4.30.2008
A Merry Beltane
- Ralph W. Emerson
Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.
Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor
"We celebrate the new crops coming in, celebrating initiation and fertility. It is a sharing of Appalachian traditions. West Virginia is among the most Appalachian of the states. A lot of the traditions that were here tonight were celebrated here not even a hundred years ago." - George Fain, president of Marshall University Pagan Association
"On the night itself, hundreds of performers lead a fire-lit procession around [Calton Hill]. They move through a fire gate and round points representing earth, air, water and fire. The festivities reach a climax when the Green Man, a symbol of the first growth of summer, arrives and is crowned by the May Queen." - Martin Couper, The Edinburgh Evening News
"Beltane, meaning bright fire, is one of the four Celtic cross-quarter festivals celebrating the changing of seasons. 'People have, as far as we can tell, [always] celebrated the changing of the seasons,' Dr. Robin Larsen, co-founder and director of the Center for Symbolic Studies says. Beltane, an ancient festival typically celebrated on the last two days of April and the first two days of May is a time to awaken the earth's spirit to get ready for spring. 'March doesn't feel so spring like,' Larsen says. 'When you get to the end of April you're really there and you know summer is coming.'" - Tara Quealy, Chronogram Magazine
"Each year, in the evening of April the 30th, Swedes and Finns celebrate Saint Walpurgis, one of the most popular festivities during the year alongside of Christmas and Midsummer. Walpurgis Night receives the name of "Valborg" in Sweden and "Vappu" in Finland, and is a very lively celebration where people spend the night together and sing traditional songs to welcome spring." - Scandinavica.com
"Thursday is May Day, which, depending on your leanings, is a pagan pole-dancing holiday, a day of labor solidarity against The Man, a day off for immigrants and their supporters, or some combination of all three, a grab-bag of un-American activity. (To the latter group, Happy Law Day!)" - Swati Pandey, Los Angeles Times
"The festival of May Day (May 1st) has been widely celebrated for centuries, even millennia. Essentially a seasonal and floral festival concerned with the spring rebirth of vegetation after its death in winter, it is a festival of all things green in nature ... our modern May Day holiday has a rich past, redolent with symbolism and meaning. Whether we take a deep historical view, or whether we just have fun in the sun, May Day (Beltaine) is one of the key turning points of the ritual year." - Rob Tillett, Astrology on the Web
"The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms. We have survived!" - Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary
May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.
Labels: Beltane, Festival, holidays, May Day, Paganism, Walpurgis Night
3.20.2008
A Blessed Spring Equinox
Today is the vernal (spring) equinox
"Eostre" by Thalia Took
Here are some quotes from the press (and Pagans) on this day.
"As the Earth's axis tilts the northern hemisphere back toward the sun, followers of Wicca, a nature-based religion, will celebrate Ostara, a holy day of seasonal rebirth and renewal, during the vernal equinox on Thursday. In Traverse City, the Rev. Harry C. Dorman is eagerly awaiting the seasonal change ... Dorman said that typically, Wiccans observe Ostara with worship conducted in a circle outdoors, weather permitting ... An altar is decorated with objects such as flowers, acorns, herbs, eggs and other items preparing to come forth in the spring growth cycle." - Gretchen Murray, Traverse City Record-Eagle
