Tag: Celtic

The Early Pagans

The Early Pagans

This is a good place to start with our creation story. Paganism has existed in varying forms since the times of the cave man. We know from archeological evidence how these early humans lived and honored the natural world around them. From cave drawings to artifacts we have at least a general understanding of how early man lived with nature and honored the forces of nature as divine beings.
 
As tribal societies evolved, so did their religious practices. These early societies were often Goddess societies. Figurines such as the ‘Venus of Willendor’ are perfect examples of the early reverence for fertility of a woman and her ability to give new life. This miracle of life was seen just as that, a miracle given to a woman by a deity, or the Goddess. Often celebrated through Great Rite ceremonies. A woman who was extremely fertile was considered to be favored by the Goddess and elevated within her tribal structure.
 
When early man realized it took two to create life, the pendulum slowly switched from focusing on the matriarch to the patriarch. As long as a woman could bear children, she still held great power within her tribe. When she grew older and less fertile, she often chose her successor. But her singular power shifted to that of a wise teacher or healer. The concepts of the Goddess still existed, but the God was also a formidable figure through his strength of a hunter/warrior. The Great Horned God is a good example of this.
 
Paganism thrives through the ages Before Christ (BC) around the globe. From Egyptian, Roman and Greek philosophies; to Native American, Hindu and Mayan cultures. In Greece, the Pythagorean brotherhood (around 530 BC) helped to formalize and document some of the early metaphysical beliefs that were prominent in pagan beliefs. The brotherhood was actually a group of young men who gathered around Pythagoras, hoping to learn from his wisdom and inspired by his teachings. They were very spiritual in nature and form, dedicated to reforming political, moral and social life within society. The group became so widely known and popular that it grew into a formidable political lobbyist machine. Because of this political impact, the brotherhood was disbanded and Pythagoras was forced to retire and leave home. He went to Metapontum, a Greek city in southern Italy where he died around 500 BC.
 
The Great Greek Philosophers continued with the theories of the Pythagorian Brotherhood. At first in secret, but later challenging the political authority and bringing their metaphysical thoughts and theories out in the open. From Plato, Socrates and Aristotle we have some well documented views of physics and Metaphysical History.
 
We can’t discount the influence of these early thinkers on our spiritual views today. But we also can’t discount the influences of the great civilizations of the time, as they expanded their dominance. For instance, we know that the Romans battled in Ireland for many decades, and it’s thanks to them we have some writings of the time about these early Celtic Religions, both of the Druids and the early Celtic Shamans.
 
But we need to consider the early nomadic cultures who traveled from one region to the next, conquering villages along their way. There are many we can research for this kind of practice. But the Norse might be the best example. As the Norse spread out and migrated across Europe, they either replaced or merged their beliefs with those of the cultures they conquered. Certainly we can see many of their influences in the Celtic cultures of Ireland.

Howdy Ya’ll! It’s Tuesday Again!

Good Afternoon Pictures, Images, Comments, Graphics
Today’s Affirmation for Tuesday, February 7th

“The universe is an endless source of strength I can draw on as I undertake new challenges.”

 

Thought of the Day for Tuesday, February 7th

“Take the breath of the new dawn and make it part of you. It will give you strength.”

Hopi Saying

 

Meditation of the Day for Tuesday, February 7th

Listen for the Bells

According to myth Celtic Shamans used sacred branches hung with silver bells to open doors between the material and spirit worlds. Close your eyes and imagine hearing the music of the silver bells Approaching the sound you see a gateway formed by two blossoming trees. Passing through, you fin yourself in another world. Ahead of you the guardian of the gateway is tending a cauldron over a fire. The guardian fills a chalice with liquid from the cauldron and hands it to you. The spicy drink replenishes your strength. The guardian tells you to return whenever you need to, reminding you to listen for the silver bells. You pass back through the gateway and open your eyes. You feel full of life and energy.

Happy & Blessed Imbolc, dear friends!

Imbolc/Candlemas Comments

Imbolc (also Imbolg), or St Brigid’s Day (Scots Gaelic Là Fhèill Brìghde, Irish Lá Fhéile Bríde, the feast day of St. Brigid), is an Irish festival marking the beginning of spring. Most commonly it is celebrated on 1 or 2 February (or 12 February, according to the Old Calendar) in the northern hemisphere and 1 August in the southern hemisphere. These dates fall approximately halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. 

The festival was observed in Gaelic Ireland during the Middle Ages. Reference to Imbolc is made in Irish mythology, in the Tochmarc Emire of the Ulster Cycle. Imbolc was one of the four cross-quarter days referred to in Irish mythology, the others being Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. It has been suggested that it was originally a pagan festival associated with the goddess Brigid, who should not be confused with St Brigit of Kildare.

In the modern Irish Calendar, Imbolc is variously known as the Feast of Saint Brigid (Secondary Patron of Ireland), Lá Fhéile Bríde, and Lá Feabhra — the first day of Spring. Christians may call the day “Candlemas”. Long celebrated as “the feast of the Purification of the Virgin”.

One folk tradition that continues in both Christian and Pagan homes on St. Brigid’s Day (or Imbolc) is that of the Brigid’s Bed. The girls and young, unmarried, women of the household or village create a corn dolly to represent Brigid, called the Brideog (“little Brigid” or “young Brigid”), adorning it with ribbons and baubles like shells or stones. They make a bed for the Brideog to lie in. On St. Brigid’s Eve (January 31), the girls and young women gather together in one house to stay up all night with the Brideog, and are later visited by all the young men of the community who must ask permission to enter the home, and then treat them and the corn dolly with respect.

Brigid is said to walk the earth on Imbolc eve. Before going to bed, each member of the household may leave a piece of clothing or strip of cloth outside for Brigid to bless. The head of the household will smother (or “smoor”) the fire and rake the ashes smooth. In the morning, they look for some kind of mark on the ashes, a sign that Brigid has passed that way in the night or morning. The clothes or strips of cloth are brought inside, and believed to now have powers of healing and protection.

On the following day, the girls carry the Brideog through the village or neighborhood, from house to house, where this representation of the Saint/Goddess is welcomed with great honor. Adult women — those who are married or who run a household — stay home to welcome the Brigid procession, perhaps with an offering of coins or a snack. Since Brigid represents the light half of the year, and the power that will bring people from the dark season of winter into spring, her presence is very important at this time of year.

Neopagans of diverse traditions observe this holiday in a variety of ways. As forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have very different origins, these representations can vary considerably despite the shared name. Some celebrate in a manner as close as possible to how the Ancient Celts are believed to have observed the festival, as well as how these customs have been maintained in the living Celtic cultures. Other types of Neopagans observe the holiday with rituals taken from numerous other unrelated sources, Celtic cultures being only one of the sources used.

Imbolc is usually celebrated by modern Pagans on February 1 or 2nd in the northern hemisphere, and August 1 or 2nd in the southern hemisphere. Some Neopagans time this celebration to the solar midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox, which now falls later in the first week or two of February. Since the Celtic year was based on both lunar and solar cycles, it is most likely that the holiday would be celebrated on the full moon nearest the midpoint between the winter solstice and vernal equinox, or when the primroses, dandelions, or other spring flowers rise up through the snow, or when the sun aligned with the passage tombs among the pre-Celtic megaliths.

Wikipedia

Magickal Graphics

Brighid’s Fires Burn High

Brighid’s Fires Burn High

by Miriam Harline

 

Imbolc is a white time, a time of ice and fire. In many places, snow still sheets the ground. The fire is traditional: Europe observes this day, February 2, the Christian Candlemas, with candlelight processions, parades that go back to ancient torchlight ceremonies for purifying and reviving the fields at early sowing, according to Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend.At Candlemas, the people of ancient Europe made candles for the coming year, having saved the fat from meat eaten through the winter. Mexico, too, observes February 2, the Aztec New Year, with renewed fires and a festival that echoes agricultural rituals of early spring.

At Imbolc, the earth begins to wake from winter sleep. As Starhawk writes in The Spiral Dance, at Imbolc “what was born at the Solstice begins to manifest, and we who were midwives to the infant year now see the Child Sun grow strong as the days grow visibly longer.” At night the Wild Moon shines, illuminating the earth’s initial quickening. Seeds sown in autumn begin to stir; nature is potential waiting to be fulfilled. The Goddess too is changing: from crone to maiden, from winter to spring.

To Banish Winter

In The Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life, Pauline Campanelli writes, “Now is the time for the banishing of Winter. On the first night of February, the eve of Imbolc, gather together all of the greens that adorned the house throughout the Yuletide season, including a branch or two of the fir tree that was hung with holiday ornaments. Then, as a part of the Imbolc Sabbat rite, add these greens to the Sabbat Fire (a little at a time, and carefully, because by now they are hazardously dry), dancing and chanting all the while with words like:

“Now we banish Winter!

“Now we welcome Spring!”

Of Brighid and Her Realms

Today’s witches take many of their Imbolc associations from pagan Ireland. There, Imbolc belonged to the goddess Brighid or Bride (either is pronounced Breed), mother of poetry, smithcraft and healing.

In their Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom, Caitlin and John Matthews quote the tenth century Cormac’s Glossary: Brighid is “a poetess… the female sage, woman of wisdom, or Brighid the Goddess whom poets venerated because very great and famous for her protecting care.”Cormac’s Glossary gives Brighid the poetess two sisters, Brighid the smith and Brighid the “female physician”; Brighid thus occurs threefold, called by the Celts the Three Blessed Ladies.

The three Brighids multiply, to three times three: Caitlin and John Matthews call Brighid “a being who has nine separate spiritual appearances and blessings, which are ubiquitously invoked through Celtic lore.” Hers are the “nine gifts of the cauldron” mentioned in Amergin’s “Song of the Three Cauldrons”: poetry, reflection, meditation, lore, research, great knowledge, intelligence, understanding and wisdom. The Christianized St. Bridget had nine priestesses, the “Ingheau Anndagha,” or Daughters of the Flame, who lived inside her shrine and tended her fire, whom no man could look upon, according to Kisma K. Stepanich in Faery Wicca, Book One. Brighid is also a midwife and protector, a war-goddess and a teacher of the arts of battle.

