Messages In This Digest (5 Messages)
- 1.
- Imbolc - Breaking Winter Doldrums Spell From: Silver Fox
- 2a.
- Candlemas - The Light Returns From: Silver Fox
- 3a.
- Imbolc - Corn Dollies From: Silver Fox
- 4.
- The Covenstead Residential | Easter Long Weekend | NSW Aust From: Suzanne Naseby
- 5a.
- Re: Upcoming Sabbat, help appreciated From: Silver Fox
Messages
- 1.
-
Imbolc - Breaking Winter Doldrums Spell
Posted by: "Silver Fox" silverfox_57@hotmail.com trickster9993
Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:38 am (PST)
Breaking Winter Doldrums Spell
By Ruby Lavender
January is rough. It's cold and dark, and winter doldrums can set in. This is just the right time for a spell of creativity enhancement. Everyone is creative. Some can sing and dance; others have a green thumb or a way with animals. Some are wordsmiths or good cooks; others are good at magic.
Begin by drawing a symbolic picture of yourself with some images representing the talents you'd like to develop. Draw yourself writing in your journal, or taking photos, or working in your garden.
Next, create a small altar in a place that you see every day. Place the drawing on your altar with some other items symbolizing the talents you wish to enhance.
Be creative with this—use a packet of seeds, a paintbrush, or a favorite CD as symbols. Wednesday is Mercury's day, of new beginnings and creativity. Light a yellow candle, visualizing yourself doing what you love.
Each day take some time, even if only a few minutes, to practice your talent. Place offerings on the altar—flowers, fruit, wine, stones—that further symbolize your resolve to nurture your burgeoning talents.
Silver Fox
"It is all true, it is not true. The more I tell you, the more I shall lie. What is story but jesting Pilate's cry. I am not paid to tell you the truth."
Jane Yolen; The Storyteller
- 2a.
-
Candlemas - The Light Returns
Posted by: "Silver Fox" silverfox_57@hotmail.com trickster9993
Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:40 am (PST)
Candlemas - The Light Returns
Source: Unknown
It seems quite impossible that the holiday of Candlemas should be considered the beginning of Spring. Here in the Heartland, February 2nd may see a blanket of snow mantling the Mother. Or, if the snows have gone, you may be sure the days are filled with drizzle, slush, and steel-grey skies -- the dreariest weather of the year. In short, the perfect time for a Pagan Festival of Lights. And as for Spring, although this may seem a tenuous beginning, all the little buds, flowers and leaves will have arrived on schedule before Spring runs its course to Beltane.
"Candlemas" is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. "Imbolc" means, literally, "in the belly" (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows. "Oimelc" means "milk of ewes", for it is also lambing season.
The holiday is also called "Brigit's Day", in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism was occasionally expressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it is thus She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to be married or handfasted, the woman being called "bride" in her honor.)
The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. Henceforth, she would be "Saint" Brigit, patron SAINT of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They "explained" this by telling the Irish peasants that Brigit was "really" an early Christian missionary sent to the Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she performed there "misled" the common people into believing that she was a goddess. For some reason, the Irish swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish imagination can convince itself of. For example, they also came to believe that Brigit was the "foster-mother" of Jesus, giving no thought to the implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!)
Brigit's holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred fires, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires were lighted on the beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated their special holiday. The Roman Church was quick to confiscate this symbolism as well, using "Candlemas" as the day to bless all the church candles that would be used for the coming liturgical year. (Catholics will be reminded that the following day, St. Blaise's Day, is remembered for using the newly-blessed candles to bless the throats of parishioners, keeping them from colds, flu, sore throats, etc.)
The Catholic Church, never one to refrain from piling holiday upon holiday, also called it the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (It is surprising how many of the old Pagan holidays were converted to Maryan Feasts.) The symbol of the Purification may seem a little obscure to modern readers, but it has to do with the old custom of "churching women". It was believed that women were impure for six weeks after giving birth. And since Mary gave birth at the winter solstice, she wouldn't be purified until February 2nd. In Pagan symbolism, this might be re-translated as when the Great Mother once again becomes the Young Maiden Goddess.
Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore. Even our American folk-calendar keeps the tradition of "Groundhog's Day", a day to predict the coming weather, telling us that if the Groundhog sees his shadow, there will be "six more weeks" of bad weather (i.e., until the next old holiday, Lady Day). This custom is ancient. An old British rhyme tells us that "If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year." Actually, all of the cross-quarter days can be used as "inverse" weather predictors, whereas the quarter-days are used as "direct" weather predictors.
Like the other High Holidays or Great Sabbats of the Witches' year, Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it's alternate date, astrologically determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees Aquarius, or Candlemas Old Style (in 1988, February 3rd, at 9:03 am CST). Another holiday that gets mixed up in this is Valentine's Day. Ozark folklorist Vance Randolf makes this quite clear by noting that the old-timers used to celebrate Groundhog's Day on February 14th. This same displacement is evident in Eastern Orthodox Christianity as well. Their habit of celebrating the birth of Jesus on January 6th, with a similar post-dated shift in the six-week period that follows it, puts the Feast of the Purification of Mary on February 14th. It is amazing to think that the same confusion and lateral displacement of one of the old folk holidays can be seen from the Russian steppes to the Ozark hills, but such seems to be the case!
Incidentally, there is speculation among linguistic scholars that the vary name of "Valentine" has Pagan origins. It seems that it was customary for French peasants of the Middle Ages to pronounce a "g" as a "v". Consequently, the original term may have been the French "galantine", which yields the English word "gallant". The word originally refers to a dashing young man known for his "affaires d'amour", a true galaunt. The usual associations of V(G)alantine's Day make much more sense in this light than their vague connection to a legendary "St. Valentine" can produce. Indeed, the Church has always found it rather difficult to explain this nebulous saint's connection to the secular pleasures of flirtation and courtly love.
For modern Witches, Candlemas O.S. may then be seen as the Pagan version of Valentine's Day, with a de-emphasis of "hearts and flowers" and an appropriate re-emphasis of Pagan carnal frivolity. This also re-aligns the holiday with the ancient Roman Lupercalia, a fertility festival held at this time, in which the priests of Pan ran through the streets of Rome whacking young women with goatskin thongs to make them fertile. The women seemed to enjoy the attention and often stripped in order to afford better targets.
One of the nicest folk-customs still practiced in many countries, and especially by Witches in the British Isles and parts of the U.S., is to place a lighted candle in each and every window of the house, beginning at sundown on Candlemas Eve (February 1st), allowing them to continue burning until sunrise. Make sure that such candles are well seated against tipping and guarded from nearby curtains, etc. What a cheery sight it is on this cold, bleak and dreary night to see house after house with candle-lit windows! And, of course, if you are your Coven's chandler, or if you just happen to like making candles, Candlem as Day is THE day for doing it. Some Covens hold candle-making parties and try to make and bless all the candles they'll be using for the whole year on this day.
Other customs of the holiday include weaving "Brigit's crosses" from straw or wheat to hang around the house for protection, performing rites of spiritual cleansing and purification, making "Brigit's beds" to ensure fertility of mind and spirit (and body, if desired), and making Crowns of Light (i.e. of candles) for the High Priestess to wear for the Candlemas Circle, similar to those worn on St. Lucy's Day in Scandinavian countries. All in all, this Pagan Festival of Lights, sacred to the young Maiden Goddess, is one of the most beautiful and poetic of the year.
Silver Fox
"It is all true, it is not true. The more I tell you, the more I shall lie. What is story but jesting Pilate's cry. I am not paid to tell you the truth."
Jane Yolen; The Storyteller
- 3a.
-
Imbolc - Corn Dollies
Posted by: "Silver Fox" silverfox_57@hotmail.com trickster9993
Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:40 am (PST)
Corn Dollies
Source: Unknown
One of the earliest forms of the corn dolly is the tall spiral. To begin making this type, select five straws of wheat and tie them together using a clove hitch knot, just under the grains of wheat. Then turn the wheat upside down so that the wheat hangs down like a tassel. Lay the straws out flat in the form of a solar cross with one of the arms being made of two straws. Begin weaving by taking one of the two straws and folding it over the straw next to it, so that it is now parallel to the next arm of the cross. Bend that straw around the new one and fold it over so that now it is parallel to the third arm of the cross. When the first round is complete, a square will have been formed. Continue weaving in the same manner, laying each new round of straw outside the square, thereby increasing the width of the Corn Dolly's spiral until the desired width is reached. The spiral can then be decreased by folding the straws to the inside of the square formed by the previous round. If the straw should run out, replace it with a plain headless weaver. When the neck of the Dolly has been reached, braid the remaining straws together and tie them into a loop.