"The Marshall University Pagan Association will be performing a ritual honoring Ostara, the Virgin Goddess of Spring in the Pagan religion, in Buskirk Field Thursday. 'Christianity has Pagan DNA,' said George Fain, president of the MUPA. 'Easter is about resurrection and rebirth and this ritual is the most ancient form of Easter. I'm a gardener by nature and springtime is a very important time of the year. This ritual celebrates all the good things about spring.'" - Samir Abdel-Aziz, The Marshall Parthenon
"We think that the customs surrounding the celebration of the spring equinox were imported from Mediterranean lands, although there can be no doubt that the first inhabitants of the British Isles observed it, as evidence from megalithic sites shows. But it was certainly more popular to the south, where people celebrated the holiday as New Year's Day, and claimed it as the first day of the first sign of the zodiac, Aries. However you look at it, it is certainly a time of new beginnings, as a simple glance at nature will prove." - Mike Nichols, The Witches' Sabbats
"I am excited to see how Icelanders interpret this quirky holiday in the land of Christianity and huldufolk ("hidden people," i.e. elves). Along my travels around Iceland, I have meticulously documented in pictures garden and roadside miniature churches that are intended to convert pagan elves. I love the mixture of believing in Christ and invisible people. After all, Christianity was and is based on many pagan concepts. Easter seems to be the perfect holiday for Icelanders who follow this religion but have a hard time letting go of long-held beliefs." - Alexandra Hertell, Iceland Review
"Ostara represented many complex, interrelated beliefs to our ancestors. The sun was reborn from its winter banishment to thaw the earth, making it ready for the plow. People felt reborn as well, escaping from close, snow-bound confinement into the new warmth. The Gods and Goddesses of fertility were active once again in the land, causing new growth everywhere. Women often were showing the first swelling signs of pregnancy, engendered in the winter months when bed meant both warmth and entertainment for they and their men. As the wilds burgeoned with new life, so too would the lands inhabited by man, bearing crops in the furrows, kine in the fields, and salmon in the streams. Ostara is the brightest and most joyful ceremony of the Teutonic year. It is the time in which we celebrate the renewed presence of the Gods and Goddesses of fertility among us, and their marriages which ensure the fertility of the land. Ostara marks the victory of Sunna over the wolves which pursued her down into winter's dark, and Thorr's victory over the Frost-Giants. We celebrate the end of winter, and joyously exchange the cold for summer's healing warmth." - Kveldulf Hagan Gundarsson and Gunnora Hallakarva, "Ostara", from Mountain Thunder, Issue 4, Spring 1992.
May you enjoy a fruitful and blessed spring!
* Technically speaking, the 2008 Spring Equinox happened at March 20th 05:48 UTC. In my neck of the woods, that means that the equinox actually happened shortly after midnight (or possibly shortly before due to daylight savings). If you live in the United Kingdom then it happened at 05:48 AM. In Australia the equinox (though not the "spring" equinox) will be this afternoon. Check your time zone for exact calculations.
Labels: Festival, Lady Day, Ostara, Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox
2.01.2008
Happy Imbolc
Tonight and tomorrow is when most modern Pagans celebrate the fire festival of Imbolc sacred to the goddess Brigid, patroness of poets, healers, and smiths. Today is also the feast day of Saint Brigid of Ireland patron saint of poets, dairymaids, blacksmiths, healers, cattle, fugitives, Irish nuns, midwives, and new-born babies.
Brigid: Saint and Goddess
In Kildare, Ireland's town square, a perpetual flame is kept lit and housed in a statue that pays homage to the Pagan and Christian conceptions of Brigid. Festivities for La Feile Bride in Kildare started on January 25th and will continue through Febrary 3rd.
Here are a collection of quotes on this holiday.
