Tag: Holidays

Saint of the Day for August 16th is St. Bridget

St. Bridget

St. Bridget arrived in Ireland a few years after St. Patrick. Her father was an Irish lord named Duptace.

As Bridget grew up, she became holier and more pious each day. She loved the poor and would often bring food and clothing to them. One day she gave away a whole pail of milk, and then began to worry about what her mother would say. She prayed to the Lord to make up for what she had given away. When she got home, her pail was full! Bridget was a very pretty young girl, and her father thought that it was time for her to marry. She, however, had given herself entirely to God when she was very small, and she would not think of marrying anyone. When she learned that her beauty was the reason for the attentions of so many young men, she prayed fervently to God to take it from her. She wanted to belong to Him alone. God granted her prayer. Seeing that his daughter was no longer pretty, her father gladly agreed when Bridget asked to become a Nun. She became the first Religious in Ireland and founded a convent so that other young girls might become Nuns. When she consecrated herself to God, a miracle happened. She became very beautiful again! Bridget made people think of the Blessed Mother because she was so pure and sweet, so lovely and gentle. They called her the “Mary of the Irish.”

Elder’s Meditation of the Day August 12

Elder’s Meditation of the Day August 12

“With one mind we address our acknowledgment, respect, and gratefulness to all the sacred Cycle of Life. We, as humans, must remember to be humble and acknowledge the gifts we use so freely in our daily lives.”

–Audrey Shenandoah, ONONDAGA

The sacred Cycle of life – the baby, the youth, the adult, the Elder. Let us respect all directions, the four directions of the Grandfathers; let us respect their power. Let us remember we belong to the earth, the earth does not belong to us. Help us to be respectful to all the gifts You have given us.

Oh Great Spirit, help me this day to be humble. Let me not attack anything in deed or in my thoughts. Let my thoughts focus on the beauty You have created in all things.

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A Year and a Day – Origins and Applications

A Year and a Day – Origins and Applications

Author: del Luna la Madre’ Temple
I have seen the following in many, many posts. Competently trained Priests and Priestesses look at these words, and say to themselves – “Oh, You Truly Have No Idea”. The Phrase that I am referring to is:

“I have been studying for a Year and a Day and so I am now close to being ready for Initiation.” or “I am half way through my Year and a Day and so I now have questions about where do I find a group to Initiate into?”, There are other varying forms of this, and if you read through the many thousands of posts, you will surely come across that variety.

The Truth of the matter is that training in the Crafte does NOT take a Year and A Day. It sometimes takes much longer. Wikipedia lists the following information under a year and a day:

The year and a day rule was a principle of English law holding that a death was conclusively presumed not to be murder (or any other homicide) if it occurred more than a year and one day since the act (or omission) that was alleged to have been its cause. The rule also applied to the offence of assisting with a suicide.

• The period of a year and a day was a convenient period to represent a significant amount of time. Its use was generally as a jubilee or permanence.

• Historically (England) the period that a couple must be married for a spouse to have claim to a share of inheritable property.

• In mediaeval Europe, a runaway serf became free after a year and a day.

• When a judgment has been reversed a fresh action may be lodged within a year and a day, regardless of the statute of limitations. U.S.

• Note: a lunar year (13 lunar months of 28 days) plus a day is a solar year (365 days) . Also those 366 days would be a full year even if a leap day were included.

Magickally speaking- the Year and a Day rule is a hold over from the Masons. Their training period for an Apprentice was a year and a day of service and hard work. Gerald Gardner – the father of the modern day Crafte movement derived much of his early work on the Crafte from his Masonic roots, using the model of the Co-Masonic Lodge and its training as a basis for some of the early rules of the Crafte. It is known that in the early texts that Gardner wrote, that there were EXTREME similarities to Masonry, OTO and Golden Dawn.

As I stated before, A Year and A Day is quite misleading when it comes to serious study within the Crafte. It is a guide that is used by most of the Traditions to indicate that this is the MINIMUM amount of time that can be spent working toward a degree. In some cases, it is the minimum amount of time that one is allowed to spend working on one area of training within the Crafte itself.

