Egg candles: an easy spring craft for big kids and adults

Many Ostara/spring equinox crafts for kids and adults come out looking suspiciously like Easter crafts. And well, obviously there are good and honorable reasons for that. But still... sometimes you get a hankering for something entirely earthy. 

I love early spring with its scents of seeds swelling and soil thawing. Even before the equinox I can feel the tension of it, like a bow string taught and ready to release an arrow. This calls for a craft with strong earth and birth symbolism.

I am definitely attracted to the idea of crafts that involve filling egg shells with earth and growing either grass, herbs or a small flower in them. But there is yet little sunlight at our northern latitude before the equinox and my egg pots usually come out looking pretty pitiful, rather than like a glorious celebration of spring. And that's if they sprout at all. A nice alternative for those without either the sunlight or the green thumb is to make egg candles for Ostara. 

This craft fits nicely in with the Imbolc period of candle-making before Ostara and if you use beeswax, the result is wonderfully grounded and primed to boost rituals for fertility, creativity, rebirth and growth of all kinds.

I was intimidated about candle-making for far too long, believing it was a craft only for those with a lot of experience and time on their hands. But at last, I was delighted to find a simple method that really doesn't take much time at all.

1. Cleaning the egg shells:  First, the next time you cook with eggs, crack your eggs by carefully tapping the smaller end of them, rather than the middle. And then use your fingernails to peel back bits of the shell until you can dump the contents into your cooking container. Carefully chip away the shell until you have an opening only at the top of the egg, leaving most of the egg shell intact. Wash the egg shells with warm water and leave them out to dry for a few days.

2. Gathering your supplies: Meanwhile get together everything you will need.

• First, you'll need a pan for melting wax. I recommend using something you won't be cooking food in, but I do use my pans that for making medicinal salves that also use wax. Wax residue just isn't good in soup.
• You will obviously need some wax. Beeswax is best but any kind of candle wax or even the stubs of old candles will do.
• If you want to color your candles for Ostara-pink, green and yellow wax colors are perfect.
• You will also need wicks. These can usually be bought at any craft store. The kind with small foil circles at the bottom are best for this.
• Otherwise, you'll need a wooden spoon, paper towels, wax paper and some small sticks or chopsticks.

3. Melting the wax: Heat your wax over a low heat on the stove, stirring occasionally. If you use low heat you don't need to worry that it will burn. Just don't leave it long enough that it starts boiling rapidly. Skim off any debris that may have been in the wax.

4: Setting up your candle molds and wicks: While the wax is heating, set your eggs (now candle molds) upright, probably in an egg carton. Place a wick into each egg with the small disc at the bottom. 

5: Pouring the wax: When the wax is uniformly liquid, carefully pour it into your eggs. You can use a dipper but that too will become coated with wax. I also recommend putting wax paper under your eggs to catch drips of wax. Wax, particularly sticky beeswax, is rather difficult to clean off of surfaces and particularly hard to get out of fabric. It also burns the skin, so be sure to have small children stand clear of the immediate area while you're pouring.

6: Holding the wicks in place: Now here is the only slightly tricky part. As your egg candles cool, you want to keep the wicks in place with the bottom of the wick at the bottom of the egg shell (not floating up) and with the wick coming out of the wax in the middle the hole at the top of each egg, rather than along the side which will be its natural tendency.

Because it takes awhile for the hot wax to cool and solidify, it is usually not possible to hold them there by hand unless you only have one candle for each hand. (If you do have enough hands, just hold the wicks in place and sing some songs for spring minutes and you'll be done in far simpler fashion and have an extra dose of creative energy in your candles.) The method that works best for me to hold the wicks in place without a lot of helping hands is to use two sticks--such as a pair of chopsticks--and pinch the wicks between the sticks, while resting the sticks on the tops of the eggs. The trick is to get a bit of the hot wax onto the top portion of your wick and then use the still warm wax to glue the wicks to the sticks by holding them firmly pinched for a moment. In the end the wick-holding mechanism looks like the photo to the right. (I'm hoping Dr. Seuss will do a book on wicks and sticks, based on this blog post. :D )

7. Cleaning up: This is one craft where a specific note on cleanup is appropriate. Most commercial candle wax comes off of hard surfaces if you just let it cool and then peel it off. You can remove it from clothing by placing paper towels under and over the cloth and then ironing well.

But beeswax can be a bit stickier and doesn't always come off well. The thing to remember is that beeswax and other waxes will also come off with heat. This is why I recommend keeping paper towels on hand for this craft. As soon as you are done with your pot and spoon, wipe them well with paper towels while they are still hot. (That part of this step should be done before you even hold your wicks in place.) You can also use paper towels to wipe dripped wax off the outside of the eggs if you strike quickly while they're still hot. But if you drip wax on a cool surface (such as the table) leave it alone until it cools completely. If you do end up smearing wax on the table, use a rag soaked in hot water.

8. Decorating: You can paint the outsides of your candles or tie ribbons around them. To hold them upright, either drip a bit of wax onto a hard surface and place the candle firmly on top, pressing down gently until it cools and the candle stays upright, or you can fill a bowl with rough sea salt, sand or rice and place the egg candles upright in it. Dry (uncooked) rice with green food coloring gives a nice spring touch. 

If you would like more practical Ostara crafts and ideas for earth-centered families, take a look at the kid's adventure book Shanna and the Pentacle. It includes craft ideas for this holiday as well as the story of a sister and brother who move to a new school and learn about cultural diversity and standing up for their own beliefs. 

The Arctic Goddesses of the Sap Moon: International Moon Circle 9

In the far north, the year is just dawning. The long moonlit nights are finally giving way to dawn. And the full moon of night is giving up its place to the waxing moon of young life. It is a mercy that the moon is in the sky in the Arctic when it is full, during the winter when there is so little sunshine. In summer, the moon is rarely visible, only in the sky when it is dark or new..

Wait. Pause and think on that miracle for a moment.

Creative Commons image by Daniel Frei

The moon and the sun dance in this way, never leaving the Arctic in complete darkness. Such is the kindness of the guardians of sun, moon and earth. And the understandable reverence and gratitude toward these goddesses felt by the various peoples of the Arctic for millennia is a powerful meditation for people everywhere. 

If we can connect to this knowledge that, despite the chaos of the universe and the whirling physics of the planets, our sun and moon have conspired to always shed light of one kind or the other on the coldest and loneliest places, In that light, it is easier to believe that our planet will survive the current period of destruction and the forces of returning life will prevail, no matter how deep the darkness.

It is nearly spring and yet I choose now to focus on the Arctic goddesses. Their symbols often appear more apt in the winter to people in temperate climates, but in their essence they are all about the return of light. And for that reason, I feel this is their season.

I have gathered goddesses from various Arctic cultures, connecting this moon with a geographical region rather than a specific culture or pantheon. This is by no means meant as a sign of disrespect, but rather a means of including less known cultures in this circle of moon goddesses.

The Maiden for this moon is Kalteš, the Siberian goddess of the hare, the Mother is the Saami Goddess Akka, and the Dark Goddess is the Inuit goddess Sedna. 

Waxing Moon

Kalteš is a Siberian Ugric goddess of the moon and the hare. She is also called the dawn maiden and she is a symbol of life, hope and energy in a cold land. She is a maiden who helps with births and determines the destinies of humans. Her symbols are the hare, the goose and the birch tree. (Lurker 1987)

The Sap Moon is the time when the birch begins to leaf in our part of the world, leading to the name of the month in the Czech language as Birch Month. A good way to connect with Kalteš might be putting birch twigs into a vase and making hare figures. We often make hare-or rabbit-shaped cookies for Ostara during this moon. 

Full Moon

Akka means old or mother-age woman. She is a Saami goddess of many faces. As Madder-Akka, she is Lady of the Mother, the ultimate mother who gave birth to the others. All that is good comes from her.

As Sar-Akka she opens the womb and is sometimes considered the supreme deity. She was traditionally honored by chopping wood outside the birthing tent, and new mothers ate porridge with three sticks in it to divine the future of their child. Finding the black stick meant death, white meant good luck and the cleft stick meant success.

Juks-Akka is the Bow Woman, the protector of children and the spirit of the wilderness. Uks-Akka is the bringer of light and the guardian of thresholds, both of the womb and of the home. She gives blessings to those going out into the world. (Monagham 2014).

So, this is a good full moon to make porridge from hardy and whole grains--sweet and delicious. Sticks may or may not be added, but divination is also a good way to connect. Blessing all the entrances to the home is also appropriate. 

Creative Commons image by Steve Cottrell

Waning and Dark Moon

I rarely find the stories of dark goddesses too dark, but Sedna’s story was at first too much for me. I put her aside for a time, but she came up again and again in seemingly random studies about the goddesses of many cultures. And now that I look more closely I see the awesome power of her story. 

She seems at first to be simply a helpless victim, which was the reason I was initially uninspired. Sedna was a maiden who refused to marry. She ran away but was captured at last by a husband. Then her father came to take her back in his boat. It is possible that it wasn't just her who refused the marriage but also her family.

A storm rose up at sea to block the father-daughter escape. And fearing that his tiny boat would be swamped, the father pushed Sedna into the sea. She clung to the side of the boat but he cut off her fingers and arms. She drowned and her fingers turned into seals and her arms into whales as she sank. The end.

Or so I thought. But through further research I found that Sedna is the Inuit goddess of plenty, not of tragedy, victimhood and passivity. At first, I still wondered if she was a sign that the Inuit people feel they were short changed when it comes to "plenty," given that they inhabit a frozen land and have suffered so much at the hands of other humans. 

But again, this was just my narrow, modern thinking showing. As it turns out, Sedna is truly the goddess of plenty because to the Inuit the sea, the seals and the whales constitute a great and abundant plenty. The Inuit are well aware that we live from the lives of others, that our sustenance requires sacrifices from the earth and from the sea. (Monaghan 1999) This is why the story of the goddess of plenty is one of sacrifice and loss as well.

It is only gratitude that Sedna asks. Instead of the wrath of many dark goddesses, she let’s us suffer our own internal consequences for ignoring these facts of life and nature. Symbols of Sedna are the full figures of whales and other large sea animals as well as waves and boats. One way to connect with her is to honor those beings that provide us with food in whatever climate we may be in and regardless of whether or not they are plants or animals. Activism to protect the oceans and ocean creatures from pollution, over-fishing and other human activities are also appropriate in her name. 