"Bridget, the ancient Celtic Goddess of Poetry, Healing and Smithcraft was highly revered by our ancestors, and honoured at Imbolc (Feb. 1), a holiday marking the birth of the tribe's sheep, essential for their milk, meat and wool. It was said that the ocean became warm on that day as Bridget, also associated with fire, put her hand into the water. At Imbolc, she was welcomed into the family home, and many wonderful customs were maintained when she was later venerated as St. Bridget, the daughter of a druid. She is much beloved in Ireland and Scotland, her powers as Goddess and saint interwoven still." - Sharynne NicMhacha
"Before Candlemas there was, indeed, the Celtic festival of Imbolc (pronounced IMolk) meaning 'in the belly,' as in a pregnant ewe, but also symbolic of the earth right before spring. It is associated with the goddess Brigid, who some say became St. Brigid, whose feast day is Feb. 1. Imbolc was much concerned with fertility and weather prognostication. According to Gaelic folklore, the hag goddess Cailleach would gather firewood on Imbolc. If she intended to prolong winter she would make the day bright and sunny, the better to gather firewood. If Imbolc turned out overcast, it meant that Cailleach was asleep in her den and that there would be an early spring. Sound familiar?" - Daniel Deagler, The Morning Call
"Brigid's protection of agriculture and poetry underscores the need to tend our inner fertility. Tending our forms of creativity is crucial to a fulfilling life. The ancients believed that gifts of expression were only on loan. We are reminded to remain grateful, and to be good custodians of artistic talents." - Jonathan Young, The Center for Story & Symbol
"Although Carolyn Deby has named her new performance Imbolc (in the belly), the choreographer said she's not trying to transplant a Celtic festival to the West Coast. She's interested in exploring how the eternal rhythms of life, death and birth celebrated by pagan Celts affect multicultural urban Vancouverites. 'I'm interested in how people see themselves as part of the natural world,' Deby said." - Kevin Griffin, The Vancouver Sun
"I call it Candlemas. Some people call it Imbolc. And for me it's the start of spring, which is not most people's understanding of when the season starts. Candlemas is celebrated on Feb. 1 and 2, and here in Seattle the first buds are on the trees and the first green shoots are coming out of the ground already, so there are really very clear signs that something is changing. I also like to use it as a new beginning time, so instead of doing New Year's resolutions on Jan. 1, I wait until Feb. 1, and then make some kind of intention - that I'm either going to symbolize in a collage or a pledge that I'll make to myself. For me it's really the start of a new year." - Waverly Fitzgerald, The San Francisco Gate
"I'd sit with the men, the women of God, There by the lake of beer, We'd be drinking good health forever, And every drop would be a prayer." - Excerpt from "Saint Brigit's Prayer"
Many blessings to you this holiday! Be sure to check out the third annual Brigid in Cyperspace Poetry Reading in your travels around the web today, I'll see you by the lake of beer!
12.10.2007
A Few Quick Notes
A slow news day in the Pagan world, but there were a few interesting tidbits I would like to share with you. First off, UU-Blogger Philocrites says everything I could possibly want to say concerning Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech.
"By trying to define "faith" as conservative traditionalism and "pluralism" as a name for monotheistic traditionalism, Romney misrepresented the true diversity of American religion, explicitly dismissed Americans who don't identify with a religious tradition, and painted the traditions he did mention in a way that celebrates their most traditionalist wings and ignores almost all of their visions for the commonweal. What a disappointment."
Also of interest is Slacktivist's analysis of the speech, in which he questions the logic of throwing (non-Mormon) religious outsiders under the bus in order to curry favor with the Christian Right.
"The speech includes some decent stretches, but it was not, primarily, a courageous plea for religious tolerance and mutual respect. It was, instead, primarily an obsequious bit of sucking up by an outsider hoping to curry favor with the in crowd by parroting their condemnation of other outsiders ... Romney's gambit here comes straight from the school yard. As a Mormon, he is an outsider, getting picked on by the bullies of the religious right. Instead of standing up to the bullies, he sucks up to them, trying to prove his loyalty and win their approval by acting like them and picking on the other outcasts and outsiders. 'You guys want to pretend that 'secular' and 'profane' are synonyms? I can do that. Look, I'll even beat up this atheist kid for you. See? I'm just like you guys!'"
Turning from politics to holiday celebrations (a topic that is only slightly less contentious), the expected "winter festivals other than Christmas" stories are starting to pop up. The American Chronicle runs a commentary piece by Saqqara Aleister concerning pre-Christian winter holidays and how they have influenced our present-day festivities.
"So as the Winter Solstice once again is upon planet Earth, look to where your celebration may have come from. Look to others in this time of "Christmas" and see, we are all celebrating the same season. Everyone may not celebrate in the same way but we are all celebrating birth, death and rebirth in our own unique way. A way that our ancient forefathers saw coming thousands of years ago as they huddled in caves watching over their food stores waiting for the snow to melt and the warmth of spring to return. May your observance be merry and happy."
Meanwhile, The Daily Titan (a college paper for the California State University in Fullerton) interviews a Wiccan about Yule celebrations.
