8 years ago I knew nothing about web design much less how to write the code that would make a website function. It was 2001, PHPNuke had just hit big, CSS was declaring the death of HTML and PHP was the new way to code without proprietary concerns. One January morning, I decided I wanted a website so I set about learning how to create one.
7 years ago, I began compiling all the magical research so it could be input into the website I had learned to create. 6 years ago, me and three of my friends combined our favorites lists and created a pagan oriented search engine. Almost 5 years ago, on the summer solstice 2004, I uploaded both and officially opened SapphireMoon.info.
During those 5 years, SapphireMoon grew into a circle of multiple sites, some as subdomains others as their own domains. Everything from a small non-profit hosting company to a quarterly ezine to a charity for abandoned cats and so on; sometimes as many as 6 or 7 sites at one time. As the sites grew, I gained a greater understanding of coding, enough to be able to work as a freelancer. This was a benefit I had never expected and one for which I, and my checking account, are grateful.
I have been surprised by the kind emails I have received over the years. I am pleased and incredibly flattered to know that meditations I wrote or research I brought together are being used by covens and individuals from Virginia to Australia to Italy. I am thankful that I because of the sites, I have gotten the chance to speak with prominent pagans who I respect and admire.
Most of the people I came in contact with because of my sites were genuine, kind people. The others plagiarized my work for classes then sent me the edits their teachers had made, attempted to steal images from the charity site, asked for assistance then never said so much as thank you, strongly suggested that I write more material in order to save them the time of research, etc. It was even necessary for me to fight the wholesale duplication of WebWeaver, not once but twice.
With a third redesign for all the sites becoming imperative and the code running the sites becoming in desperate need of cleaning up and updating, I started blankly at my monitor. The Book of Light alone had grown to over 1100 pages, almost 2000 links at WebWeaver would need to be manually verified, I realized that I just didn’t have it in me. I began to view the sites as an albatross.
Not only was I daunted by the amount of time in front of the pc that would be required to revamp the sites, but my interests have changed both magically and practically speaking. For over a year I have gone back and forth about what do to do with SapphireMoon. I didn’t want to leave it to languish, not updated and forgotten like litter on the information super highway. All of it had to be redone or it had to be mercifully killed.
The words Elizabeth Barrett said to me when I first opened SapphireMoon rang in my ears. She had warned me. So on November Eve, an appropriate time for letting go, I determined to shut down all of the sites except BroomCloset Witch.
The sites officially closed at noon yesterday, and though I was heartened to see my inbox fill with emails this morning, they will not be coming back from the dead. Letting go wasn’t as difficult as I feared it might be, in fact it wasn’t hard at all. I am free to move forward.
A lot of folks view Samhain as the beginning of the new year, Happy New Year to those of you that do, but I don’t and I was recently told that I was wrong. *humph* Since I know you’re going mad wondering, here’s why…



