By Fire Well and Tree

  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...

 The three or four of you that may read this somewhat regularly may already know that I'm a flame tender for Bridhe (via  here, specifically ).  I have of course, lost my log-in information, and I'm not 100% certain what my "number" is, but I programmed my calendar with it years ago, and get a reminder every 20 days, so.... AT some point, I wanted to honor other deities, those who I feel particularly devoted to.  I also became interested in being a bit more Celtic-focused in general, so was reading Celtic Recon stuff (the aforementioned Celtic Ritual/Apple Branch by Kondratiev was central).  I was (re) introduced to the four Celtic treasures: Sword of Nuada, Spear of Lugh, Cauldron of the Dagda, and Stone of Destiny.  I've set up our temple room with shrines in the four corners for each of these things; Morrigan's shrine is with my symbol of the Stone.  I'm going to cut the roughly five year tale of how I've thought of these things and cut to the way I...

Good day! And welcome to Day 11 of the Three Cranes Grove Solstice-a-Long!   As we prepared the practical nature of hearth and harvest yesterday, today we let go of the Otherworld energies we welcomed as the Winter Wanderer and Spirit of the Greenwood, as they shapeshift into the Boar and Stag, both with other-wordly associations of prosperity and abundance we hope to have for the new year. Light the previous candles and then light the eleventh, placing the appropriate symbol and offering. Southern Hemisphere :   The Cosmic Boar Hunt is a theme that, according to Alexei Kondratiev in “The Apple Branch,” symbolizes the cycle of the sun and the earth’s fertility.   The boar’s head would be used for swearing oaths, but most of us don’t have access to one of those.   So, a statue of a boar would be fine, and special honoring for Frey and Freya (or, as always, other deities and spirits) perhaps, given their associations with the animal.   Offering...

Good day! And welcome to Day 3 of the Three Cranes Grove Solstice-a-Long Here’s one of the days where the Northern and Southern hemispheres will diverge a bit. On Day 3 we welcome a personification or deity of the season. Southern Hemisphere :   Welcoming the Winter Wanderer.   The most obvious example of this is Odhinn, but there may be others that fit this from the other pantheons. After re-lighting the candles from Day 1 and 2, place a figure of this spirit on the altar. If you’re greeting Odhinn, those woodland-style Santas work really well.   Whomever it is, an offering of mead or ale to welcome them in from their journey, and maybe some apple or grain for their steed (Sleipnir) if they have one. Northern Hemisphere :   Welcoming the Spirit of the Greenwood.   The spirit of the growing season can be personified by the Green Man (not strictly pagan, I know), but there could be others in other pantheons.   Lighting his candle and the...

12/22: Good Day! And Welcome to Day 3! Today we will be honoring those archetypal figures of the season, who will be our guide through the devotional.   It has been very powerful to engage in a trance journey to directly welcome and honor the Winter Wanderer or the Green Man, as is seasonally appropriate.   Especially in the north, acknowledgement of the Wild Hunt can be important at this time as well, so an offering of grain for the steed of the Winter Wanderer, in addition to mead or ale can be offered. I think the Green Man would appreciate an offering of clear spring water.   Woodland Santas you can find at some holiday stores can represent the Winter Wanderer on your altar, and a Green Man face works for the Summer.

Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows For nine long nights, Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odin, Offered, myself to myself I scarcely believed the words left my lips.  I was meditating.  I was at a coven gathering, where we were experimenting with different kinds of recorded music and meditation or trance.  At the time, I wasn't very good at that, but through this exercise I discovered that simple music (a single Asian flute) works best, and I found myself on Yggdrasil.  I decided, in my meditative mind, to head towards Alfheim, having been told in a seidhr that I should sit with Freyr for a while.  On my way, there was a man hanging, upside down.  As I approached, he begged me for some water.  There was a bucket with a silver ladle nearby, and I reached down to get some water, I stopped. Me:  You aren't supposed to have this. Himself:  Please.... It was then that I quoted the above back to him and then continued. ...