Same Shit, Different Pagan Year.

 Blessings, Darlings!

There might be lots of typos tonight - new computer, not yet the best ergonomic set up, new keyboard.  Anyway - 

I'm in the midst of a very busy week of Samhain work here.  Starting with ritual Samhain Eve, starting daily work with the Planetary Powers on their appropriate days and during the appropriate Planetary Hours, done one major Tarot reading for the coming year and have 4 more to do, doing Jason Miller's Hallows of Hekate ritual (got that done today), etc, all leading to the closing on November 7.

Busy, busy witch.

Oh, the tarot readings?  One card pulled for every month.  The first round was for 'general'.
Next round will be 'personal'.  Then "Local'.  Then a round for National.  Then a round for World.  

I'd also like to re-start doing daily offerings a la Jason Miller but I put that down somewhere and can't find it, and my husband and I need to go over our living wills/end of life directives at this very appropriate time, but he's sick so isn't really available . . . he's also been supposed to decide on a date for us to go over and re-assign the household chores, but he's been ducking out on that over and over and over and over and over and over again - rather like he does on actually DOING the chores, eh?

He has a pass while he's sick.  And while he was tested for Covid earlier, I'm making him test again tomorrow.  Because I'm tired of this shit.

How are things with all y'all?

Frondly, Fern

Freeze Warning!

Blessings Darlings!

There's a freeze warning for my area tonight.  This is VERY early for our area.  We've not even had a frost yet - my basil is still very happily growing.

Since my UPG is that Samhain is 3 days after the first freeze ... it looks as if Samhain will be very early this year.

I'm now in a hot sweat over the last of the garden.  All crops not harvested by Samhain are left for the Pooka, so getting them in is now or never.  Harvest today - process like a fiend for the next 3 days.  Then Samhain with the ancestors. 

This is why I tend to start working with the ancestors Oct 1.  All 'issues' between us get cleared up, they get offerings and I start to listen to them even more closely. This way, when ever Samhain shows up - the spiritual work is well under way.

How are your Samhain spiritual preps going?  I see lots of folks posting in Pagan groups about how they are decorating for Halloween - but not many posts about them prepping for their ancestors dropping in.

Frondly, Fern

Tea for the Tillerman

Blessings, Darlings!

Samhain's coming, as most of all y'all know.  So I've been upping my ancestral honoring game - spending more time a their altar, listening more to their voices.  (See?  My life isn't all Morrigan all the time!)

Which is not to say that the ancestors are any more love-and-light than the Morrigan is.  Yes, the recent ancestors love us, and all of them want us to have success in life (and thus keep their line going) ... they now have that 'one step removed, looking it all over' view on life.  And, MY ancestors are into capital T Tea.  100% Truth.  They don't pull punches.  They expect full disclosure from me - yeah, they already know what is going on in my life, but they want to be 100% sure that *I* am aware, awake, and handling my responsibilities.  



Since I'm here being 100% with you - they aren't always happy with me. 


But without that 100% pure Tea, that full-awareness/awake Truth, you can't navigate your life.  You need those set points, those rock-solid landmarks, so you can travel the path you want and know when you're off course.

It doesn't mean that you don't have any UPG (unverified personal gnosis).  It means that you acknowledge what is UPG and what is, well, canon or has verifiable history behind it.  The former you don't tell others to steer by - they are not THEIR landmarks.  The latter, others don't have to steer by, either, of course.  But all you can do is point out known reefs/where the North star is/etc.  What they do with those verifiable facts is up to them.  They CAN throw them out.

Admittedly, I do tend to point and laugh when they do and end up with problems after I rather bluntly told them about the rocks ahead.

But what THEY tell THEIR Tillerman is up to them.  What my ancestors call for me to do, what *I* call for myself and all y'all to do, is for us to give my/your Tillerman as close to 100% Pure Tea as you possibly can.  Fact check. Check yourself. Check your assumptions. And 100% venture out there, keeping that T supply full.

Frondly, Fern

Them Ancestors

Blessings Darlings!

As many of y'all know, I don't use 'calendar dates' for the Celtic holy days.  I use nature's signals.  And given the recent unusual cold weather in the Northeastern US - we had our killing frost last night.  So by my reckoning, Samhain is this Wednesday.

