In the spirit of Martha Stewart, I present my list of essentials to any camping trip, with one difference, I camp on a budget. What qualifies me to write such a list? Not a damn thing, other that the fact that last year I started planning for Heartland in March and this year in January. I am still frantic and have decided that a camping trip is like a wedding, you just can't do it properly without at least a year's planning.

From time to time questions arise about degrees of Wiccan initiations. What are degrees, what do they mean, by whom and how are the levels determined? Do degrees indicate a hierarchy of authority or a level of training and experience or something else entirely? Those who regard any degree as bragging rights, as in "I'm an eighteenth degree black belt and can whup you," pretty much have no place in Wicca, or so say most of us who rejected the hierarchy of monotheism long ago. However, I've noticed an unsettling tendency of folks trying to sell something (like books, courses or other services) to declare that they have so many years of experience or so many and kinds of training and certificates. I suppose it's nice to think your author, teacher or service provider knows more than you do, but years and certificates have only limited value if the heart, soul and mind are not sound. Of course, there is also the tendency to time warp -- just as Pagan standard time means things will get started from fifteen minutes to two hours after the stated starting time, so some people can bend time to turn five years of experience into ten or the ever popular thirteen years. But none of that addresses the question, what are the use of degrees and what do they really mean?