Autumn Equinox 2019

Yesterday was the Autumn Equinox.  I haven't really done much to celebrate it over the last few years as it's quite a busy time for me.  As it is a harvest festival, I'm usually flat out preserving my crop to keep it over the next year.  This year hasn't really been too different, although my garden has been mostly neglected during our horrendously hot and oppressive summer.  I'm well known amongst friends and family for this, so I am also often the recipient of their overflows and have been given a lot of fruit to work my magic on.

This year however, the Equinox fell almost a week after the shootings in Christchurch.  A far right, fascist, anti-immigration lunatic shot up two mosques killing 50 Muslims at prayer and wounding 50 more.

His hateful reaping however, harvested something truly amazing.  The outpouring of love from Christchurch people, from New Zealanders and from the rest of the world has been awe-inspiring and overwhelming.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a contrary person.  I am naive and always wanting to believe the best of people while also being a cynical old bitch.  So while I hoped for a positive response, I expected the opposite.  So the response from people everywhere has left me hiding away from people while I cry often.  Those tears aren't fear or an inability to cope with my city being changed again and while there's still sadness for the tragedy, mostly my tears are about people being better than I'd given them credit for.

I'm in awe at the messages of love and support. I'm in awe of the strength of our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her grace in handling this.  I'm in awe of the opposition parties in our Government pulling their heads in and supporting our PM.  I'm in awe of the actions ordinary people are taking the world over because of this event.  I have never seen the goodness in people shine through on such a massive scale and I don't know how to adjust to it.  I am in awe of the constant vigils, the markers of respect and support (I think our florists nationwide have run out of flowers repeatedly) and the turnout of people attending these events.  I am in awe of our gangs, previously violent rivals, coming together, putting their differences aside to stand in support of the Muslim community. I am in awe of our Police force and emergency services for their hard work and incredible strength.

So this year, my Autumn Equinox celebration is one of genuine thanksgiving and gratitude.

I am grateful that I was wrong about people in general and give thanks that I was wrong.
I am grateful that I live in a place where this is how we react to things like this.
I am guiltily thankful that my family were safe although I can't say that anyone is unaffected by it.
I am grateful that for the most part, this has caused a huge shift in what ordinary people will and won't tolerate with regards to casual racism and hate speech.
I am grateful that our Government has used common sense in tightening up gun laws and gun licensing and done it quickly.
I am grateful that as a nation, we're being held up as a beacon of sense and respect by the rest of the world.

I am grateful.

Blessings




Debbie

Week 12... I think: Home and Hearth

Happy Equinox Everyone. I wonder what you all got up to. If you completely missed the Sabbat, if you had a huge celebration or if, like me it was more subdued. Please feel free to share in the comments below.

I had planned a few small celebratory activities and observance but decided against it as I just wasn't 'feeling' right. As I sit here today reflecting on another Sabbat gone past (the days just run away with me) I've realised that I actually did spend the weekend in very autumnal activities anyway. Just like with Spring cleaning, Autumn cleaning is important. The change in seasons is a great time to physically cleanse the house in preparation for Winter. I cleaned this weekend and let a very gusty (and cold) wind blow through all corners of the apartment. After cleaning came the cooking. Cooking for family on both days and also preparing meals for future dinners and lunches. Though it's not quite the same as preparing for the scarcity of winter, it was a nice time to reflect on the changing seasons. Especially with the break in the heat with the cool wind.

Of late my pagan celebrations have been less overt but I like to spend some time reflecting on the meaning of the day and how it is relevant to my life. It might seem simple but I like that it can be like that. Big elaborate rituals are great but sometimes the more intimate personal thoughts can be just as powerful.

Oh and you may have noticed I've been a little slack with blog updates. It's not that I've thrown the New Year initiative out the window but rather I've amended it so that I'm not filling this blog up with inane junk. Also I've been rather busy with work and life so much so that while I still am writing (like that would change) I've not had the time or inclination to edit my writing to a standard that I would be happy to share it with the wider public. I'll get back to that when everything settles down here.

Yet Another Halloween Rant.

Last year I had a bit of a rant about Halloween.

This year, Halloween has inspired me again, but in a different direction.

Just like last year, the people preaching, judging and making claims about what everyone else should and shouldn't be celebrating has been a theme this week not just on facebook, but also on our local news website.

Everywhere I look this week, I seem to be confronted by people complaining about other people's choices.  Choices that in no way have any real impact on the complainants, no effect at all except to offend their sensibilities or in other words, be different from their own choices.