Celtic lore makes Brighid the daughter of the Dagda, the Good God, and marries her to Bres of the Fomors, by whom she bears a son Ruadan. But, as Janet and Stewart Farrar write in The Witches’ Goddess, “The fact that Dana, though goddess/ancestress of the Tuatha, is sometimes referred to (like Brighid) as the Dagda’s daughter; the hints… that the Dagda was originally the son of this primordial goddess, then her husband, then her father; the dynastic marriage between Brighid and Bres – all these reflect a long process of integration of the pantheons of neighboring tribes, or of conquerors and conquered, and also of patriarchalization.” Like many goddesses, Brighid probably once birthed the god later called her father. Brighid’s name can be derived from the Gaelic “breo-aigit” or “fiery arrow,” but the Matthewses prefer a derivation from Sanskrit, “Brahti,” or “high one.”

The entire Celtic world worshipped Brighid. She was Brigantia in Britain, the patron goddess of the tribe of the Brigantines in northern England and of the Brigindo in eastern France, Stepanich says. The Celts continued to worship her in Christian times as St. Ffaid in Wales, St. Bride in Scotland and St. Bridget or Bride in Ireland. St. Bridget was said to be the midwife and foster mother of Christ, the helper and friend of Mary.

Making Bride’s Bed

Long before she befriended the Mother of God, Brighid was the Mother herself, her agricultural roots going back to the Neolithic. Campanelli describes an Imbolc ritual for creating Bride’s bed, drawn from ancient rituals in which harvesters at the Autumn Equinox would bring the last sheaf of wheat or other grain into the house, believing the Goddess of the Grain lived within. The harvesters often made this last sheaf into a woman’s shape, the Corn Bride or Maiden, dressing her in white.

If you have autumn harvest left, say a sheaf of Indian corn, as part of your Imbolc ritual you can create a Bride’s bed. Dress her in white and decorate her as you like, then place her in a basket or on a square of white cloth. Across her, lay a priapic wand – an acorn-tipped wand of oak – twined with ribbon, so that wand and bride form an X. Then place lit candles to either side, and chant to her something like, “Blessed be the Corn Bride! Blessed be the Great Mother!” At the height of the chant, extinguish the candles. Then, at sunrise the next morning, place the bride without her dress on your front door. There she forms an amulet of prosperity, fertility and protection, which can remain till after Samhain. Campanelli suggests you return her to earth before Yule, perhaps scattering her in the fields for birds.

Brighid the Midwife

Brighid is midwife as well as harvest mother. As late as 100 years ago in the west Scottish Highlands, the Matthewses write, the midwife traditionally blessed a newborn with fire and water in Brighid’s name. She passed the child across the fire three times, carried the baby around the fire three times deosil, then performed “the midwife’s baptism” with water, saying:

A small wave for your form

A small wave for your voice

A small wave for your speech

A small wave for your means

A small wave for your generosity

A small wave for your appetite

A small wave for your wealth

A small wave for your life

A small wave for your health

Nine waves of grace upon you,

Waves of the Giver of Health.

Brighid also protects and heals adults. She is a goddess of healing wells and streams; in her honor, Bridewell is one of the two most common well-names in Ireland, the other being St. Anne’s Well, remembering Anu, or Dana, the mother of the gods – a goddess sometimes conflated with Brighid. With Aengus Og, Brighid performs the role of soul-guardian, wrapping worshippers in her mantle of protection.

Making a “caim”

To protect themselves in Brighid’s name, the traditional Irish would recite a “caim,” the Matthewses write; “caim” means “loop” or “bend,” thus a protective circle. A caim would always name Brighid and the beings, household or body-parts to be protected.

Traditionally, you place a caim by stretching out your right forefinger and keeping that finger pointed toward the subject while walking about the subject deosil, reciting the caim. You can also say a caim for yourself. A caim can be made in all seasons and circumstances; it traditionally encircles people, houses, animals or the household fire. The Matthewses write:

“As her family prepared to sleep, the Gaelic mother would breathe these words (the caim) over the fire as she banked it in for the night…. As she said this, she would spread the embers into a circle, and divide it into three equal heaps with a central heap. To make the holy name of the foster mother (Brighid), she placed three turfs of peat between the three heaps, each one touching the center, and covered it all with ash. Such smooring customs and invocations are still performed in the West of Ireland. And so the protection of Brighid is wrapped about the house and its occupants.”

Augury in Brighid’s Name

Brighid is also a seer; the Matthewses describe her as “the central figure of the Celtic vision world.” She presided over a special type of augury, called a “frith,” performed on the first Monday in a year’s quarter to predict what that quarter would bring. The ancient Celts divided the year by Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasad, and Samhain, so the first Monday after Imbolc is appropriate for frithing.

To perform a frith, a traditional frithir would first fast. Then, at sunrise, barefoot and bareheaded, the frithir would say prayers to the Virgin Mary and St. Bridget and walk deosil around the household fire three times. Then with closed or blindfolded eyes, the frithir went to the house door’s threshold, placed a hand on either jamb and said additional prayers asking that the specific question about the coming quarter be answered. Then the frithir opened his or her eyes and looked steadfastly ahead, noting everything seen.

Frithing signs can be “rathadach” (lucky) or “rosadach” (unlucky). A man or beast getting up means improving health, lying down ill health or death. A cock coming toward the frithir brings luck, a duck safety for sailors, a raven death. About the significance of horses, a rhyme survives: “A white horse for land, a gray horse for sea, a bay horse for burial, a brown horse for sorrow.” The role of frithir passed down from generation to generation; according to the Matthewses, the name survives in the surname Freer, “held to be the title of the astrologers of the kings of Scotland.”

To perform a pagan version of frithing, fast the Sunday night before the first Monday after Imbolc and that night formulate your chief question about the coming three months. Monday morning at sunrise, say a prayer to Brighid and barefoot and bareheaded walk deosil around whatever seems the central fire of your house – maybe your kitchen stove, or if you’re not a cook your fireplace or heater. Then go to your doorway, put your hands to either side, and closing your eyes pray your question be answered. Then open your eyes, and note the first action you see. That action probably won’t be found in the traditional frithir’s lexicon, so the interpretation is up to you.

In another frithing technique, you curl the palms to form a “seeing-tube”; frithirs used such a tube to discover lost people or animals and to divine the health of someone absent. Frithirs also sometimes used divinatory stones; the Matthewses describe a “little stone of the quests” made of red quartz.

Imbolc Spells and Workings

Whether or not you try frithing, Imbolc is good for psychic work: still the dark time of the year, but looking toward spring. It’s also a good time to make your space hospitable for such work, banishing old energy to clear the way for new. Traditionally, witches purify themselves and their space at Imbolc. Any kind of cleansing or banishing will do, but consider ones that include fire and water, sacred to Brighid. Once purified, you’re ready to go further; at Imbolc, covens initiate new witches.

The spark of summer dances in the future now; Imbolc is a good time to seek inspiration, especially for healers and smiths of words or metal. To do so, try the following spell.

Bring to your ritual space a cauldron or chalice filled with earth or sand; a white, silver, green, purple or rainbow-colored candle; a candleholder; oil to anoint the candle; paper; and a pen you like or with appropriately colored ink. Ground and center, cast a circle and ask for Brighid’s presence. Then anoint your candle in Brighid’s name, and lighting it write on the paper the aspects of your work in which you want inspiration. When you’re done, raise energy and put it into the paper, then light the paper with the candle flame. Drop the burning paper into the cauldron, making sure the entire paper is blackened. Then thank Brighid and bid her farewell, and take down your circle.

The next day, relight the candle and by its light rub some significant tools of your work with the ashes. Then either sprinkle the remaining ashes onto your garden or houseplants or drop them in a park in a place that feels inspiring or pleasant.

Imbolc is a white time, burning with inspiration and protection, cool with healing and purification. Prophesy flares, painting luster on the dark. Light your candle, call on Brighid, and know that under the snow the seeds of spring stir.

OIMELC – February 2

OIMELC – February 2

Down with Rosemary and so
Down with baies and mistletoe;
Down with Holly, live and all
Wherewith ys drest the Yuletide Hall;
That so the superstitious find
No one least Branch there left behind;
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected there, maids, trust to me,
So many goblins you shall see.
–Robert Herrick

Oimelc – Imbolc in the Saxon – marks the first stirring of life in the earth.
The Yule season originally ended at Oimelc. But with increasing organization and
industrialization, increasing demands for labor and production, the holiday kept
shrinking, first to the two weeks ending at Twelfth Night, then to a single week
ending at New Year’s, then to a single day.

Oimelc begins a season of purification similar to that preceding Yule. It ends
at Ostara. No marriages, initiations or puberty rites should be celebrated
between Oimelc and Ostara.

The candles and torches at Oimelc signify the divine life-force awakening
dormant life to new growth.

THEMES

Growth of roots begin again. Bare branches begin to swell with leaf buds, and
growth appears at the tips of evergreen branches. The tools of agriculture are
being make ready for Spring.

Xian feasts of St. Brigid, and Celtic feast of Brigit, the maiden aspect of the
triple goddess and mother of Dagda. Her symbol is the white swan. A Roman feast
of Bacchus and Ceres. The Lupercalia, a feast of Pan. The Nephelim or Titans,
those offspring of human-divine unions said to have ruled Atlantis.

Grannus, a mysterious Celtic god whom the Romans identified with Apollo.

PURPOSE OF THE RITES

To awaken life in the Earth. Fire tires to strengthen the young Sun, to bring
the fertilizing, purifying, protective and vitalizing influence of fire to the
fields, orchards, domestic animals, and people. To drive away winter. To charm
candles for household use throughout the year.

FOLK CUSTOMS

The three functions of Oimelc – end of Yule, feast of candles or torches, and
beginning of a purificatory season – are divided by the Xian calendar among
Twelfth Night, Candlemas and Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras, Carnival). The customs
of all three feasts are derived from Oimelc, with at most a thin Xian gloss.

Parades of giant figures (Titans?) in rural towns in France and at Mardi Gras
and Carnival celebrations. A figure representing the Spirit of Winter or Death,
sometime made of straw, sometimes resembling a snowman, is drowned, burnt or in
once case, stuffed with fireworks and exploded. They symbol of Montreal’s Winter
Carnival is the giant figure of Bonhomme di Neige (snowman).

Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year and St. Valentine’s Day customs.

