Celebrating Candlemas

Some Pagans celebrate the Feb 1 or 2 holiday as Imbolc, which is Old Irish  for “in the belly” (i=in, bolg=belly).  Old Irish is the Gaelic language introduced to Ireland from Scotland in 500 AD, until it evolved into Middle Irish, sometime around 900 AD.  Others may celebrate this cross-quarter day as Oimelc (which means “ewe’s milk”), although this seems to be a name that is less often used.  Candlemas is another common name for this day, although some Pagans aren’t terribly keen on it, since it originates from Catholicism.

In contemporary Paganism, Brigid is the goddess most often honored at this time of year.  I’ve never been all that in tune with the Celtic deities (or the Norse ones, for that matter), so we celebrate it a bit differently…including appropriating the Catholic term for the holiday, Candlemas (candles are a great symbol of the strengthening of the sun),  borrowing a tiny bit from the Roman holiday of Februalia (mainly honoring Vesta-as-Hestia and cleansing everything from the house to ourselves), and honoring Sedna in her role as mother-of-the-cetaceans (this is the time of the year when the humpbacks make their appearance off our shores).

As with every Sabbat, there are a ton of Imbolc rituals and holiday histories and all sorts of other ideas of what to do for this time of year (this site has one of the most comprehensive starting points I’ve seen yet).  I recommend perusing around a bit to find what suits you are your family’s practice and beliefs (or not), rather than buying into something that doesn’t work for you (of course, sometimes, the only way to be sure, is to try it anyhow!).

Some of my plans include:
Super cleaning the house for a family blessing ritual
Doing some basic cleansing and blessing of myself…I’ve gotten a bit lax and I can feel it Reaffirming my commitment to my self, via my newly established dietary needs
Re-reading T. Thorn Coyle’s Evolutionary Witchcraft
Thinking about some things and doing a little divination work for inspiration on what to do about them

Some of our family plans include:
Ceromancy–Technically, ceromancy is a form of divination using melted wax in a bowl of water, in which the reader interprets the shape and the meaning of the shape. We do it as a form of story telling…the shape you see has to feature in the story you tell.
Making Vestas–We already did this one yesterday…making dipped candles is a great way to charge the candles as you make them!
Baking Sun Cake! we are going with cream cheese icing this year though, and I’m making our cake in a springform pan because I don’t have a bundt cake pan (when we made it last year, we were at Grandma’s house).
Home Blessing…now there’s a post I should blog about again, that one’s from 4 years ago!!
Family altar cleaning, cleansing, and rededication, and building Chickadee her own personal altar (she and Collin have a “baby altar” that mom handles right now)

Also, I’ve been reminded that you all need to meet Citrine! …You may remember the Sabbat faeries, but if you don’t, this post might help refresh your memory!

I’ve never met Citrine, but Chickadee tells me that she is the faerie that oversees Candlemas. I have it on good authority that Citrine lives in a stand of my second favorite tree  (Emerald apparently lives in my favorite tree, but Chickadee won’t tell me any more than that until Beltane), the Live Oak (its called the Live Oak because it is an evergreen oak tree).  In the winter, she shares the home of a rabbit friend in a burrow at the base of the branchiest Live Oak of them all.  If you’ve never seen one before, Live Oak trees are very branchy…and very gossipy; they are always ready to tell a good yarn about someone or something that has passed them by!  In the summertime though, she stays in a hammock that sways in the breeze from one of the tree’s many branches.

According to Chickadee, Citrine is friends with The Shining Ladies–you know, those goddesses that some people choose to celebrate at this time of year, who usually have something to do with candles and flame and coziness and inspiration and all sorts of stuff like that, who have given her a number of tasks to organize for this time of year?  Citrine checks on the hibernating animals to make sure that they are still snug and hidden, and she makes sure that the the birds and other animals that are not hibernating have enough food to last them a little while longer.  Citrine, if asked (and left a treat of oats, or dried fruit or nuts), will also bless candles made at this time of year, and will send her friends to add a little faery sparkle to newly cleansed and blessed homes.

