Just curious as to what the favorite websites of my fellow pagan chicks are. Any extra special pagan sites you've found that you think are worth others checking out?

Ohhh MysticWicks without a doubt. I love that place.

www.weavings.co.uk

I'm called Garnet WindDancer over there.

Great site! Did you read that post about Starbucks harrassing an employee for wear her pentacle at work - it started shortly after she joined the union and she had already been wearing the pentacle at work without incident for 3 years prior to joining the union -

Gee another reason for me not to go to Starbucks besides their high prices.

I don't go to Walmart anymore either since a Walmart in Canada fought their employees when they wanted to start a union. The employees got their union and then Walmart closed that location shortly afterwards "saying that it was due to low sales" - big lie since it was previoulsly thriving and basically the only store in the town. GRRRRR!

Yep. I read that. I just don't understand what's wrong with people. I thought religious freedom was a staple of our constitution... Sigh.

I like Mad Witches - a UK site, but it's a closed one - you can only get on it if you know someone there!

I also love the OBOD site (Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids) - site generally and forums. Some of the OBOD forums are open to everyone, others are for members only.

I think they were just using that as an excuse to punish her for joining the union.

I'm sure of it. Its just a shame that this country seems to be sliding backward when it comes to these types of issues. Sigh

But you can't blame them (the companies). Unions have outlived their usefulness and are quite harmful to our economy; free enterprise, that is. There are so many employment opportunities out there, that if an employee doesn't like what his particular employer is doing he can leave and go somewhere else, instead of banding together with other disgruntled employees and putting a gun to the head of their employers for unearned benefits. So many times, a union employee is more concerned with being a good union member instead of being a good employee. I support WalMart's decision not the allow unions, I hope they continue to stick to their guns.

<hoping to not have ruffled too many feathers, just promoting interesting conversation :-) >

Cindy

Well, having worked in retail where you can be fired for the smallest infraction, get paid low wages, have to meet impossible quotas, work ridiculous hours (including Sundays) and management/head office treats you like garbage I would say that a retail workers union would have been beneficial to me.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get out of retail but not everyone has that opportunity be it due to lack of education, job skills or available opportunities where you live. For some people a union helps protect there rights and enables them to get a cost of living wage increase.

Having said that though there a some unions that go overboard, demand too much or protect people who should be fired for just causes. I can see both sides of the situation.

You're absolutely right. There are some good and there are some bad; unfortunately, there seem to be more bad than good. As far as retail goes, I also worked retail for a few years when I first entered the workforce. But right from the start I knew what my limits were in terms of salary, I knew what the hours were like going in to the job, and yes I had my share of crappy managers (that's life).

With all due respect, Mauvaisroux, you were not "fortunate" to get out of a bad situation, you chose a better situation for yourself. Please give yourself more credit than that! Good for you! Everyone DOES have the opportunity to make the most of their lives, it's just that, sadly, people have been lulled into thinking their own lives are not their own responsibility. But this is straying from the topic of unions.

And this whole thought train strays from the topic of Pagan websites. I apologize for hijacking it for my personal soapbox! I have found several websites I like. One in particular is a Yahoo group that shares recipes, spells, poetry, jokes, and is full of friendly helpful people. I think it's simply called BoS (for Book of Shadows). If you like that sort of thing (Yahoo groups, that is).

Cindy

Cool, I've seen that Book of Shadows site and it is a good one

The Chldren of Artemis site is an...er...interesting one. Very fluffy and Wicca Lite. They close down threads arbitrarily and have thrown off loads of users without explanation - even those who were paying members over on their members only side of the site. I had a whole bunch of friends who were thrown off for merely mentioning an alternative witchfest they were trying to organise. And I was thrown off months later - didn't break their TOS on their site at all, but I'd made a comment (under a different name) on a different British pagan sit which, although a closed site, was fairly common knowledge they had at least one of their moderators lurking on, somewhere. It was odd how many of us posted there then were blocked from CoA with no explanation, no notice - they still took our money though! Worse still, about 6 months later I received a request to renew my membership! They were happy to take your money but wouldn't let you on the site! If you spot anything even slightly controversial on there, it's guaranteeed to have gone within 2-3 hours. (We used to post and lay bets on how long it took them to remove posts). Not flaming, rude or objectionable posts, or even posts that broke their Conditions of Service - just posts mentioning other groups, other pagan organisation's meetings, or anything they felt was a bit too un-fluffy!

As a result the site is now full of teenagers and fluffy newbies - it used to have some really thought provoking and cogent people on there, but now it's all 'spells to change eye colour' etc!

Must admit I sometimes get as much entertainment from uber-fluffy or plain daft sites like that as I get from really good sites!

Here's a good site, to balance out the dross:

www.druidry.org

i may have shared this link on another thread, but i found a lot of interesting things on this msn group without even having to join.

http://groups.msn.com/PaganHearthRecipes/homepage.msnw

a note on the previous site that was doing on the blocking and keeping only to fluff.. it amazes me how so many in the pagan community have this need to be the only one that is right and shy away from any other ideas. seems a little bit foolish to me, i mean how will you learn or grow if you hold on so tightly to your prejudices. Seems a shame to me.
I used to frequent a chatroom that had a lot of people that i wound up being very good friends with, some even going as far as real life friendships, but there was always a lot of drama, and if anyone ever wanted to really discuss something more than fluff it always turned into some annoying mini-drama. I never understood it.
In my area i've seen groups break up and into smaller groups over a difference of opinion more than once, i don't even try to be a part of a community anymore. it's sad.

Hi, I've been on 3fc for a couple of years now and only today do I discover the pagan board!
Anyway, in answer to your question I really like
www.psy-center.com
A big variety of topics shared there on their boards and a great bunch of people to chat to too.