"Tracing its roots back to Scandinavian aboriginals, Yule celebrates the winter solstice. "[It] centers around December 20 to the 23 in the northern hemisphere," said Paul Levesque, comparative religion professor. This year, it will take place on Dec. 20 and pagans will celebrate the return of the warm sun ahead of the long winter days. "[It's about] showing the unity of creation, light in the darkness," Levesque said. Yule also reinforces the notion of rebirth during the wintertime and it commemorates the New Year in western and northern traditions of Wicca."
No doubt an expose on the mysterious "Western" and "Northern" traditions of Wicca will be forthcoming. In addition to these stories, you can find plenty of "pagan roots of Christmas" articles written with different degrees of talent by a variety of columnists hard-up for fresh ideas. They should all take a cue from Tony Sachs at the Huffington Post, who writes an amusing story of how his grade-school tried to solve the religious diversity problem by settling on a common denominator: paganism.
"I can sort of understand, however, why none of us thought twice about what was called "Candlelighting Day" but was really "Freaky Quasi-Druidic Festival." We were just kids, for cryin' out loud. Give us a half day of school with an assembly instead of classes and we'd do anything. Celebrate the holidays with a mass wedding presided over by Sun Myung Moon? No problem, as long as it gets me out of algebra. Bite the heads off some Christmas doves with Ozzy Osbourne? Like, sure, whatever. Is it noon yet?"
Ah, the innocence of childhood.
Finally, for the book lovers out there (and you know who you are), Bookslut has a profile of the literary smorgasbord that is the Exhibit Hall of the American Academy of Religion's yearly meeting.
"Any academic conference's pedestrian aorta leads right into the Exhibit Hall, a place clogged with publishers' book booths. Last month, I immersed myself in the clamorous annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) -- Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in San Diego, and thus was able to graze in the mother of all Exhibit Halls. As one of 9,000-plus attendees, I joined other book lovers in walking up one aisle and down the next, refusing to miss a back corner or hidden grotto and thus a possible gem."
I don't know about you, but I'm totally planning on being at the next AAR meeting in Chicago. Pagan scholars, academic papers, and more books than you can shake a stick at. What more could you want?
Labels: American Academy of Religion, books, Festival, Mitt Romney, Pagan Studies, Paganism, politics, Religion, Unitarian-Universalism, Winter Solstice, Yule
10.31.2007
A Blessed Samhain
Tonight and tomorrow is when most modern Pagans celebrate Samhain. Samhain is the start of winter and of the new year in the old Celtic calendar. This is a time when the ancestors are honored, divinations for the new year are performed, and festivals are held in honor of the gods. It is a time of final harvest before the long winter ahead. It is perhaps the best-known and most widely celebrated of the modern Pagan holidays.
Lighting candles to honor the ancestors.
Photo by Jere/Tyreseus, CC License
It is a time when some communities acknowledge the Mighty Dead.
"The Mighty Dead are said to be those practitioners of our religion who are on the Other Side now, but who still take great interest in the activities of Witches on this side of the Veil. They have pledged to watch, to help and to teach. It is those Mighty Dead who stand behind us, or with us, in circle so frequently."
Notable passings within the Pagan community this year include artists Chas Smith and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, key Goddess movement figure Shekhinah Mountainwater, Tim Sebastion, chief of the Secular Order of Druids, prominent Salem Witch Shawn Poirier, and groundbreaking visionary Robert Anton Wilson.
"I love that story about Susan Anthony that Zsuzsanna Budapest tells in her book. Some journalist asked Susan Anthony, because she didn't believe in orthodox religion, I suppose, "Where do you think you're to go when you die?" She said, "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay around and help the women's movement." So even if I don't live long enough to see these things, I'll be around to make a nuisance of myself." - Doreen Valiente, the Mother of Modern Witchcraft.
Below you'll find an assortment of quotes from the media and from fellow Pagans on the holiday.