The Return of Sol Invictus

Just because the Apocalypse didn’t happen, doesn’t mean this isn’t true:

And the reason ^ is true is because, well…this is true:

Lets face it, Humanity is on a funky sort of of feedback loop–change is inevitable and progressive, but the struggle is eternal.

Which is why the Solstice matters.

if the universe existed in a single year…

Billions of years ago (14 actually), something happened.  Something that might have been special, that might have been miraculous…or it could have actually been pretty darn routine.  Its hard to say though, since none of us were here (or there) and we lack the capacity to see quite that far yet.  But, either way, in the beginning, a giant explosion hurled existence into being and set forth events that would lead to us.

Our Sun (a pretty average sort of star), was born from some of the matter ejected in this explosion.  One of many, many swirling clouds of matter contracted under its own weight, spinning* itself into the shapes we know today as the Sun and its solar system.  It didn’t happen overnight–the sun’s formation took about 9 billion years (that is one heck of a pregnancy!), and in its birthing, the “extras”, the left over material that had formed in bands around the developing proto-Sun, conglomerated into the planets…including Earth.

The Solstices (and Equinoxes) celebrate the cycle of the Earth’s journey around the Sun, journey that is mimicked in our own lives, in Humanity, and by the Sun itself.  There is no Baby Sun King, no Dying Solar God–there is a planet, with a tilt.  But the Sun does live…it was born, and it will die, on a timescale that we have no possibility of understanding.  Mankind with long have ceased by the time the Sun burns out.

In the timescale of the Universe, our Sun is at his peak–midway through its life. We might allegorically celebrate this as the time of the Sun’s rebirth (or the Sun’s height, for those in the Southern Hemisphere), but its really about our rebirth.

Our renewal.

Our chance to keep fighting the fire of our existence.

Our reminder to make this the end of the world as we know it.

Because, maybe then, we can keep spinning until we become something better.

Change takes time.  It took the Sun 9 billion years to be birthed.  And the Earth and the Sun working together another 4.5 billion** years to make complex life.  It has taken us, by comparison, 8 million years to evolve*** from our nearest common ancestor with successful descendants. Our species, Homo sapiens, has only been around for 100,000 years, and only in the past 10,000 years did we lay the foundations for the societies of today (through the “invention” of agriculture).

Every year, we celebrate the turning of the wheel–the Wheel of the Year, but also of our time, because the former is a microcosm of the latter. We celebrate the Sun, because it is the ultimate giver of life on this planet, whether we take the time and energy to worship it as a solar deity or just respect its plain damn awesomeness.

Addendum:
*The Sun is still spinning…
**I just love this site…
***…and we are still evolving!

Bonus Track: Teach your kids about the Earth’s travels with an orange, a stick, and a flashlight.

From the Wee Grimoire: Twas the Night before Yule

‘Twas the night before Yule, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that the Yule Faeries soon would be there;
The children weren’t nestled all snug in their beds,
They were dancing ’round a bonfire, instead.
With Mama and her drum, and the stars shining bright,
As we settled in to celebrate the longest of nights —
When up near the house there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the circle to see what was the matter.
Away to up the path, I flew like a flash,
Peeked in through the windows, and took a great gasp.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But eight tiny fairies, with wings so perfectly clear!
They carried presents much bigger than they–
I knew it was magic they brought on this day.
Everything they touched glinted and glowed
As they laid out each gift in a sparkle of snow.
They sang and danced, all cheery and free’
“We’re helping Santa to make his deliveries
for all the children that dance and play
to celebrate the Sun King’s birthday.”
I crept away slowly, not wanting to bother,
and headed back down to where we were gathered.
I’m sure I was spotted, as the faeries flew high,
For a flash of wings glittered near my eye
As I heard one say “Have a blessed Night!”
And I know now that Mama was right–
While Santa is busy getting ready for Christmas,
He has special helpers for the littlest Pagans and Wiccans!

by me

Meet Garnet: You might remember the Sabbat Faeries…but if you don’t, its okay–I can tell you again!  You do remember that tonight is The Longest Night, where we celebrate the dying of the Old Sun King and the birth of the Baby Sun King?  Tomorrow is what we call Yule, or the Winter Solstice–the time when the Baby Sun King is reborn and the days will start to grow longer again as the Sun gets stronger.

