm life so seriously. If we were perfect we
wouldn't have chosen to regenerate and come back here. The past is gone, and
the future hasn't happened yet. All we have is this present moment. LIVE that
moment, enjoy it, don't stress it, find the joy in it. I mean, what's the point
of being alive in the Earth Realm if you can't enjoy the experience,
right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laura Stamps (c)
Pagan Paranormal Erotica
Novelist