So one wonders, why are the Ancestors coming early this year?  Is part of the message that we REALLY REALLY need their wisdom now, during what Byron Ballard calls 'tower time'?  Well, yes, of course we do.

Step up your workings with the Ancestors, my loves.  It is critical!

Frondly, Fern

The Witching Hour

Blessings Darlings!

There's a lot of references to "The Witching Hour" in popular culture.  Mundanely, it can refer to the time of day when things are at their worst - the rush time a job, the time of day when the newborn is ALWAYS cranky (that was 5:30 pm for the Spawn), that type of thing.  Sort of the inverse of Happy Hour, both in tenor and in the ability to have a drink during it.

The basic premise behind 'the witching hour' is that witches, ogres, demons, and all sorts of 'nasties' come out and play when all the adults circadian rhythms say 'sleep'.  And by 'adult', I really mean adult.  As in 27 or older, when the brain is fully developed. 

Here's what the adult body circadian rhythms are doing during the day

http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidelifescience/images/biological_clock_human.jpg

But, as you might guess, this post is going to look at that from the perspective of an adult Pagan/witch.  And when most folks talk about the witching hour for witches, they most often mean midnight (with a small number of people saying 3 am) being the 'best time' to do magic/rituals/whatever.

That's a nice theory.  It fits in very well with the lives of teens, who don't have the same circadian rhythms as adults, and usually feel the need to hide their witchcraft from their parents.

But the times that matter to most witchcraft are liminal times.  Liminal times are the 'times between'. The best known liminal time for most witches and pagans is Samhain - the Celtic 'New Year' that is celebrated on a day after the end of the old year and before the beginning of the new year.  Lliminal times go together with the liminal spaces we make when we cast a circle, as in the line so often used as part of circle casting "A place that is not a place, a time that is not a time, between the worlds and beyond".  A three-fold liminality!

What does liminality bring to the table?
What do you want it to bring to the table?  For me, in my worldview, it is a time when it is easier to manipulate energy.  Energy in these times is more fluid, not yet one thing or the next.  

These are the times I like to play.  

Everyday liminality
Every person has their liminal times. Your personal ones are the times each day when you are falling asleep and when you are waking up - you are in two worlds, and neither, at once.  We've all been there, probably within the past 12 - 24 hours.

Every day has it's liminal times.  Midnight is a modern version of a liminal time - until there were clocks, no one knew when it was midnight (at least without referencing the Big Dipper, humor me here).  More traditionally, the liminal times were and are the grey time before dawn and twilight.  Not yet the one state of night, nor the other state of day.  These are the times when traditional Witching was done.  

Every month liminality

The month, okay the LUNAR month has it's own liminality.  That occurs on the Dark Moon, the time after the moon has waned all the way, and before that first thin crescent of the Waxing/New Moon.  Just like Samhain is a day between the years, the Dark Moon is a few hours between the months.  For me, I use the 13 hours (one hour for the 13 lunar months of the year) before the astronomical New Moon.  

 Don't get me wrong
I don't limit my magic/ritual to liminal times.  For example, I cook at all times of day - I'm going to do my food magic every time I cook and not try to only cook at liminal times.  And as noted earlier, I create my own liminal time and space when I cast a circle.  But Ii don't blow off the every day or every month liminal times when I have some workings that I can do that don't have a set time frame.  Because I'm one of them Practical Pagans.

Frondly, Fern  

Visiting My Ancestors

Blessings Darlings!

I just read Byron's lovely article "Food For Thought ... and Spirits", to credit the inspiration for this post.

Byron has a great advantage over me on this one.  The bulk of my ancestors are buried almost 900 miles from me, in two Jewish cemeteries in Chicago, while she lives close to hers.  And she has a different heritage of working with them.  Jews DO visit their cemeteries, and DO work with each ancestor on the anniversary of her/his death, but decorating graves or eating/drinking at the cemetary is right out.  It was a VAST break in Jewish tradition when we planted flowers along with burying my uncle Maury - but everyone at the cemetery service knew Maury and knew that he LIVED in his garden, so knew why we chose to break tradition in this way. 

So where do I go now to honor my Ancestors? 

