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...

  Photo by Dylan Leagh: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-highland-cattle-on-grass-8954113/ At the new moon, we will actually still be in Aries, and the sun and moon will be conjunct. It is not until April 21 that both move into Taurus, and barely conjunct at that point, I think?  We also had a solar eclipse.  I know there are some who are iffy about eclipse magic, and others think it gives your magic and extra boost. Either way, you can choose to honor the Aries or Taurus.  As I (hopefully) remembered to mention last month, New Moons in Aries represent energy, enthusiasm, and new beginnings. Check your house for where.   New Moons in Taurus focus on the "seeds" planted last month to take root.  Stability, sensuality, and values are part of this sign, and Venus as its ruler brings to mind love, comfort and security. Look to your house placement and see where these seeds are to be nurtured. You could also split that difference. Raise the energy for the new...

Sundays were always days for extended family. Maybe it was an aunt, uncle, or cousin's birthday, or holiday, or some other reason, but we'd head over to one or the other side of  the family's house with grandparents, too, and spend usually the afternoon.  So for me Sundays are ancestor days.   Older version. Sadly it has more photos, etc. on it now On an ideal Sunday, I will have poured the first cup of coffee and given it to the ancestors.  I light a candle and their incense (usually copal).  I really like to do this before anyone else gets up.   This prayer is actually adapted from one in Malbrough's Magical Powers of the Saints . I give thanks to my dearly departed ancestors I give thanks to my great grandparents:  Kerns, Wheelers, Barrs, Roberts, Nobles, Quinns, Stevens, Roofs I give thanks to my dearly departed great uncles*: Tom, Paul, Bernard, Charlie, Albert I give thanks to my dearly departed great aunts* Mary, Dorothy, Louise, Jemim...

 The curse of the super-introvert.... ( Photo by  Samuel Theo Manat Silitonga  from  Pexels ) As I sit alone in a crowded place Conversation swirling around me Behind me Above and below me yet always without me Be it work or play Friends or family Help me find contentment and peace and solace; For no matter where I look I am destined to only find comfort within

 Here in suburbia, it is "my Lughnasadh," and I've begun a 12-day devotional in honor of the Many-Skilled One.  If anyone has ever spoken to me at great length about such things, you may have heard me called the Fire Festivals "portable."  What I mean is that the solstice and equinoxes have fixed astronomical points, related to the Earth's orbit around the sun. The fire festivals (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltainne, and Lughnasadh) have been assigned points mid-way between them, but my own UPG is that this is a modern convenience, and the folklore surrounding them may indicate that events in the tribal pastoral/horticultural rhythms were indicators of the time for being festive.  If you take, Imbolc, for example, one of the things surrounding Imbolc was the ewe's milk coming in, so a key indicator of by how much your heard may be increasing. Well, what if that doesn't happen on February 2?  What if it happens on February 5 or January 27?   What if we haven...

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,...

Addendum:  Since I posted this, I've gotten even more comments.  I'm going to address two of them, up here at the top, as they sort of frame the whole thing, and in case you've already read this, you don't have to go back through everything. First, only you can control you.  You can't make someone apologize, or forgive, or reconcile.  That's probably the hardest part, because we (and that's not the royal we, I'm exactly the same way) want to focus how THEY have wronged you and how you wouldn't have done that horrible offensive thing but for THEIR actions.  When we use the third person, though, we aren't taking our own responsibility for our actions, or really even our own emotional state. "THEY offended me" means 'they' have the ability to do something to you. You however CAN apologize, CAN forgive, or CAN reconcile, or at least do your part on that.  Note how that removes THEY entirely.  Thus, the points below are all about...