"The word Samhain means summer's end ... It's not a festival celebrating death, it's a celebration of our beloved dead who have passed on ... The veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest then..." - Laurie Smith, Winnipeg Sun
"Most people celebrate Halloween by donning costumes and collecting candy. For the Rev. Theresa McReynolds, a chiropractor from Atlantic City, October is a special, holy time to honor loved ones who have died. At home, McReynolds creates a special altar with pictures and mementoes. She cooks special meals that include their favorite foods. McReynolds, 61, also would take her grandchildren and other relatives to the cemetery and share stories about their ancestors to 'remind them we came from somewhere and we're a part of something bigger than where we are now.'" - Michelle Lee, The Atlantic City Press
"It's a funny festival, when you think about it. A strange collision of All Saints' day (the Catholic Church's way of celebrating all the anonymous 'also-rans') and the pre-Christian, celtic festival Oiche Shamhain (Old Irish for 'Samhain' night, 'Samhain' being a festival of the dead), With that kind of heritage, Halloween was always bound to be a bit weird. In Ireland, where pagan and Christian culture have always been satisfactory bedfellows, Halloween is a cause for a major celebration. Fireworks are let off, barmbrack (a kind of fruit bread) is eaten, there is singing and dancing and, of course, plenty of drinking." - Ben Snook, Bits of News
"In Northern Europe, Samhain (the Celtic term for Halloween, pronounced sow-in as in 'sour') was the time when the cattle were moved from the summer pastures to winter shelter. It was the end of the growing season, the end of harvest, a time of thanksgiving, when the ancestors and the spirits of the beloved dead would return home to share in the feast. Death did not sever one's connections with the community. People would leave offerings of food and drink for their loved ones, and set out candles to light their way home. Those traditions gave us many of our present day customs. Now we set out jack-o-lanterns and give offerings of candy to children - who are, after all, the ancestors returning in new forms." - Starhawk, On Faith
"The veils are thin this time of year, they say. The veils are thin between the worlds seen and unseen, but they are also thin within us. Something in us opens and reaches out into the dark. Something in us reaches into the darkness held deeply in secret, too. Something in us longs for the warming fire. Our veils are thin, our personality parts fight for dominance, and our psychic centers know that there is more. Our hearts do, too. The unseen reaches for us, and we reach for the unseen. There is no difference between the two." - T. Thorn Coyle
"The next day - or possibly the day after that, depending on your calendar and/or which scholars you believe - is Samhain. This is the day we remember our ancestors of blood and spirit, those who walked before us and made the ways we follow. We will attend their altar, and take down the family photo albums to share once again the lives and memories of our beloved dead with our daughter, so that she can know whence and from whom she comes." - Executive Pagan
May you all have a blessed Samhain, blessings to you, and your beloved dead on this season. Let this new cycle be one of great blessings for all of you.
9.23.2007
Happy Autumnal Equinox
Today is the Autumnal Equinox (09:51 UT) and signals the beginning of Fall in the northern hemisphere. On this day there will be an equal amount of light and darkness, and after this day the nights grow longer and we head towards Winter. In many modern Pagan traditions this is the second of three harvest festivals (the first being Lughnasadh, the third being Samhain).
"Mabon" photo by Nyx(CC)
The holiday is also known as "Harvest Home" or "Mabon" by Wiccans and Witches, "Mid-Harvest" and "Alban Elfed" by some Druidic and Celtic-oriented groups, and "Winter Finding" by modern-day Asatru. Most modern Pagans simply call it the Autumn Equinox. Here are some media quotes and excerpts from modern Pagans on the holiday.