Celts had several options.  Tir Na Gog is 'in the West', and the Ancestors are often seen as part of the Sea/waters.  Or they are said to be in the North.  When I lived close to, but west of, the Chesapeake Bay, that West association didn't work well.  I winged it.  But now the Potomac is north of me.  I'll do my major working on that river.  Part of that will be a boat of food pushed out on the water, as part of my Samhain celebration.

But, as you know, I start the preparation work for Samhain well in advance.  As part of that, I'll be sharing food and drink much of the month with my Ancestors.  I find that efforts put in to renew the ties well before Samhain, when I will be out communing with them officially, pays off.

And, I'm assuming that all y'all already have ancestor altars you work with regularly, right?

Frondly, Fern

Autumn

Blessings Darlings!

Fall is an insanely busy time around here.  The Chubby Hubby has caught up on work after the summer conference he teaches at and is involved in new projects, for one thing.  For another, the weather has finally cooled off so I'm doing more things.  Meanwhile, the garden hasn't really slowed down yet. 

The first thing I did with the cooler weather was do the sewing I'd put off all summer.  In late spring I'd taken all the clothes that needed patches and other repairs and gotten them ready to be worked on.  Mostly that meant that I'd ironed or fabric-glued patches in place, intending to sew the the patches on more securely.  Since the clothes were all long-sleeved shirts and long pants, they didn't need to be done immediately.  But I discovered that during the 100 degree days of summer I was .... disinclined .... to sit with material covering me, doing the sewing in my lap (knee and elbow patches have to be sewn by hand here, I don't have a sewing machine with an long narrow plate to slip them over). So suddenly it was 'patch or die!'  or at least "patch or everyone will have to wear their GOOD STUFF around the house, leading to them wearing out into no longer being the good stuff".

It took a few weeks, but the winter stuff is now caught up on.  Which means I'm identifying summer stuff that needs work.  Why do the underarms get holes in them?  I understand the holes in the front of the shirts - we have cats. Cats have claws. Cats poke holes in things.  Those holes I'm going to do some embroidery over.  I'm thinking of doing protective runes.

I've also started the fall round of carpet shampooing, and all the rest of the fall cleaning.  It's a constant battle against cobwebs here! 

And I'm working on harvesting every wild herb that I can.  I'm sure that this is embarrassing the Spawn, who is often with me when I suddenly stop and grab, say, a nice mullein plant, or cut some grape vines, or dig up some chickory roots.    And then I have to clean them, dry them, store them. 

And, as I type this, tomorrow in October 1.  Which means Samhain is coming.  With my 9-day personal prep for that (see this post), and coven ritual, and maybe Audience with the Ancestors with the larger tradition .... busy.

What's on your plate for Autumn? Are you preparing for the Cold Times, for Samhain? Clearing the way for introspection or study?

Frondly, Fern

My Pagan Year

Blessings Darlings!

There was a bit of a debate about 'names for the full moon each month' in a Facebook group I'm in.  [BTW, if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion - if you say "I've done a huge amount of research on this" .... don't later change your story to "this is my UPG"] 

But I don't name moons, or care to do so.  I look at local plants and animals for my seasonal cues.

Imbolc - is when lambing has started in my area. And when I start seeds indoors

Beltane - is when hawthorn leaves the size of squirrel's ears (your squirrels ears may vary). It's time to transplant tomatoes to the garden.

Lughnasadha - the barley harvest is done, take a breath before the next heavy harvest work. Or .... in MY life .... first tomato is ripe in MY garden. Because there isn't much barley in my area. Wish there was, it would help my beer making.

Samhain - 3 days after the killing frost. Not the one that gets the basil, the one that kills those tomato vines noted in Lughnasadha.

Incidentally, I saw the first goat kids last week. Perfect timing if I celebrated Passover, since one of the songs sung there is "Chad Gadol" which translates as "One Goat Kid"

Frondly, Fern

 

Necromancy

Blessings, Darlings!

NeoWiccan (who frequently comments on this blog) and I were hanging out together the other day, shopping, having nails done, and discussing, among other things, necromancy.  A pretty typical Crones Day Out.

