This is a reprint of the second half of an article I published on witchvox in February 2011 http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=&c=words&id=14414, but it still seems appropriate…
As a group pagans need to stop nitpicking each other; if another tradition has a different way of doing things that you disagree with on purely theological or personal grounds let …
This is a reprint of the first half of an article I published on witchvox in February 2011 http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=&c=words&id=14414, but it still seems appropriate…the second half will be posted here on thursday.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ecumenism among Pagan groups; maybe its the recent flurry of Pagan Pride Day planning, maybe its the common refrain that so many people …
The host is riding from Knocknarea,
And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare;
Caolte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling, ‘Away, come away;
Empty your heart of its mortal dream.
The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,
Our cheeks are pale, our …
“When I see the new moon,
It becomes me to lift my eyes
It becomes me to bend my knee
It becomes me to bow mt head
Giving you praise, you moon of guidance,
That I have seen you again,
That I have seen the new moon,
The lovely leader of the way.
Many a one has passed beyond
In the time between the two moons,
Though I am still enjoying earth,
You moon of moons and of blessings!”
– the Silver Bough
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately of community. How do we define who belongs to our community? Is it as simple as who we like and want to see as our community? Is it anyone who follows tha same spirituality we do? Is it the larger pagan community? Or is it more subtle and complex than this? I don’t actually have an answer yet, except that community is a nebulous thing that can include people where I live, people I choose to interact with, people online in groups I choose to belong to, …
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Well another Lughnasa has come and gone…
This year most of my plans for celebrating had to be cancelled due to illness, but I was able to have a nice quiet celebration yesterday with my family. We started off with a nice breakfast of oatmeal and raspberries we picked from our yard and then the girls and I spent the day together while my husband worked. We cleaned the ritual room and re-did the main altar while talking about what Lughnasa was to us. My 3 year old decided it was a …
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Nothing is more useful in paganism or can cause more confusion than labels, and both of those apply in equal measure to the word “Druid”. Labels, of course, serve an important purpose in connecting to people’s schema and helping to give an instant understanding of what you’re talking about or trying to convey; they create a common ground, although sometimes defintions differ and discussion is required to get on the same page.
The best words to describe my spirituality are probably …
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Today’s blog post has been pre-empted by illness. Instead, please enjoy this 1893 W. B. Yeats poem:
Into the Twilight
Out-worn heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the gray twilight;
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Thy mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight gray,
Though hope fall from thee or love decay<br …
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One of the key aspects of practice as a recon is the idea of offerings and sacrifice. It comes up in discussion on groups all the time, both people discussing what the ideas mean to them and also talking about what constitutes an acceptable offering or sacrifice. For myself I define a sacrifice as the giving to a Power something precious and valuable – often irreplaceable – and I see an offering as the giving of something special but not unique. Put another way I see a sacrifice as a gift while an offering is more of a sharing. These are purely my own definitions of course; if you look both words up in the dictionary you’ll see the meanings are essentially identical. When the subject of sacrifices comes up people usually think of animals, but other things like jewelry, silver, and weaponry can also be sacrificed. Offerings might include incense, flowers, food, candles, …
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There’s a saying in neopaganism “ask three pagans a question and you’ll get five answers”, well I think if you ask three neopagans about prayer you may get seven answers. It always surprises me that something that seems so essential to me can cause so much controversy in the larger neopagan community; after all prayer can be found (as far as I know) in every culture and religion around the world. Yet there are some people who are very firm in their opinions that prayer has no place in neopaganism. The same is true in Recon. although I’ve seen it more in heathenry than CR. There just seems to be something about prayer – especially daily or devotional prayer – that really puts some people off. Now don’t get me wrong I’m all in favor of personal practice being unique and I don’t think what works for me should be required for anyone else; I may pray daily and someone else may never pray outside of ritual, or at all, and that’s fine. What I don’t understand is people who are totally against …
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