Now that harvest time is over and the cold is starting to settle in, we are spending more time indoors and are also retreating inward, looking inside ourselves a little deeper.  The dark months are a time of reflection.  Now is the time to draw back, “hibernate” and think about our lives, our paths and ourselves in general.  Harvest isn’t just the actual bounty of the earth but also a harvest of our own achievements and experiences, both good and bad.  Winter is the ideal time to have a good look at what we have created in our lives, spread it all out and contemplate it.  Winter is also a great time for cleansing of our homes, minds and bodies.

This working is very simple and appropriate for the coming dark months.

To signify your willingness to move on and let go of things, first do a really thorough cleaning of your home.  Go through your closets and cupboards and donate anything you no longer need.  Keeping “stuff” signifies that you may also hang onto emotional baggage.  Break out the duster and tackle every nook and cranny – don’t forget on top of picture frames and the ceiling fan!

When the snow falls, go outside and gather some in a jar.  Your jar can be as plain or as fancy as you like.  You can use one that appeals to you based on color or shape, or simply because it had your favorite wine in it.  Just make sure it has a screw top and closes firmly, because you don’t want it to leak.  Let the snow melt in the jar, until the jar is full of water, all of it straight from the sky itself.  Add a handful of fresh pine needles to your jar or bottle of rain.  Pine is said to have cleansing, purifying properties and is easily found around your home or in a park.  Other herbs to consider are lavender, mint or sage.  Close the bottle and let it sit in a window where it will be exposed to both daylight and moonlight for three days and nights, to cleanse and empower it by the sun and the moon.

Find some quiet time when you will be alone and uninterrupted.  Light a white candle and if you like, cast a circle or call upon deities.  Have ready a piece of thin newsprint paper and a pen.  Think about your long term goals, as well as things that you would like to change.  Consider your experiences from the past year, and what you have learned from them.  Has anything happened that you need to let go of, such as old hurts from others or guilt upon yourself?  Perhaps there are situations you wish turned out differently that are still weighing upon you, or you are hanging onto some resentment.  Whatever it is you’d like to change or get rid of, write it down on the newsprint.  Some examples are healing a broken heart, overcoming shyness, breaking bad habits and addictions, or forgetting about someone who has wronged you.  Purge all of this out of yourself onto the paper in your own words or pictures.  See yourself as free and clear of these issues.  Then roll or fold the paper up, put it in the bottle and recap it tightly.

Put the bottle somewhere you will not see it much, like the cellar or far in the back of a closet.  Leave it there for exactly one year.  Let the snow water and herbs work away at the paper, deteriorating it and your concerns.  The ink will disappear and blur too, the elements in the bottle erasing the unwanted, unneeded hindrances.  (This is why it is important to use thin newsprint or tracing paper.  It breaks down easier.)

Next year on the same day retrieve your bottle.  Shake it up and see how the paper has changed form, perhaps into mushy nothing.  Have the long-term nasties you put onto your paper also deteriorated or changed, at least somewhat?  Even better is if you’ve forgotten what you’d written at all, the problems have been solved so successfully.

At this point, dump the contents of the bottle into a lake or river and then send the bottle to be recycled.  Don’t keep it.  Think about the positive changes you have made in a year, how things have progressed, and how far you have come.  Then walk away and call it done.

Blessed be!

K. White Moon

www.WhiteMoonWitchcraft.etsy.com

http://whitemoonwitchcraft.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-Moon-Witchcraft/183824068298586

Snow Faeries, Frost Faeries, Ice faeries or Winter Faeries; by whichever name you know them, they are the personification of the Winter season.  Their element is Water.  In the physical world, they are found throughout Europe and Asia, particularly at nocturnal Winter woods and water, and are the most active from late Autumn through early Spring, usually at night.  In the Land of the Fay, Snow Faeries can be spotted in the realm of Winter.