So before you embark on telling the world that you have spent the last Year and a Day working on your studies of the Crafte, think, will those who I tell this to take me seriously. Can I really hold my own when questioned about what I have learned? Am I still unsure about the names and purposes of Deity within the Crafte? Do I understand that there is much more to learn and that I have only scratched the tip of the iceberg? Have I investigated books and other learning tools that are not just mainstream Crafte?

These are some serious questions that you need to ask yourself. Why? Because, if you do find others who are serious about their Crafte, be prepared to be asked some serious questions in conversation. Remember, they have studied long, and hard for the information they possess, their Oaths in many cases restrict them from passing on the intricacies of their Faith. Many of them feel that it is NOT their job to school the masses about the simplicities of the Crafte and its terminology.

If you want to be taken seriously, then learn the proper terminology, understand the terminology, and by all means – don’t act like a KNOW IT ALL. No One Knows It All. And a Good Teacher, High Priest or High Priestess will never be ashamed to tell you that they don’t know it all, but by their years of practice, not just studying or reading, have given them sufficient knowledge that they know that there is so much more out there to learn, that they will always be a student and practitioner.

So think before you infer that you have been studying for a year and a day, and that now you are properly prepared in the Crafte and therefore you should be granted all sorts of privileges, because of your studying for that year and a day. You now deserve to be taken as a serious authority on some level.

If you think this, say this, write this, be prepared for a good deal of laughter. But also be aware that there may also be some that are not laughing, and those are the ones that you need to be cautious of, for they are the ones that may see you as their next target of humiliation or degradation.

To ere on the side of humility in this case is a good thing…

Something to also consider is that even after you have studied long and hard, that is no guarantee that the information that you have studied is even correct and can withstand closer scrutiny, that, you are certain to receive if you spout off about ‘studying for a year and a day.’ You may have only read all the information published by one author or one publishing company. There is so much more to the Crafte that is not found in any book.

Nothing can replace pure and sincere experience and practice. So think about your Year and a Day, and ask: How far have I come and how far do I want to go? Have I experienced all that I can or do I need to experience more? Your answers might surprise you!

Wishing you Blessings Upon Your Path!

Seasons of the Witch! Ancient Holidays (and some not so ancient!)

 

Seasons of the Witch!   Ancient Holidays (and some not so ancient!)        
 
Live each Season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. ~Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)  
 
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Astronomy Day

 

Celebration of War Veterans Day – Azerbaijan

 

Child Care Provider Day

 

Day of Memory and Honour – Uzbekistan

 

Earls Court Day – Kansas, Virginia, Iowa, Wyoming, Minnesota

 

Feast of Artemis – Greek

 

Grand Bairam Holiday begins – Egypt

 

Green Man Festival

 

Joan of Arc Processions – France

 

Lemuria (Old Roman; Honors Ghosts of Dead without Family)

 

Lost Sock Memorial Day 

 

Memorial Day of Victims of World War II – Latvia

 

Military Spouses Appreciation Day

 

Mother’s Day – Belarus

 

National Bike To Work Day

 

National Butterscotch Brownie Day

 

National Heroes Day – Moldova

 

National Holiday – Czechoslovakia

 

National Night Shift Workers Day

 

National Teacher Day

 

National Third Shift Workers Day

 

School Family Day

 

St. Pachomius’ Day

 

VE Day – Bosnia-Herzegovina

 

Victory & Peace Day – Armenia

 

Victory Day – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine

 

 

 

Lemuria – The Romans set aside a week for appeasing the lemures (the ghosts of one’s ancestors). At midnight, the head of the household performed a ritual to summon hem, by washing his hands in spring water, casting away as many black beans as there were residents in the household, washing his hands again and clashing bronze cymbals to summon the ghosts. This ritual was repeated on the 11th and the 13th. Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999 – Rufus, Anneli, The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994
 
St Christopher – This saint, portrayed in the Eastern church as a man with the head of a dog, was supposedly descended from a legendary race of giants with human bodies and canine heads. When he converted to Christianity, he was given the name Christ-bearer to show he carried the divinity within. This became the source of the story of how he carried the Christ Child across a raging river in a storm, thus he is the patron of travellers, who often wear St Christopher medals for protection.

 

 

 

A French scholar, Saintyves, whose work is cited by McNeill, thought Christopher was a successor of Anubis, Hermes and Hercules. He notes that he has two festivals on May 9th (in the Eastern church) and July 25th (in the Western church) and that these dates correspond to the setting and rising of Sirius, the Dog Star.