The French provinces are so rich in Oimelc customs they cannot be listed here.
Refer to “The Golden Bough”.

Wassailing the trees: at midnight, carolers carry a bucket of ale, cider or
lamb’s wool in a torchlight procession through the orchards. The leader dips a
piece of toast in the drink and sedges it in the fork of each tree, with the
traditional cheer (variations exist) of: “Hats full, holes full, barrels full,
and the little heap under the stairs!”.

Who finds the bean in the Twelfth Night cake becomes king of the feast; who
finds the pea becomes queen – never mind the gender of the finders. Rag-bag
finery and gilt-paper crowns identify the king and queen. The rulers give
ridiculous orders to the guests, who must obey their every command. They are
waited on obsequiously, and everything they do is remarked and announced
admiringly and importantly: “The King drinks!”, “The Queen sneezes!” and
everyone politely imitates the ruler’s example.

SYMBOLIC DECORATIONS

Snowdrops are picked for vases, but otherwise no special decorative effects are
indicated. Go carnival, balloons and confetti.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

Parades, with showers of confetti, gala balls, masks, street dancing, mumming,
winter sports, ice and snow sculpture.

THE RITE

Dress in dark colors with much silver jewelry. Outdoors, after dark on the Even,
have the site arranged with a fire in the cauldron and the altar draped in
white, at the Northeast. The fire may be composed all or in part of Yule greens.

Go in a torchlight procession to the Circle. Include a stamping dance, possibly
beating the ground with sticks, before the Invocation. The invocation may end
with the calling of Hertha, a Teutonic goddess of the earth and the hearth. Call
her name three times and at each call beat on the ground three times with the
palms of both hands.

A figure representing Winter should be burned in the fire. Communion may consist
of Sabbat Cakes or a Twelfth Night cake (there are many traditional recipes) and
cider or wassail. A procession may leave the Circle for a time to wassail a
nearby orchard. Couples may leap the bonfire. Supplies of candles brought by the
coveners are blessed.

Boys puberty rites may be celebrated. These usually include mock plowing by the
boys.

Close the Circle and go indoors for the feast.

Today We Honor The Goddess Danu

The Goddess Danu

As the mother of the gods, Danu has strong parallels with the Welsh literary figure (or goddess) Dôn, who is the mother figure of the medieval tales in the Mabinogion.

Danu was considered as the mythic mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Celtic tribes that first invaded Ireland. The Celts, also on the continent, had several goddesses, also of war. “Apart from these goddesses of war, there were other Amazonian figures who led armies into battle. Often they were also endowed with legendary sexual prowess…” “The Celts included the cult of the mother goddess in their rites, as archeological evidence testifies. Indeed, the Tuatha Dé were the descendants of the goddess Danu, and in some local instances, the ruler of the otherworld was a goddess, rather than a god, just as some folktales represented the otherworld as ‘the Land of Women’. Danu may be connected with Bridget, daughter of Kildare and of learning, culture and skills. She was known as Brigantia in northern England, and survived as St Bride in Christianity”

Use Imbolc to Ask for Brighid’s Inspiration

Use Imbolc to Ask for Brighid’s Inspiration

by Melanie Fire Salamander

At a Northwest Imbolc, grey days pass under grey skies. The furor of the solstice holidays is over, and cold and rain face us for the next six weeks, or six months. Here, Imbolc lacks even the bracing snow of winter. Nor is it time for flowers and fresh breezes. A few crocuses may poke their heads above ground, but Imbolc, the first pagan holiday of spring, doesn’t speak of spring’s fulfillment, rather of spring’s promise.

Imbolc is the pregnancy of spring, the first stirring of seeds sown in autumn. One derivation of the holiday’s name, which is taken from the Irish, is “in the belly,” according to R.J. Stewart in Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses. Animal life also begins to stir. Around Imbolc, ewes begin to lactate, a time important to hungry traditional peoples. This association is reflected in medieval European writings. Cormac’s Glossary, composed around year 900, derives “Imbolc” from “sheep’s milk,” Ronald Hutton writes in The Stations of the Sun. In the tenth- or eleventh-century Irish tale “The Wooing of Emer,” this holiday is called “Imbolc, when the ewes are milked at spring’s beginning.”

At Imbolc, early Europeans also rendered fat for candles, having saved the fat from meat eaten through the winter. Hence the holiday’s alternate name Candlemas, from the Christianized version of the day. Christian Europe observes Candlemas with candlelight processions, parades that may hark back to ancient torchlight ceremonies for purifying and reviving the fields at spring sowing, according to Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. The February ceremonies of the pagan Romans were also rites of cleansing and preparation for the coming year. Likewise, February 2 is the Aztec New Year, observed with early-spring agricultural rites and renewed fires. After other purifications, covens at Imbolc traditionally initiate new witches.

Around the Northern Hemisphere, Imbolc is a time of beginnings, of hopes for success in the coming year. But hope is double-edged; the ancient Greeks put it into Pandora’s box with other human ills, a lying daemon. In this grey weather, it’s easy to see hope as a lie. Of all holidays, Imbolc is the most based on faith. If you don’t feel faith, if you lack inspiration, Imbolc is a good time to seek it.

Brighid’s Day

Imbolc comes strongly associated with a Celtic goddess who oversees inspiration. The Irish, Scots and Manx considered this holiday to belong to Brighid or Bride (pronounced breed), a patroness of smithcraft, healing and poetic inspiration whose name can be derived from the Gaelic “breo-aigit” or “fiery arrow.”

Brighid’s attributes are many. She was known as a smith and fighter, patroness of the armies of Irish Leinster. As a healer, she rules wells and streams. Worshippers in medieval times walked around her holy wells deosil (sunwise) on hands and knees and left valuable pins or buttons in the water, or hung rags in the trees nearby, asking for relief.

An Irish celebration of Brighid’s day reflects another healing aspect. In this observance, Hutton writes, a family would hold a formal supper, during which they would place food, usually cake or bread and butter, on the windowsill as a gift for Brighid. The family might also leave a cloth, garment or ribbon on the sill overnight, asking Brighid to bless it. Family members would wear it later in the year to prevent headaches.

Brighid also oversees childbirth. In the west Scottish Highlands as late as 100 years ago, midwives would bless newborns with fire and water in Brighid’s name, Caitlin Matthews reports in The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom. Fire and water come together also in Brighid’s water, which you make by plunging a burning coal into water while asking for the goddess’s blessing. The water, used to anoint and purify, combines Brighid’s natures of smith and healer.

Brighid’s midwife aspect perhaps conceals an earlier goddess of fertility, a corn-mother, as shown in the tradition of Bride’s bed. To create this bed, Pauline Campanelli in The Wheel of the Year has you decorate a grain maiden made at the autumn equinox or from the last harvest’s wheat or corn. You dress the maiden in white, lay her in a basket and set across her a priapic wand — an acorn-tipped wand of oak — twined with ribbon, so that wand and bride form an X. You then place lit candles to either side and hail the maiden with a chant, or incorporate her into a ritual saluting the fertility of the coming spring. After the ritual, you undress the maiden and at sunrise place her on your dwelling’s front door. There she forms an amulet of prosperity, fertility and protection, which can remain till the next Samhain.

The Celtic traditions behind this pagan practice are many and varied. In the Isle of Man, according to Hutton, followers of Brighid left her an empty bed in a corner of the house or barn, beside it bread, cheese, ale and a lighted candle. In the Scottish islands of the Hebrides, where householders made a figure of Bride from oats, families would leave her abed overnight and look for an impression of her wand in the hearth ashes the next morning. A mark meant a good crop and a prosperous year, and a footstep was held marvelous, but if nothing appeared the family took it as a bad omen. To avert misfortune, members would bury a cock at the junction of three streams or burn incense on their hearth fire.

Elsewhere in Ireland, people plaited a criosog Bridghe, St. Brighid’s cross, of rushes or straw, hanging it on Brighid’s Eve over a door or window or in the rafters to welcome her. Others set their crosses in stables to ask for blessings on the animals. The Irish left their criosogs up through the year, replacing them the next Brighid’s Eve.

Besides giving health and agricultural fertility, Brighid lends clear sight into the future and creative fertility. According to Matthews, she presided over a special type of Irish augury called a “frith,” performed on the first Monday after a cross-quarter day, such as Imbolc, to predict what the year’s next quarter would bring. Brighid was said also to inspire poetry, and many Irish poems hail her. Cormac’s Glossary calls her “a poetess… the female sage, woman of wisdom, or Brighid the goddess whom poets venerated because very great and famous for her protecting care.” Matthews attributes to her the “nine gifts of the cauldron” mentioned in the Irish poet Amergin’s “Song of the Three Cauldrons”: reflection, lore, research, great knowledge, intelligence, understanding, wisdom, meditation and poetry. If inspiration is what you seek at this grey Northwest Imbolc, Brighid is a good goddess to turn to.

A Ritual to Seek Inspiration

This ritual is to find hope and inspiration in a project or your life as a whole. Before you start the working, I’ll ask you to spend some time in journal work and meditation. For these and the magickal rite, give yourself at least one undisturbed hour (two is better). Turn off the phone, and put your pets in another room.

A good time for this ritual is first thing Imbolc morning. If that doesn’t work, try the night before, or during a waxing moon. It’s best done in spring, but don’t let the season prevent you from doing the ritual if you want.

Have on hand:

  • A white or pastel candle to meditate by, and a candleholder for it.
  • Paper and pen to create a journal entry and for use during meditation. (You can create the initial journal entry using a computer, but you’ll definitely want the old-fashioned tools later.)
  • A cauldron or earth-filled bowl large enough to contain a burning piece of paper safely.
  • Anointing oil or Brighid’s water.
  • A candle of a color that says inspiration to you, possibly rainbow-colored, silver, gold, lavender or
    green — use your own personal associations.
  • A candleholder for this inspiration candle.

Journal Work

First, create a journal entry looking at what you’re thinking and feeling. Whether or not you keep an ongoing journal, writing about your thoughts and emotions helps clear your head before a ritual and make sure that unconscious ambivalence doesn’t color your work. Even if you already know what’s in your head, getting your feelings out on paper may reveal new information or connections. And the simple act of formally acknowledging a thought or emotion by writing it down can help that energy move.

So ask yourself: How do I feel? Why?

