By Fire Well and Tree

   Photo by Manuel Torres Garcia: https://www.pexels.com/photo/trees-covered-with-christmas-lights-at-night-10664540/ Since I started keeping track of time this way, I've been also trying to pin down how the ancient groups would have done so.  I had been assuming that the 'new moon = new month' formula, as seems to be the case for the Coligny Calendar and other Celtic sources, would be the same for other groups.  But then I came upon an Anglo-Saxon calendar listing, which quoted Bede's  Reckoning of Time   as indicating the month of  Wynterfylleth  as beginning on the full moon ( "because winter began on the first full moon of that month [of October]."   So I asked my friend  Alaric Albertsson . He usually posts on his Facebook page about which Anglo-Saxon month it is... and I noticed he also goes full-moon to full-moon. The upshot (and Alaric, PLEASE correct me if I misinterpreted) is that the Anglo-Saxons likely didn't have calend...

  Special guest appearance by Taco towards the back  I am not 100 percent sure how I came to be so...YULE!!!  When I first became pagan, I felt like I was all about the Samhain, the spooky. And heck, yeah, I still love it.  But somehow Yule took hold and now I plan Yule Lad visit to my grove's kids, and Solstice eve vigils, and a Yule Along for the 12 days, and then Twelfth Night sumble.... Anyway, here we are again. The last two years there's been Yule-A-Long and Yule Lads, but that's it.  In 2020, we tried to have a Zoom Twelfth Night. I get that Zoom has been a godsend for many, and we certainly used similar technology (Blackboard Collaborate), but as much as they can help people with some anxieties, they do the exact opposite for mine. So in 2021 I didn't even bother, and was mostly too full of Seasonal Affective Disorder to even care. We didn't even decorate those two years.   BUT, this year is all... well, different. Not normal, but close. (I des...

One of the things I've discovered in doing this, is that many ancient calendars don't really line up. This isn't really something I didn't know before, but it's challenging my assumptions of time keeping by the natural world. For example, the Anglo-Saxon  Blōtmonath,  the month of blood sacrifices, follows  Winterfylleth  (see previous post about this stuff). But,  Ærra Geola means  "the Month before Yule."  If I keep using my "months start at new moon" structure (which I fully admit is my mostly-made-up thing) it will only be  Ærra Geola  for 2 days before Yule begins on 12/20.  I am super interested to see where this goes for the rest of the year. Anyway, here we are now.  This new moon begins the Gaulish month of Samonios, which means "cold month" and it is not hard to see why it has that name.  Even before the month began we were treated to a nice blast of freezing temperatures and snow flurries down here.  The norther...

 We had a fantastic trick or treat on Halloween. The house decorations have never looked better: Spooooky! After we took everything down (to save it from possible "tricks" should our neighborhood bribes not have been accepted) and we finally got some dinner, I decided to do a reading for the coming year. The intention was for it to be a very generic, community-in-general based reading, but as with many, I can certainly find some personal insight. Maybe you can too? The reading was with the combined  Druid Animal  and  Plant Oracles . There are probably copywrite issues that won't let me post the picture of each card, but you can do an Internet search for them with your favorite search engine. Keynote:  Horse  (Each) – The Goddess/The land/Travel The "theme" of the year is a time of travel or journeying, either physically or spiritually.  The Goddess brings us the energy from both land and sun for this work.  For community a time to look at where w...

For many Neopagans the new year starts on Samhain on October 31.  Because I'm trying to follow a more lunar calendar, my "new year" is going to arrive at the New Moon on October 25 (at 6:49 in the morning).   Moon and month names My usual caveats apply.  This is my interpretations of what I try to focus on in my life, and I hope it's useful. Even though some names may get connected with other moon phases, I start to work with the energies at the new moon, and go throughout to the next. Your mileage will almost certainly vary, and that is as it should be. The Coligny Calendar of the Gauls (and Three Cranes Grove) identifies this month, and this Druid Moon as "Cantlos."  "Cantlos" translates as "Song Month." We have celebrated this many ways, all having to do with singing. From the Farmer's Almanac, we are also entering Beaver Moon.  According to the  Almanac , this the time when beavers were seen to head into their lodges to take shelt...

 ... I mean, it is THE pagan holiday... The first one I ever celebrated WITH people. I think it was 1992, and my roommate and I went to the now-defunct PCCO's "Take Back the Rite" Samhain gathering at what is now Bicentennial Park (maybe it was then?)  The Faith Mission bus was there to pick up homeless since it was cold but decided to attempt to disrupt our rite and then stand in a circle around our circle lobbing prayers at us. Yay. There are probably Neopagans out there that don't like Samhain... But I don't really know them.  I try to explain it to non or new Neopagans as a combination of Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and New Year's Eve.  In reverse order, the connection with the Celtic New Year and fire festival of the same name has many groups (including one of mine) marking the end/beginning of their liturgical year.  And if you have a hard time with resolutions, this is one of the many cultural new year celebrations that you can get a do-over (if you phr...

  Okay, you're right. they're all my favorite.  But Imbolc is different! No, I really mean it.  Imbolc holds many memories of awesomeness on my path, as does my relationship with Brigid (or Bridhe or whichever other spelling you want.) When I first embarked on this path, it was because I wanted to be more familiar with the spirituality of my ancestors. my immediate ancestors were varieties of Christian (Evangelical, Catholic, or Methodist) but i wanted to go back further. One branch was Irish and since that was the cool white ethnicity i explored it. The others were varieties of German and English, which in my mind had historical baggage i didn't then want to engage with. So from the beginning, Bridhe was it.  even when I meandered into heathenry later (having made some peace with that ancestry) and even Vodoun for a bit, she was a constant.  I became a  flame keeper  (next shift February 11).  I made sure I had a fire pit at my new home, I have t...