Depending on which culture you find them, the appearance of Snow Faeries can vary.  Because they are pure energy, they can take on any form that they wish.  Snow Faeries, like other Faeries, can mimic objects from their surrounding environment.  This is why Snow Faeries appear frosty and glittery, are often dressed in white and may choose to have wings.

There are also individual Snow Faeries that have stood out in ancient lore.  Quite possibly the most famous would be the English Jack Frost.  In Russia, he is called the Frost King or Father Frost.  Another name he is known by is Old Man Winter because his job, like all Snow Faeries, is bring Winter to the land and sometimes death to those who travel the winter wonderland.  By whatever name he is known by, he seems to be a solitary male even though there is also a Snow Queen.  She is known from Scandinavia to Japan as the bringer of Winter; she has her own frosty kingdom with a large white castle and rules the season of Winter.  It has been surmised that the Snow Queen may have descended from the Crone aspect of the Goddess and Pagans will give her offerings of libations to her for her protection.  The Snow Queen has no children, but lore tells of her searching out an unwanted human child that she could raise as her own.

Like Jack Frost and the Snow Queen, the vocation of the Faeries of Winter is to bring and keep Winter to the land in which they reside.  Snow Faeries will cover the fields with sparkling frost, encourage snowfall, produce icicles on your rooftop and paint the windows with frost.  Snow Faeries enjoy their work so much that it saddens them to see it all melt away.  Even though they know that Spring must come, Snow Faeries will often cause late snow flurries to cover early Spring flowers.

Because Snow Faeries do not possess a physical body as we humans do, they do not get cold.  Many Faeries, who are linked to flowers and other plant life, will retreat deeper into the Land of the Fay during the Winter season, but it is not due to the declining temperature.  It is simply because it is not their preferred environment or time of the year.

THE SPELL

The purpose of this spell is to request the protection from the Winter Faeries while you travel on the icy roads in the Winter.

You will need one winter-themed item to hang form your rearview mirror or place inside your glove box or center console.  This could be an icicle, a snowflake or a frosty-looking Faery.  You will be asking for the blessing from the Winter Faeries, then charging the item followed by placing it in your vehicle.  You will also need a bowl of water, or better yet, a bowl of ice cubes or snow.  Inside this will be a candle (pick a “wintry” color such as white, silver or blue); the easiest to use would be either a taper or a pillar (something that won’t be extinguished by the water/ice/snow).  Finally, you will need some type of offering; either a traditional libation or even birdseed that can be put outside afterwards.

If you wish, you can cover your altar in Faery Dust (glitter), twinkling lights, crystals, snowflakes and icicles.

1- Ground and Center to start, and if you wish, feel free to meditate.

2- Either create Sacred Space or cast a Magic Circle in the style of your Tradition.

3- Begin your spell with the evocation of the Winter Faeries and the Snow Queen:

“I call to the Frost Faeries and the Snow Queen.

Please travel from your wintry scene;

Your snowy kingdom in the Land of Fay,

Please join me in my working today.”

4- Place the bowl of water/ice/snow (with the candle resting inside) on the altar.  Light the candle and say:

“I’ve asked your presence here tonight,

And called you by this sacred light,

To lend your magic for my protection,

While I travel this wintry season.”

5- Pick up the item that you will charge with protective energy and hold it up while saying:

“Tonight we charge this talisman,

Melding our energies to create this charm.

I ask that you do everything you can,

To keep me safe and free from harm;

As I travel the snowy lanes,

Keep my journeys accident-free,

Ensure that I have no trials or pain,

As my will, so mote it be.”

Either silently or aloud, call forth the good will and protective energy form the Snow Queen just as Pagans have done in the past.  In your own words, explain to her your need to get through the Winter.  Ask that she fills the item with protective energy so that no matter where you travel, you will be safe and free from harm.  If you feel like raising energy through drumming, chanting, singing or dancing, do so now.  When you feel that your goal has been accomplished, say:

“For the good of all and with harm to none,

So say I, so shall it be done!”