Next, ask yourself: What do I want out of this ritual? Write the answer on a separate page as a single, formal statement; this will be the statement of your working.

Then ask yourself: What within me stands in my way? What benefits do I get from not succeeding here?

This ritual assumes you are already dealing with any practical roadblocks preventing your success. For me, it’s rarely the outer blockages that most hinder me — it’s the inner ones.

So look at the inner urges that block your desires. As they come up, don’t judge them, if you can avoid it. These shadows all exist for a reason. If you can honor these urges, understand them, talk to them, promise they will be met in some way other than preventing your success, you will clear the way for inspiration.

On a separate piece of paper, write out a list of your inner blockages for use in meditation, following.

Meditation

To meditate, start with relaxation. Light your white or pastel candle, and sitting in front of it relax your whole body. If this doesn’t come easily, try tensing each body part, then releasing it. (For more meditative techniques, see other articles in this issue.) Looking at the candle flame — if you don’t want spots before your eyes, look at the base of the wick — take 20 deep breaths, breathing into your belly, saying to yourself that each breath relaxes you further. Count each breath.

Once relaxed, ground and center. Make your grounding cord strong and deeply rooted, and center yourself in the middle of your head — your third eye, a neutral space. Neutrality is a good tool when looking at inner blocks. Next, create a protective energetic circle around yourself in whatever way you prefer.

For the following step, give yourself some latitude. Don’t force yourself to do work you’re not ready for; doing so will enforce rather than clear obstructions.

From your list of inner blocks, choose one. Let it be personified in a way that you can be neutral about — not a monster, simply a presence. Then ask the block in meditation: What do you want?

For me, the answers to this question always surprise me and usually simplify matters. What your blockage will usually want, first, is acknowledgement. Then it might have some specific request. Nine times out of ten, at least for me, such requests can be dealt with in ways that allow me to move forward with my desired goal.

On a separate piece of paper, write down what the block wants. If you can, promise to fulfill that need, but at very least write it down for your knowledge.

Thank the block, bless it and let it go.

Then choose the next block on your list (unless you have only one), and repeat the process, collecting all the blocks’ requests on one sheet.

When you’re done figuring out what your blockages want, briefly decide how to address the requests. Often the action required is something simple, such as recognizing and honoring a formerly hidden emotion. Sometimes addressing the blockages’ needs will take further practical or ritual work. The answer isn’t to do the work right now, but to make an honest commitment to do it over time. If you don’t feel you can do what your blocks request, at the very least promise to keep thinking about the issues raised till solutions can be found. However works best for you, make a commitment to do the work to satisfy and thus release these blocks.

Write that commitment down on the page with the blocks’ requests, fold the paper and, when you can, set it in some place you will see daily, such as on your altar.

Now ground and center once more. Connect with the energies of earth and sky, and from the sky draw down cleansing, healing energy. Let it meet healing earth energy within you, and fill yourself completely with healing and comfort. Wash any pain or negative emotion down your grounding into the earth. Take time to do this slowly and fully and come back to equilibrium.

The Rite Itself

Now that you’ve done your personal work in journal and meditation and cleansed yourself, it’s time to ask for inspiration from the goddess.

Connect again with your grounding, center yourself and renew the circle around you, this time so as to work magick. Call the elements, directions, fey or all three to your circle as you usually do.

Now call to your circle the Celtic goddess Brighid. Do so in a speech inspired in the moment; call to her from your heart. The description earlier should give you a feeling for her attributes and nature. Call her strongly; let her fill your circle.

Besides your original journal entry and the page listing your blocks’ requests and your commitment, you should have two slips of paper: the list of the blocks themselves and your formal statement of ritual intent. From that statement, read aloud what you want this ritual to do. Feel free to amend your statement based on what you learned from journal work and meditation.

Now take up the list of things obstructing you. Say aloud the following, or something like it:

“To do (my project), I have committed to satisfy these blocks. Having made that commitment, I release them.”

Focusing on letting go your inner blocks, fold the page and light it in the flame of your meditation candle. Let the flame burn up everything that stands in your way. Drop the burning page in your cauldron or earth-filled bowl, and watch till it flares out.

Now pick up the anointing oil or Brighid’s water. Hold it above your head, and call out the following or something similar:

“I dedicate this (oil or water) to the Goddess Brighid and her brilliant inspiration!”

With the dedicated oil or water, anoint the candle you’ve chosen to represent inspiration. Holding the candle above your head, stand and raise the energy of inspiration either by toning wordlessly or by chanting:

“As this candle flames and fires,

Let me be renewed, inspired.”

Pour energy into the candle, imagining yourself filled with inspiration and hope. Imagine too the goddess lending you her aid.

When you have sent the power you raised into the candle, touch the surface below you and ground out any excess energy. Set the candle in its holder, ready for use. Then thank and release the goddess and other entities (directions, elements, fey), and take down your circle.

Light the candle whenever you work on the project you created it for, or whenever you’re in need of inspiration or hope.

Today We Honor Nemausus

Nemausus

 

Deus Nemausus is often said to have been the Celtic patron god of Nemausus (Nîmes). The god does not seem to have been worshipped outside of this locality. The city certainly derives its name from Nemausus, which was perhaps the sacred wood in which the Celtic tribe of the Volcae Arecomici (who of their own accord surrendered to the Romans in 121 BC) held their assemblies (according to Encyclopædia Britannica 1911), or was perhaps the local Celtic spirit guardian of the spring that originally provided all water for the settlement, as many modern sources suggest. Or perhaps Stephanus of Byzantium was correct in stating in his geographical dictionary that Nemausos, the city of Gaul, took its name from the Heracleid (or son of Heracles) Nemausios.

An important healing-spring sanctuary existed in the town; it was established in some form at least as early as the early Iron Age but was expanded after the Romans colonised the region in the late 2nd century BC, when there was active Roman encouragement of the cult. Another set of local spirits worshiped at Nemausus (Nîmes) were the Nemausicae or Matres Nemausicae, who were fertility and healing goddesses belonging to the spring sanctuary.

Earth Charms

Earth Charms

 

 

Some naturally occurring objects are said to be empowered with extra luck or magickal powers. Those that fall in the realm of earth include four-leaf clovers, petrified wood and fairy stones.

 

Four-leaf clovers

It is rare to actually find a four-leaf clover. It is universally accepted as an harbinger of good luck to come your way. This belief stems back to the ancient Druids and is Celtic in origin.

 

Petrified Wood

If you are lucky enough to find a piece of petrified wood, then you are lucky indeed. It holds the magickal properties of secrets, wisdom, strength and transformation. Pay special attention to your dream after finding a piece of petrified wood, as the spirit of the tree may be trying to speak to you.

 

Fairy Stones

Fairy stones form a natural solar-cross shape. They are known as staurolite. These little stones charms contain vas t reservoirs of power and are wonderful when it comes to helping you maintain balance within your chosen elemental specialty.

Daily Feng Shui Tip for December 23rd

Take a break from all the holiday hoopla and do something special just for you today. Go for a long walk in the fresh air and count all your many blessings. Take a bike ride if climate and location permit. Do anything that takes you outside your head, your office or your home. Connect with nature by hugging or just touching a tree. Some Shamans say that sitting with your back against a tree will do more to keep you rooted and grounded than any amount of the same style of meditations. Celtic cultural tradition tells us that touching wood, usually with the right hand, is a custom that has long been thought to bestow the benevolence of Mother Nature upon you and everyone you love. Many other cultures believe that touching wood while discussing new projects or ideas will encourage those efforts to spread roots and grow while also being shaded from failure or misfortune! So show the universe that you mean business and swallow some vitamin E (as in Ellen’s Empowering advice!) during these hectic holidays by giving yourself a much deserved and all-natural break! It will do you good — knock wood!

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

Following Our Ancestors’ Path

Following Our Ancestors’ Path

Author: Gloria Gypsy

Modern Druids must research what Druidism was or is and apply it to our modern times. A modern Druid’s role does not differ much from that of his or her ancient ancestors, although Druids of today face many more challenges in teaching and giving service to the world. Many people have forgotten the ways of they’re ancestors. They are not at one with nature or their spiritual selves. Many people live in crowded urban areas and have lost touch with their bonds to nature. Today’s Druid I believe would spend more time working toward caring for our planet and nature since pollution, over-population and technology have begun to destroy our very life force. Today more than ever we need the Wisdom of the Druid.

One important role for a Druid today would be in preserving our wildlife. So much of our natural woodlands, prairies, etc., have been lost to pave the way for more urban areas. When we destroy a forest or field or what have you we are also destroying the wildlife that lives in that area. As an example, in certain parts of the United States, Wolves, Coyotes and Bears are seen more and more in urban areas looking for food. This is because we are taking away they’re natural habitats and they have nowhere left to go.

And so a modern Druid may join a committee that is dedicated to saving our wildlife or forests. He or she may work toward animal sanctuaries or for a national forest. In preserving and caring for nature we are giving back to our life force. Without it we would not exist.

The Druids were a people of integrity and service. In the past they were healers, judges, priests, poets. But unlike most people today they were all these things and also in tune with spirituality and honor. Today we still seek wisdom and must strive to give as well as receive knowledge, to lend our services to our communities and families (tribe); to nature/the gods; to our planet and also to our self.

Society today lacks much integrity and truth. People are not honest with themselves let alone as a culture or community. The modern Druid has a responsibility not only to him or herself but to they’re community as well to practice and teach the lessons of truth, honor, integrity and love. Without these virtues we are not true to ourselves, each other and our god/s. Passing this knowledge on gives us hope for the next generation and those generations yet to come. “We must give of our selves so that we may receive of ourselves.” (Searles O’Dubhain)

A Druid as teacher could be a father or mother teaching they’re children, judges or law enforcement teaching these lessons by example, and teachers themselves in schools teaching in they’re specialized fields. If we learn and live as the ancient Druids did we are able to communicate on all levels of human awareness, we are the caretakers of nature, and the teachers of wisdom and spirituality. We are enlightening others and ourselves, we are making our lives and our world a better place. We are improving the quality of life and our spirituality. We must research what Druidism was or is and apply it to our modern time.

“The value of a life is great but it is small next to the value of a spirit.” (Searles O’Dubhain)

Following I offer a meditation for speaking with the spirit of place as an example on how to get started becoming one with the earth and learning from the wisdom of the earth.

