Bread is one of the the most fascinating human creations. It’s part science and part alchemy. It connects us to Earth, which gives us the wonders of grain, water, and yeast, and to millennia of ancestors who have fed themselves, their families, and their communities through this incredible process. Also, it’s delicious. So Lammas – literally a holiday for bread – is a big deal around here.
Read moreSummer Solstice 2021: Reverence
We desire to know, to sort into boxes labeled “house sparrow,” “creeping bellflower,” “altocumulus.” This desire is ancient within us, hearkening back to when we owed our wellbeing to knowing whether an animal was friend or foe, whether a plant was food or poison, whether a cloud signaled drought or flood. Even without that necessity, sometimes it’s just cool to know what other lives I share my space with: what bird makes that mournful cry in the evenings? what’s that plant suddenly thriving in the shaded corner where nothing else would grow?
Read moreMay Day 2021: Embodiment
Was it weird to celebrate May Day this close to Summer Solstice? A little, yeah. But it still felt like a celebration of the energy that May Day represents: that burst of creative and generative energy, the speeding up of plant and animal growth and activity, the return of heat and fire, even to our chilly northern climes. For me, as long as I feel climatologically and atmospherically appropriate celebrating what a Sabbat represents, then I’m going to go ahead and do it.
Read moreSpring Equinox 2021: Accountability
Accountability also fits well with my personal view of Spring Equinox. I’ve always experienced the equinoxes as times of pause, moments where everything balances and we hang, almost suspended, in the fulcrum. At Fall Equinox, we make sure we have the resources to get through the cold, dark stillness of Autumn and Winter ahead. At Spring Equinox, we make sure we have the resources to get through the hot, bright frenzy of Spring and Summer ahead.
Read moreImbolc 2021: Creativity
Imbolc is, for me, also a Sabbat about keeping promises. After Winter Solstice, we know, both scientifically and from past experience, that the days are getting longer. But around here, it takes a while for that to be apparent to our senses. Based on my schedule, around Imbolc is when I really start to see that increase in light. Imbolc keeps the promise that Winter Solstice made. So I want my Imbolc celebrations to be about keeping promises that past me made and my executively dysfunctional ass then promptly forgot.
Read moreWinter Solstice 2020: Interdependence
The Solstice happens, of course, whether we have an incredible ritual experience or a crummy one. Whether we take part in any ritual experience at all. That is a humbling reminder of the immensity of the forces we honor, and the glorious insignificance of our individual lives.
Read moreThe Holly and the Ivy
By next year, I hope to have learned a real Winter Solstice song. For now, we’ll make do with “The Holly and the Ivy,” the most Pagan Christmas carol I know how to play. I mean, have you looked at the opening lyrics?
Read moreSamhain 2020: Wholeness
As a Pagan in Minnesota, one of the first lessons I learned—and continue to relearn—is how to adapt rituals on the fly, especially those planned for outside. Spending an hour toasting the Ancestors in the cemetery where Leora’s grandmother is buried seemed like a great idea as I planned these rituals in August when it was humid and in the upper 80s (F). It seemed like a crummy idea when the actual day arrived with a predicted high of 31 (0 C) and a windchill of 24 (-4 C).
Read moreFall Equinox 2020: Balance
My lovely spouse Leora and I generated the list pictured here as part of our Fall Equinox ritual. The list begins: Furnace check-up appointment Window plastic Boots It might not seem particularly witchy, but making it made me feel so profoundly connected to my spirituality. Like it has for many folks, the current COVID-19 pandemic… Continue reading Fall Equinox 2020: Balance
Read moreThe Winter Confluence
For the past several years, I’ve been adamant about not celebrating Christmas or Chanukah. “Not my religions; not my holidays” was my standard response when someone asked about my plans. I did this for because, one, it’s fun to watch people’s faces when I tell them that I don’t celebrate the world’s biggest consumerist holiday,… Continue reading The Winter Confluence
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