NW was wondering what the big deal is - why so many folks get their knickers in a knot over this type of divination.  Not that they (in this case, a comment from a Roman Catholic) are happy with ANY type of divination, but that necromancy is clearly more upsetting to them than, say, the attention lavished on the groundhog on groundhog's day, or even tarot readings.  Heck, even in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series necromancy is one the things banned by the White Counsel (the Good Wizard's Union).  And the series has the good guys calling up demons to work with without blinking an eye!

So we discussed the ancestors and the Ancestors (family vs. Big Name/religious), we touched on the real and perceived role of spiritual entities involvement, etc.  And I figured I'd do more research and blog about it.

For those desperately googling, Necromancy is divination that relies on contacting the dead for the info. Clearly, to be able to do this means you have to believe that the soul or spirit hangs out after death, and that it can communicate with living beings if the living do the right thing, and that the dead have insight/knowledge that they didn't have before.  In other words - even if they were morons before death, they are now morons with access to a better library now that they are dead!  Okay, to put it more ... gently ... they are 'closer to the sources of real knowledge'.

So, what's to fear?

Well... First there is the fear of the dead and ghosts and undead and vampires and zombies.  What DO they want from the living? Apparently, in the gut-level view of a lot of people, all the dead want to do is live again, at any cost to the actual living.  They will eat our brains, they will drink our blood, they will possess our bodies.  I dunno if the afterlife is supposed to be that boring, or at least it's not seen by most people as the dead REALLY being 'in a better place'?

Second, some see an impenetrable barrier between the dead and the living.  Whether the dead are 'unconscious' until resurrection, or live is live and disembodied are disembodied and never the twain shall meet.  People with this view tend to see any purported necromancy as demons pretending to be the dead.  And that demons have access to all knowledge, too, the better to imitate the dead (and, I suppose, promote science the better to use scientific advances to take people away from religion).  I CAN sort of see how people would get this idea from contacts with their departed friends and family - they would have a different perspective after death, being now spirit not primarily soul and flesh.  The answers/responses are going to show a different focus.

It's probably pretty clear I don't hold to these views.  OTOH...

So, what's to give even ME pause?

Okay, at Samhain I invite the Honored Dead to come by, have a meal, say hi.  No promise, no demands that they show up.  An open invitation. Once a year - it's not my 'standard' form of divination. 

I've seen some people who have been unwilling to let go of the dead, mucking up their own lives with this.  There's a nice scene of Edith Piaf doing this in the movie "Le Vie En Rose".  It's not always emotionally healthy for the living person - not because of the dead's focus, but because of his/her own.  It can practically be a form of necrophilia!


And I DO wonder how healthy it is for the dead to keep being called back to this plane.  They have moved to be more spirit than soul, in my belief system they have new things to do/work on rather than still work the family issues they shed with their bodies. Let them move on with their afterlife.

Frondly, Fern

Prepping for Samhain

Samhain is coming to the northern hemisphere! Diminished and celebrated as Halloween by non-pagans, for many neopagans it’s one of the most important holy days of the year. Or not of the year, since technically it’s the day between the end of one year and the beginning of the next. At any rate, it’s the day when the veil between this world and the other worlds is known to be thin, and so we honor our dead ancestors.

Like all important events, getting the full spiritual experience of Samhain is easier if you do some preparation. And the more preparation you do, the better/fuller/more intense the experience.

So, Samhain being a Celtic based holy day, and the Celts being into triads, I posit that a great approach to Samhain is to take 9 days, a triad of triads, to prepare. What preparations to do on those 9 days? Take each day to open a dialog between yourself and one group of ancestors.

Day 1 – physical ancestors that you knew who have passed over. Those whose familial genes you carry. If adopted, add the family that made you one of their own.

Day 2 – physical/adoptive ancestors that you didn’t know who have passed over. They could well come forth at Samhain wit messages for you.

Day 3 – those who you knew that influenced you as you grew up who have passed over. Neighbors, pre-college school teachers, friends and their parents, clergy, etc.

Day 4 – Those who influenced your mind who have passed over. Authors, thinkers, statesmen, etc

Day 5 – those who influenced your spiritual path, who you knew and have passed over. Clergy, individuals, speakers, etc.

Day 6 – those who influenced your spiritual path but you did not know, and have passed over. Writers, tradition starters, those who you have learned about whose lives you try to emulate, etc.

