Imbolg!

Blessings Darlings!

Being as I'm even more of a hermit than my friend Suz is, I don't get out  much.  But today I found myself driving off to the Big City on business, and I ran smack dab into Imbolg. 

At first it was a subtle thing.  The bare trees of winter no longer seemed as harsh.  Their outlines had softened with the faint beginnings of swollen buds.

Then came the official in-my-face sign:  LAMBS!  Very young lambs, already rather coated in the signs of Mud Season.

As I've mentioned before, I don't personally celebrate the High Days based on either the calender or astrological timing, I do it by local herding and agricultural signs.  These are the signs of Imbolg in my area.

So, it's official.  Imbolg has arrived.  Bridget - come in, come in, and welcome!

Frondly, Fern

Pagan Nut Cases

Blessings Darlings!

Due to ... well. Due to the actions of a clearly mentally ill person on Facebook, who currently is claiming to be called by the Morrighu, I got to wondering just how the Morrighu WOULD deal with someone who is severely mentally ill.  The best I can figure is that if the mentally ill person causes risk to the lives of others, She'd make sure they got shot down like a mad dog would be.  If they do not put lives at risk, She'd leave it to those whose job it is to handle them.  Maybe not Bridget for healing so much as to those around them to keep them locked in the attic or basement so they don't disrupt the community.

For those less severely mentally ill I expect that the Morrighu would do what She does with everyone else She handles - She makes them face what they would prefer to ignore about themselves, and then expects them to CHANGE IT. 

Thus, if the nutcase-with-100-names-and-1000-FB-groups is actually going to be called by the Morrighu, the nutter is going to be continually and repeatedly confronted by people and situations pointing out that she's a nutter, etc, and that won't end until the nutter gets into a treatment situation that works.  The pressure from the Morrighu will not end until real solutions are in place and being actively worked on.  Then the Morrighu will loosen the leash a bit, to see how a bit of freedom is handled. 

The Morrighu doesn't play. She doesn't fight your battles for you.  She doesn't 'give' you strength, She makes sure you are given situations in which you build your strength, and tells you to pull up your big girl panties and handle the situation.  Your sweat and your blood and your exhaustion are the offerings She seems to prefer. 

Frondly, Fern

Pagan Conferences

Blessings Darlings!

Let me state this, again, up front:  If Z Budapest trashed "Niggers" and "Kikes" as she does "trannies" - do you really think she'd be invited to any conferences? If she banned Jewitches, and said "Kikes are just animals in human clothes, so they can't come to my rituals. Oh, that's hurtful? They still aren't coming, but I'm sorry THE TRUTH hurts" ....

Anyway ...

I'm now going to talk about what the roles of Pagan Conferences are or should be in the US.


I'm not talking about conferences by any one particular religious group for its members or people who want to participate in that particular religion.  I'm talking about a conference open to everyone in the Pagan community who can and will pay the admission price.  Many of them will come from far away, many won't be affiliated with a local pagan group or local pagan community.  Those that come who are involved in a local group aren't at the conference to learn more about their home group even if members ARE giving classes - they can get those at home, after all.  They traveled to the conference to get stuff that is NOT available at home.


Let's look at the "about" statements of several conferences/festivals on my side of the country:


"The Sacred Space Conference is a place and time of respectful sharing and thoughtful learning among the many rich and varied traditions, beliefs, paths and organizations found in the DC/Baltimore metropolitan region, the surrounding Mid-Atlantic area, and the world.  It is our hope that through this conference we will increase understanding and religious tolerance between the many traditions within the esoteric community, as well as within the public at large."

"Between The Worlds is an interfaith esoteric conference sponsored by the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, a Wiccan non-profit religious organization. This conference is an opportunity to experience learning and rituals from a wide range of esoteric Paths."

"The Free Spirit Alliance is a spiritual networking organization serving the Pagan and Pantheist religious communities. Founded in 1985, our focus is and has been on presenting national, regional, and local events where people from all backgrounds can learn and share ideas. "


Learning and sharing, among a wide-range of folks.   Nothing less than that.  

Learning. Sharing.  Being exposed to the thoughts and rituals of many different groups.   Rituals to experience how those groups worship and work with energy.

That's what I say Pagan Conferences are for.

That said .....

*****************************************************************************

AND THERE ARE SOMETHINGS THAT PAGAN CONFERENCES ARE NOT (IMNHO)

None of those descriptions have anything about deliberately life changing rituals.  No promises of healing. No offer of spiritual breakthroughs.  


NOTHING THAT IS GOING TO SHATTER THE LIFE YOU LEFT.

I really worry for folks who seek spiritual breakthroughs at Pagan conferences, especially those who go back to being without group and community back home.  

Because 'breaking' and 'breaking through' is relatively easy.  Putting things back together in a new order - that is hard.  And is best done with the support of groups and community, not alone.  


Non-magical example:  I lived in the middle of Illinois for years.  One local therapist loved to help women separate out all their different parts.  Like ... dissociation/multiple personalities.  She honestly felt that doing this lead women to emotional breakthroughs.  But she never put them back into a cohesive whole.  Breaking the old without putting a new framework in place - simple destruction - left a trail of less functional, more broken, individuals.

Magical breakthroughs are very similar.  Looking at the coven I'm now in .... The coven was created (at the auspicious time) and we all became members.  And even that energy - no initiations, no elevations, just forming a coven and becoming members! - manifested in chaos in members lives.  Divorces and marital issues, unemployment and financial problems, internal communication issues, etc.  