Meditation: Speaking with the Spirit of Place…

  • Sit down near, preferably touching, that with which you plan to speak with. If it is a tree, perhaps face it, placing your hands on it. Try to avoid animate things such as animals and moving bodies of water until you get better at this. Otherwise the movement will likely break your concentration.
  • Close your eyes or keep them open, depending on what works best and how you feel most comfortable.
  • Calm your mind, and quiet it in an attitude of meditation. Any thoughts that enter, simply acknowledge them as a thought, and push them aside, returning to your concentration.
  • Focus on your breathing. If you find it difficult to quiet your mind, perhaps try chanting (to yourself or aloud) a mantra, play some soft music if you can. Anything to focus your attention.
  • Breath in for a count of four, hold it for two, then out for a count of four. Keep doing this until you feel that your mind is peaceful and calm enough.
  • Focus on moving your consciousness into what you’re trying to speak with. I’ll use the example of a tree. It is easier if you are touching it, and I will assume your hands will be on it. Adapt this as you see fit, however. Move your awareness down into your arms, allowing it to travel to your hands, and then your finger tips. You will find it will slip into the tree with as much ease as it went down your body. Always remember to get permission before moving your consciousness into something that is not your own. If you feel that you are being allowed in, then proceed; otherwise do not.
  • Allow yourself to orient in the tree. When you feel ready attempt to speak with it. If you do not yet feel ready, simply sit with it and hold off until you do feel ready.
  • Think about your own relationship with the Land, what you feel is appropriate, and what you feel needs to be changed. Think on why you should change these things, and why certain things are in right relationship.


Footnotes:
Sources

1.The Traditional Roles of Druids, Searles O’Dubhain

2.The Nine Strands of Druidism, Jason Kirkey

Why Do You Want To Be A Druid?

Why Do You Want To Be A Druid?

Author: Sencha the Druid

When I stepped into the Sacred Circle thirty years ago and dedicated myself to a lifetime of the study of Druidry, one of the first questions I was asked was, “Why do you want to be a Druid?”
Every year since that day, I have asked myself the same question. It has been interesting to watch how those answers have changed over the years.

Back then, I didn’t feel quite at home with my Christian upbringing. I was more comfortable with nature than I was with church. I grew up on a farm in rural South Carolina, and nature surrounded me. Most of my playmates were animals, not humans. I saw then that everything was connected, and that everything depends on everything else for survival. So my answer then was that I wanted to learn more about nature, and how to reconnect myself with it.

I still feel that way, but I would add more to it if I were asked the same question today. I would add what I have learned after fifty years of journeying on this planet.

What I have learned is that a lot of us have disconnected from nature. We go to work in shiny metal boxes, and sit in shiny metal cubicles without windows, and punch buttons on other shiny metal boxes. We eat our chemically-processed lunches from more shiny metal boxes, and eventually, if we live long enough, we go off to spend our last days in a box called a ‘Retirement Home.’ Then at the end of our lives, we get stuck in a shiny metal box and put in the ground to wait for eternity.

We take vacations and spend one or two weeks visiting places in shiny metal tubes. Some of us go to amusement parks where we spend our days riding in shiny metal boxes for recreation. Some of us might actually go out into the woods on camping or hiking trips during vacations, but our lives are still dictated by a tiny shiny metal box called a ‘clock.’ We have to be home on schedule, after all.

To me, Druidry is an escape from shiny metal things.

It’s easy to see that we have so far removed ourselves from nature that we forget that it is the source of all life. We forget that we didn’t create the web of life…we’re just strands in it. What we do to nature, we do to ourselves. When we take ourselves out of nature, we remove ourselves from the source that gave us birth.

That isolation from nature has become ingrained in our culture. Material goods have become the things that matter in life. We have gotten to the place now that we define ourselves more by what we own than by who we are. Our mainstream religious institutions seem to support those who are hell-bent on destroying the planet, as do our governments and our corporate culture. In other words, even our mainstream religious institutions serve to disconnect us from Mother Earth, our source, our spirit and our home.

So how do we solve this problem?

Many would say that the way to solve it would be to enact legislation that protects the environment. I believe that there may be a place for such legislation, but I have rarely seen change come willingly from a top-down mandate. I believe instead that the most effective way to foster change is for it to take place in a grassroots sense, from the bottom up.

Lao Tsu suggested that if you really want to change a society, you start with the family unit, and not with the Emperor. This is especially true in a democracy, where the will of the people rules…or should, anyway, in theory. If enough of the people become interested in taking care of the planet, then governments, corporations and religious institutions will have no choice but to accommodate us…especially if they hope to be re-elected under a majority-rules democracy.

I live in suburban South Carolina, a very conservative place. In my career as a Marriage and Family Therapist, I work a lot with teens and their families.

I have discovered that even here in the Bible Belt, the coming generation realizes that many of our institutions have lost their way. These youth are hungering for something more meaningful. The traditional “me first” conservative values of the present American way of life are not their values. Many of them have an intense interest in Pagan belief systems and Earth-centered spiritualities. They are also intensely interested in environmental activism and in equal justice for all. I think this is a good sign for the future…in spite of the fact that many of them ask me not to tell their fundamentalist Christian parents about their beliefs.

There’s an old story about the Goose who laid the Golden Egg. In this fairy tale, the goose gives a farmer one golden egg per day. But one day the farmer, in his greed, decides that he wants all the golden eggs at once. So the farmer kills the goose and cuts it open in order to get to all the eggs. But when he cuts open the goose, he finds nothing. So not only does he not have a huge pile of golden eggs, he has also killed the source of what golden eggs he could have gotten if he had been more patient and less greedy.

In our constant hunger for more and more material possessions, are we, in fact, killing the goose? How much longer can our planet provide for us if we continue to fail to live in a sustainable way?

That is why I want to be a Druid. That is why I continue to choose Druidry as my path and as my way of being in the world. Druidry teaches us that we are not separate from nature; that what we do to nature, we do to ourselves as well. As our traditional mainstream religious paths become increasingly anti-nature, followers of these religions will continue to fall away. I believe that deep down, at an almost instinctual level, we realize what we’re doing to our planet.

Many of the followers of mainstream religions will be seeking a spiritual path that allows them to honor both nature and the natural world. I believe that Druidry is one of those spiritual paths. I believe that Earth-friendly spiritual paths are the way of the future, if we are to have a future at all.

Your Horoscope Helpers

Your Horoscope Helpers

  • posted by Annie B. Bond

Adapted from Astroshamanism, Book 2, by Franco Santoro (Findhorn Press, 2003).

Every sun sign has spirit-helpers that include ancient gods and goddesses, mythic figures from many different cultures–including Celtic, Hindu, and Ancient Greek–angels, saints, and much more.

Find out who your horoscope helpers are, so you can begin a more conscious relationship with them. This is rich, fascinating, and very helpful information!

Aries, March 21-April 19: Khamael, Samuel (angels); Huitzilopochtli (Aztrec); Nergal (Babylonian); Belacadros, Brigantia, Cernunnus, Cocideus, Morrigan, Teutates (Celtic); St. Barbara, St. Peter (Christian); Amun, Khnum, Neith (Egyptian); Laran (Etruscan); Ares, Achilles, Amazons, Athena, Dione, Jason, Hercules, Nike, Phrixus and Helle (greek); Indrea, Agni, Durga (Hindu); Odin, Tyr, Wodan (Nordic); Mars, Pallas, Minerva, Bellona (Roman); Emperor, Tower (Tarot).

Taurus, April 20-May 21: Anaele (Angel); Coatlicue (Aztec); Aine (Celtic); St. Simon (Christian); Bastet, Geb (Egyptian); Aphrodite, Ariadne, Astarte, Daedalus, Dionysus, Europa, Hephaestus, Minotaur, Theseus (Greek); Brahma, Ganesh, Kubera, Lakshmi, Uma (Hindu); Freya (Nordic); Venus, Mithra, Vulcan (Roman); Ki (Sumerian); Hierophant, Empress (Tarot).

Gemini, May 22-June 20: Raphael, Ongkanon (Angels); Nabu (Babylonian); St. Christopher, St. Nicholas, St. Anthony of Pauda (Christian); Anubis, Thoth (Egyptian); Turms (Etruscan); Hermes, Castor and Pollux, Meti (Greek); Sarasvati, Hanuman (Hindu); Mercury, Apollo, Romulus and Remus (Roman); Magician, Lovers (Tarot).

Cancer, June 21-July 22: Gabriel (Angel); Sin (Babylonian); Arianrhod, Ceridwen (Celtic); Mary, St. Andrew (Christian); Kwan Yin, Shing-Moo (China); Isis, Khonsu, Thoth (Egyptian); Losna (Etruscan); Artemis, Atlante, Astarte, Hecate, Selena (Greek); Parvati, Soma, Subhadra, Tara, Kali (Hindu); Susa-No-O (Japan); Itzamna (Maya); Freyr, Hurukan, Mani, Nanna (Nordic); Lebhana-Leukothea (Persian); Diana, Lucina, Ops (Roman); Nanna (Sumerian); High Priestess, Chariot (Tarot).

Leo, July 23- Aug 22: Michael (Angel); Quetzalcoatl, Tonatiuh, Huitzilopochtli (Aztec); Shamash (Babylonian); Belanus, Lugh (Celtic); Jesus, St. Jerome. St. Mark (Christian); Ammon, Aton, Helius, Mendes, Osiris, Ra, Sekhmet (Egyptian); Cautha (Etruscan); Asclepios, Apollo, Dianus, Dionysus, Helios, Heracles, Hyperion, Teia (Greek); Balarama, Indrea, Pushan, Savitri, Surya, Vishnu, Varuna, Brahma (Hindu); Inti (Inca); Amaterasu (Japan); Itzamna (Maya); Thor (Nordic); Mithras, Zoroaster (Persian); Apollo, Hercules, Jupiter, Aesculapius, Sol (Roman); Strength, Sun (Tarot).

Virgo, Aug 23-Sept 22: Raphael (Angel); Nidaba (Babylonian); St, Anthony of Egypt, Virgin Mary (Christian); Asclepios, Hermes, Astraea, Demeter, Hestia, Chiron (Greek); Ganga (Hindu); Mercury, Ceres, Vesta, Aesculapius (Roman); Hermit (Tarot).