When it comes down to it, I know the origins of Halloween.  I know the connections to Samhain, I know that it's changed over the years, generations and geography.  I'm quite over having to explain that Halloween is not the same as Samhain.  The origins are cool to know, but they're not relevant to every single discussion or mention of Halloween.  Nine times out of ten, no one cares and the person pontificating again just gets ignored.

As such, I'm quite baffled by all the people who think they have some right to tell everyone else that they can't celebrate anything in the way they want to.  My news feed this morning was filled with New Zealand pagans and witches moaning about how often they have to tell people that it's Beltaine, not Samhain and so they shouldn't be dressing their kids up in scary costumes for school parties or to go trick or treating.

Hang on, who gave any of you the right to dictate such a thing?  And isn't this the kind of thing you complain about when someone else does it to you? 

Why do you care so much what other people choose to do with their time?  How does that affect you at all?

As I said elsewhere, celebrate what has meaning to you.  Don't celebrate the things that don't have meaning to you. Don't rain on the parade of anyone else doing the same.

In other words, Wheaton's Law applies - don't be a dick.

Blessings

Debbie

Winter Solstice Musings

Saturday was the Winter Solstice.  I had planned my usual solstice party.  I'd even chosen to open it up and put it out there in a couple of local internet pagan groups.  Especially as one of those groups contained a couple of people living not too far away, who had complained about being unable to find anything in their area.

I had several maybes.  I had several "Oh yes, we'll definitely be there".  I had a few nos, but thanks for asking.

I planned and wrote a ritual.  It was quite a deep and transformative ritual while being terribly simple.  One of those things that sinks in later, days or weeks later.  It was about recognising that darkness happens and light follows in endless cycles.  We know and accept this in our night and day.  We know and accept this in our yearly seasons.  But we don't seem to know or accept this in ourselves.  The dark times are something wrong that needs treating.  Or sometimes it just needs a little of someone else's light to remind us that the light is still there.  The ritual also contained being able to say something nice about yourself.  Something positive, something you are proud of.  Without any embarrassment, without comparisons (well, you should have seen me last year or you should see my sisters), without any projections (she just said she was smart, thinks she's smarter than us) and without any justifications.  To just be able to stand forward and say "I am smart, I am funny, I am strong" whatever it was that you are and to have that be supported by everyone else.  It was a phenomenal ritual.

It's just a shame that we never did it.

I've spent the last couple of years struggling with ritual.  Doing battle with ritual.  Ritual has almost grown into a larger than life nemesis for me.  No, I take that back, I can do ritual fine when it's someone else's ritual.  I can take a role and do that fine.  I can judge their rituals in the armchair comfort of my own head and pull apart what I would have done differently (and therefore better of course) and what worked for me.  What I am doing battle with is leading ritual for others.

I thought that by telling enough people that I was planning one, I'd be able to force myself into actually taking that step and doing it.

Now I have all sorts of justifications and reasons rolling around in my head as to why I didn't do it.

• A lot of those 'maybes' and 'definitely be theres' bailed out and weren't there.
• I really didn't feel this ritual would be right or well received or taken seriously with the people who were present.
• I was disorganised and didn't give a clear start time so by the time I was ready for ritual, many others were drunk, going to sleep or heading home.
• I should have planned to do the ritual first and dinner stuff after.
• Sabbat celebrations are more about the gathering of people for me.
• I'd woken up that morning with a dreadful migraine and been taking medication all day to keep it at bay so I just felt tired and sore and brain full of fuzz.

All of this is true and none of it is - all at the same time. 

I did still love the gathering.  I loved the mix of people and feel glad that some new people came along, as well as some people from many years ago.  I enjoy the pot luck dinner.  I enjoy sitting outside around our bonfire on the longest darkest night of the year.  Having one side toasty warm and the other feeling the cold.  I love that we get a different mix of people every year but don't seem to have any dramas with them.

I also love the next morning.  Sitting in the cold weak winter sunshine in my pyjamas with a cup of coffee and a great group of friends.

I am both grateful and a bit pissy that no one mentioned the lack of ritual. 


Blessings

Debbie

Yule or Winter Solstice

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays.  (Thanks Debbie)

Sunrise on the winter solstice 2010, 
looking over Cavan Uppertoward Bohanboy/Killygordon
 © Copyright Sian Lindsey licensed for reuse.