Yule is the favorite holiday of Garnet, who loves the snow and evergreens.  In fact, Garnet actually lives in an evergreen–the 34th branch of the biggest, tallest pine tree in the Piney Woods!  When Garnet decided to move from the city to be closer to her friends (she used to live in New York City’s Central Park), a cardinal friend built her a nest there, so it would feel like being in the city, with its tall buildings.  He even donated some of his feathers to make a nice waterproof roof, and a fox friend donated some of her fur to make the nest cozy and warm.  Garnet loves her perch in the Piney woods, where she can see all the way across the forest.

Garnet is in charge of the Winter Solstice, and organizing all the fairies to deliver the gifts for Pagan children that celebrate the Winter Solstice.  She had gotten to know Santa one winter, and he was so upset that he felt he wasn’t doing a proper job at Yule, because he was still trying to get ready for Christmas, that she offered for her and her friends to help.  You see…during the rest of the year, Garnet is busy with her regular job–she helps teach the baby birds how to sing their special songs, but by winter, they’ve all learned them!  She was happy to help Santa out since she would be sitting around waiting for Spring to come around again otherwise.  And so, Garnet makes sure that the fairies pick up the presents from Santa on time to deliver them to all the boys and girls that celebrate Yule while Santa double checks his list and packs his sleigh.

What was that you asked?  What about Santa’s cookies and hot chocolate?  Oh!  don’t worry–that’s why we make the cookies extra small!  And use your doll tea set!  Besides…fairies have a very high metabolism.  Why, I bet they eat as much as Santa!

Chimneys?  No…fairies don’t like those–the soot makes them sneeze!  And since they are so very tiny, they can fit through key holes and window cracks.

How do the presents not get squished?  I have no idea…except to say, its magic.

A note from Mom:  This is where I probably should mention that we don’t normally treat Santa or the Sabbat Fairies as “real”–at least not as “real” as the literal, physical (or otherwise) sort of entity.  We don’t lie to our kids.  Chickadee would be the first to tell you that Santa is “made up, but that’s ok because he’s still cool” followed up by a “but I’m not supposed to say he’s not real, because it might hurt someone’s feelings” (she’ll probably tell you the same thing about Jesus) (my objection isn’t to her saying he’s either isn’t real, but that she hasn’t learned to do so with much tact yet).  But we do tell stories.  There is a difference, and even a very small child is capable of understanding that difference.  Kids are much better at suspended disbelief than we are.  We have always (from the get go) separated the idea of something being “true” from something that contains “Truth”.  We follow a belief system seeped in mythology, mythology that is symbolic and allegorical and powerful…but not true.  So, for our kids…Santa (and the Sabbat Faeries) are a story, and stories are important.

Deck the Halls, Witchlet Style!

In our home, Yule preparations traditionally start the day after Thanksgiving (though this year, we started late since Daddy Man was out of town working) and continue until the week before Yule.  Its partially a hold over from my childhood family Christmases, but also because we “make” about 90% of our decorations.

Except the tree…we rent that.

Okay, we really don’t rent it.  But since we live in an apartment (and I can’t do live trees in the house because of the allergens it brings in), without much storage space, the past few years, we’ve gotten tree from the thrift store and then we’ve re-donated it afterwards.  The money goes to a good cause (YAY, Children’s Hospital!) and we don’t have to figure out where to put the tree box…or the boxes upon boxes of decorations.  We have one large shoe box (from a pair of The Hubby’s boots) that have a few keepsake ornaments, a three sets of mini-LED lights for the windows, and some sleigh bells.  Other than that, (as I wrote about last year) we DIY.