 

 

 

At Guadalajara in Mexico, porters solicit the help of St Christopher with this prayer:

 

 

 

Dichoso Cristobalazo – Fortunate Great Christopher,
Santazo de cuerpo entero – mighty saint with sturdy body
Y no como otros santitos – and not like other saints
Que ni se ven en el cielo – Who aren’t even noticed in heaven.

 

 

 

Herucleo Cristobalazo – Herculean Great Christopher
Forzudo como un Sanson – brawny as a Samson
Con tu enorme cabezon – with your huge great head
Y tu nervoso pescuezo – and your sinewy neck

 

 

 

Hazme grueso y vigoroso – make me stout and strong
Hombrazo de cuerpo entero – a real man with sturdy body,
Y no come estos tipitos – and not like those feeble fellows
Que casi besan el suelo – who all but kiss the ground

 

 

Blackburn, Bonnie & Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999
MacNeill, Maire, The Festival of Lughnasa, Oxford University Press 1962

 

 

 

NOTE: Because of the large number of ancient calendars, many in simultaneous use, as well as different ways of computing holy days (marked by the annual inundation, the solar year, the lunar month, the rising of key stars, and other celestial and terrestrial events), you may find these holy days celebrated a few days earlier or later at your local temple .  

 

 
 

Revisit The Lorax On Earth Day 2011

Revisit The Lorax On Earth Day

posted by Ronnie Citron-Fink
 

When my children were young, I read The Lorax to them every Earth Day. The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss has been the go-to environmental book for kids since it’s publication in 1971.

As we embark on Earth Day this year, let’s revisit The Lorax’s cautionary tale:

The Once-ler devised devious ways of cutting down Truffula trees for the “biggering and biggering” of his manufacturing operation. The smogulous smoke that spewed into the air from his Thneed factory made the Lorax “cough, whiff, sneeze, snuffle, snarggle, sniffle, and croak.” The beautiful Swomee swans were no longer able to sing, so the Lorax sends the birds away to find cleaner air. The Once-ler “biggered” to the point where he poisoned the Lorax’s eco-lovin’ life with polluted water, polluted air, and left him in a sunless panorama of Truffula stumps. Poor Lorax.

While there have been so many measurable strides made on the environmental scene, our ecosystems are still under constant siege. Between the threat of natural disasters, and the changing tides of political ideas, we’re not out of the woods.

The Clean Air Act is just one example of a highly successful environmental policy that is at risk. When air pollution plagued the world, the ramifications of acid rain and smog were a blip on the radar of most folks. As the ecological science began to mount, environmental awareness kicked in. It became a non-partisan priority to legislate for clean air. This paved the way for the Clean Air Act.

EPA statistics indicate that since the Clean Air Act, the US has decreased toxic fume emissions by 109 million tons, which has reduced pollution and improved the air quality 48 per cent. Recently, the EPA released the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards. It’s the first-ever national policy to regulate mercury and other nasty stuff spewing from the coal plants that provide us with electricity. These standards have been 20 years in the making. While many responsible coal-fired plant owners have installed the technology, they are now faced with fending off a bombardment of pro-polluters who would like to abolish the regulation.

I recently joined the Moms For Clean Air Force because I worry about handing over a world to our kids like the one the Lorax left behind. We can’t forget the importance of reorienting environmental values away from economic and political points of view, and towards common sense science.

Did you grow up heeding the Lorax’s message? If so, you learned that we are all interconnected, and collectively we can take responsibility for the health of our planet and its inhabitants. Those Once-ler-type polluters are still figuring out ways of “biggering”. Let’s not let them continue to blow their smogulous smoke at us.

On this Earth Day, I’ve committed to keep the air clean to breathe. Will you join me in protecting our precious planet?

Ronnie Citron-Fink is a writer and educator. Ronnie regularly writes about sustainable living for online sites and magazines. Along with being the creator of http://www.econesting.com, Ronnie has contributed to numerous books about green home design, DIY, children, and humor. Ronnie lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her family.

How Much is That Witch in the Window?

How Much is That Witch in the Window?