 The word solstice comes from the Latin Sol (Sun) and Sistere (to stand still). The Winter and Summer Solstices are the points when the Sun seems to stop in its journey North or South and stand still, before reversing and moving back.

It’s not surprising then, that in the darkest depths of Winter that there was always a fear that the light would not return, and that it needed help. Many ancient myths surrounding this time involve the death and rebirth of a God, usually the Sun Child in all his glory.

In Britain, The Holly King (representative of the waning year or death aspect of the God) is defeated by the Oak King (who represents the waxing year, or the rebirth of the God, also known as the Divine Child).

In Egypt, Isis and Nephthys mourned for Osiris and Isis gave birth to Horus on the Winter Solstice.

In Athens, Lenaea was celebrated at or around the Winter Solstice, the death and rebirth of Dionysus.

In Norse tradition, this was the night of the Wild Hunt, when Odin rode forth on Sleipnir and brought fertility to the fields.

As most of our traditions come from the Northern Hemisphere, the closeness and links with Christmas traditions shows some overlap between faiths too.

The name Yule has come to mean Christmas for many, but the name has been around for much longer. I’ve been trying to find the meaning of Yule, after reading one account that said “according to the Venerable Bede, Yule comes from the Norse Iul meaning ‘wheel’.“ Another source stated that other linguistic studies suggest that this is a myth and Yule has always simply been the name for the Winter Solstice Festival.

There are many traditions to be kept on the Solstice. In Scotland, the Corn Maiden (the last handful of corn reaped at the harvest) was kept until Yule when it was fed to the cattle, to make them healthy and thrive for the next year. In Slovakia, it was believed that the rites held for the Winter Solstice would protect the crops and livestock from harmful demons, that they’d ensure a good harvest and bring happiness to all for the coming year. Whatever you do on the Solstice will set the rule for the year, for example, nothing should be lent as then all of your property would be lent out for the year.

The Yule log is a widespread tradition. Either the burning of the Yule tree, or a log kept from last year’s Yule fire (traditionally Oak or Pine) is used to start the fire, with another being kept to protect the home throughout the year. The Germans would scatter the ashes of the Yule log over the fields or keep it to bind in the last sheaf of the next harvest.

In modern Women’s Mystery Traditions, it’s common to keep a vigil for the whole night of the Solstice, accompanying and supporting the labouring Goddess through her birthing of the Sun Child, and then singing the Sun up when it does rise.

Another modern tradition is the Mid-Winter Swim. All over the world it seems, people celebrate the shortest day of the year with a swim in icy cold waters. I’ve been trying to find the origins of this and it seems that the closest I can come is that it was part of the Hogmanay celebrations in Scotland.

Samhain, As Celebrated By Us

Saturday 30th April was Samhain for those of us in New Zealand.

Having been off Sabbats for a while, it was nice to have one of our group ask if she could do a ritual. The night before, I picked a pumpkin from my garden to make pumpkin soup from for our dinner after ritual. Two of our group were visiting, and on a whim, we decided to make a Jack O'Lantern with our pumpkin, not having any idea just how hard it could be to scoop firm pumpkin flesh out of a too small hole (the lid). This is why our pumpkin got four faces. Still, we had a fun night carving pumpkin faces while watching the Royal Wedding.

The ritual rocked. We each wrote a letter to the people we were hurt by, or upset or angry at. We laid it out as if we were speaking to them, and these letters were burned in our ritual fire, releasing the negative emotions that were eating at us. Then one at a time we went around our circle, offering good wishes and blessings for each other. All the while the others not currently involved were singing and chanting:

We are the old people,
We are the new people,
We are the same people, stronger than before,
Stronger than before,
Stronger than before,
We are the same people, stronger than before.

We are the old people,
We are the new people,
We are the same people, wiser than before,
Wiser than before,
Wiser than before,
We are the same people, wiser than before.

The singing and chanting got a bit silly (and headbangy) as the energy flowed more strongly around the circle, but it was a lot of fun and a very moving ritual.

After feasting, we kept going back to the ritual area as it got dark. Boris (as we'd named our pumpkin) looked awesome with his candle burning through his faces. It was kinda eerie to see his face through the trees. This was also the best time for some dark mirror scrying, some had surprising visions while others saw nothing.



This was our first Sabbat celebrated as a group with a ritual, and it was a success. Luana's cloak hanging on the trellis ensured that she was there with us.
Now we look forward to Winter Solstice!