Bride's Cross (St. Bridget's Cross) , is somewhat simpler. Select four short straws of wheat with heads. Tie them together in pairs, end to end. so that each pair has a head of grain at each end. Then begin weaving an eye of god by holding the end of a length of straw across the center of the cross and winding it across behind and over each arm. If the straw runs our add more by inserting a new straw into the hollow center of the last one. To finish, tie the end of the last weaver to an arm of the cross with cotton thread.
Simpler versions of the Corn Dolly are the Love Tokens of the Lover's Knot. These are made by braiding the straws of wheat together rather than weaving. Some of the most complex are the Welsch Fans, which are sometimes further complicated by combining several of the fans to from a circle.
Corn Dollies are kept as amulets of protection and fertility, and according to Rhiannon Ryaal in West Country Wicca, a pair of them were hung up on the gable ends of houses as protective charms, by the men who thatched the roofs one Dolly representing the God, the other the Goddess. It was to see how the Welsch Fan might represent the Horned God while others might symbolize the apron or pubic area of the Goddess.
Silver Fox
"It is all true, it is not true. The more I tell you, the more I shall lie. What is story but jesting Pilate's cry. I am not paid to tell you the truth."
Jane Yolen; The Storyteller
- 4.
-
The Covenstead Residential | Easter Long Weekend | NSW Aust
Posted by: "Suzanne Naseby" suzanne@wytchyways.com suzanne_wytchyways
Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:23 pm (PST)
The Covenstead Residential: the Eleusinian Mysteries
Thurs 21st - Mon 25th April 2011 [Easter/Mabon long weekend]
At this residential we will explore the Eleusinian Mysteries and the
'myth' of Persephone and Demeter. This ageless and powerful story
isn't really a myth, because is lives in the heart of every mother and
daughter. We will explore our own journey of darkness away from Mother
and our returning emergence, rebirthed as women. This is such rich
territory that we need a 4 day residential to explore it well!
The Covenstead means 'home of the wytch' and on this weekend we will
feel at home together in a non-hierarchical circle of womyn of varying
levels of experience and varying spiritual interests. Together we will
explore the Mysteries. We will take time to ask questions, to wonder,
to sometimes understand and to sometimes honour the Mystery. We will
learn and share our wisdoms, exploring spellcraft and ritual ... we
will dance and sing and create beauty together!
It is time to put the books down ... it is time to start experiencing
real magic!
On this weekend we will:
• share our mother and daughter stories
• learn about the Eleusinian Mysteries and what these ancient rites
hold for us today
• immerse ourselves in the myth of Persphone and Demeter
• learn and practice spell crafting
• share and practice divination techniques
• create magickal talismans
• learn about how to work with the moon for personal empowerment and
magick
• learn and share simple but powerful chants and dances
• create and share beautiful rituals
"What a weekend!!! My only complaint is that it was Sunday afternoon
too soon!! I'm so excited about the upcoming 4 day retreat. I have
come away from this Covenstead retreat with a greater sense of self
and my pockets full of new friends.. or more accurately, old friends I
hadn't met 'til then. There were so many wonderful moments to recall"
Gai-Louise, NSW
"Thanks for organizing such a wonderful weekend of teaching & sharing,
your wise ways helped all the women present to let go of expectations,
inhibitions and helped us to cross the threshold into the wild world
of Wytchyness" Michelle, NSW
"I'm so impressed by how you manage to include all levels in your
ritual ... also the warmth, power, beauty and elegance of the circle
that you create The way you managed to engage us so quickly in song
and dance was very inspired." Josephine, NSW
"Thankyou so much for an amazing weekend! Wow it has had a massive
impact on me ... I would love to come to the Easter retreat next year
and will put that in my calender...YAY!" Louise NSW
_____________________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
DATE
Thurs 21st (optional) Fri 22nd, Sat 23rd, Sun 24th & Mon 25th April
[Easter long weekend]
WHERE
Rainbows Reach Retreat | Wyee | NSW approx 1.5 hours north of Sydney
on the NSW Central Coast
see the website for more venue info: http://www.rainbowsreachretreat. com.au/
Pick up from Sydney airport and group/share travel to the retreat
centre can be arranged.