Some of those DIY projects are perfect for witchlet magic lessons…

Chickadee’s Favorite: Blessing Chains

Chickadee had made an absolutely adorable video tutorial, that I had planned to post…but somehow, I deleted it instead.  It is no longer in the computer OR on the SD card.  Which is fine…because garland is wonderful all year long, and can be made to match the seasons.  We’ll just do the video at a later date, and stick to the written instructions for now!

The first thing you need to make a “Blessing Chains” as the Chickadee calls them, are blessings!  Next, you need some sturdy cotton thread and a needle.  Last, you need stuff to string.  We’ve used marshmallows, popcorn, cranberries, citrus slices, apple pieces, rosebuds, pretzels, animal crackers, macaroni, shells, glass beads, wooden beads, buttons, cereal, and more.  The only “rule” is to 1) pick stuff you like, and 2) pick stuff that can go back into to nature.

The Technique (as related by Chickadee):  Take a piece of stuff to string and then close your eyes and take a big breath in VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARY slowly.  Imagine being filled with a warm light all the way down to your toes.  For blessings, my light is pink and smells like peppermint ice cream with sprinkles.  When you think your lungs will explode, stop and let the blessing grow in your brain until you are filled with it.  Then blow the blessing out of your body into the cranberry or popcorn or bead.  Open your eyes and string it…if you don’t open your eyes, you will poke your finger with the needle and that hurts.

Mom tip: Instead of individually blessing every piece, try blessing a bowl of each type of item with something different.  Or bless every fifth or whatever item, or take turns stringing items between a group.

When you have a foot or two or five, tie it off and hang it on the tree, or in the bushes, etc!

Sharkbait’s Favorite: Salt-Dough Tree Talismans

Talismans?  Really?  I actually had to check the dictionary on that one…lol!

Anyhoo…

Sharkbait is more of a hands-dirty type of kid, so these are a favorite of his!  We start with salt-dough–about 1 part salt to 2 parts flour, add just enough water until its the consistency of a thick play-doh like dough, and then a couple of drops of food color.  Pick your cookie cutters, then roll the dough flat and cut them out.  Make sure you poke a hole in them before you bake them.  Bake at ~200-250 degrees F, checking on them every 15-20 min.  They should take around 30-50 minutes to harden nicely. String them and hang.

Now, there are tons of things you can do to incorporate magic here–color and shape correspondences (pigs for prosperity!), adding herbs, decorating with stones, etc.  If you were making these as gifts, you could “add the magic” (say, a general blessing for health and wellness, or a home protection) while you were mixing the dough up.  If you are making them at home, with different shapes and colors for different things and people, you might wait until you are mixing the individual color (if you are focusing on color correspondences) or cutting them out (if you are focusing on the shape correspondences), etc.  We make most of these with a general sort of blessing, and then everyone makes one especially for them–some to represent ourselves and something we wish to emulate better in ourselves, and we tie it to the tree with a ribbon that has had a blessing written on it just for us.  After Yule, these special ornaments are put on the family altar.

Sunday Musings

I’m distracting myself from current events by organizing my pictures…this is from when Chickadee went to work with me!

In the simmer pot:  Thalassa’s Yule Blend

*Half an orange, sliced (or one small orange)
*A handful of cranberries
*One cinnamon stick, crushed
*The peel of one apple
*A bit of grated ginger root
*Two handfuls of white pine needles, chopped and bruised

In my tea cup: Thalassa’s Yule Blend, plus honey

Like most parents, I was shocked and saddened to hear what happened in Connecticut.  My first reaction was to get my kids and squish them until they’d had enough of that and rebelled.  My second reaction was to put it away and stop thinking about it–how can any of us even begin to fathom what it would be like to lose a child like this?  I’ve lost a child, and I can’t even begin to wrap my head around losing a child like this.  …Finally, after I actually got to squish my kids (because by then, The Hubby and I had gotten to discuss it in the car, and we’d picked up the kids), and I was on the computer, my third reaction was to turn my damn computer off (since we don’t have cable, the internet is my news).  The only thing that I’ve read that made any sense (and didn’t piss me off) was this:

Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he’ll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN’s article says that if the body count “holds up”, this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer’s face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer’s identity? None that I’ve seen yet. Because they don’t sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you’ve just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man’s name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news.”