Bibliography

• Auset, B. (2009). The Goddess Guide: Exploring the Attributes and Correspondences of the Divine Feminine. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Caputi, J. (2004). Goddesses and Monsters. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Hunt, L. (2001). An Illustrated Meditation Guide: Celestial Goddesses. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Jordan, M. (2004). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.
• Laguna, R. (2014). Ishtar. In Greenfield, T. (Ed.), Naming the Goddess (pp. 214 - 216). Washington, DC: Moon Books.
• Leeming, D. and Page, J. (1994). Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Littleton, C. S. Ed, (2005). Gods, Goddesses and Mythology, Volume 4. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.
• Loar, J. (2008). Goddesses for Every Day. Navato, CA: New World Library.
• Lurker, M. (1987). A Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Devils and Demons. New York, NY: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
• McLeod, S. P. (1960). The Devine Feminine in Ancient Europe. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers.
• Monagham, P. (1997). The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Monagham, P. (1999). The Goddess Companion. Woodbury, MN. Llewellyn Publications.
• Monagham, P. (2014). Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. Novato, CA: New World Library.
• Motz, L. (1997). The Faces of the Goddess. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Reid-Bowen, P. (2007). Goddess As Nature. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
• Skye, M. (2007). Goddess Alive! Woodbury, MN, Llewellyn Publications.
• Sykes, E. (2002). Who’s Who in Non-Classical Mythology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dedication to Brigid

This Imbolc, after thirteen years of searching and a year and a day of study and devotion to Brigid, I have chosen my specific path and made my dedication. This has come at a time of great injustice in the world. Brigid is in her warrior guise and rides to protect outsiders, refugees and children. Healers are needed. Poets and writers are needed. Warriors for justice are needed. I do not know all the twists and turns of the path ahead but I have faith in her guidance. 

Simple method for making a beautiful Brigid doll

My eight-year-old daughter is not normally very excited about crafts and she tends to be impatient, so I was amazed and delighted by our success with this craft. 

We made Brigid dolls today--two of them because she decided to set up her own altar and wanted to make her own doll all by her self. The craft held her interest for several hours and came out really beautiful.

1. We took a square of white cloth and put a solid ball of cotton in the middle of it. You can use anything from crumpled paper to cloth scraps to a Styrofoam craft ball. You can also use a white paper handkerchief in place of a white cloth for a quick but less durable doll. 

2. We then gathered the corners of the cloth and tied a red or gold string under the ball to form a kind of neck. We cut slits every few inches in the cloth, almost up to but not quite reaching the neck. 

3. Then we rolled up another smaller rectangle of cloth and tied it at the ends to form arms. This we inserted under the neck through the slits, so that the arms protrude on both sides. (I also inserted a little extra cloth in min for breasts but my daughter didn't. You can see the difference in the photos below.

4. Then we inserted some dried lavender stalks from the bottom in place of legs. This makes the doll smell wonderful. You can substitute many different herbs or stalks of grain. Really anything symbolizing your last-year's harvest is symbolically appropriate. 

5. We tied a second string around the middle under the arms, This serves as a waist and holds the herb stalks in place. 

6. Now it was time to decorate the doll. First we put on hair. We loosely sewed embroidery floss into the head, letting each stitch dangle for several inches. This was by far the most difficult and time-consuming part of the craft and it could be avoided by coloring or gluing on wool, fabric or feathers in place of hair. But we loved the look of the embroidery floss.

7. We then tied and stitched a scarf or hair band on over the hair. This can also be done with hot glue. 

8. Next we put on faces. My daughter chose to color hers on with markers and I embroidered mine on, although I am no expert at embroidery. Both turned out fine.

9. I added a lace apron to match the scarf, because I had a bit of extra curtain lace hanging around. Both can be made with any white cloth or even a white paper handkerchief. 

10. Finally we used another red string to tie a few lavender sprigs into the hands so that they formed a welcoming circle in front of the doll.

All ties were made with either red or gold strings. A Brigid doll should generally be white with red, gold and possibly purple highlights. This is the doll we will use in our Imbolc ritual. We will place the dolls in baskets by the hearth to sleep through the night before Imbolc. Then the children will come and light candles and symbolically wake up Brigid to bring in the spring in the morning. It is their favorite part of the Imbolc holiday. 

I'm so happy to finally share the making of the doll with my daughter too.

By the way, this is the same craft used in the children's adventure story around Imbolc called Shanna and the Raven. Although in the book the craft is done with natural sticks or stalks of herbs for the arms as well. There is also a delicious recipe for white and red strawberry dumplings in the book. It's a story about how a couple of modern goddess-orriented kids celebrate the holiday and learn to use intuition for their own protection. 

I hope you will all have peace and inspiration this holiday. Blessings of creativity and warm hearths to all!

The Slavic Goddesses of the Snow Moon: International Moon Circle 8

The Slavic pantheon is one of the least known in the world today. Christianity came early to the Slavic peoples and much of what came before has been lost--even the very names of many of the gods and goddesses, let alone coherent myths. Still there are echoes to be found in folklore, cultural symbols and fairy tales. 

Image by Arie Farnam

I live in the Czech Republic, which is while supposedly a Slavic country also the most Celtic nation outside the British Isles. Ancient Celtic culture thrived in the Bohemian river valleys before the Slavic tribes came. We know little about the specifics of the warfare that ensued but genetic tests show that although the Slavic culture gained authority, many Celts remained to pass on their genes. 

As a result, in this country many of the Slavic myths have odd Celtic twists and turns. Maypole celebrations still pop up in the villages in the spring, there are troublesome and powerful spirits now called "Devils" who figure prominently in folklore.

To the east, the myths and stories change form and take on a different atmosphere, possibly more originally Slavic. And though there are a lot of questions about ancient Slavic goddesses, I have special reason to seek them out and this season of winter when the cold comes down from the north and east seems like the time to do so.

The Maiden for this Snow Moon is Zorya (technically three goddesses or one goddess with three faces), the Mother is Mokosh, the Slavic goddess of wells and healing, and the Dark Goddess is Morana.

Waxing Moon

As with the triple goddesses of many cultures, Zorya is three who are one. But when she is three, her aspects are most often depicted as three young maidens, rather than a maiden, mother and crone.

There is Zorya of the Dawn, Zorya of the Evening Star and Zorya of Midnight. (Monagham 2014) She is connected to stars and although sometimes she is described as the wife of the Slavic sea god Peroun, riding with him into battle and shielding warriors, the three Zoryas are also sometimes described as virgin goddesses. Either way her energy is that of the fierce and youthful maiden.

Her symbol could be three stars intertwined. The Slavic goddesses always pull me outdoors. I would suggest a walk at dusk when the crescent moon and stars are visible as a way to connect with Zorya. She gives us courage and power in whatever part of life needs women's fire. 

Full Moon

Mokosh is the goddess of springs, rain, spinning and fertile soil in the Eastern Slavic lands. She is a family-oriented and motherly figure. (Auset 2009) Symbols used to invoke her energy could be wells, water and raw wool. 

Distressingly little has been saved to tell about Mokosh. Some scholars consider her to be a Slavic equivalent of Irish Brigid. She is more watery though and more outdoors, not a hearth goddess although connected to family. The best way to honor her would be a visit to an ancient well or natural spring. Her gift is clean water and fertile creation in all areas.

Waning Moon

Morana, goddess of death, is mentioned in Patriotism, a poem in the Slovanic Kralovedvorsky Manuscript. There is little more about her than that brief mention from ancient sources, but the context in the poem is at the beginning of a battle in which obviously Pagan warriors note that their women stand with them from youth until death as they fight the royal soldiers who destroyed the groves and holy places of the old gods and the king who forbade offerings and worship of the old gods. (Wratislaw 1851)

This again points to the ability of women to be defenders and protectors. Morana, whether she was such in ancient times or not, can now be considered a defender of Pagan and earth-based spiritual paths. She is the call of the ancient past and of ancestors. Hers is the dark unknown into which we must go for answers. And she reminds us that life is not forever, that we must stand up for our truth now while we have the chance.

Symbols used to invoke Morana include an ax or a picture of a battle-ax, ashes or a stone marker. She can be honored through the study of ancestral roots and the protection of ancient ways.

Bibliography

• Auset, B. (2009). The Goddess Guide: Exploring the Attributes and Correspondences of the Divine Feminine. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Burdette, A. (2014). Aine. In Greenfield, T. (Ed.), Naming the Goddess (pp. 90-92). Washington, DC: Moon Books.
• Caputi, J. (2004). Goddesses and Monsters. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Hunt, L. (2001). An Illustrated Meditation Guide: Celestial Goddesses. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Jordan, M. (2004). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.
• Leeming, D. and Page, J. (1994). Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Littleton, C. S. Ed, (2005). Gods, Goddesses and Mythology, Volume 4. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.
• Loar, J. (2008). Goddesses for Every Day. Navato, CA: New World Library.
• Lurker, M. (1987). A Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Devils and Demons. New York, NY: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
• McLeod, S. P. (1960). The Devine Feminine in Ancient Europe. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers.
• Monagham, P. (1997). The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Monagham, P. (1999). The Goddess Companion. Woodbury, MN. Llewellyn Publications.
• Monagham, P. (2014). Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. Novato, CA: New World Library.
• Motz, L. (1997). The Faces of the Goddess. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Reid-Bowen, P. (2007). Goddess As Nature. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
• Skye, M. (2007). Goddess Alive! Woodbury, MN, Llewellyn Publications.
• Sykes, E. (2002). Who’s Who in Non-Classical Mythology. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Wratislaw, A. H. (1851). Patriotism: the Ancient Lyrico-Poetic Poem. London, UK: Whittaker and Co.

Imbolc or deep winter: A season in the belly

Ice outside, fire within, the strokes of brush and quill, bitter steam of medicinal plants steeping in a pot--these things defy time.

February 2, the day known to Christians as Candlemas and to modern pop culture as Ground Hog's Day was called Imbolc by the Celts of the British Isles. It is being called that again by earth-centered people all over the world.

Image by Arie Farnam

I grew up with many earth-centered holidays. I knew about the solstices and equinoxes. I even had some idea of the real meanings of Beltane. A harvest party in August or honoring ancestors at Halloween were also not entirely foreign concepts.

But Imbolc was new to me twelve years ago when I adopted the modern Wheel of the Year consisting of eight earth-centered holidays.

Here is a holiday entirely devoted to dreams, introspection, inspiration, intuition and creativity. It is like no other holiday because it can be easily celebrated alone and might even be best that way. 

I have come to love Imbolc. I feel like I am given permission to curl up with the Runes, Tarot and i-Ching in front of a cozy fire and dream without a schedule. I feel like I have permission to take a few days to do those quiet things I love, reading about herbal medicine (healing is a key aspect of Imbolc), creating something beautiful (art and creativity is central to Imbolc), sleeping long hours (it is natural to the season) and lighting lots of candles (the primary symbol of Imbolc is a candle).