"An equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 22 each year. As a general rule, it is thought to be on the 21st of every quarter that the equinox changes. On these dates, night and day are nearly of the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator. In a wider sense, the equinoxes are the two days each year when the centre of the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth." - Pretoria News
"Cultures throughout time have used the cycles of the sun to mark important events. The equinox itself holds less meaning in our modern society, and truly the change that comes to the season happens by degrees over time. But the notion of a balance between light and dark falling on a moment in time is a powerful, and useful, idea to dwell on long after the equinox has given way to the slow march of winter." - The Daily Green
"Although the specific date of the Autumn Equinox was not marked by any ritual in Celtic tradition, there is evidence that, at some point roughly halfway between Lughnasadh and Samhain, communities would involve themselves with a ceremony that reflected the processes then at work in the Year. This was usually a conclusion to ritual themes invoked at Lughnasadh, and focused on the end of the main harvest activities (i.e., the grain harvest), although it did not imply the end of the entire Harvest season, which continued until Samhain" - Alexei Kondratiev, The Apple Branch
"In the rhythm of the year, Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard work. The crops are gathered in, and winter is still a month and a half away! Although the nights are getting cooler, the days are still warm, and there is something magical in the sunlight, for it seems silvery and indirect. As we pursue our gentle hobbies of making corn dollies (those tiny vegetation spirits) and wheat weaving, our attention is suddenly arrested by the sound of baying from the skies (the 'Hounds of Annwn' passing?), as lines of geese cut silhouettes across a harvest moon. And we move closer to the hearth, the longer evening hours giving us time to catch up on our reading, munching on popcorn balls and caramel apples and sipping home-brewed mead or ale. What a wonderful time Harvest Home is! And how lucky we are to live in a part of the country where the season’s changes are so dramatic and majestic!" - Mike Nichols, "Harvest Home"
"Autumn Equinox (also known as Mabon or Harvest Home) is celebrated when day and night are of equal duration before the descent into increasing darkness and is the final festival of the season of harvest. In nature, the activity of the summer months slows down to the hibernation for the winter. For many Pagans, now is time to reflect on the past season. It is also a time to recoginse that the balance of the year has changed, the wheel has turned and summer is now over." - BBC, Religion and Ethics
"However you celebrate this festival, I urge you all to get outside and enjoy the sensual delights of late summer as it gives way to early autumn. Visit a local farm. It is important to support small farms as often as possible; farming is a dying way of life in this country and your health (not to mention your local economy) will benefit when you buy local and eat fresh. Farmer's markets are abundant this time of year; find one near you. Go apple picking. Support your local orchards! There is no substitute for fruit freshly picked from the tree; bring your children or make a day of it with friends. Have a harvest dinner made with fresh local vegetables or locally-raised poultry or meat. Make a pie or tart from apples or peaches. Buy wine or beer from a local winery or brewery. Remember your ancestors, who lived close by one another, who worked the fields together, who shared food and drink and fellowship together. Celebrate your own harvests: acknowledge your work, goals or other accomplishments." - Peg Aloi, The Witches' Voice
May you all enjoy the fruits of your harvest this season.
Labels: Autumn Equinox, Festival, Harvest, Mabon, Paganism
8.01.2007
A Blessed Lughnasadh
Today is Lughnasadh (also known as Lammas) the first of three harvest festivals celebrated in many modern Pagan traditions. Lughnasadh originated as one of the four main Celtic fire festivals and was dedicated to the Celtic god Lugh the many-skilled. It is a time of thanksgiving, first-harvests, and the end of summer (though it doesn't feel like it considering our recent heat-waves).
Lammas food altar (Photo: BBC)
Here are some quotes both modern and historical on the holiday.