Morgan Freeman

I only have one thing to say about about this incident, beyond remembering these children, their teachers and other school staff whose lives were taken, their families and friends, and their community–I don’t care what your religious opinion or your political bent is, your position on the lack of accessible mental health care, or your stance on gun control, etc. Keep it to yourself, your ego has no room in their tragedy. Let them grieve, have some empathy for their families, and grow some compassion in your own life.  I get that it is natural to feel anger about something that we fear, and fear something that we have no power over, and to seek to control whatever it is that we can control to cope with events like this.  If you need to, be angry tomorrow.  Right now, remember these families and go home and play with your children or call your parents, visit with your neighbors and friends…and maybe by reaching out (not just today, but every day), we can bring the world in, and make it something better, gentler.

Moment of Zen: Light a Candle

In times of sorrow, of worry, of despair, a candle is a symbol of hope.  In an oppressive darkness, one tiny flame flickering in the distance is a beacon of love and warmth and peace.  The Kalahari Bushmen once believed that the stars in the sky were the campfires of distant peoples, just as a campfire in the distance on the plains of Africa were a sign of Kin nearby.  Though less of us experience the near total darkness of the endless sky (and the billions of stars that serve as the reminder that we are not truly alone) than in previous generations because of proximity to cities and towns and light pollution, we can all imagine the power of a light in the darkness–it is one of the strongest images in the Human psyche.  Light a candle to bring warmth and hope to your home and to your heart.  Let that light shine into you and through you into the world.

Yule is the Season of Hope, the Season of Turning from Despair, the Season that teaches us that Life Goes On.  Whether one celebrates the return of the Sun, the birth of a holy child, or the miracle of light to anoint a desecrated temple is immaterial.  It doesn’t matter if you think that “Reason is the reason for the season” or that we need to “Keep Christ in Christmas” or that we need to put the “Sol in Solstice”–what is important is that dawn will break on a new day, after the Longest Night, and give us yet another chance to move forward with love and compassion.  Another chance to live on and Remember, and to give Meaning to what we have lost.

Herb of the Week: Rosemary for Rememberance

“There’s rosemary; that’s for remembrance.
Pray, love, remember.”
~Shakespeare, Hamlet

Rosemary has long been the symbol of remembrance.  Its name comes from the Latin for dew (ros) of the sea (marinus)…and as an herb of the Sea, and of Water, it makes perfect sense that it would be the herb that represents the memory and promise of love between friends and family.  Rosemary is a perennial woody evergreen herb native to the Mediterranean that will happily grow in a window-box garden.  Rosemary can be used in rituals of remembrance, among other things.

Yuletide Afterschooling:  Our vocabulary words for the week are solstice, equinox, equator, hemisphere, tilt, axis, and orbit.  We’ve mostly been talking about winter solstice traditions around the world, and the science of the seasons (more on this in another post!).   But we’ve also been talking about Hope, and about Myth, and about living with kindness and intention.

In other news…I’m working on some personal projects behind the scenes that I would *like* to see manifest themselves enough to share.  So…I’m keeping the fingers crossed and candles lit on this!

I’ve also been working on some of my other blogs (the ones I keep separately so I don’t bog this one down with *too* much off topic stuff)…so if you are interested in learning more about finding your way around Navy ships or learning about mole crabs, check them out!  I’m also hoping to get another Yule post or two out on here, as well as one on how our mental and emotional baggage can manifest mundanely and psychically and how it can be dealt with in meditation and ritual.

A Prayer for Today:

These woods are dark
this path is shadowed
walk with me
and hold me fast in your grace
that I might banish my fears
that I might overcome what lies ahead
with your blessing
I will emerge from this darkness
and breathe free again
So mote it be

(Diane Sylvan)

And a Hope for Tomorrow:

In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway, And so it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were presumably designed in the first place…the opportunity to do good work, to fall in love, to enjoy friends, to hit a ball, to bounce a baby…

Alistair Clark, One Man’s America