I live far from many like-minded others and I often struggle to give my kids an experience of spiritual community. They are mildly resistant to our alternative dates for holidays at Yule or Ostara. The Summer Solstice, Lammas and Mabon just aren't quite right without a gathering of friends or community. But our home is perfect for Imbolc.

Image by Arie Farnam

This is truly the quiet time in our climate, surrounded by cold and frost. We light many candles and have time for more reflection and healing. The colors are stark and beautiful, white, gray and brown. With the sun returning a bit from the edge of the southern horizon, there is a realistic sense of a new year beginning.

I have become specifically devoted to the goddess Brigid in the past few years and Imbolc is the feast day of Brigid. That makes it particularly special and a time to celebrate my connection to the goddess. Brigid is concerned with healing, fire, justice, creativity, inspiration and intuition--all aspects of Imbolc and all things at the core of my life. 

I celebrate Imbolc by making Brigid's crosses for our doorways and hearth. I do divination of various types and a ritual honoring the goddess. I often place a large platter in the center of the table with sea salt, crystals and seven white candles on it. My children and I make a Brigid doll to sleep by the hearth and have a family ritual of waking up Brigid after the winter's sleep.  

Imbolc can mean different things in different climates. For many people this is the day of seeds because the ground is ready for planting. It is still too cold in our climate for planing anything but hardy starts on window sills. The concept of seeds goes along with the Wheel of the Year as a life cycle in which Imbolc is conception, Ostara is the moment of birth, Beltane is exuberant youth and so on. 

In other places though, this day is associated with pregnant ewes, and the word "Imbolc" may have originally meant "in the belly." This is because it is a fallow time in many parts of the world. Plans and activities are in the gestation phase, not yet ready to be revealed. Growth is slow and hidden. 

If you would like to learn more about Imbolc or include this holiday in a multicultural program, check out Shanna and the Raven, an Imbolc adventure story. Shanna and her brother Rye celebrate the holiday amid magic and candlelight, but there are shadows in the modern world. The kids must use intuition and signs from a mysterious raven to protect themselves from a grown-up menace.

In northern climates this was historically the time of candle making in households. There was little other work that could be done with the ground frozen and snow heavy on he earth. The year's candle supply was often made at this time and when northern Europe was Christianized, the holiday was transformed into Candlemas, in which the newly made candles are taken to the church to be blessed. 

There is certainly a connection to blessing candles and protection from fire. Brigid, both the Catholic saint of this day and the Pagan goddess of this time, is widely believed to protect homes from fire. In the Czech Republic Imbolc is still called by an old name "Hromnice" (Thundering). There is no thunder at this season, but the idea was that certain blessings or acts could be done at this time to gain protection from fire and lightening for the year. 

Whether you celebrate a specific holiday during the next few eeks or simply use the winter time for activities that get lost during the rest of the year, I wish you a good season of inspiration, healing and creativity.

Buddhist goddesses of the Wolf Moon - International Moon Circle 7

This waxing moon has been particularly difficult for me on many levels. My daughter's health problems and emotional struggles as well as my own have taken over our daily lives.

I have felt a lot of despair. I've joined in with others to help a friend with her troubles and then returned to my struggle alone, feeling blamed for my geographic isolation and judged for my fears. I have a small circle locally in which I am expected to be stoic and independent. At the same time, I feel uncomfortable asking for moral support in the online world.

This is part of why my post on the goddesses of the Wolf Moon is late this month. As I reviewed my notes, I found a flicker of inspiration. It is not a solution. Perhaps just a sign... I'm not even sure what it is a sign of, except perhaps that spirituality isn't just "all made up and a waste of time" as I've been told by some. 

The sign came in the notes on Guanyin, goddess of mercy and compassion. I have tried to connect with her this waxing moon but I have felt blocked in my own head. I know she is endlessly compassionate and open. But she does not force herself or her compassion on others. She won't come to me. I must come to her. And that has been hard.

Image by Arie Farnam

But then I found that she has reached out to me after all. I had forgotten that one of Guanyin's main symbols is rose water. I had no rose water this year, until I went to the distant and chaotic home of family friends over New Years, when the moon was new. The harried and overworked woman of the house quietly gave me a bottle of rose water as a gift, when I gave her some of my herbal salve. We don't know each other well and wish we lived closer than a few hours distant, so that we could really come to know one another. 

Throughout these struggles I have absentmindedly dabbed the rose water on to my face, unaware of the embrace of Guanyin each time I did it. Now I am sure that Guanyin has been with me, even though I couldn't feel her. She has been here all along.

The Wolf Moon is the time to turn my attention to Buddhist goddesses. Their symbols and areas of expertise are potent and unmistakable, even to those who are not Buddhist. Guanyin, the maiden goddess for the waxing moon, is the lady of compassion and mercy. Marici, the mother goddess, is the unconquerable. And the Dark Goddess Izanami forces questions around popular beauty standards, age and disability, eventually coming full circle to acceptance and universal compassion.

The Waxing Moon

Guanyin brings with her an enduring quality of caring and comfort. She can be honored during the waxing moon with rose water and prayers of compassion for those we see in need of it, including those who may have harmed others. She is the goddess who tells us that each person is loved, even those who have done wrong, the outcast and those who have lost their way.

Guanyin is the unending source of compassion, meeting all with caring and particularly comforting those who who suffer under patriarchal oppression, whether they be men or women. She represents the nurturing female force and the earth which abides through all suppression. (Leeming & Page 1994) 

The myth of Guanyin tells of her mistreatment at the hands of her controlling father and her refusal to let hardship and pain take her heart away from compassion. One way to come to know the culture of Guanyin better is to use the i-Ching as a divination tool and read the philosophy behind it.

The Full Moon

The Mother Goddess Marici is an Indic and esoteric Buddhist goddess of sun and moon. In India and Tibet, she is called “the woman endowed with rays of light.” In China, she is known as “Big Dipper woman.” She is depicted in stillness, sitting demurely on a lotus flower but also as a fierce, warrior woman riding a wild boar or sometimes a chariot pulled by wild boars and wielding many weapons. (Shaw 2006) This gives us ready symbols for ritual—the big dipper, lotus flowers or images of them, wild boar and chariots, possibly the Chariot Tarot card. 

Another symbol of Marici is the Maricinama chant, which contains the words: “She is invisible, indestructible, unbindable, unstoppable, inescapable, unerring, unpunishable, unburnable, and unassailable by weapons.” Marici exudes the energy of the intensely creative woman. She gathers great potential as well as protecting her children from harm and injustice. She sometimes has three faces, one silver, one gold and one dark. There is no reference to this corresponding to the phases of the moon, yet the symbolism is similar, the silver or white face being youth, the golden face being her fullness as Queen of Heaven and her dark face as overseeing death and mystery. (Chaudhuri 2003)

A celebration of this full moon should include playing the Maricimama Dharani which can be found on YouTube and learning the words if possible. Images of a wild boar and a lotus flower can be juxtaposed on the altar—the gentleness and intensity that we balance in creativity. The Chariot and Strength Tarot cards are useful meditations at this time. The Chariot is a symbol of Marici and the Strength card in the Druid Craft Tarot includes the image of a gentle woman with a wild boar. A cup of green tea is a good offering.

The Waning Moon

Izanami is a goddess of life and death in Japanese Buddhism. Her legend says that after she gave birth to the god of fire, he burned her. She became a disfigured old woman “unfit” for the living world and had to go away and rule over the dead. (Auset 2009) She can be recognized at the time of the dark moon by extinguishing candles (the burning fire) and experiencing the deep darkness of winter and the dark phase of the moon. It is also a time to recognize beauty within and to look past outer appearances.

We can remythologize this story also as a symbol of the wrong-headed social rejection of disability, age, injury and those who don’t fulfill the popular beauty standards. Izanami may have been banished to rule the dead, but she brought with her the light and inner beauty that she bestows upon souls.

Bibliography

Auset, B. (2009). The Goddess Guide: Exploring the Attributes and Correspondences of the Divine Feminine. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Caputi, J. (2004). Goddesses and Monsters. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hunt, L. (2001). An Illustrated Meditation Guide: Celestial Goddesses. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Jordan, M. (2004). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.
Leeming, D. and Page, J. (1994). Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Littleton, C. S. Ed, (2005). Gods, Goddesses and Mythology, Volume 4. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.
Loar, J. (2008). Goddesses for Every Day. Navato, CA: New World Library.
Lurker, M. (1987). A Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Devils and Demons. New York, NY: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
Monagham, P. (1997). The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Monagham, P. (1999). The Goddess Companion. Woodbury, MN. Llewellyn Publications.
Monagham, P. (2014). Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. Novato, CA: New World Library.
Moss, V. (2014). Cailleach. In Greenfield, T. (Ed.) Naming the Goddess (pp. 133-136). Washington, DC: Moon Books.
Motz, L. (1997). The Faces of the Goddess. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Reid-Bowen, P. (2007). Goddess As Nature. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Shaw, M (2006). Buddhist Goddesses of India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Skye, M. (2007). Goddess Alive! Woodbury, MN, Llewellyn Publications.
Sykes, E. (2002). Who’s Who in Non-Classical Mythology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Winter to comfort and heal

I know that by March I will be fed up with winter cold and gray. But for now winter is still young and fresh. New snow has fallen and our little town between the Bohemian hills is quiet under just a light haze of wood and coal smoke. 

Image by Arie Farnam

"It's so good to have a hard frost," my husband says with an audible sigh of relief as he sips his coffee and looks out over the snow-dusted garden. "It will set the garden slugs and mold back It's been three years since we had a good cold shock.."

I know many climates don't have winter like this, not even cold, let alone with snow. But every climate has a fallow period, whether it is parching, cleansing heat or a deluge of rain to wash away the grime of the past year. Everywhere around the world there comes a time of the year for going within, for seeking out a cozy place with a comfortable temperature, for cleaning, refreshing and regenerating. 

Even though I loved sledding as a kid and I see my kids celebrating our little bit of snow with shouts and bright cheeks, I never realized until I was at least thirty that I look forward to this season of deep winter. This is one of the few times of the year when I am not constantly rushing and overloaded with work. End of the year deadlines have passed, tax deadlines are yet to come, outside work is either done or beyond help and life is settled into the winter routine. 

This is often the season when I do my best and most intensive writing. I wrote the first three books in my fantasy thriller series from January to March one year. It is a time for creativity and inspiration, as well as a time when there is enough space for those concepts.

