By Fire Well and Tree

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/books-in-black-wooden-book-shelf-159711/ I am not sure why I stopped posting... I think I was getting towards where I started the astrology/moon stuff, and thought "Why would I just keep posting the same thing over and over? People can use the labels to look for stuff in they want."  BUT... then I had no idea what I'd even talk about.   And I still don't really, but I am inspired today by a discussion I had this week.  We are starting "newby meetups" at  The Shop .  For some reason there's a huge gap of basic knowledge of Neopaganism.  Part of that, I think, is social media related.  But when I first became interested and then involved, the Internet was barely out of its Bitnet pre-cursor, and the World Wide Web hadn't even been invented. And while that seems like stone-age time technology-wise, it really was only 30 years ago.  So there were two ways to learn.  One, find someone who knew st...

  A little late, but not by much. I am busy getting ready for my niece's coming-of-age ritual this weekend.  More on that later. This month, and the names assigned to it, are ripe with the happenings of the season.  In the Anglo-Saxon calendar, we have  Þrimilcemōnaþ, "Month of Three Milkings."  My hunch is that this refers to the fertility of herds, where the females would be lactating a lot to support their new kids, lambs, and calves. The Gaulish calendar calls this Cutios, "Rain Month."  So far around here we are down a bit in rainfall, but I imagine that will pick up (hopefully).  And the old saying I put in the title makes the connection between this and the Almanac's name, Flower Moon. All of this points to the bursting fertility of flora and fauna, as the land basically explodes with emergent life.  I saw the first bees a week or so ago, and now they are busy pollinating. Speaking of.... yes, the spring allergies are here, which are very a...

Time to get ready for the next moonth!  (Oops, this was supposed to out early... I need to figure out auto-posts more!) As always, these should be seen as only ideas for focusing in meditation, ritual, or just random deep thoughts throughout the month. Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/rain-drops-459451/ The Farmer's Almanac has named this Worm Moon.  The Full Moon is usually in the calendar month of March and around here that means late winter/early spring rains, bringing the worms to the surface.  The Coligny Calendar calls this "Anagantios," which in our grove we call 'stay at home month.'  Our priests come around on the sixth night of the moon to do house blessings.  From the Anglo-Saxons, we have Hreþmonaþ, the month of the Goddess Hreþe or Rheda.  This is the only reference to this goddess we know of, from Bede's Reckoning of Time.  This is when there were sacrifices to her, although who "her" is, is a mystery.   Accor...

 Of all the bits of the ADF Core Order, this is the one that escapes me... I just don't feel a connection to that "part" of things (despite being a devotee of two deities which could have "Inspiration" as their middle names).  So at last night's Druid Moon I decided to volunteer for that part. Because it was in the evening, my  anomic aphasia  was starting to get worse, so it wasn't all I hoped. But I have a bit more time now... Spirits of Inspiration, I call out to you I ask that you join your magic with my own That together we find the words to express my thoughts, my love, my devotion May I translate my emotions, My fears and feelings And express them well and clearly so that I may honor my kindred My family and myself