Libra, Sept 23-Oct 22: Anaele, Lucipher (Angels); Quetzalcoatl (Aztec); Ishtar (Babylonian); St. Mary Magdalen (Christian); Isis, Maat (Egyptian); Turan (Etruscan); Aphrodite, Hera, Athena, Adonis, Themis (Greek); Krishna, Shakti, Lakshmi (Hindu); Freya (Nordic); Venus, Juno, Pallas, Vulcan (Roman); Justice (Tarot).

Scorpio, Oct 23-Nov 21: Azrael (Angel); Mitlontecutli, Mictlancihuatl, Tezcatlipoca, Tlazolteotl (Aztec); Ereshkigal (Babyonian); Don, Epona, Gwydion (Celtic); St. Thomas, St. Martin (Christian); Anubis, Hosiris, Selket (Egyptian); Alpanu, Matus (Etruscan); Hades, Hecate, Persephone, Orion, Orpheus (Greek); Shiva, Kali, Kama, Bali, Yama (Hindu); Yima (Persian); Pluto, Mars, Vulcan (Roman); Death, Judgement (Tarot).

Sagittarius, Nov 22-Dec 21: Sachiel (Angel); Marduk (Babylonian); Bussumarus, Dagda (Celtic); St. James, St. Sebastian (Christia); Tina (Etruscan); Zeus, Chiron, Ixion, Themis, Artemis (Greek); Ganesha, Indra (Hindu); Thor, Donar (Nordic); Jupiter, Fortuna, Diana (Roman); Wheel of Fortune, Temperance (Tarot).

Capricorn, Dec 22-Jan 19: Kassiel (Angel); Ninurta (Babylonian); St. Matthew (Christian); Consentes, Min (Egyptian); Cronus, Medusa, Pan, Amalthea, Atlas, Rhea (Greek); Kali, Shiva (Hindu); Saturn, Janus, Vesta (Roman); World (Tarot).

Aquarius, Jan 20-Feb 18: Uriel (Angel); Taddheus, St. Francis of Assisi, St. John the Baptist (Christian); Horus, Nut (Egyptian); Uranus, Deucalion, Hebe, Ganymede, Hephaestus (Greek); Varuna (Hindu); Itzamma (Maya); Dionysus, Juno (Roman); Fool, Star (Tarot).

Pisces, Feb 19-March 20: Asariel (Angel); Bridget, Rhiannon (Celtic); Kwan Yin, Nu Kwa (China); Matthias, Jonah, St. Brendan the Navigator, St. Joseph of Cupertino (Christian); Isis, Bes (Egyptian); Nethuns (Etruscan); Poseidon, Atagartis, Cassiopeia (Greek); Varuna (Hindu); Susanowo (Japanese); Aesgir, Njord (Nordic); Neptune, Cosus, Dionysus (Roman); Ea (Sumerian); Hanged Man, Moon (Tarot).

 

Lessons in Magickal Herbal Use – Lesson 3

Lessons in Magickal Herbal Use
by Leillan

 

Lesson Three: The Less Common Herbs

Ok, this is going to be done a little differently. I am going to give you a few of the most powerful herbs I know. Pay attention here.

Lets start with something that dates back to at least the Druids.

Mistletoe. Mistletoe grows on huge Oak trees. Use Mistletoe for Protection, Love, Fertility, and Health. We all know the spell used at Yule (Christmas): kissing under a sprig of mistletoe. But did you know to burn the mistletoe you kissed under? This prevents the love shared under it from leaving. Mistletoe helps to love bond married couples and bring single people their one true love. A shared kiss under the mistletoe is like a shared wish in a wishing well. However, the berries are poison, so use caution. Although the stem has been used in healing, I would still be careful of children and pets around this plant.

Dragons Blood. Dragons Blood is aligned with fire. As such, it carries the same strengths as fire. A pinch of Dragons blood added to other incense will increase the potency. Dragons blood increases the power of any herb it is used with. It will also increase a person’sstrength and power. It is not, however, to be used lightly in the magickal setting. I have added a pinch of Dragons blood to the inside tube of my wand to increase the potency of any spells in which I use the wand.

Just a hint here… Dragons blood, when finely powdered, puffs up when you pour it. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that it also sticks to everything in comes into contact with.

Mandrake. Mandrake was traditionally gathered from under the gallows tree. It has been called the Witches Mannequin, the man herb, the gallows herb, and woman drake. In Celtic times people would look under the nearest tree used for hangings, seeking this root that looked so much like the figure of a person. It was, and still is, used for protection, fertility, money, love, health, and strength. Mandrake was also used as a poppet. Money, especially silver coins, placed beside a mandrake root is said to double. A mandrake root placed on the mantle is said to protect the home. Mandrake is also poisonous; so again, use caution around pets and children.

Holly. Although Holly is a bush and not poisonous, it is steeped in folklore. Holly grown on the right side of your front door (facing the house) is said to prevent evil and negativity from coming in. In men, it promotes good luck since it is masculine in nature. (Ivy works the same for women). It is strong enough that it has been used (infused or distilled) and sprinkled on a new born babe to protect it.

A Witch’s Cauldron

A Witch’s Cauldron

Primary element: Water

The three-legged iron cauldron really comes into its own as an outdoor natural magickal tool. If you have a small one, it can also fit in your altar room to the northwest of the altar as it is a tool of earth and water (and also of fire, if a candle is set in it).

The cauldron is a symbol of Cerridwen, the Celtic mother Goddess, whose cauldron brought rebirth and transformation. It was originally a household cooking pot hung over black ranges and open fires in many lands and so is a reassuring and stable tool.

What Should I Put In My Book of Shadows?

What Should I Put In My Book of Shadows?

Author: Bronwen Forbes

The most common question I’ve seen on various online forums and been asked by my own students is, “What should I put on my altar?” The second most common question is “What should I put in my Book of Shadows?” For some reason, the Book of Shadows – like an altar – is something that most Pagans are scared spitless about “messing up.” They will go out and buy a lovely bound blank journal from their local mega chain bookstore or a leather-bound notebook with a pentacle carved on the front, and do absolutely nothing with it for years.

I freely admit that I am guilty of this; I have *both* a bound blank journal from my local mega chain bookstore *and* a leather-bound notebook (black leather, no less) with Celtic knotwork carved on the front and they are both, well, basically blank. My excuse is that my handwriting is lousy and I don’t want to “mess them up.”

The first step toward the fulfillment (literally and figuratively) of a Book of Shadows is to determine exactly what a Book is and what it does. A Book of Shadows is part poetry collection, part journal, part dictionary and encyclopedia, part recipe book and part ritual construction guide (I’ll go over these in a minute) . Depending on your own interests and practice, some of these parts may be bigger than others in your own Book. What a Book of Shadows *does* is keep all of this information in safe, easily referenced place.

Does it actually have to be in book form? Nope! My journal and leather notebook are blank, but I have a four-drawer file cabinet stuffed (and I do mean stuffed. Trust me, I recently moved it halfway across the country) with printouts and photocopies of articles I’ve found useful to my practice and my writing in the past or that may be useful in the future; copies of poems I think might be nice to read in ritual someday; notes on how to teach a basic Tarot class; handouts from workshops I’ve taken on Norse spaeworking, knot/string magic, and drumming; and scripts from old rituals I’ve led or attended, just to name a bit of it.

I guess you could say I have a File Cabinet of Shadows. It may not be pretty, or open to the exact file I need just by asking like the Hallowell sisters’ Book did on Charmed, but it’s mostly organized and I can find what I need in it pretty quickly. Also, as a recent flash drive accident reminded me, I can access the material in my file cabinet for years without worrying about hardware or software malfunction, unlike folks who prefer a Disk of Shadows or something similar. Also, barring an unlikely full-house-immersion flood, the material in my File Cabinet of Shadows will be around for a long, long time.

So let’s talk about the specific stuff you can put in your own Book. As you read more and practice more, you’re likely to run across bits of poetry that you think would be great to use in ritual. You might even be inspired to write some poems of your own. Your Book is the perfect place to store them.

If you do a lot of tarot or rune readings for yourself or others, or if you incorporate specific cards in your rituals, you can – and probably should – record your reading in your Book of Shadows. That way you can go back and look at it weeks or months later and see how accurate your predictions were. If you work with your dreams (interpretation, etc.) , your Books is a good place to record those, too.

There is so much material to absorb when you first start on the Pagan path. When is Samhain, and how do I pronounce it? What’s an athame for, and how do I spell it? When do I use a boline? What’s a thurbile?

You can make notes in your Book so you can look stuff up again later – much like you took/take notes in class. Writing this information down also helps you keep it all straight in your mind.

If you take a Paganism/Witchcraft 101 class and the teacher gives you handouts, either get a three-ring Binder of Shadows (not a bad idea, actually) and stick them in there or find some way to get the information from those handouts into your smaller Book.

If you like to blend your own essential oils or incense, or are an herbalist, your Book of Shadows is the perfect place to write down recipes you like and also make note of recipes or blends that didn’t work as well as you’d hoped.

You can also write down basic spellworkings as recipes, “Do this, then say that, then light the yellow candle, then do this…” Next time you need to do that particular working, the “ingredients” are all right there.

You can also write down the basics of how you’ve celebrated each sabbat/esbat. That way, when the holiday comes up again next year, you’ve got a record of what you did, what worked and what didn’t (you can write that down, too) , and you don’t have to reinvent the ritual from scratch. Also, if in January, say, you have a great idea for something to do next Samhain, you can write it down in your Book so a) you know where it is and b) you don’t forget it.

In short, a Book of Shadows is as individual as the person who makes it, and that’s okay. Let me repeat that: it’s okay to make your Book of Shadows uniquely *yours*. I have my File Cabinet. My husband, who learns best from watching other peoples’ mistakes, says that his Book (if he were to have one) would be page after page of “Don’t do” and “Never try.” Neither of us is particularly artistic (I’m even completely incompetent at scrapbooking) , but if you are, don’t be afraid to add artwork to your Book.

If you are an accomplished scrapbooker, use those skills to make your book even more personal. If you’ve traveled to a place that has particular spiritual significance for you, put some of the pictures you took or postcards you bought in your Book.

Couldn’t you just download one of the Books of Shadows on the Internet? You could – but I don’t recommend it. And that’s a subject for a completely different Witchvox article for another day.