Image by Arie Farnam

In ancient times the Imbolc season in the middle of winter was also considered the time of healers. Partly this was because people tended to get colds and viral infections in the damp and chilly weather. The elderly and infants were in need of greater care and so healers were in demand. But for injuries, this is simply a time when healing is more possible because physical activity is reduced. 

One of the reasons I celebrate the nature-based seasons with the Wheel of the Year is that by paying attention to natural rhythms, I never forget to give each need in my body and soul its due. I tend to be a workaholic at times and it is good for me to be reminded to allow time for regeneration, healing and inspiration. 

Inspiration comes only when there is enough silence. Healing comes only when there is enough stillness.

This is nature's fallow time in the northern hemisphere, but whenever your fallow time comes, whether it is earth-based or personal, it is worth remembering that it is not a lost or wasted time. Rather it is a rare and precious opportunity for rest, healing, comfort and the quiet needed to awaken great things.

These are the values taught in the Children's Wheel of the Year books (otherwise known as the Shanna books). I wrote them in large part to illustrate for my children and others how each season has its value. The Imbolc story Shanna and the Raven is a suspenseful story about a brother and sister who use intuition and creativity to protect themselves from potential danger. The Imbolc season is highlighted as the time of healing and inner knowing within a gripping, kid-friendly story.

I don't make direct sales pitches in my emails often, but I would like to gently remind readers that now is the right time to order paperback copies of Shanna and the Raven in order to receive them by Imbolc. You can read more about the book and see photographs of the paperback illustrations here.

The twelve days of Yule with kids

There are always challenges to celebrating a holiday outside the mainstream culture, especially if you have kids. If you celebrate the Winter Solstice and your kids attend school, it is likely that you've had some of these headaches:

• Your kids are not only still in school on December 21, it's also the day of the school Christmas party, which they can't bear to miss.
• Your kids are embarrassed to hear you say Yule or Solstice unless you're home with the doors locked.
• When you go out December 22 and 23, everyone is always asking your kids what they want for Christmas and you have already had your family gifts. 

"Arg!" as a modern-day Viking might say.

Creative Commons image by Mike Beltzner

Okay, none of these problems isthe end of the world, but they are annoying. Fortunately, we have a few advantages as well. The twelve days of Yule give us a lot of options. Here are some ways in which Pagan and earth-centered families get around the logistical hassles. 

You can dispense with the giant pile of presents and the kid-mania all together and give your children one small present each day from December 21 to January 1. If you're extra organized you can coordinate the types of presents to match the themes of each of the twelve days of Yule. Or you can simply use the special events of the twelve days of Yule to take the pressure off your Solstice celebration to be perfect.

There are fun and enriching things you can work into your days with kids all through the season. Without even doing anything beyond what you would probably normally do, you can make each of the twelve days a holiday for your kids.

Here are the themes for each traditional day of Yule based on the twelve astrological houses and the values of the Wheel of the Year.

December 21 is for self reflection and rebirth. It is a good day for rituals and divination. We honor the deities and spirits of the Sun as well as the mother goddess of the starry universe. We start the day by greeting the rising sun with hot chocolate and lanterns on some high place outdoors. It is fun have a candlelight dinner with round dishes in the colors of the sun. Because many people celebrate the twelve days from sundown to sundown, this dinner is often actually held on the evening of December 20. We make a clay figure of a goddess for the table and in the morning place a gold-painted clay infant in her arms to symbolize the return of the sun. We also do an annual Solstice Tarot reading, in which each person receives an atmosphere card for the whole year and twelve cards, laid out clockwise for each month of the new year. 

December 22 is for abundance and property, often a day of giving gifts or house blessings, This is often the day my children take off of school. The morning is devoted opening stockings. Gifts may be presented as a sharing of the abundance we have been given. Or they may be seen as the gifts of Santa Claus, Befana, Odin, the sun child or the Holly King--as symbols of the sun's strength and light which in truth does ensure our life and wealth throughout the year. The gifts parents give their children were in absolute terms first gifted to us from the sun's energy. 

December 23 is for communication, art and music. This is an excellent time for crafts or caroling, We make small boxes or plates of cookies and take them to the neighbors homes with a song. 

December 24 is for the home and family. It is a good time to meet extended family or to stay home and focus on whoever you consider family, Some people hold annual home blessings on this day. Because it is Christmas eve for Christians, it is often a time we meet with family members who celebrate Christmas. whether religious or secular.

December 25 is for play, children or connecting with one's own childlike energy. This the first day when the sun finally appears to return from the darkness a little. We can see that the new sun child is truly alive and we can celebrate this life. It is a good day to indulge children a bit, play a bunch of games and put aside work,

December 26 is for work and professionals, a good day to take a gift to colleagues, support unions or go out for some adult fun. Kids could draw pictures of a profession they'd like to try or learn about their parents' jobs, Sometimes it is simply a day to reconnect with reality and get things together for more holiday to come. 

December 27 is for partners. This is a time to get a babysitter if you have children and go out with your partner, whether romantic or otherwise. Kids can make cards for people they love.

December 28 is for magic and life force. This is a good day for making magical or ritual objects, Adults or children can make items for a new altar. It is also a good time for sending out wishes for the new year or for divination on a particular troubling question. It is also a day for healing and for honoring the herbs that provide us with medicine.

December 29 is for education, thinking and learning. It is a good day for educational games or thinking on what education kids want to pursue, This is a wonderful time for reading or listening to stories, a quiet time of contemplation and inner pursuits. 

December 30 is for careers, life path and duty. This is the day for activities concerning one's true vocation and role in life, Adults may make art or do divination around their profession or vocation. It is a time to come together with others of a similar profession. Children can learn about responsibility by doing some new tasks at home and being given a token of extra year and extra duties they have gained.

December 31 is for community. This works not only astrologically but also in terms of the secular calendar. This is the day of larger celebrations for New Year's Eve. It is also a good day for kids to do some volunteer work or bring a meal to someone who doesn't get many visitors during the holidays.

January 1 is for sacrifice and spirit. This is a day for giving offerings and possibly for divination. There may be gifts of spirit for children. It is also the time to give up things or habits that are no longer useful to use. This is not merely a resolution for our own health but also an offering to our gods, land or ancestors. By giving up excesses that may harm us or our environment, we make an authentic sacrifice with a purpose.

Blessed Yule to you and yours!

Why I don't call it Christmas

I could sense the palpable relief in my children's Jewish piano teacher when I wished her a happy new year in October. Now she smiles bemusedly at our tree calendar that only goes up to the 21st of December and says, "It's not that I mind Christmas music really. I just wish we didn't have to play the same songs non-stop for a month every year at every concert."

She is very good at playing and teaching both English and American Christmas music but she is relieved that I don't necessarily want her to teach my children the standard Czech Christmas carols on the piano. Instead I printed out the sheet music for Yule song and she was delighted. Anything as long as it's a change.

Creative Commons image by storebukkebruse of Flickr.com

I don't have anything against Christmas either. In fact, I rather like Christmas music, even some of the very religious carols. They are beautiful and expressive of the joy and hope of the season. I'm more than happy to wish my Christian friends "Merry Christmas" but I don't celebrate the mass of Christ.

There is no "war on Christmas" here. Quite the opposite.

I stand by my Christian friends who find spiritual solace in Christmas. That is what it should be about. Calling everything in the season Christmas, and primarily the big commercial bonanza of December being called "Christmas" is what truly dilutes and distracts from Christmas. Sure, joy, gifts and frivolity are part of Christmas, much as they are part of Yule and Winter Solstice celebrations. I'm not saying one must be solemn to have real Christmas.

But I hear Christians saying that there is more to Christmas than the commercialism. There is a spiritual core that they struggle to make the center of their homes at this time. That's worth supporting.

And part of that for me is avoiding the temptation to just call it Christmas when in mixed company, when I mean my own family celebrations, which are so clearly not Christmas, or even when referring to secular community events. I don't really want to have a long drawn-out conversation about my spirituality and culture every time I try to wish someone a good holiday.

So, I feel the pressure to conform too. Just say, "Merry Christmas" and just call it a "Christmas tree" in front of other people. So much simpler. 

Except that every time I give in to the impulse, I feel like I steal from my children, cheapen my own spirituality and disrespect my Christian friends--even if some Christians demand that people call everything that isn't Christmas "Christmas."

I grew up with earth-based spirituality, but we still called the winter holiday Christmas and the celebrations in my family were almost entirely secular. I know not all children are spiritually inclined but I always felt an uncomfortable shame about it. I knew we didn't do "real Christmas" and that seemed to mean that we were fakes.  

Our house was an idyllic cabin in the mountains with snow usually piled all around it, a tree with colored lights and home-made ornaments. There was an assortment of my mom's cookies and the delicious excitement of Santa Clause. But there was also a sharp yearning for something more, something with a deeper meaning. 

I sang Christmas carols at school and always felt guilty about taking joy in the story of Christ's birth, as if I had no right to it. But oh, it was a beautiful story and the tunes made my chest ache. Something was reborn. That I knew.

My mother did tell me about the solstice, but we still called it "Christmas" and celebrated on the 25th. When I realized that I had a choice, that I could call it Solstice and celebrate on the 21st, I finally felt truly free. It is unquestionably the right thing for me. But I'll admit that it hasn't always been easy dealing with the rest of the world. 

Even my own brothers make a bit of fun at my expense during the holidays because of my constant use of Solstice and Yule terminology. Even though they aren't any more Christian than I am. They seem to feel that I am demanding something extra from them.

But I don't mind how they celebrate. I can work an extended family celebration on the 24th or 25th into my Yule just fine. I'm glad we aren't all the same. I'm not trying to spoil Christmas or make anyone's life more difficult. 

I am simply trying to be real and respectful, while focusing on the meanings that are deeper than strategic gift buying. I joyfully accept a lot of "Merry Christmas" wishes in my community and don't care too much. But it does matter to me if someone takes the time to say Happy Solstice or Merry Yule to me. It means you are thinking about the deeper meanings of the holiday too.

I do wish that the drumbeat of " Christmas"  was less prominent at school, because my children have already internalized the belief that there is something shameful about our family celebrations. That's why when I'm out and about, you might here me refer to the school holiday program as a Solstice program or the town tree as a Solstice tree. Yet when something really is connected to the celebrations of Christians, I am happy to call it "Christmas." 

Happy Hanukkah! Blessed Solstice and merry Yule! Merry Christmas! Good Festival of Lights! Joyous Mawlid un-Nabi! Lovely Lohri! Bright wishes of joy and peace to all!

I am water

Here's a revelation from the shower..