Author: Sage Runepaw

We’ve maybe even written an essay to someone telling them that witches are real, that they live, breathe, and look like normal people and don’t have sallow, waxy skin with pointy black hats on, that they don’t fly on broomsticks or sacrifice babies or spew dark Words of Evil to the Devil or even that they cackle, “I’ll get you… and your little dog too!” We’ve even probably surprised someone by telling them we even (gasp!) had children of our own who play among all the other children.

We may have become enlightened through our personal beliefs and practices, and we may have taken offense at one point or another at the stereotypical ‘witchy’ image- but at what cost?

The cost of a part of our childhood?

Just think about it a moment, if you will. We all celebrated Halloween at some point or another (unless of course, we were forbidden by our parents for some reason that likely at the time seemed horrible and cruel to us). We all dressed up- put on some flimsy store-bought costume or something we thought was the best we could make at the time, or painted our faces or done -something- to get dressed up and raid the local streets in search of a free sugar overdose.

And it was great, wasn’t it? In fact you maybe even bounced off the walls until 3 in the next morning.

But hey, we were kids then, right? Now we’re Witches! – and we have to take Halloween seriously and point our fingers at the stereotypical witchy images we see every October, don’t we? Samhain is a death-energy time, not a time where children should be dressing up in some image that was used to persecute probably innocent people centuries ago, right?

I admit, this sounds a bit harsh, and perhaps it is- but isn’t there someone out there who’s every bit as sick of people pointing and taking offense to the stereotypes? Sure, they might go away if we wail and stomp our feet loud enough, but seriously- just take a look around any city or even on the Internet, and you’ll see that stereotypes don’t go away.

If anything, they just get ignored and outdated, but they’re there. If we take offense to them and work to combat them, power to you- but- and maybe this is just me- I’m tired of the fighting.

Get your robes back in proper order; don’t let the stereotyping phase you. As I hinted about above, we too once played dress up and might have dressed up as a witch years ago. Sure- what’s wrong with that? As it may have fooled the spirits once upon somewhen, didn’t you feel free, feel -alive- then?

Where then, along the path of your life, did that suddenly get traded out for taking offense to the stereotypical witchy image?

As a child, I never did dress up as a witch, I admit- I personally favored black cats for years on end, and a few times, something else which is now forgotten- but my grandmother, who raised me (and is Catholic, though it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this essay) always had this one Halloween decoration we would put up year after year.

Apparently, I’d dubbed it “Witchypoo” when I was a toddler, and the name stuck. It was this black bead-eyed, stuffed witch with black and orange felt for robes and none of the green-skinned stereotyping. And she sat on this little round wooden dowel broom. I wish I could show you it; it was very cute. Amazingly cute. But you get the point- I took childlike, innocent glee at this witchy figure that took to dangling underneath the kitchen light every October.

And just last October, my grandmother bought a stuffed mantle decoration of three green-faced witches smiling crookedly and brightly out at the world, with purple and black robes and stuffed witchy hats and a pumpkin at their feet. All of October thus far, I’ve worked retail and sold many such stereotypical things: hundreds of pounds of candies, spooky costumes- and witchy ones, too.

Should I be offended by my grandmother’s decoration? No, not really- I could choose to if I wanted. She knew by that point what my practice was, that it wasn’t Satanic (though she expressed her worries and I allayed them as best I knew how at the time) and was something I was serious about.

Should I be offended by working retail and selling these things for a large chain store? I could.

Would the same things offend someone else who’s witchy? Maybe; everyone’s different. But if I chose to be offended and started fighting against the stereotypes, who knows who I could impact?

What if there was a child just down the street telling her mother that she wanted to be a witch for Halloween? Or that she wanted to be a smart witch like Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies? – Or something along those lines.

Now, let’s take it a bit further. Supposing I stuck that stereotypical image on my living room windowsill for everyone to look at whenever they walk by my suburban home this month, or on Halloween eve next to a glowing carved pumpkin? Supposing some youth dressed up in a Witch outfit this Halloween saw it, and after some time had passed, found out about ‘real’ witches and that Halloween became a catalyst for him or her- a catalyst that spurred the youth on to become a real witch and transform their lives through their spirituality?

I’m tired of the fighting over stereotypes in a bid to be recognized as legitimate- aren’t you? We already -know- we are legitimate. We know that, and we know also that with time comes acceptance. We work our butts off year round at our jobs and taking care of our children, and fight for our rights.

