Day 4: My electronic BoS

Since my research is, for the moment, completely electronic, I wanted some way to keep track of all the bits and pieces without having a ton of text files to sort through. Eventually, when I start reading actual paper books and whatnot, I think I'll transfer stuff to a paper notebook-- although I'm planning on that being more of a "here are my reactions to things that I read/do" than a "proper" grimoire/Book of Shadows. At least for now. Anyway.

I use Zotero to keep track of stuff. It works really well for the most part; you can add notes and tags, connect one item to another, and sort things into collections and sub-collections. The Chrome port is sometimes finicky, but it mostly works okay. I've got one collection that's just theories, info, opinions and interesting things I've found online (that's the YAAD folder) and another for my BoS, which is for how-to things, spells, etc.

(Click to enlarge.)

The nice thing about having an electronic notebook thing is that you can add videos as well as essays, blog posts, and so on. Since there are so many pagans on Youtube nowadays, I think that's a good thing!

How do you keep track of the stuff you learn? Do you write it down somewhere special?

Day 3: What I'm researching

My first foray into paganism was mainly in the Wiccan area, since that's what was most available at my local bookstores and whatnot. I still like the idea of Wicca, and I like some of the things its got in it, but it doesn't fit exactly what I need or believe. I'm not overly familiar with other types of paganism, so I'm hoping to explore the non-Wiccan stuff this year.

I've got a few topics that I plan on focusing my research on for the first few weeks (or months, depending). I like having something to focus on, as it means I'm not just wandering around willy-nilly for a year. Here my current topics of interest:

• "Third gender" gods, by which I mean gods that aren't wholly male nor wholly female (or maybe even non-gendered!). It seems like there's a lack of non-binary gendered gods in the bits of paganism I know about; I'm interested in seeing what people are doing outside of that.
• Eclectic paganism, since I think that's basically what I'll end up being, anyway.
• Ancient Egyptian gods and the magic/belief system associated with them. I've been interested in Ancient Egypt since I was about 8 years old, so I'd love to learn more about the history and reconstruction of AE's religion.
• Non-Northern Hemisphere magic. Most of the info online seems to be focused on the northern hemisphere, and on the traditions/magic/religions in the northern hemisphere. I want to know what people do in the southern hemisphere! Do they just switch the dates around for Yule, etc? Or do they do something else?
• Asexuality/celibacy in paganism. I'm asexual, and while I don't mind sex or the emphasis non-asexual people put on it, I'm interested in learning about the asexual/celibate side of paganism. Are there asexual gods? (I know there are celibate ones.) What do asexual/celibate pagans do during rites that have sexual components? 

I'll be writing about what I find out re:these topics here on the blog, no worries! 

Day 2: Some of my thoughts re:religion, magic, and the divine

I don't have any set guidelines for my YAAD except that I want to learn enough about paganism to decide on a path for myself afterwards. However, I saw a video on Youtube about making a Book of Shadows/spiritual diary and what sort of things you can put into it-- one of those things being a list of what you believe. So! Here are some of my thoughts about religion, magic, and the divine. I've tried to group them roughly by subject, so hopefully it's easy to read.