The only time anyone gets to think in my household seems to be in the shower. Things have been crazy and the holidays aren't even here yet. Everyone is stressed out. My husband and I were on the rocks. The kids have taken arguing to a whole new level.

I feel like I'm hanging on by my fingernails sometimes. And I'm supposed to be resting after my eye operations. 

Creative Commons image by  Alex Dixon

My six-year-old came and asked me, "Who is the boss in our family? Is Grandma the boss or you or Papa?" 

The seven-year-old says whoever wants to be the boss has to be big and strong enough to get rid of Donald Trump, her new nemesis. I barely even feel big and strong enough to get breakfast. Let alone a healthy breakfast. 

I was in the shower in the midst of this, when simple words came into my mind, repeating like a mantra:
 

I am water.
I am the river.
I am the well.

Simple. Too simple maybe. But also the answer I needed.

I am water. Our bodies are mostly water. And the only way I can make a difference in the world or in my family is the way water works its wonders--through persistent, gentle, adaptable and never-ending action. Through seeping into cracks and expanding with the frost. Through the quiet, unbeatable strength of atoms. 

My children may not eat a healthy meal every meal, but I continue to work at it. I may be blocked and dammed up at times, but when the water rises high enough, the important things will spill over. Water never stops. Never stops. 

Water spreads everywhere. Water seeks freedom. Always heading down toward the open sea. No matter how turned around, no matter how many barriers. Water always keeps seeking freedom.

I am the river. I am also standing in the river, feeling the water flow all around me. I can catch certain things in the rush. My children, for example. I have caught them many times when they might have been swept away on a tide of consumerist glitz and brain-dead computer games.

Someday I will let them go in the river. And they too will be water. They will go through the rough water and scrape against rocks. Then I will have to hope I have taught them to swim well enough because many drown.

I am the well. There is something deep. I don't want to be the only one who gives food or peace or family harmony or hope. But while I can, I let it be. It seems I must be an endless and inexhaustible source for my children and those around me.

I have railed against it sometimes. But even I know I have to be a well. In a home with small children. In a world with so much need and hopelessness. Each of us must be a well of something, whatever it is we care deeply about. Be the source.

If it is peace you want, be the source. If it is safety or joy or love you want, be the well.

And be well.

Journey to the Dark Goddess - Pagan Book Review

Journey to the Dark Goddess: How to Return to Your Soul by Jane Meredith is a startling combination of a spiritual guide book and a very practical how-to manual. It is almost more self-help than a spiritual book, although you can take it in a Pagan interpretation.

Here in one book are the myths of the Dark Goddess and those who journey to the Underworld to meet her--Inanna and Ereshkigal, Persephone, and Psyche--as well as the explanations of why and what these myths mean spiritually and psychologically, personal experience stories and clear instructions for rituals to consciously choose your journey of transformation.

Meredith sees the Dark Goddess as that which has the power to transform us through inner work. Because most people avoid deep inner reflection, we are usually brought to it through hardship, disaster, illness, loneliness, grief or depression. Meredith's concept is that a person can choose to take the steps necessary to meet transformation on our own terms--before it is forced upon us through circumstance or, if necessary, during such circumstances. 

Overall the concept is solid and well explained and executed. There is some moderate repetition but for those inexperienced with the concepts and ritual format, it will likely be helpful. The sections are well labeled and it is possible to navigate in the book, if the repetition does bother you. 

The writing is clear and enough flexibility is left in the instructions for the steps to be practical for a wide variety of people. If there is one thing that left me concerned in this book, it was the author's wise assertion that individuals consciously undergoing such a passage should always have support persons lined up in advance with specific instructions for helping the seeker should she get stuck in her process.

Primarily this includes reminding the person on the journey to the dark goddess to eat, sleep and exercise regularly. It also means providing compassionate moral support. While this is excellent advice, there was very little in the book on how to find such support or what to do when it is lacking. In today's world, it is not always easy for individuals to find authentic support and a large reason for seeking out such a book could well be isolation and social alienation. 

It may simply be that the author has no answers for this particular conundrum. She does not claim to have all the answers and in fact uses examples of her mistakes along the way as useful teaching tools to show how the steps of the journey should and should not be done. 

Using the book

Over the past month, I have experimented with the rituals, imagery and myths in this book. It just so happened that this book arrived on my doorstep at a time when I had to enter a dark and frightening situation consciously. 

I have been legally blind all my life, but my eyesight has largely remained stable. To others it may seem very weak, but I am very glad for what I have. Suddenly in the past year my sight started to fail due to cataracts. And I was told that I am in a high risk category for cataract surgery. I could become totally blind very quickly if the surgery didn't go perfectly... and there is a lot that can go wrong.

The surgery had to be scheduled at the darkest time of the year--November and December--to minimize risks. And so while I normally guard myself against the harsher parts of life at this time of year, I now had to face them fully. I also had a support person available both for the surgery and for the journey to the Dark Goddess.

It was quite a coincidence that the book arrived at just such a time, so I decided to go through it in a practical way. I have been through some dark periods--depression, social ostracism, infertility. So, I know what Meredith means when she describes a journey to one's personal underworld. 

There are a dozen rituals described in Journey to the Dark goddess but not all of them are mandatory for such a journey. I did some of the preparation rituals and exercises with curiosity but little deep connection. Then when it came time for me to consciously descend into the dark, I combined the ritual of the seven gates to the Underworld described in the book with a ritual sauna in an underground cellar and a time of utter silence.

My experience of the seven gates to the Underworld was quite different from what Meredith describes. It was a very powerful ritual, but I felt somehow detached from my emotions, which are usually rampant. It was almost as if I was watching myself from outside myself, watching this person I barely knew falling and disappearing into the gloom. After an entire moon in which I underwent two surgeries, a month of enforced rest and near isolation, and much upheaval in my relationships and household, I finally felt the flickering of returning energy .

Those things I had relinquished on my way to the Underworld--attachments to family, home, status and cherished skills--had reordered themselves and taken on a different significance. In the end, while my experience is not the same as Meredith's, it was very helpful to follow her guidelines and concepts. 

The Celtic Goddesses of the Cold Moon - International Moon Circle 6

The Cold Moon is cold indeed in Central Europe and the British Isles. It is almost never snowy but it is bone-chilling and often bleak. The sun shrinks down to the southern horizon, so that even at noon it shines crosswise across the land, throwing huge stark shadows, if it is visible at all. Mostly it isn't though and the sky and land are gray in the fallow time. 

It is at this moon that Celtic myths tell of imprisonment, ordeals, fierce storms and transformation. And yet it is also the time of rekindled hope, the sun almost disappearing and then returning, miraculously at last.

I have chosen to celebrate the Celtic goddesses for this moon. They are sometimes harsh in aspect but also embody the promise of solace and hope that the winter solstice brings. The Maiden for this moon is Aine, both a sun and moon goddess often recognized near the solstices; the Mother is Rhiannon of strength and steadfast courage in the face of unjust punishment; and the Dark Goddess is Cerridwen with her cauldron of change for the turning of the new calendar year.

Creative Commons Image by Barry of Flickr

The Waxing Moon

Aine is an Irish goddess of the land connected to both sun and moon. Her connection to the land means that she has the power to make a man king.

While she has many consorts, such a relationship must be on her terms. Several times in myth, she is forced to be with a man who desires power—raped by a king and captured by another man while sitting on the shores of a lake. But she escapes and takes her revenge, denying sovereignty to those who abuse her or the land.

Aine is bright and fertile, a high lady of healers and a protector of women, particularly women who have been abused. Today many rituals call on Aine to comfort and aid the victims of abuse or to bring justice to their abusers. (Burdette 2014) We can connect with Aine for rituals of healing (including healing for specific parts of the land), protection and calling on the sun for light and the powers of creativity. Her symbols are geese, the sun, the moon and apples. Use fir or apple scents.

Full Moon

Rhiannon was falsely accused of a terrible crime. She endured with dignity both the grief of a lost child and the great hardship of unjust punishment and humiliation. In times of injustice, hardship, misfortune or illness and when the sorrow of infertility spreads its shadow, we need Rhiannon’s courage and steadfastness along with the hope of eventual justice.

Creative Commons image by Lailantie Core

Still, there is no promise that we will be given all of our desires. Rhiannon suffered and was not actually granted a reward in compensation. Instead the hardship itself gifted her with even greater inner strength than she had possessed before. Her sorrow ended at last when her child was returned to her. She didn’t get revenge. Instead she continued to be a mother to the people. She was the one who was stronger and thus the one who could endure. Her symbols are horses and three magical birds who can both raise the dead and put the living to sleep. (Skye 2007)

You can connect to Rhiannon by doing horse-related crafts or putting up horse decorations. Put this quote of a Druid triad on your altar: “There are three spiritual instructors: worldly misfortune, bodily illness, and unmerited hatred.” Add a picture of Rhiannon and three bird figures or three candles (if possible decorated with birds or shaped like birds).

Also, do a Tarot reading or allow children to choose a Tarot card that they like and discuss the meanings and lessons of the cards. Tell the story of Rhiannon. Put out bird seed or homemade bird feeders for the birds who accompany Rhiannon. In today’s world unmerited hatred often comes in the form of racism, sexism, homophobia or ablism. Listen to the music of inclusion and anti-prejudice movements. Use the wood of oak and the greenery of holly at this time.

Cerridwen's Cauldron - Creative Commons image by Aida Di Leto Lundquist

The Waning Moon

Cerridwen is the keeper of the cauldron of spiritual transformation. She is considered a dark goddess primarily because transformation of this magnitude usually hurts. She also governs death, rebirth, prophesy, magic and divine inspiration. She gives moral counsel and magical potions of deep wisdom. (Auset 2009)

The moment of standing in a free natural place in starlight is hers—that yearning after mystery which is always just beyond our grasp. Her symbols are a cauldron, a white sow or an old woman in starlight. You can connect to her through rituals of transformation, divination and magic. Burn rosemary and cedar incense. Greenery of ivy or pine is appropriate.