"Through photos or in the flesh, more than 55 people brought in their cats, dogs, gerbils, rabbits - even a Venus' flytrap - to celebrate Lammas, the annual blessing of the animals. The ceremony was hosted by the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans ... The devotion and support that animals provide people are part of nature's abundance, and that is something to celebrate..." - Amy Sowder, The News Press
"Lammastide was also the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The medieval guilds would create elaborate displays of their wares, decorating their shops and themselves in bright colors and ribbons, marching in parades, and performing strange, ceremonial plays and dances for the entranced onlookers. The atmosphere must have been quite similar to our modern-day Renaissance festivals." - Mike Nichols, The Witches' Sabbats
"Today is Lammas Day. Not a lot of people know that ... Traditionally Lammas Day was the first opportunity when this year's harvest was made into bread and used in the communion. Tenants also gave a donation of the harvest to their landlords. Part of my passion for the licensed trade is the recognition of the indivisible relationship with agriculture and the rural community. Our core product, beer in its many guises, is essentially a mixture of barley, hops and water. And barley and hops are around us, here, in abundance. It would be ridiculous to claim that, as a licensee, I am root and branch an integral part of the agricultural community but every time I pass a field of barley or a hop garden I am mindful of the role they play in the job I do." - Chris Maclean, The Publican
"Someone, somewhere, is harvesting wheat, but the way I know it is Lammastide is that the fog has settled in over San Francisco as though it intends to stay. Most Pagans chart the seasons where they live and for me, the end of July and beginning of August, known by the old Irish as Lughnasad, and the English as Lammas, is always heralded by fog. Thick and blanketing, it rises up from the water bounding this city, rolling in two directions: over the hills in the West and past the downtown buildings, East. This is not the light fog we have earlier in the summer, that comes in after a few days of heat. No. This is actual pea-soup-at-night fog that covers all but a couple neighborhoods and only burns off for a few hours a day. Once it settles in, it seems to be settling for good." - Thorn Coyle, "Loaf Mass is Nigh"
"...Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu's name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, "The Great One of the Earth," suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact, Lughnasadh has an older name, Bron Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live...." - Mara Freeman, Chalice Centre
"...the bread we celebrate at Lammas is the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands--both farmers and bakers. For that reason alone, the bread is already sacred in itself. When we blessed the bread Saturday night, we were simply remembering those who came before us, those who discovered agriculture and that alchemy of fermentation that gives us both bread and beer. And of course we were honoring the abundance of the earth itself. I rather like the idea of a "loaf mass" in which we are all the celebrants, and that which we consume needs no transformation by a priestly caste." - Victoria Slind-Flor, "Lammas returns, and we celebrate the sacredness of bread"
May you have a fruitful holiday!
Labels: Festival, Harvest, Lammas, Lugh, Lughnasadh, Paganism
6.08.2007
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
A correctional officer accused of sexually abusing a girl for six years is in custody, and the police claims the man may have used the Wiccan religion to lure young girls.
"Loren Williamson, 33, was booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail on four counts of sexual conduct with a minor and three counts of child molestation. Police said the abuse started when the victim was 6-years-old and continued until authorities recently got a tip ... Officers said Williamson was involved with the Wiccan religion and may have used its mystical traditions as a way to spark the interest of young girls."
The police are currently trying to figure out if Williamson had any other victims, and are are looking to the public in the Phoenix, Arizona area for any information. You can find contact numbers at the link.
Is it still religious discrimination if you admit to illegal drug use as well? An Ohio custody case brought in as evidence the mother's public MySpace postings that described a lifestyle of Paganism, S&M, and recreational drug-use.
"It had to happen sooner or later. Heedless of the consequences, a parent engaged in a hot custody dispute chatted away on MySpace, revealing her private life as a pagan, bisexual S&M enthusiast and drug-user. She even admitted that she had gone on a drug "hiatus" during her lawsuit, but planned to resume her old ways when the case was over ... Based on the mother's testimony and her MySpace revelations, the Common Pleas judge found her "lifestyle" unsettling for somebody raising a five-year-old, and the guardian ad litem appointed by the court to look after the child's interests concurred, finding she had a better relationship with her father..."
The judge seems to have handled the information with care, saying the mother had every right to her lifestyle, but that the child was better off with the father. I agree that her religion and sexual practices should have no bearing on her perceived fitness as a parent, but admitting to illegal activities is no way to win a custody battle. Also worth noting is that the court ruled that anything you post on MySpace isn't "private", so if you're in litigation be careful what you say to the world.
The Kalamazoo Gazette profiles the Paganstock festival in Bangor, Michigan. Unlike other Pagan summer festivals, Paganstock's entertainment veers away from the traditional folk-and-drumming you'd find elsewhere.
"...a previous performer at Paganstock said: 'This is the only place a pagan can be a pagan.' The speaker was Roy Addams of Portland, Maine's metal band 13 Winters, one of this year's headliners ... Most of the music will be hard rock or metal. 'It seems a lot of pagan festivals in the past have had folk music, very mellow, a softer tone to it. ... There are a lot of artists out there that have a heavier or different sound I'd like to showcase,' Pulka said."