COST
$380 by 4/4/2011 | $450 after 4/4/2011
$60 additional cost to stay Thursday night
INCLUDES:
• 3/4 nights accommodation [some private rooms are available] in a
beautiful bush retreat
• All delicious vegetarian and meat meals (special dietary needs
catered for)
• All workshop materials
BOOKINGS & INFORMATION:
Contact Suzanne via email: suzanne@wytchyways.co or phone: 0408 200 72
or for more info plus to register and pay with your credit card go to: http://www.wytchyways.com/Covenstea dResidential. html
Women only
suzanne x
www.wytchyways.com
- 5a.
-
Re: Upcoming Sabbat, help appreciated
Posted by: "Silver Fox" silverfox_57@hotmail.com trickster9993
Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:43 pm (PST)
That is a shame about your family talking you out of following a religous path... hopefully you're older and wiser now and more sure of where you want to go as a person.
We all do have to start some place and begins somewhere on our paths. If you've got more specific questions, there's bound to be someone who will be able to answer, many from numerous other and different paths; so there will be a lot of varying answers to what's right and what's the proper way to go about something.
Silver Fox
"It is all true, it is not true. The more I tell you, the more I shall lie. What is story but jesting Pilate's cry. I am not paid to tell you the truth."
Jane Yolen; The Storyteller
To: EarthwiseBOS@yahoogroups. com
From: mauve.sunrise@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:11:30 -0800
Subject: Re: [Earthwise] Upcoming Sabbat, help appreciated
Thank you! I am sorry to confuse you. Like I said I am quite new to all this. I started studying about 7 years ago and had my family talk me out of it, sayin that that was not really what I wanted to just try to be something else. Well I did now I am getting back to my heart. So all the help and assistance you can provide would be excellent.
Blessed Be,
Mauve
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Earthwise is a world wide group.
We are based in Western Sydney, NSW. Australia.
Located in the valley before the beautiful Blue Mountains were
we hold sacred rituals, workshops, social events and outings,
for more information see our calendar of events at Witches Meetup
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___________________________________________________________________________
Astarte also works full time as a Psychic Counsellor, Medium,
Clairvoyant, Healer and Teacher.
If she can be of assistance to you, please see her home page at
www.earthwise.net.au
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Astarte is always sourcing new suppliers of quality pagan
related items, to purchase wholesale or even put on consignment,
she willing to purchase worldwide items for the Earthwise Store.
If you have something of interest please contact Astarte
earthwise@bigpond.com
___________________________________________________________________________
ø¤º°` Earthwise ø¤º°`
<:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::]]======0
The Worldwide Spirit of Paganism
in Australia, America & Worldwide!
Take a Look at Our Huge EBay Store
For all your Magickal & Ritual Supplies
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Astarte-Earthwise
___________________________________________________________________________
This Earthwise Book of Shadows group holds the expectation
that a tolerant, mature and respectful dialogue be strived
for in our communications with each other. Members are
encouraged to challenge anyone not adhering to these
principles and to notify the list owner Astarte if you are
offended by a posting, write to me at
earthwise@bigpond.com
Thank you.
___________________________________________________________________________
Earthwise is a world wide group.
We are based in Western Sydney, NSW. Australia.
Located in the valley before the beautiful Blue Mountains were
we hold sacred rituals, workshops, social events and outings,
for more information see our calendar of events at Witches Meetup
http://witches.meetup.com/1293/
___________________________________________________________________________
Astarte also works full time as a Psychic Counsellor, Medium,
Clairvoyant, Healer and Teacher.
If she can be of assistance to you, please see her home page at
www.earthwise.net.au
___________________________________________________________________________
ARE YOU CREATIVE?
Astarte is always sourcing new suppliers of quality pagan
related items, to purchase wholesale or even put on consignment,
she willing to purchase worldwide items for the Earthwise Store.
If you have something of interest please contact Astarte
earthwise@bigpond.com
___________________________________________________________________________
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