Bibliography

Auset, B. (2009). The Goddess Guide: Exploring the Attributes and Correspondences of the Divine Feminine. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Burdette, A. (2014). Aine. In Greenfield, T. (Ed.), Naming the Goddess (pp. 90-92). Washington, DC: Moon Books.
Caputi, J. (2004). Goddesses and Monsters. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hunt, L. (2001). An Illustrated Meditation Guide: Celestial Goddesses. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Jordan, M. (2004). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.
Koch, J. T., Ed. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Leeming, D. and Page, J. (1994). Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Littleton, C. S. Ed, (2005). Gods, Goddesses and Mythology, Volume 4. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.
Loar, J. (2008). Goddesses for Every Day. Navato, CA: New World Library.
Lurker, M. (1987). A Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Devils and Demons. New York, NY: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
McLeod, S. P. (1960). The Devine Feminine in Ancient Europe. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers.
Monagham, P. (1997). The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
Monagham, P. (1999). The Goddess Companion. Woodbury, MN. Llewellyn Publications.
Monagham, P. (2014). Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. Novato, CA: New World Library.
Motz, L. (1997). The Faces of the Goddess. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Reid-Bowen, P. (2007). Goddess As Nature. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Skye, M. (2007). Goddess Alive! Woodbury, MN, Llewellyn Publications.
Slocum, S. K. Ed. (1992). Popular Arthurian Traditions. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
Sykes, E. (2002). Who’s Who in Non-Classical Mythology. New York, NY: Routledge.
Woodfield, S. (2014) Drawing Down the Sun: Rekindle the Magick of the Solar Goddesses. Woodbury, MN. Llewellyn Publications.

Journey into the dark

The path of transformation

"It must be done at the darkest time of the year," the surgeon said. "That is the best hope for safety. And you may go blind anyway."

We all have dreaded words and moments when we feel the winds of the underworld howling around us. These were mine.

Since I was a small child, I always knew my vision impairment was a fact of life. Some of my earliest memories are of lying on a table in a dark room with a huge machine lowered over my face while doctors shown painful, bright lights into my eyes and asked me questions. As I recall, I was obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake dolls at the time and I told them about it... at length.

I was praised for being stoic and tough when it came to the exhausting eye exams, but I never understood why I should be praised. It had to be done. It had to.

For thirty-five years my eyes stayed much the same. There are lucky blind people and I was always one of them. Lucky is having eyes that don't change in disorienting ways.   i was always extremely nearsighted and legally blind. But now my eyes are changing. I am developing cataracts early. 

Everyone knows today that cataract surgery is no big deal though, right?  Well, except for people with "severe myopia." That is very nearsighted people. Now, I'm one of the unluckier of the people with cataracts.

Oh, there is still a surgery for it, but in this case it is high risk.

"Bear in mind that this is a lot like an expedition to discover the north pole," the surgeon, one of the top specialists for cornea surgeries in the country who has also worked at top eye clinics in the US, says

Dear doctor, I hope that isn't supposed to be you being reassuring. 

But the cataracts are progressing and if nothing is done, I won't be able to see much at all eventually. It's a lot like it was when I was a small child undergoing the diagnostic tests. This too must be faced. 

Journeys into the darkness of our own underworld are often put off, avoided, denied or fought against. And usually that struggle makes the journey harder, more abrupt and more terrifying. I know this from other parts of life--the struggle with depression as well as political change.

So, if it must be done and it must be done at the dark of the year to decrease the risk, then it must.

On Monday, I go for the first cataract surgery, which specialists say is high risk and very unpredictable. There is some chance, though a very uncalculatable chance, that I will lose more of my sight. And there is some chance I will see a little better. There is also a significant chance, I'm told, that my eyesight will not improve or entirely fail but will just become disorienting, making me one of the less lucky legally blind people for once. 

A journey into the underworld of the unknown requires a readiness to give up those things we cling to--if necessary--in order to undergo transformation. 

I have thought long and hard about the transformation part. What is it that I can gain by going into the dark? 

There is a chance that I may see more like I did a few years ago, at least for a few more years. I will not be "cured" from the perspective of others, but I can live quite happily in my blurry, magnifying-glass world. 

But there is one thing I desperately want in my life. I want to have purpose. It doesn't have to be some great earth-shaking purpose. I used to dream of being a famous journalist or author. Then I wanted to be a great social justice activist, someone remembered and admired. Finally, I wanted to be a great mother to my children--to bring up children who would have wondrous choices and opportunities. 

I am largely a failure.

When I tell my family this, they say I'm a whiner. And I am.

I'm not a famous author. Boohoo! First world problems, if there ever was one. I'm also not greatly admired among social justice activists. I have done my bits and played a supporting role in some very good causes. I can rest assured that I have made a difference, but no one will ever write me up with the heroes of the struggle to protect the earth and the climate just because I packed food in to Greenpeace treesitters.

And my kids? Okay, they are well fed and clothed, but they struggle with schooling, impulsivity and attention. They still have tantrums at school age, lots of tantrums. They will be like all of us--limited and earth-bound--in the end. I am doing the best I can as a mother but my illusions that by working smart and hard I could be "better" than most of the parents I see working frantically and clumsily around me have largely disintegrated.

Here's my thoughts once my kids turned three: "So that's why those mothers were screaming at their kids. Here I just thought they hadn't read the right parenting books or didn't have the self-discipline to stick to their guns."

Hahahaha! Now I get it.

I'm not a really bad failure. I'm just a failure at all the great dreams I had. And I feel rudderless and purposeless. 

I have been told that great journeys into darkness can yield great transformation. This may well be another of my self delusions. But I have some inkling that this journey into the dark--the physical darkness of temporarily not seeing much at all after the surgery and the inner darkness of fear--may yield something.

If nothing else it may yield something because I will be forced to rest, be still and contemplate. The surgeon has demanded that I do virtually nothing for an entire month.

It seems that just as I am entering the underworld of darkness and fear, the world or at least my native country is going down right along with me. Yes, I am afraid of that too. I have children and they are not entirely white. I am in a country Donald Trump said he wants to put soldiers in. I'm afraid.

And yet I know this cannot be stopped. We tried. 

And remember. It is not Trump who truly caused this plummet into the underworld. It was the fact that so many people have been stifled with hate media, lack of education, anger and disillusionment. When there is sickness, the journey into the dark always comes sooner or later. It is better to ask how we must transform our society than to blame one man who used the wind to fill his sail. 

Let us face the darkness together and come through the transformation. 

The flash of autumn and why we need the cold

That time of year has come when the sun goes down at 2:30 in the afternoon. And I mean behind the ridge, not just behind the trees. It will be that way for more than three months. 

Bohemia, despite its romantic implications, can be a dure and colorless place for a good part of the year. Early fall is often dreary, sodden and greenish brown. Late fall is dreary, sodden and brownish gray--all except for those few days when the color changes and the world is yellow, orange and red. 

Despite the decorations at the preschool, this autumn color show is more like an autumn flash. If you blink, you really may well miss it. 

There are two days of brilliant, flax-yellow sun that slants sidewise across the land piercing your eyes and casting long dangling shadows. The nights are cold, thanks to the clear sky. The colors flash on and then--in what seems like moments--off again.

No more bright color until late April. Hope you enjoyed it.

I stretch out this time by pressing a few of the less trampled leaves between books until they dry. Then I tape them to my windows to remind myself and the world outside of that brief autumn flash. The colors of the dried leaves are not the same anyway though. They are deep golden brown and beet purple, not the colors of the flash. 

Still as much as I love the brief autumn flash and wish it lasted longer and as much as I grieve a bit for the light half of the year, I am also ready for the cold and dark.

If our current danger-fraught climate change teaches us nothing else, it should teach us the value of respite and the natural need for both cold and for inactivity. Sure, there are places on the planet where the natural environment has evolved not to need frost. But the planet as a whole hasn't and in our northern climates, the plants, animals and even the human economy needs this time in order to provide sustenance and abundance at other times. 

I need it. I can't imagine continuing the agricultural and outwardly active summer all year round. While I will be sick of it by March, at the moment I welcome the fact that we will soon be inside most of the time, mending, reading, thinking, writing and recuperating. 

And so, hail the autumn flash. I am ready.

The North American goddesses of the Frost Moon - International Moon Circle 5

I developed the year-long Moon Circle last spring when I was taking goddess spirituality classes from Ocean Seminary College. At that time, I decided to focus on North American goddesses during the Frost Moon (November). There were reasons. They had to do with symbolic correspondences and Thanksgiving, a day when I can't help but think on the sorrow and hardship Native Americans have faced due to European immigration.

But now as the Frost Moon approaches I am stunned by the news from North Dakota. In this year 2016, this moon would have to be dedicated to North American goddesses regardless of previous plans. Thousands of people, mostly the largest conglomeration of Native American tribes in history, have gathered far from the public eye in North Dakota to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and they are facing extreme brutality from police. Video from the scene shows police dogs attacking peaceful people who offer no violence as well as police using mace against peaceful people, including against children.

Creative Commons image by Walt Jabsco

The Dakota Access Pipeline is yet another pipeline contributing to climate change and ecological destruction. Its construction is destroying sacred Native American locations and it threatens the drinking water of vulnerable communities. Hundreds of people have been arrested and journalists have been specifically targeted, as if there is a police tactic to deny information about the pipeline protests to the public. There has a media blackout, a great silence about these events in the mainstream media, but some independent journalists have gone to monitor the situation and have been arrested, while standing on public roads with cameras.

The "protectors" are called a riot by the police, yet there is no video or any other evidence that they do anything but peacefully pray and verbally protest the pipeline construction. This is the reality of Native American people today, who are the most likely of all groups in the US to be shot by police.

These events are inseparable from the spirituality and goddesses of North America. Anyone who wants to connect with this spirit has to take a hard look at this crisis. The people protesting in North Dakota are primarily praying and singing, offering no violence or physical resistance. I would give a great deal if my health and family situation would allow me to go and be there with them. At least, I will lend my spirit and my words to this struggle, which is--due to its connection with climate change--in fact the most crucial and urgent crisis of these days in the world. It is more important than the US presidential election or any other news events at this time.

As always I have chosen a maiden, a mother and a dark goddess or crone for the phases of this moon. For the Maiden I have chosen Ptesan-Wi, who brought wisdom and prayers to people. The Mother is Hanwi, a goddess who knows the struggles of women and who carries the strength to survive in harsh or unhealthy social systems. The Dark Goddess is Spider Grandmother, weaver of transformative power. 

New or Waxing Moon

The story of Ptesan-Wi begins when the Lakota Oyate clans were starving one winter when hunting was scarce. Two hunters went out searching for game and found nothing for a long time. Then climbing a sheer hill, they saw a figure coming toward them, a maiden so beautiful that they knew she had to be holy rather than an ordinary young woman. 

Still one of them desired her and reached out to seize her. She struck him down and he was burned to ash and charred bones. The other hunter treated the maiden with respect. Four days later she visited his people and brought them the first sacred pipe and their spiritual and ethical teachings. 

Lakota shawl dancer - CC image by Neeta Lind

Ptesan-Wi, called White Buffalo Woman because of the white calf that appears beside her, is a gentle maiden, except when she is threatened. Then she is swift and lethal.

