Celebrating the Beginning of Harvest

This time around the wheel I am trying not to get too caught up in the philosophy of our Pagan holydays, but to enjoy them at their simple point of origin.  I want to celebrate the passage of time as told by the rhythms of nature.  Being so immersed in my garden this summer made Lammas a little extra special.  Garden season goes so quickly here that it really is the beginning of the end.  I could really get into telling you all about my garden, but that is a different post. 

 

 

As usual, I kept things pretty simple.  I decorated my altar with my most recently harvested garden produce, held a sparse 5 minute ritual which even that was too long since Miss Busy managed to pull a page out of her daddy's new book in that time, and made grain cakes for supper.  Once I got the girls settled for the night, I spent about an hour in the garden doing some maintenance and just enjoying the evening.  I left the candles burning, with the fan in the hall and they melted down very quickly so now I have a waxy mess to clean up off my altar, but I did enjoy my little holyday.  As the littles get a bit older it will all get a bit more in depth.

Tis the Season

Like most modern pagan families we have had to ask,  "What about the holidays?!" 

Living in reverence of the natural world around us makes Yule an important day in our year, but it is closely followed by Christmas and New Year.  As the mama, three major holidays jammed into as many weeks seems like a nightmare.  If we celebrated them all with equal gusto and festivity, I would need a nap that lasted all of January.  To keep the most meaningful aspects of the season and still escape with our sanity, Superman and I had to examine the situation and do some slicing and dicing.

After a long year of struggling through a plethora of holidays, we came to a conclusion.   Religiously we are Pagan, but culturally we are American.  Ach!  Does that mean we have to celebrate everything?!  No matter how much we want to celebrate the Pagan holydays, we cannot bring ourselves to part with the holidays we grew up observing.  So...it is going to look like this at our house:  each Pagan holiday will be celebrated as a family sacred day, while it's American counter part will be celebrated a community based appendage. 

For example Yule was a quiet night at home with lots of candle light, a fake fire compliments of YouTube, a simple altar ceremony to welcome the longest night of the year, a warm hearty dinner, and just some good family time.  We were planning on fresh scones for breakfast, but after Little Bitty Baby woke up seven times over the course of the night I was doing good to slap some peanut butter on a slice of toast.  Christmas morning we will open gifts from our extended family, eat huge stacks of pancakes to celebrate the lengthening of the day light hours, and if there is enough snow spend the afternoon sledding.  New Years will be regarded about as much as the onset of daylight saving time.  Since we feel that the winter solstice is nature's new year, we feel that to celebrate both is redundant.  Plus, we aren't the party type anyway. 

We will adapt this through out the year to work with other observances such as Ostera/Easter and Samhain/Halloween.  We have a secular gathering at my aunts every year over Easter weekend and family camp over Father's Day weekend just before Midsummer.  Both of these traditions will be worked into our own Pagan holyday celebrations.  The details are still up in the air, but I'll let you all know how they land. 

Side note:  Permission to bring home the black fur ball in the photo was Superman's holiday gift.  This new member of our family is named Merlin and is a quiet, slightly more dexterous version of Miss Busy.  Notice the mess he made of my center piece. 

From Stalled Out to On a Roll

Hunter's Moon altar 2014

Ever since Little Bitty Baby made her appearance nearly six weeks ago and the entire third trimester of my pregnancy if I were to be completely honest I really haven't been feeling very ambitious.  The wheels are turning and the ideas are there, but both the time and energy to execute them has been absent.  This lackluster feeling effected every aspect of my life from routine chores to art projects and spiritual activities. 

The Harvest Moon came and went.  I wrote a beautiful baby blessing, but just didn't have the energy to set up an altar or cast a circle.  Superman and I just took the little one out in the yard to meet Her and called it a night. 

Mabon was going to be my new start.  I planned a ritual, collected crab apples and leaves to adorn my altar, and then cared for a new born and a teething toddler all day.  Once the girls were in bed, I sat down on the couch and didn't move until I could respectably call it a night myself. 

The Hunters Moon almost snuck up on me, but the unperformed baby blessing was starting to eat away at me.  Two days before the big night I started making plans, but true to my nature didn't finish pulling together a ritual until the last moment. 

Once all my notes were in order I set up the altar, laid out my Elemental stones, and then nursed the baby to sleep.  Having come too far and put in too much effort to stall yet again, I prepared myself and cast the circle. This being the first time I had cast or participated in a communal circle I fumbled a bit.  I didn't raise as much power as I do in my solitary working circles due to nerves, but I am sure that will come with practice.  As comfortable as I am with my husband, I have to admit it felt a little odd having an audience while I worked. 

When the circle was cast, Superman joined me with our sleeping baby and we read her blessing while she slumbered.  It was a beautiful experience and I believe we both were a bit misty eyed before it was over.  Although we often discuss spirituality and have fully compatible beliefs, this was the first time we celebrated those beliefs together in an official capacity.  It was a bit unnerving at first, but the feeling of closeness and contentment that followed was exhilarating. We also found it quite fulfilling to know that we had finally started a new spiritual chapter for our family. 

Now that I have resumed a magical practice and we have taken a step toward family spirituality, I feel like we are on a roll.  In the past few days we have been sharing more thoughts about Paganism, witchcraft, and the deities who may be playing rolls in our lives.  Not surprising, we both feel a special affection for Hela.  Also, I have already started making plans for Samhain.  Maybe I won't be finishing up at the last moment this time. 

Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions: Starhawk/ Baker/Hill

Holiday traditions and meanings are something most of us learn a little at a time as we grow up.  The holiday is celebrated every year with little variation and in true child's form we soak it up and make it our own.  We don't question what these special days are or why we celebrate them, they are simply a part of our life and we believe that we understand them almost instinctually.  So when the world changes and we are left to discover a whole new tradition on our own, books like Circle Round are essential. 

I originally bought this book as a parenting tool, but have found it to my personal favorite to facilitate my own learning on the topic of Pagan holiday's and celebrations and believe me it is one of many books I have that address the topic.   Trying to implement a new celebration into the life of a family can be frustrating and awkward at times, but the ideas and activities given in Circle Round really make it fun and easy.  As an adult, I have gained so much better understanding of the celebrations by reading the holiday section of this book, I sometimes forget that it contains a plethora of other information as well.  It has chapters on basic traditions (circle casting, centering), a full section on activities to teach about the Elementals, and another section covering a child's growth and the rites of passage between infancy and adulthood.  Well written stories and songs (with music) accompany many of the topics to help facilitate memory in a positive way. 

To be completely truthful, I have not sat down and read this book in its entirety and I doubt that I ever will.  For me, it is more of a reference book to be returned to again and a again for ideas and inspiration.  I am really looking forward to using it frequently with Miss Busy and the new baby when they start to explore the natural world and their own place in the grander scheme.