By Fire Well and Tree

If you are one of the two or three people who read my stuff, you'll know already that I don't find calendar dates to be particularly useful for anything besides making sure folks are on the same page to do stuff.  As far as the natural world, and the spirituality I find there, I prefer to let nature tell me stuff.   Of course, if I had the time to devote the equivalent of a full-time job to studying these things, I wouldn't need to avail myself of Googling stuff, although I definitely appreciate the  astrology website I use.   (Really wish I paid attention in geometry class...if I'd have only known...) The solstice and equinoxes, moon going from dark to full and back again.... none of that cares about the date on a page.   BUT, the cross quarter days are a little harder, so I look to my land. We haven't had much of a midwinter thaw. We got lots of cold and snow around Yule, and then we've been somewhat consistently in the 40s-ish.  MAYBE we dipped...

 ... 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...

 I keep needing to double up... LAST night was the first-quarter moon.  I saved some notes for that on an earlier post (to be edited out), but I need to refigure out something.  I'm going to just abandon that for now I think. So.... I owe two prayers tonight, and I think I'll continue through the Core Order but also my home practice.  Home practice first :) In my "perfect world," Saturdays are dedicated to the spirits of my home and my land.   I say "my," but I have gradually come to think of it more as a partnership.  I (try) to keep things tidy and orderly, in and out, and my land and house spirits protect and ward.   (picture of stuff) Saturdays then are "dedicated" to the house and land spirits. That's the day I generally have more "free" time to do yard work or catch up on house work.  I don't always have that time, AND I don't always do it when I do have the time, but the intent is there.  I light a candle in a holder on...

Good day! And welcome to Day 9 of the Three Crane Grove Solstice-a-Long. Today we honor the spirits of the plant realm, both in the winter and the summer. Light the previous candles and then light the ninth, placing the appropriate symbol and offering. Southern Hemisphere :   Celebration of the evergreen.   Honoring and meditating (or even journeying) on the world tree, placing a sprig of real evergreen on the altar. Northern Hemisphere : Celebration of the healing herbs.   Folklore about collecting herbs at this time, but we can expand to honor whatever plants are in full growth at this time.   Healing deities, too (Airmid and Miach, Eir)

Good day! And welcome to Day 5 of the Three Cranes Grove Solstice-a-Long! This day both Northern and Southern hemispheres honor the animal Spirits of the Land. Light the fifth candle (after re-lighting the prior candles), and place images of those spirits and offerings for them on the altar.

Well, not that  new. More like a new emphasis. The strength of polytheism, or one of the strengths, is that as one's focus changes, one can adapt one's practices.  We learn, we grow, we change, we revisit...it's not so much a path like a free way, but a rambly walk through the woods.  I am reminded of this.... Not enough doubling back, though. Anyway, recently I've become kind of intrigued by a couple of things. First, I've become more enamored of making the path of the Sun a focal point of my liturgical cycle. The Equinox and Solstice multi-day devotionals are the most obvious example of those, but I also have downloaded an app to the phone that tells me when sunrise and sunset are. I've gotten pretty good at predicting sunrise time, but a little less so of sunset.  Still, it's interesting to go "Isn't it about sunrise?" only to hear the alarm sound a few moments later. More on that later.... What I've been more  interested in,...