Her story is of a young woman who brought the traditional wisdom to the Lakota people, including the teaching of peace and binding agreements of honor. Her lessons involve respect for ecology and the earth, honoring warriors and defenders of the people, as well as the desire to give back to whatever it is that fills us with abundance. (Warch 2014)

Ptesan-Wi’s symbol is a picture or figure of a white cow, calf or horse. You can connect with her through using a smudge of sage or sweet grass and by reading about Native American ethical and spiritual teachings. This is a good time for meetings for peace and healing. May the waxing of this moon bring hope to those at the heart of protecting the earth.

Full Moon

Hanwi is the moon goddess of the Ogalala and Lakota. One of the stories about her tells how she was tricked into coming late to a feast, so that another goddess could usurp her place beside her husband Wi, the sun god.  He was supposedly punished by the sky god for allowing the other woman to take Hanwi’s place, but the punishment actually fell most heavily on Hanwi, who had been the victim. She was separated from her husband and banished to the night. If she appeared at all in daylight, she would have to hide part of her face in shame for having been spurned. 

The culture this story comes from was once patriarchal and focused on the prowess of men. Hanwi grieves with the phases of the moon, but she also turns hardship to good purpose. She is the protector of anyone who is out at night. She brings peace of mind in times of loss and difficulty. (Hassrick 1964) When thinking on the culture this story comes from and the enduring strength of women to pass on their wisdom from generation to generation, it occurs to me that there may be a more feminist way to re-imagine this story as well. Coming to rule the night also gives women the freedom to explore the feminine mysteries under cover of darkness. 

Here is a ritual to connect with Hanwi, which can be done alone or with a group, generally at night. Place a picture of Hanwi or a triple moon emblem on the altar. Listen to soft women’s drumming music, possibly Native American. Light candles and a white-sage or sweet-grass smudge. Drum and chant a song in honor of mothers. Tell the story of Hanwi while drumming with a slow heartbeat. Allow everyone to write or draw about ways in which they have been made to feel ashamed onto white or light-colored pieces of cloth with washable markers. Make as much mess of it as necessary, using whatever colors you associate with shame. Talk about how shame doesn’t help children or adults to learn and grow. Each person undergoes their life lessons with good reason. We grow but we should not be shamed.

Often we have shame for something unwise we did long ago and we have since grown. Many causes of social shame are really nothing to be ashamed of at all. Women have often been shamed for their natural bodies. Allow each person to look at the shame they have depicted on the cloth and prepare to release the feelings of shame. Using a large basin wash the cloths to release the color. Take the cloths and the basin outside and let out a wild, shameless yell as you throw the water into the night. Hang the refreshed cloths up in the moonlight and ask Hanwi to give you strength to let the shaming messages of society roll off of your shoulders in the future. Leave an offering of sweet grass or other cleansing herbs outdoors.

CC image by Nicolás Santiago

Waning or Dark Moon

Spider Grandmother is the crone for this moon. Her darkness is not overwhelming, though telling her stories is often limited to the dark and cold season of the year. She is the creator of the world in the Southwestern Native American religion of the Pueblo and Hopi peoples. She took a web she had spun, sprinkled it with dew and threw it up into the sky. The dew became the stars. (ChamanAra 2010) 

The Navajo nation and the Coos of Oregon each have tales of a powerful Spider Old-Woman and the Choctaw people have a story of a Grandmother Spider who stole fire and offered it first to the animals, who refused it, and then gave it to the people, who keep it safe. (Lynch 2004) Spider Grandmother cares about the people and teaches useful things, but she is also dangerous and connected to night, tricks and the cosmos. One of her primary symbols is weaving. You can connect to her by weaving or making pottery as well as by telling oral history stories.

We need Spider Grandmother now more than ever. It was she who taught us the secrets of fire and in good measure those secrets are at the heart of climate change, through the burning and destruction of forests, as well as the burning of fossil fuels. But her gifts are also those that can save us and all the living beings on earth. We can harness more directly the power of the sun, through solar and wind power. In countries such as Germany--far to the north--as much as seventy percent of electricity comes from these sources already and the technologies are quickly improving. There is a way forward, a way that does not require pipelines and poisoned water for forgotten people.

This is a time to call on Spider Grandmother. It is her deep transformation that we need.

Nature Mystics and the controversy over Tolkien's politics - Pagan Book Review

I'm not sure if readings of J.R.R. Tolkien actually coincided with receiving my mother's milk, but it is plausible in my case. In any event, I am one of those people who loves everything Tolkien. I wrote love-sick poetry about Tolkien's characters and read The Silmarillion as a child.

And I have never grown out of it.

So, I was devastated one night when I was twenty years by a friend's gut-wrenching accusations of racism and Nazi sympathies on Tolkien's part. This was while I was crashing at this friend's house in New York City during one of my globe-trotting journalistic treks. My friend was Jewish and I was very blond. I felt put on the spot. I also lacked the information and research to discuss the issue. 

My friend's arguments were: 

1. Runes. Tolkien was really into runes and the Nazis were into the same runes at the same time.
2. Everything evil is dark in Tolkien's books.
3. Everything evil is from the east in Tolkien's books.
4. The evil army has elephants or something very like them in Tolkien's books, so he's against Africans and/or Asians.
5. He was a white South African. That is basically just the definition of racist.

Needless to say, I was heartbroken. I loved Tolkien the way some people love coffee. I needed Tolkien, and yet I was very concerned about issues of racism and possibly even overly educated about the horrors of the Nazi regime because I read a lot of books by Holocaust survivors after I had read everything I could find written by Tolkien. And this friend of mine was something of a journalist mentor.

So, I tried to defend Tolkien and myself. I told my friend that:

1. Runes are not bad. Just because the Nazis abused them doesn't make the runes bad. And they're part of my spirituality. (This was the 1990s. I still didn't understand entirely about Neopaganism, but I had grown up with the teachings of the runes and divination with runes. Blighting the runes was to me like blighting the Bible is to a Christian. But as it turns out both have been used for nefarious purposes.)
2. Tolkien didn't write in the time of political correctness, so he used dark to simply mean "night" and "scary things."
3. Tolkien's primary heroes are small and curly haired. He goes on at length about how the tall Nordic types are not really all that great. This does not sound much like a defense of the Aryan race.

The visit ended without resolution and although we didn't have a clear break, my friend and I were never close again and never again met in person after that night. I am sure this controversy had something to do with it and I have always wondered about it with sick dread and angst in my heart.

I didn't argue with much conviction even then. I was afraid that my friend might be right and a piece of my identity must be destroyed..

What if I am wrong? What if Tolkien was a closet Nazi? What if using the runes in our spirituality is tainted?

And finally, twenty years later. I have the answer to part of it at least.

And that is thanks to the fact that some people don't sit around wondering things like this for twenty years the way I did. Some people do the research and write a book about it. One of them is Rebecca Beattie, author of Nature Mystics: The Literary Gateway to Modern Paganism. 

Beattie started out with a fairly obscure literary goal: to identify and study authors who laid the literary foundations for modern Paganism, or put another way, who helped to make the revival of European Paganism possible. I am interested in social movements and the book looked like pleasant enough reading, so I took it on. 

First off, the writing is personable and interesting, containing just enough detail to give a feeling for the context of each author presented. The book doesn't utilize an overly academic tone, while still producing evidence for any conclusions the Beattie makes. She states that the book is not an academic work but rather a book in which modern Pagans can seek our roots. For this reason, it isn't overly belabored by in-text citations, but it does have an extensive bibliography and sources are cited where needed.

 All the sections are interesting, looking objectively and at times ruthlessly, at the lives, writings, politics and activities, of the novelists most influential to modern Paganism, including John Keats, Mary Webb, William Butler Yeats, Mary Butts, E. Nesbit, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. 

Beattie presents arguments for why each of these authors and more should be considered a "nature mystic" and a significant contributor to modern Paganism. She is not complimentary about some of them, however. Some of these authors had less than savory political connections or personal relationships and she reports all this without hesitation. 

One might expect such a book to make much of the contribution of J.R.R. Tolkien the one author on the list guaranteed to be recognized by every single Pagan today. But the opposite is actually true. Beattie delves into Tolkien's repeated declarations that his books have no spiritual or allegorical message, that they are simply fiction for fiction's sake. And comes up crediting him with telling the truth on that one.

Beattie doesn't include Tolkien in her list because he provided several generations of fans with a medieval mystique, trappings, costumes and cadence of speech to aspire to. She doesn't include him because she believes there is some greater Pagan message in his works. Actually she makes the case for him being the most staunch supporter of mainstream Christianity of all of the writers explored. 

Nope. Tolkien is a nature mystic in Beattie's book very simply because he has great reverence for nature and gives excellent voice to it through his descriptive scenes. That's it. That's the crux of the exploration of Tolkien...

With one addition.

Beattie did the research--which wasn't so widely available through the internet twenty years ago--and found Tolkien's actions with regards to racism and the Nazis. 

He was born in South Africa and left for England as a boy. Later he became active and vocal against the Apartheid regime.  It may be easy to dismiss this as easy armchair criticism from a distance without risking anything. But the same can't be said for his interactions with the Nazis. 

The story Beattie tells--one I have since confirmed--is that in 1938, a German publisher was preparing to translate the Hobbit into German. Tolkien had more than just the royalties riding on this. A friend had a stake in it and Tolkien didn't feel he could opt out of the deal easily. But when the publisher demanded that he produce proof of Aryan descent, Tolkien flatly refused and wrote a scathing letter in reply, only first asking that his invested friend approve his use of fiery language. 

He calls the publisher's inquiry "irrelevant" and says such attitudes threaten to strip bearers of German names of all pride in them. And as to the facts he writes: 

 I am not of Aryan extraction--that is Indo-Iranian--as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. 

He might just as well have joined his countryman Trevor Noah on the Daily Show to ridicule Nazi stupidity in race classifications, pointing out that he Aryan tribes of Northern India that they were so obsessed with really had more to do with the "Gypsies" (i.e. Roma), who the Nazis viciously persecuted, than they did with Germans. 

Tolkien must have felt then a bit the way we feel today with Donald Trump. He fought for England in World War I but by World War II he was too old to fight. All he could really do was ridicule them and be willing to risk his business interests if necessary to tell them off. 

I thank Rebecca Beattie for the leg work on this one.

And as for the late-night debate of twenty years past. I am sorry I didn't know this then because, with all the heartache there is on this subject, my friend deserved to know J.R.R. Tolkien was a voice on her side at a time when many--even in England--were still relatively friendly to the Nazis. 