In the meantime, my File Cabinet of Shadows needs dusting!

Goddess Of The Month

DEMETER

Goddess of grain and agriculture, pure Nourisher of youth and the green earth, health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of both marital fertility and the Sacred Law.

In Greek mythology, Demeter (Greek: “mother-earth” or possibly “distribution-mother” from the noun of the Indo-European mother-earth) is the goddess of grain and agriculture, the pure nourisher of youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of both marital fertility and the sacred law. She is invoked as the “bringer of seasons” in the Homeric hymn, a subtle sign that she was worshiped long before the Olympians arrived. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has been dated to sometime around the seventh century B.C.E. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which also predate the Olympian pantheon. The Roman equivalent is Ceres, from whom the word “cereal” is derived.

Demeter is easily confused with Gaia or Rhea, and with Cybele. The goddess’ epithets reveal the span of her functions in Greek life. Demeter and Kore (“the maiden”) are usually invoked as to theo (‘”The Two Goddesses”), and they appear in that form in Linear B graffiti at Mycenaean Pylos in pre-classical times. A connection with the goddess-cults of Minoan Crete is quite possible.

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, the greatest gifts that Demeter gave were cereal, which set humans apart from wild animals, and the mysteries, which give humankind higher hopes in this life and the next.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

Without a doubt, the most important role of Demeter was as a goddess of the Elusinian mystery religion. In this capacity, her primary function was to provide the cultic adherents with hope for eternal life (or a pleasant afterlife). Though little is known of the specifics of worship, it appears that it involved a hidden knowledge (gnosis) being shared by the participants:

The object of the [mystery] is to place the [participant] in a peculiarly close and privileged relation with the divinity or the deified spirit…. all of the members of the city, gens or household could freely join in the cult, if they were in the ordinary condition or ritualistic cleanliness; and the sacrifice that the priest performed for the state might be repeated by the individual, if he chose to do so, for his own purposes at his own house-altar. Both in the public and in the mystic service a sacrifice of some sort was requisite, and as far as we can see the religious conception of the sacrifice might be the same in both. But in the former the sacrifice with the prayer was the chief act in the ceremony, in the latter it was something besides the sacrifice that was of the essence of the rite; something was shown to the eyes of the initiated, something was done: thus the mystery[.]

These rites are one of the most compelling enigmas in human religious history, as the vow of secrecy that all participants were obliged to take has remained largely unbroken—meaning that many elements of these practices have been lost to the mists of time.

Demeter and Poseidon

Demeter and Poseidon’s names are linked in the earliest scratched notes in Linear B found at Mycenaean Pylos, where they appear as PO-SE-DA-WO-NE and DA-MA-TE in the context of sacralized lot-casting. The ‘DA‘ element in each of their names is seemingly connected to an Proto-Indo-European root relating to distribution of land and honors (compare Latin dare “to give”). Poseidon (his name seems to signify “consort of the distributor”) once pursued Demeter, in her archaic form as a mare-goddess. She resisted the sea king’s advances, but she could not disguise her divinity among the horses of King Onkios. Poseidon became a stallion and “covered” (read: violated) her. Demeter was literally furious (“Demeter Erinys”) at the assault, but washed away her anger in the River Ladon (“Demeter Lousia”). She bore to Poseidon a daughter, whose name could not be uttered outside the Eleusinian Mysteries, and a steed named Arion, with a black mane. In Arcadia, Demeter was worshiped as a horse-headed deity into historical times:

The second mountain, Mt. Elaios, is about 30 stades from Phigaleia, and has a cave sacred to Demeter Melaine [“Black”]… the Phigalians say, they accounted the cave sacred to Demeter, and set up a wooden image in it. The image was made in the following fashion: it was seated on a rock, and was like a woman in all respects save the head. She had the head and hair of a horse, and serpents and other beasts grew out of her head. Her chiton reached right to her feet, and she held a dolphin in one hand, a dove in the other. Why they made the xoanon like this should be clear to any intelligent man who is versed in tradition. They say they named her Black because the goddess wore black clothing. However, they cannot remember who made this xoanon or how it caught fire; but when it was destroyed the Phigalians gave no new image to the goddess and largely neglected her festivals and sacrifices, until finally barrenness fell upon the land.

Demeter, Persephone and the Eleusinian Mysteries

The central myth of Demeter, which is at the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries, is her relationship with Persephone, her daughter through a dalliance with Zeus. In the tale, Persephone becomes the unwilling consort of Hades (Roman Pluto, the underworld god of wealth) and is taken from her mother’s side into her new spouse’s dusky kingdom. Demeter, distraught over the loss of her precious daughter, devoted the entirety of her time and attention to seeking her, which had the consequence of halting the progression of seasons. During her search, she had many additional adventures, though none of them were sufficient to distract her from her maternal concerns. Eventually, the situation on Earth grew so dire that Zeus found it necessary to intercede directly, imploring his brother to return Persephone to her mother. Before she was released, however, Hades tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds, which forced her to return to his realm for six months each year. When Demeter and her daughter were together, the earth flourished with vegetation. But for six months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This myth, in addition to providing an aetiological explanation for the progression of the seasons, also explain the connection between Demeter/Persephone and the Eleusinian Mysteries (which were centered around the achievement of eternal life).

Demeter’s stay at Eleusis

While Demeter was searching for her daughter Persephone, she found it expedient to adopt the guise of an old woman (Doso). In this form, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the king of Eleusis in Attica (and also Phytalus). He asked her to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira.

As a gift to Celeus (in thanks for his hospitality), Demeter planned to make Demophon as a god, which was achieved by coating and anointing him with Ambrosia, breathing gently upon him while holding him in her arms and bosom, and by burning away his mortal spirit in the family hearth every night. Unfortunately, Demeter was unable to complete the ritual because one night Metanira (the child’s mother) walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright. This angered the fertility goddess, who lamented that foolish mortals did not understand the power of her ritual.

Instead of making Demophon immortal, Demeter chose instead to repay her host’s generosity by teaching Triptolemus the art of agriculture. From him, the rest of Greece learned to plant and reap crops.

Portrayals of Demeter

  • Demeter is usually portrayed on a chariot, is frequently associated with images of the harvest, including flowers, fruit, and grain. She was also sometimes pictured with Persephone.
  • Demeter is not generally portrayed with a consort, though the exception is Iasion, the youth of Crete who lay with the goddess in a thrice-ploughed field and was sacrificed afterwards.
  • Demeter placed Aethon, the god of famine, in Erysichthon’s gut, making him permanently famished. This was a punishment for cutting down trees in a sacred grove.

Reference:

New World Encyclopedia

Understanding the Warrior Goddess

Understanding the Warrior Goddess

Author: Stephanie Woodfield
When I tell most people my patron Goddess in the Morrigan usually their first questions is “Why would you want to worship a Goddess of war?” Those who have worked with the Great Queen will already know the Morrigan has many faces and aspects, war and battle only being one of them. But it is this attribute, one she shares with many other Dark Goddesses, which sadly makes some people question working with her.

Why is it that we fear the warrior Goddess? She appears to us in many forms, and across several cultures. In Egypt, she was Sekhmet, the lioness Goddess who drank the blood of her enemies. In Greek she was Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. As Durga, she was called upon by the Gods to battle demons, as only she had the power and strength to defeat them. She is Kali, Oya, Andraste, Freya, Bellona, and many others. In so many cultures the warrior Goddess was revered and held sacred. She defended clan and country, her fierceness filled enemies with despair. Those she favored were blessed with courage, battle frenzy and victory. Yet now she has become to many a deity to be avoided. What has changed? Have we suddenly recognized these Goddesses as representing something dangerous or have our attitudes towards her mysteries changed?

I think part of why we are afraid of the warrior Goddess is because our concept of war has drastically changed. We live in a world where we don’t have to worry about our food being stolen by people in the neighboring town. The battlefields our armed forces fight and die on are often far away, leaving us with the illusion that the violence of war is something distant, only to be viewed from afar on TV. Modern warfare more often than not is motivated by political agendas, but to our ancestors war was often an aspect of everyday life and most importantly survival.

In the Morrigan’s case, we must remember that warriors were held in high esteem in the Celtic mind and that the warrior caste was one of the highest in their society. Why? Because they kept everyone safe. Take a moment to bring some of our modern day warriors to mind: our military personnel, our police officers and firefighter. Soldiers and police officers sometimes need to use force and violence to protect us. It’s part of their job. They aren’t evil people because they use force. We hold them in esteem for doing a difficult and dangerous job, one that protects the rest of us and maintains peace (most of the time) in the world. In many ways, this is how the warrior archetype, divine and otherwise, was seen by ancient Pagans. When we consider this the warrior Goddess isn’t so unapproachable. Her nature is sometimes fierce, she is a Dark Goddess, her lessons difficult, but she is not by any means evil, nor is there any reason why modern practitioners should avoid working with her.

Generally war Gods or Goddesses reflect the type of warfare their culture participated in, embodying their ideals of honor and glory on the battlefield. War itself varies from culture to culture. The highly organized warfare of the Roman legions bears little resemblance to the somewhat haphazard style of warfare the Celts participated in or for that matter to our modern day high tech approach to war. Irish warfare in particular revolved around cattle raids. Cattle where seen as the ultimate source of wealth, were used as currency to pay debts and as bride prices. Cattle raids against other clans were a way not only to add to the wealth of the clan through heads of cattle and conquered land, but also to establish a leader’s prowess on the battlefield.

The fact that Celtic warfare revolved around cattle, (and ultimately sovereignty over the land and its wealth) is reflected in their Goddess of war, as the Morrigan is usually occupied in stealing cattle, herding them or making it difficult for others to obtain them; all functions that reflect the Celtic cosmology of warfare.

Oddly enough the Morrigan’s male counterparts Dagda, Lugh and Bran who participated in battle do not retain a stigma for being “bloodthirsty” or “evil”. The fact that the Morrigan is female and connected to battle makes her dangerous. Although women have gained equality with men in many ways we are still afraid of women who are dominate. War in the modern mind is still very much thought of as belonging to the realm of men. Women who participate in it become unfeminine and unnatural. Women today who aggressively pursue their dreams and desires, (whether that be a career or other goals in life) and who stand up for themselves are often accused of acting like men. This is especially true in the business world. Unfortunately the message our culture is sending women is that strength and power belong to the realm of men and it is unnatural for women to display these traits. Yet they can be found in warrior goddesses in cultures all around the globe.