Among the artists you can find at this years Paganstock include the rock/blues artist Dooley Noted, the metal bands 13 Winters, Urn, and With No Remorse, and the all-female rock band Burning Sage. You can find the Paganstock MySpace page, here. Could this be the beginning of Pagan festivals that attempt to appeal to an ever-growing younger Pagan audience?
A small-town newspaper looks at donations to library book sales, and what impressions the volunteers get from the different donations.
"A large number of books about cancer, books about healing, books about spirituality might imply that that book donor had gone through a troubling period in his or her life. "We got in a couple of boxes with tons of books on witchcraft and the Wicca movement," said Ms Marshall. "We wondered if the person had become disillusioned with the whole Wicca thing, or had they just been doing research? The books were tossed in with a bunch of Dr Seuss books, and I thought, 'I'd like to meet that person!'" she said."
Personally, I have done a couple Pagan book-dumps to used book stores, usually stuff I feel I have outgrown, or to make room for even more books.
Disappointed that you didn't get a chance to buy Witch School when it was up for sale? Well, Don Lewis, CEO of the online school, is now offering members the chance to buy stock in the company at only 25 cents per share.
"Shares represent a voice, and we are asking to be allowed to issue a total of ten million shares, though we do not necessarily plan to use all of them. But this allows us a high cap, so individuals who want to open their own licensed campuses, can easily become registered by Witch School International, Inc. ... WSI is an entirely NEW COMPANY. WSI acquired the assets of the former company called Witch School. Now those assets are comprehensive. We are currently in our first round of requesting financing, and are looking for investors. You are receiving this letter because, having already purchased a Lifetime Membership we feel it is likely that you might be interested in investing in the school. During this first round the price will be 25 cents a share, plus a five dollar service charge. There will be no minimum, but there is a maximum of 1 million shares total sold in this first round."
Alongside their Pagan penny stock scheme (for which they say they need to be extremely legit since they face discrimination "from within as well as without"), the school is also forming a relationship with The Grey School of Wizardry (co-founded by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart) and offering "Master Teacher Certifications". Lest I be seen as "discriminating" against the school I'll refrain from comment, though I think Caveat Emptor should apply.
In a final note, the BBC profiles the Spiritualist haven of Cassadaga, central Florida. The reporter finds that what you believe affects what you get out of a visit to the many performing psychics and mediums.
"The experience of Cassadaga seems very much to depend on the beliefs with which you arrive. The people I met who wanted and expected to contact their deceased family members did so and left with those beliefs reinforced. For the skeptical and curious little changed, but just about everybody enjoyed the peace and quiet of a place that feels a million miles away from the attractions of Florida's theme parks."
There seems to be a growing interest in the town, aside from the BBC's report, the indie band Bright Eyes recently released an album that thematically centers around the Spiritualist camp. For more on Cassadaga, check out their web site.
That is all I have for now, have a great day!
Labels: Cassadaga, custody case, Festival, music, MySpace, Paganism, Spiritualism, Wicca, Witch School, Witchcraft
1.16.2007
Collective Joy
NPR has published an excerpt from Barbara Ehrenreich's new book "Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy", which takes a look at the history of sanctioned public revelry from pagan antiquity, to Western colonialism, to the present time.
"That is my mission in this book: to speak seriously of the largely ignored and perhaps incommunicable thrill of the group deliberately united in joy and exaltation...the focus here is on the kinds of events witnessed by Europeans in "primitive" societies and recalled in the European carnival tradition. These were not spontaneous outbreaks of "hysteria," as some Europeans tended to imagine; nor were they occasions for the suspension of all inhibitions and a general "letting go." The behavior that seemed so "savage" and wild to Western observers was in fact deliberately planned, organized, and at all times subject to cultural rules and expectations."
As one reviewer points out, the book is something of a call for the return of ecstatic rituals and festivities in our current culture. Something modern Pagans (and Burners) have been advocating for a long time now. It looks like an interesting read very much in the vein of her book "Blood Rites".
Labels: Barbara Ehrenreich, Collective Joy, Dancing In The Streets, Festival, Paganism