Or even an encounter with the sweet, healing Goddess Bridget as Crone - where She announced She was going to work me over like she works a sword on Her forge - left me physically ill for months. Worked over, indeed!


Change SOUNDS great.  Change INVOLVES chaos.  We had each other, the group, the tradition and it's other members/HPs/HPSSs/Elders to rely on, and it was still chaotic.  


An actual spiritual breakthrough, at a conference, away from home, and you have to deal with travel after it ... and then being alone to deal with the chaos if you aren't part of a group.

And it doesn't matter if the breakthrough is 'healing'.  Healing is equally chaotic, especially if you are healing from long-standing issues.  You've build structure in your life around being broken.  Yes, you've shattered the Tower.  But you are now in mid-air, with debris around you and on every place you would land. NOW the real work starts.  And the ritual leader/healer doesn't stay in your life.  You are on your own.  Who is back home to even talk with about what is good to keep and what must be junked in your life?  Who can see magically what is going on that you might not be aware of, now brought to the surface?   


Because healing one area is going to bring up other areas that need healing, or areas you overcompensated in.  There will be fallout.  It was be ... yes ... chaos.


And if you do not have group/community back home, you will be alone.  With new chaos. 

Which is why life changing rituals, healings, etc, are to be done in your area, with people who are going to be around afterwards finishing the job - helping you clear up the chaos.

Let me summarize:

Pagan conferences are for sharing.
Pagan conferences are not for breakthroughs unless you seek a break-down.

Frondly, Fern 





 

New Cauldron.

Blessings Darlings!

It being THAT time of year again - like, winter - I did the annual refresh/re-dedication of my Healing Cauldron.  And, due to the fact that last year the cauldron ended up literally overflowing with healing requests, I swapped out the old cauldron for a bigger one.

For how I use the Healing Cauldron, look at this post from last year http://fernsfronds.blogspot.com/2011/01/healing-cauldron.html.  This year, since I refreshed the healing altar AFTER the coven's Bridget ritual (referenced last week), I have the Bridget's Candle I took home from the ritual on the altar.  Since I do daily work at that altar that candle won't last very long.  But I'll do a flame-to-flame handing down Bridget's fire to each candle in turn.  It's all great.

Frondly, Fern

Imbolc Preparations

Blessings Darlings!

Want to prepare?  Okay.

Turn off the podcast.  Put down the book on Wicca. Step away from the computer.

Instead ... go outside. Spend time there.

Make it a point to notice when it's sun rise and sun set each day.  Feel the lengthening of the light in all your being. 

Leave offerings for the local manifestations of the nature spirits.  It's still the hungry times for them, and will be for rather a while.  Coat a big pine cone with peanut butter (or melted tallow) and roll it in bird seed.  Tie it on to a local tree.

Frondly, Fern

What Makes a Wiccan .... Wiccan

Before I write about what makes a person Wiccan, I’m going to start with makes Wicca Wicca.

For me, Wicca is a fairly recent inspiration of the Gods, and features pantheism, functional duotheism, small group structure, coven hierarchy, liturgical format based on ceremonial magick, liturgical cycle based on combining the agricultural cycle and herding cycles and diving those holy days into 8 evenly spaced ones, noting and often working with Lunar cycles, working with polarity, and being an experiential mystery religion.  How many of these things can something called “Wicca” be missing and still be Wicca? I’m not going there today!

With its roots in Ceremonial Magick and mystery religions, Wicca-the-religion doesn’t accept just anyone who wants to join the Group Mind/Egregore – it is going to be into growth and evolution, yes, but not self-destructive changes.

You don’t have to be ‘actually’ Wiccan to worship The Goddess and The God, or to worship ‘Wicca Style’.  Not being Wiccan doesn’t keep you away from the Gods, after all.  But is DOES mean that you are not connected to the Egregore.  It’s sort of like the difference between Kosher and Kosher-style.  The taste – the liturgy and ritual actions – can be the same, but it’s not connected to the same Egregore.  Kinda like planning to work with Bridget, but working with Hecate instead (hey, both are Goddesses and have 3 aspects, how different can they be?)

So the question becomes “How do you connect with the Egregore of Wicca?”

Seems to me that the Gods set it up as study and practice (outer court work), which then is  made active by the Egregore acting through a HP/SS (or coven) that chooses to give the person membership or initiation. 

Can the Gods or the Egregore initiate a person themselves?  Yes, but in my experience it’s pretty rare.  The Gods put the coven system in place when They inspired Wicca (or caused it to evolve out of CM), and aren’t going to lightly put it aside.  The person the Gods are going to make an exception for is going to have to be special, and desperately needed for the growth of Wicca … and not just as a bad example.  I’m thinking that anyone They do that for is going to have to become as important as, say, Gerald Gardner, or Victor Anderson, or Doreen Valiente.  And even then, I’d expect that They would do it after the person, having lived in isolation somewhere with no chance to study with a coven, and no chance to move to study with one (and no chance to move away to even go to a university, which is harder to find time and money for than finding a coven), still did all the studying about Wicca, and practicing as much as they could get from books, for years on their own.  In other words, They don’t do it for the human individuals convenience, but to better manifest the Wiccan Egregore’s Higher Will.

Frondly, Fern

Other vaguely related blog posts:  Preparing for Samhain

                                                   Ancestor Worship