Why can’t we just recover that moment of our childhood where we took glee at these figures again, if even for a little while? Sure, they might be meant to offend us- but we have the choice to -let- it affect us. Those stereotypes are images of the past. Yes, let’s change it- but let us not lose a part of ourselves by becoming too jaded to smile.

Even the best warriors need to smile and laugh on occasion, after all.

I, for one, see those witch decorations on tree trunks and bushes that portray the witch as having run into a tree face first as an amusing reminder not to get too “hung up” on things in life.

So let us make our celebrations for Samhain and honor the ancestors- but times are a’ changing. Even though there may still be witch-hunts and witch wars somewhere, we cannot fight all the time.

Let us laugh for once, regain a bit of the child within, and see this coming Samhain with newer eyes. Let us release feeling as if we must fight for our rights all the time- just for a bit- and relax. While we can educate our children (if we have them) about those stereotypical images, we can still take time to let our inner child take a breather. Our ancestors, after being oppressed for so long, would want to take a breather from being persecuted.

We have the choice this time- but it is we who are doing the fighting. Perhaps it’s rightfully so- but no warrior can fight all the time.

Even though it’s the dark half of the year, let the light inside you grow brighter. Give yourself a much-deserved respite from the fighting- and smile. Maybe those decorations will help some young one down the road become a priest or priestess of the Craft. After all, you never really know how the universe works. Let us restore our own inner children by taking a brief break. The gods know we work hard enough all the time as it is.

Someday, we’ll achieve what we desire. But we must be careful of those who could be affected- and we must be careful not to let the price of that achievement be our own inner children. We must not become jaded.

Balance in all things, after all.

Good News, I survived the day and ain’t in jail,lol!

I am sorry about no posts this morning. It started out a good morning. I got up around 7:00, fixed coffee, laid down in the floor to watch TV till the coffee got ready. The next thing I knew it was 11:14. Oh, crap, I had to take a shower, put on my makeup, grab a bit to eat and get a cup of coffee. I have long, red, curly hair and to keep the fuzz down. I put in leave in conditioner and then let it air dry. Probably why I have been sick so much this winter. Then not to mention I still had to wrap the gifts and we had to leave an hour earlier than the party. Remember they live 90 miles away for us. Then after that here comes my biggest baby of all, my hubby. There are times, men make me sick (sorry fellas). I mean it takes me an hour or two to get ready. How long does it take him 30 minutes if that long. I had been running around like a chicken with her head chopped off. And he casually gets up, climbs in the shower, gets out, shaves and puts on his clothes and he is ready to go (if only I was that lucky 😦 ). Anyway we get on our way to the birthday party. It was at McDonald’s, I didn’t even know they had birthday parties. My son told me that his mother-in-law’s sister won it at a local telethon last fall. We pulled up and apparently we were running early or else everyone else was running late. It was a nice Birthday Party. McDonald’s gives them hats and they get free happy meals and they also provide a cake. I skipped the cake and went for a Strawberry Milkshake. Boy, are those things good and fatten I would imagine. Blows my exercising all to heck. But things went better than expected. Of course, his mother-in-law aren’t speaking, which she isn’t worth wasting the breath on. We got ready to leave, grandma on the other side of the family came over to give me a hug and grabbed my necklace and commented how pretty it was. I think she was looking for little witches on brooms or little horny devils on it. Fooled her, lol! But your own kids can embarrass you more than anything. My daughter wasn’t suppose to be there, she is on call the weekend. But she decided to show up. Which I was glad to see her and her husband. We all sit together and I had on this long, black, shimmery ring, It has a very gorgeous figree pattern on it. The first thing my daughter does is to tell me she wants it. I said ok. Well she just has to ask at the top of her voice, “Is it cursed.” Why would I be wearing something cursed. Well you know what I mean? She ended up giving me the ring back it hurt her finger. My mother-in-law use to say, “If she knew then what she knows now, she would have had puppies.” I am beginning to see her point of view. But all in all, it was a good day.  I came home and passed out in the floor. I wasn’t planning on doing that. I have found a book with some sensuous romantic spells. If they don’t get your blood boiling, then you aren’t human, my friend. Well I am off to do some posting. Thank you for understanding about this morning and I hope you enjoy the spells.