The Goddess in America - Pagan Book Review

Here's America's answer to Pagan Planet. which focuses heavily on the British Isles. The Goddess in America: The Divine Feminine in Cultural Context, edited by Trevor Greenfield, is an impressive anthology of Neopagan, Reclaiming and Goddess-oriented writers and it provides a valuable study guide for anyone seeking to understand Goddess-centered faith in America.

Right off the bat, this book passes the first, most obvious and most often failed test when it comes to looking at Goddess spirituality in America. That is it starts before Columbus... long before Columbus and stays there for a solid chunk of the book. Kudos to the editor for that. It isn't a stance without its critics and dangers. 

The issue of the uneasy relationship between Goddess-devotees of European descent, Native American Goddess spirituality and cultural appropriation is addressed without any definitive conclusion. It's a sticky subject and there is essentially no way to satisfy everyone. Several authors weigh in on the topic in this anthology, all offering various versions of a moderate viewpoint: i.e. people should be free to honor goddesses other than those from their own genetic background as long as they do so with true respect and take the time to understand the cultural context of the goddess and give something back to the culture and community that the goddess comes from. Some authors have more exacting standards than others when it comes to correct respect but that is the general consensus.

The book continues with a variety of perspectives on the historical development and contemporary character of goddess spirituality in America. Again, the editor has heard the calls for more racial diversity in such anthologies and the authors represent reasonable diversity within the movement, including Vodun and Hebrew goddess perspectives. 

The book is generally well written, excellently edited and interesting to read. Unlike some similar books there is little attempt to make it easy or light reading, however. The authors state their issues in all their complexity, which will make the book appropriate for university programs and other scholarly considerations. It includes several sections on pop culture, including an essay on representations of the Goddess in pop culture as well as the Goth movement, but these issues are handled from an analytical perspective, with respect for those who are part of these trends and yet without playing to a pop culture tune. 

If there is any issue in which I feel the book is not fully representative of American goddess-spirituality it is in the emphasis of several authors on Reclaiming. My broad experience of the on-line world of American goddess spirituality shows that both formal Reclaiming groups and the general values and ideals of Reclaiming are much less prominent in America than they are represented in this book.

I personally love the Reclaiming movement, however, and I wish these values and ideals had greater sway in the popular goddess movement in America, so I don't take offense at its exaggerated influence in the book. I dearly wish more people today took social and environmental activism to the core of their spirituality and acted on the principles they profess. Instead I find a media landscape which deadens passion and ridicules those who stand up for their beliefs actively.  

Thus to paraphrase the motto of the Society for Creative Anachronisms, this is something like the Goddess in America--as she is and should be.  This book sets out not just to document where we are but also to point a conscious way forward for the goddess community in America. 

All in all this is an excellent anthology on contemporary goddess spirituality and well worth the read.

The Art of Ritual: The difference between laughing at ourselves and laughing at our faith

I once had the honor of guiding a young woman in her first full-blown Pagan ritual. She had been to some drumming circles and Tarot readings but not a ritual with all the besoms and wands. She had also grown up in a household where spirituality was a dire affair, strictly dictated and ruled by an angry God who would supposedly damn anyone who didn’t do it “just so” to eternal agony. 

She was eager for something different, but also anxious. 

Creative Commons image by Anand Krishnamoorthi

What if we did something wrong? She was reverent and serious about learning. That is good and proper, and yet too much seriousness can be limiting.

I was not all that experienced in leading rituals and this was one of the more complex I had done. It was Samhain and I wanted to do it right. I had very specific reasons for wishing to connect with ancestors, mine and others, that year. I had recently adopted two children from a different ancestry than my own and I wanted to approach their ancestors with honor and respect to ask for their blessing on the adoption as well. 

So, it was a serious ritual. But in the first moments, my informal apprentice mixed up the quarters. We all know it happens. She was flustered and worried. But I told her we didn’t have to worry. We started the calling of the quarters over again and did it right.

Then I turned in the dim candlelight and knocked over a small bowl of libation water. I managed to catch the bowl, not break it and even save enough of the water that we could continue without interruption, but water splashed onto the floor. 

I started laughing. First, nervously but then joyfully. 

My young companion was startled. I explained that not being perfect is part of the ritual and so is laughing at ourselves. The rest of the ritual was punctuated by moments of laughter and once when we both started laughing for no good reason and couldn’t stop. 

But it was still one of the most powerful small-group rituals I’ve ever known. The energy was intense and I truly felt the blessing and protection of many ancestors.

I tell this story because it is good to keep in mind that laughter has its place in ritual, as do mistakes and a bit of silliness now and then. Some rituals guide us to laugh away negative energies or to laugh in order to overcome difficulties. And these are good uses of laughter.

That said however, silliness should not be the focus of every ritual. And while we should learn to laugh at ourselves and our troubles, we should not laugh at or mock ancestors, the spirits of the land or our gods, Some people are going to be rolling their eyes reading this and calling me a “pious Pagan,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.

But I’m not actually saying that we should remain reverent in order to avoid curses and the thunderbolts of Thor. I was not raised with that jealous, angry god with a hell full of torment and fire, and yet I do see how fearing retribution for irreverence puts one on a slippery slope.
That’s not what I’m talking about here.

It is the mere fact of inner truth and faith.

I was given the task of reviewing the book The Art of Ritual by Rachel Patterson. The book purports to give an overall basis for ritual. And yet it is full of attempts at lightheartedness, which are not particularly funny. It needs a good line edit. And it is more of an example of how to pretend to do ritual while laughing out of the side of your mouth to make sure your friends know you don't really believe this stuff. 

There are word-use and terminology mistakes, such as calling Mabon "the Autumn Solstice." ("Solstice" means "the sun standing still," which is the appearance when the sun’s movement changes direction at the Winter and Summer Solstices. It does not happen in any way at the Equinoxes.) In another gaff, there is an attempt at the re-imagining of the myth of Atlas, which falls flat when the author says Atlas was was relieved of his "turmoil" instead of "torment." There was no sense that the author meant Atlas had some inner conflict and outer turmoil would likely be much less boring than holding up the sky for eternity.. 

The honest mistakes may simply be the consequences of a small, over-taxed publisher and they can easily be forgiven. But errors close to the heart of the matter do dissipate the author’s credibility. 

More troubling still are the author’s references to matters of faith. Patterson says, jokingly, of her attraction to the god of life force and nature by whatever name he is called, “For me, it’s all about the antlers.” This and many other notes in the book insinuate that many parts of this spiritual practice are done for image and the street cred of the priest or priestess. While that isn’t out-of-bounds in and of itself, there is no corresponding depth or sense of real purpose in the rituals. 

The author talks about energy glibly, how to call this kind or dispel that kind. But the only explanation of energy or investigation of the purpose of ritual is contained in a tiny passage describing rubbing one’s hands together to raise heat and feel it between your hands.

It is as if an atheist wrote a how-to cookbook for people who want to dress up as Pagans in order to impress their friends. I doubt that's the case. The author is probably a very spiritual person trying to navigate the market for books on Pagan issues. I think if the book were marketed not as the full "art of ritual" but rather as the outer "ritual tools and scripts" I would have much less to complain about.

At every turn the author describes in detail physical objects for ritual or specific actions for ritual and then goes to extreme in denying any real need for them, never explaining that ritual objects and actions are aids to meditation and focus. Perhaps the author wants to avoid stating any of the reasons for ritual objects and actions to ensure that no one can contradict her. The problem is that this leaves the core of the book hollow.

The focus on image over depth in this book points at a troubling demographic phenomenon in which many Neopagans are Pagan not because they believe in our gods but because they don’t believe in the angry god with those threats of hell. They are accustomed to “not believing,” and they see Paganism as a religion where anything goes and nothing is sacred. It is an identity to wear proudly but not one to internalize.

Everyone has their own path and I don’t think most people dabbling in Paganism or witchcraft are likely to unleash some sort of negativity due to a lack of reverence. Our gods aren’t like that and I’m not here to judge others on their path, least of all those who have been through religious abuse and are most in need of some laughter. On the other hand, an overall frivolous and shallow approach to ritual isn’t what I would recommend. And thus I can’t really recommend The Art of Ritual as a general book on ritual. It may, however, be helpful to those who are too serious or afraid of negativity in ritual.

Ritual to me must be rooted in some authentic belief, even if it is only the inexplicable sense that “there is something out there.” We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously, but we should hold something sacred—at least the earth, at least the hunger and need in the world. In times as troubled as ours, when we are threatened by imminent and disastrous human-caused climate change, war and massive multiple refugee crises, the art of ritual should come primarily from what is sacred to those practicing the ritual.

Ritual is first and foremost about deepening either personal or community experience and there is no word about this in The Art of Ritual. When we do rituals imperfectly and laugh to free ourselves from fear, it is an opening of spirit. When one laughs at the deepening experience of ritual, the spirit closes. 

Herbs of the Sun, the Moon and the Planets - Pagan book review

I have been studying medicinal herbs for around fourteen years and I’m a practicing Pagan, though not one focused on recipes for spells. My herb lore is primarily practical and focused on the health needs of my family and community. I grow those herbs that can be prepared as medicine and used for common illnesses and injuries. My local doctor doesn’t see much of my family and as sweet as she is, we all like it that way. 

Still, I had to take a second look when I saw the Pagan Portals book Herbs of the Sun, the Moon and the Planets by Steve Andrews. I am skeptical of many newly concocted “spells” promoted by random witches, and yet I take basic astrology as demonstrable fact. Find me a person born between March 21 and April 21 who has little spark and fire in their personality or a person born between February 21 and March 21 who has no dreaminess about them, and I’ll concede something to you. But an Aries is an Aries, while a Pisces is a Pisces. And little can be done to entirely change either. 

Sun signs and ascendants have a powerful effect on our lives. I am not precisely sure how the planets can have such a marked impact on our minds, emotions and temperaments. I suspect it has to do with gravity and the types of energy being studied by physicists today, but any observant person who has opened their mind to the possibility knows it is so. 

So, why shouldn’t plants reflect astrology in some way as well? This was my impetus for picking up the book.

There are several good things about this book:

1. The book combines medicinal and energetic properties of herbs nicely, glossing over neither.
2. The medicinal information appears to be correct and there are warnings where there need to be safety warnings.
3. There are some interesting historical tidbits.

And yet the book falls short in some ways. It is primarily a list of herbs, categorized by their planetary correspondence. There is only vague and scanty information about what the planetary correspondence is likely to mean or how to use it to bolster the effectiveness of either herbal medicine or magical work.

In general, this is a descent introductory herbal with a handful of the herbs most commonly used in witchcraft and Pagan ritual, but also including their medicinal properties. More information is likely to be needed for in-depth study but if the warnings are heeded this book will do some good.