Ultimately our concept of war and that of the Celts (or any ancient culture for that matter) is vastly different. We can neither divorce Morrigan from war, nor can we call her evil for being a Goddess of battle. Like the warriors the Celts revered, she protects her people, inspires those who take a stand, and guards her children. She reflects the Celtic concept of battle and war, not our modern ones. That is not to say she cannot be called upon in this guise today, just that to understand her role as a Goddess of war we must keep in mind the culture she came from.

But where does that leave the modern worshiper? Can the warrior Goddess still have a role in our lives today? Absolutely. Her role in our lives may have changed compared to that of our ancestors, but that does not mean we should abandon her mysteries. The warrior Goddess, in all her many guises, is concerned with all forms of conflict and its resolution, and her knack for bringing victory to those who invoke her make her a powerful ally when dealing with life’s problems.

Embracing the warrior Goddess has nothing to do with brandishing a sword or joining the military. You can be a pacifist and still work with a warrior deity. Modern warriors can be found in the most mundane places. The single mom working two jobs to provide for her family, firefighters, police officers, teachers, social workers and environmental activists, these are all warriors and draw on the power of the warrior Goddess. People, who draw on an inner strength to help themselves and others, all embody the warrior spirit.

The warrior Goddess challenges us to stand up and be counted, to draw on our inner strength and champion life’s battles. She knows the most important wars are not the physical ones. Whether it is overcoming an obstacle in life or fighting our inner demons the warrior Goddess is there to champion our cause. Maybe the warrior Goddess will challenge you to fight a “war” against poverty by working to help low income families. Maybe your “war” will be against animal cruelty and you will feel drawn to donate time at an animal shelter. Maybe you wish to draw on her strength to settle a conflict, to end an abusive relationship, to confront sexual harassment in the work place, or negotiating a raise from your boss. Whatever you do, whatever your battle, when life has you down say a prayer to the warrior Goddess.

She is always there, waiting for us to embrace her, ready to offer us victory.

Beyond the Fluff

Beyond the Fluff

Author: Maggi Setti

I’ve been struggling with not feeling that I want to call myself a Pagan; that somehow I missed the cultural boat. This boat feels like something I will never understand nor connect with. Yet, my religion is Wicca, and I am a Qabalist, ritualist, and magick worker. I never towed the feminist political line enough for the Goddess community, wasn’t political enough for others communities either. I’ve always been missing the Pagan cultural “norm” boat!

I have finally come to a resolution for why I go into culture shock every time I go to a festival. I don’t see Wicca, my religion, as a game and its certainly not something to mock or laugh at. Yet time and time again I meet Pagans with the audacity to laugh and sneer in the face of the Gods. I meet people who introduce themselves as Lady Twinkle Toes and are dressed like clowns. There seems to be acceptance in flamboyant, attention seeking behavior that to the rest of the world makes us look like we weren’t allowed to play dress-up as kids.

I want our government to take my religion seriously. I want a respect and understanding among the families, Friends, park owners, co-workers, Masons, and neighbors in my community. I want the seats we seek on the Parliament of World Religions to be seats that are respected, and be positions with voice and gravity. How can our society take us seriously if we persist in presenting to the rest of the world like a joke and don’t even take ourselves seriously? I don’t even need to mention witches on reality TV shows.

On the surface, Paganism is freedom, freedom from guilt, sin, the strict confines of the mindless ranks of conservative society. So why not throw care unto the wind? Drink until you win an award for the most gruesome vomit! Leave all your regular medication at home so that you’ll have the conscientious EMT’s rushing you to the ER when you start having a major medical emergency. Don’t eat, don’t hydrate, and for Gods’ sake run around naked all day in your Celtic-skinned red-headedness without sunscreen! It would but funny, only if I actually were exaggerating.

We say that we are a religion that lives the value of personal responsibility. We say that we seek balance and the mastery and integration of the parts of our being. How can it be that we are so bored, suppressed, or alone in our every day lives that we must make cartoonish spectacles of ourselves when we get together to learn and worship?

I like a raucous party as much as the next person. When it’s time to party, I let my hair down and pull the stops out. But my point is that worshipping, doing important magickal work, and studying, is not the same thing or the same time as a party. “What is your intent” is the constantly echoed question for planning ritual. If my intent is to party, then I should throw a party, not have a ritual. When I plan a ritual, it’s time to get some magickal work done.

I meet people that insist on wearing all black and gigantic pentacles to their jobs run by conservative religious groups (other religions mind you) , preach forced “acceptance” of their religion as part of their freedom of religion. These same people are flabbergasted when they are disliked at their jobs and are then fired. If we create a hostile work environment and scare people, what do we suspect?

Our religion may be in its early stages, but it’s time for each one of us to grow up and think about our actions. My religion is not a game, not a circus, and I do not want to be seen like a clown. I worry about grouping myself with the same label with people who, because they are more colorful and flamboyant, are more seen by the media and the greater society. Those same people wind up being spokespeople for the whole community. The result is that society doesn’t take us seriously or outright disrespects us because they wind up with no common ground for understanding.

Is there a solution to this labeling issue? I don’t know. It makes it harder and harder as this movement grows for serious seekers to find the heart of the real stuff past the layers and layers of sugarcoated fluff. I fear a dilution of the availability of magickal training opportunities as time progresses. I am led back to a qabalistic image of the shining spark concealed within and hidden. This means several things, foremost that the eternal spark of spirit within every person’s mortal, physical body. In this instance though, I think it could shed some light that the spark of truth and real magick is buried beneath the extraneous layers of fluff and distraction. Even the meaning of esoteric is hidden.

To those wondering if there is more, there is. Follow your nose and keep searching. You’ll find it in connection beyond words. You’ll find it in your own cry out to the Gods. You’ll find it in the exact moment of the solstices and equinoxes. You’ll find it in the voice of that hidden spark calling to you in the dark of the moon.

Such part of me that wishes for decorum and for actions and interactions to makes sense wants to go underground. My coven could work quietly in hiding to the betterment of the individuals within our small population. We won’t though for we are all ready hidden within the meaningless hullabaloo swarming about already.

What is your intent? What are you seeking? A party? A club? Experiences? What about magick, wholeness, power, gnosis, connection, life purpose? It’s all there. Know your intent and stay true to that which you seek. You will find it, hidden and tarnished, water stained, and rusted beneath the layers of fluff. A little bit of polish will let that spark of truth and magick shine through. Don’t give up. You’re not alone out there.

Ancient Celtic Culture

Ancient Celtic Culture

by John Patrick Parle

 

The Celts on the main continent were largely ruled by the chieftain of their individual tribe–some chieftains were elected by the free men of the tribe for a limited term of office.

Here are some of the names of ancient Celtic chieftains, to get an idea of what the old Celtic names sounded like: Orgetorix, Sinorix, Dunmorix, Cartismandua (a woman), Prasutagus, Amborix, Clondicus, Luernios, Ariamnes, Adiatorix. (The “rix” ending to the Celtic name signified that the person was a supreme chieftain, perhaps over more than one tribe or over a large land area). Because there was no written Celtic language there, these types of personal names and the names of the tribes themselves are our best idea of what old Celtic words on the mainland of Europe sounded like. The great names of the Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix and of Boadicea, the female chieftain of Celtic Briton, will come up later in our story.

Classical writers said that the Celts were taller than the Romans, more muscular, had fair skin, and blonde hair was common. The Celts were known for their hospitality, but could be boastful and irritable. They were fond of feasting, were high-spirited, and in general liked excitement. Yet, in Rome, culturally sophisticated Cicero was able to become friends with a Celtic druid from Gaul named Diviciacus, and Cicero said that a Celtic leader from Galatia named Dejotarus was “gentle and honest.” The ancients said that the Celts liked to speak in riddles, and loved to exaggerate. Some Celtic tribes had a sense of wanderlust and were nomadic (often in response to threats from the outside), while others stayed put in farming communities.

The ancient Celts lived in scattered villages without fortified walls. In wartime, they would build hill forts for protection. Their homes were circular and made of wood with thatched domelike roofs. They had little furniture, and ate and drank out of earthen dishes and goblets. They slept on beds of straw.

Agriculture was a major activity of the Celts of old, with many of them owning private farmlands. They produced mostly wheat for bread. In fact, the ancient writers said that this was the main difference between the Celts and the Germanic tribes of the day, the latter of whom did little farming and consumed mostly meat and milk. Whereas the Celts grew crops, the Germanic barbarians then did little of this. The Celts were also large swinehearders (most of the meat they ate was ham and pork), and cattle was common for dairy products. They brewed beer, which they called “cervesia,” and added honey and cumin to beer, which they called “corma.” The Celts also appreciated wine and mead.

In terms of clothing, the Celtic women wore a simple long garment with a cloak. The men wore trousers (sometimes knee length), a sleeved tunic reaching the thigh, a cloak, and sandals or boots. A metal piece of jewelry for around the neck called a torc (torques) was quite popular. Clothing dyed in bright colors was common. Men wore droopy moustaches, sometimes beards, and often long hair, all of this in contrast to the contemporary Romans. Women enjoyed painting their bodies, and some tribes of Celtic warriors went into battle stark naked and painted all over in bright blue.

The basic social structure was threefold: the chieftain, the warrior aristocracy, and the freeman farmers. Woman had a lower place, but some women were able to attain the position of chieftain, which was unknown in other cultures of the period. Slavery was accepted, largely conquered peoples. Three other roles in Celtic society were quite important: the druid, the bard, and the artisan.

The bard was the chief poet of a clan or extended family. He was the keeper of the family or tribal oral history and entertained gatherings with epic tales of Celtic gods and heroes. He was a storyteller and a man of rhymes–a wordsmith. The Celtic bard, as did the Bard of Elizabethan times, tried the best he could to portray his benefactors as well as possible in laudable terms. Bards often sang their verse while playing a lyre (which in Ireland was eventually replaced by the harp). The artisan, who is often overlooked in books about the Celts, made all the wonderful metalwork, carvings, and tools for the tribe. The works of the ancient Celtic artisans exist today in museums all over Europe.