Day 7 – Nature Spirits – because not only the ancestors might show up with messages at Samhain.

Day 8 – The Gods and Goddesses – again, because not only the ancestors might show up at your Samhain ritual.

Day 9 – Your Higher Self/Holy Guardian Angel/Spirit Guide/Patron Divinity – Well, you KNOW this one’s going to be there with you!

But, I hear someone asking, what do you DO on each of those days? Well, I’m not one for big Witchy set up. Make them a small offering – a tablespoon of barley maybe. Announce your intention – that you are because Samhain is coming, and you are there to open yourself to their inspiration. If it’s a day for folks you knew in life, maybe update them. Then listen. Take about 5 to 15 minutes. Then thank them, say you’re looking forward to anything they wish to tell you at Samhain. Leave the offering until the next day if you can. They will take whatever spiritual essence they want from it.

Now, don’t be surprised if one of the things you are told, either during one of these sessions or on Samhain, is that you should be honoring them more than once a year. But we’ll discuss Ancestor Altars some other day!

Frondly, Fern

Sabbat Energies

I'm still running-off-at-the-mind over Beltane, dates for Pagan High Days, and ideas about 'what and who) rituals are for'. I'm going to try to limit this post to most of the 'dates for High Days' issue

Unintended Consequences of My Ritual Date Setting
There is at least one unintended consequence of using local conditions as the basis for neoPagan High Day rituals. It will affect the amount of energy/unity on this plane for that ritual.

[Oh, Gods, this might expand to a discussion of raising energy vs tapping energy, too. Let us all hope I don't run-off-at-the-mind THAT much!]

Ever spend a season to a year making sure that you are deep in meditation at the EXACT TIME that the moon goes full and dark? Some of my friends and I have, and we've uniformly been able to tell the exact time of the shift in energies. The same ort of enery is available for the solar quarters (with quirks thrown in due to northern vs southern hemisphere issues). Astrological and astronomical based energies are strong and time-specific. OTOH, even with their strength they still are shaped by where you are on the earth - thus the strong Equinox energy is going to manifest totally differently north and south of the equator.

I'm not convinced that the astrological or astronomical energies are available for the cross quarters at all - I think that those high days work on a different power-grid.

But doing things based on local conditions means that the group mind and intent is lower due to just plain lower numbers of humans doing ritual and lighting up 'intention beacons' in the Other Worlds. If EVERY NeoPagan did their Samhain ritual the same night, at the same time, that would be some kick-ass energy. But we neopagans are a contentuous and squabbling lot, and we do most group celebrations at a time and date that is most convenient for most members of our groups - and most folks in the southern hemisphere are going to celebrate Beltane at that time. So at the VERY least Samhain gets celebrated over a 24 hour period - and really, it gets celebrated by small groups over a two-week period. That two week period is WITHOUT most neopagans celebrating it based on local conditions!

The Other Worlds don't have linear time as we do, so I'm not sure of the level of impact on THAT side. Ideally we're tapping into energy from the ancestors for our High Days and that energy has left huge trails on the Other Sides, so once there maybe we just travel down the well-worn way.

That said, I'm in a Wiccan tradition where at least one of our Elders (Ivo Dominguez, Jr) times rituals very carefully in accordance to astrological movements. When the coven I am in was having it's formal creation ritual we had an 8 minute window of opportunity to start the ritual in, between ... I THINK it was the end of a Mercury Retro and ... something else. I'd have to look it all up in the journal for that year, and I'm not doing that right now. But since we were manifesting something on THIS plane that was new to ALL the plane, and we were only the 5th or 6th coven in the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, we weren't treading a very well-worn path. In cases like that trying to tie more things together, from all sources, is a Good Thing.

Buzzing on....
Okay, I AM going to go on a bit on Beltane and this Southern/Northern hemisphere thing. IF we decide dates of things by the calendar, AND we stay earth-focused, then the fact that it's Samhain in one hemisphere when it's Beltane in the other is enough to convince me that Beltane is 'another new year' day, AND that the veils MUST be thin then, too. I just can't see spiritual veils being thin ONLY in ONE hemisphere.

So, would Beltane be a good time to scry and see what we've planted will bring? Dunno! What say ye?

Catch you later!


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