6- To show your appreciation and gratitude, place your offering on the altar and say:

“To the Winter Faeries and their reigning Queen,

I give to you this offering;

My gratitude for the magic we wove,

Before you return to your snowy grove.”

7- If possible, let the candle burn out, but never leave a lit candle unattended!  Place the talisman in your vehicle and know that the Snow Queen is with you throughout this season.

8- It is time to take care of the offering.  If it is edible, either place your offering outside (if it is for the outdoor animals) or leave it on the altar overnight so that the Snow Queen and her Winter Faeries can take in the essence.  If it is something sparkly, either place it on your Faery shrine/altar (if you have one) or place it outside for the Faeries to enjoy.

You will need a tablespoon of each of the following spices…

Cinnamon, Clove, Nutmeg, and Corriander.

Take the spices and grind them to a fine powder in either a mortar and pestal or a coffee grinder.

Heat about ½ gallon of apple juice or cider, on low until it is warm, (if you have your own apples and can make your own juice or cider this would be even more wonderful, but store bought works).  Add the spices and stir until well mixed.  Enjoy!

Madame Mora’s herbal

This class is designed to show the practical application of herbs to assist with everyday needs.  The lessons printed will not outline “magical” uses for the herbs, but, if questions on this topic rise, please feel free to ask.

Also, please remember, the information in this class is a look at herbal therapies that may show promise as adjunctive treatments to conventional medical approaches, and is not meant to give specific recommendations or advise for the treatment of a specific illness, nor is it intended to be a replacement for good medical diagnosis and treatment.

It is nearing midnight and a crisp Autumn wind chills the air. She clutches her wrap tightly and, though her old joints creak in protest, she presses forward.  Her destination is not much farther. Just beyond the Oaks along the wooded path – thirteen feet at most.

The forest floor is thick with moss and cushions her footsteps. She reaches the sacred mound, shakes out a thick blanket and pauses while listening to the howl of a lone wolf. From the corner of her eye, there is movement and light; they are here.

She stands in silence, just as she had as a young girl, beside her grandmother; and then as a woman, alongside her mother and her own daughter who crossed much too young. But on this night, before those who are named and those whose names were lost with time, she is reunited.

Some retain the beauty they had in life, some are hags and some are hardly more than bones, with long silver hairs billowing in the moonlight, though collectively they form the cosmic womb. Tears of love spill from her eyes as she basks in the knowledge that she is finally taking her place among them.

—

Winter Nights, or old Norse Vetrnætr, occurs in mid October and is a celebration to honor the Disir, female ancestral spirits who have crossed to the Otherworld. For traditionally, in Scandinavian lore it is the women who are the protectors of the family line. One such example tells of two Disir, Thorgerd and Irpa from the clan Hladhr:

These disir had an elaborate temple of their own and fought beside

their kinsmen in battle by appearing in the sky shooting darts of hail

from their fingertips. (Njal’s Saga 88, Saga of the Jomsvikings, and     Skaldskarpamal. See Simek pp. 326-7.)

The Disir aid in childbirth, death and crossing over, and maintain the intricate  patterns that weave the sagas through generations. They are the voices of guidance, the whispers of consciousness, cunning, wise. They share in our greatest victories and bring comfort in our deepest sorrows. It is in their honor that we tell their stories, hail their names, known or not, and repay their gifts with offerings and devoted attention.

Though they are always close, as in the Celtic Samhain, it is at this time, when the earth turns to darkness, that the veil between the worlds thins. This phenomena greatly enhances our ability to communicate with the dead, and they to us, whether it be through inner silence, visitation, runes, tarot or other means of divination.

This is a time to turn your attention inward, to make amends, to complete that which is left undone. A time for lavish feasts, for toasting and boasting the deeds of those glorious women who came before us, and to pay homage in advance for their continued endurance and support as they help to carry us through the coming winter.

May we always honor their unending strength and love.

Family Winter Wellness

The dark phase of the year often brings with it lower immune systems and colds and flus.   As a new parent (only three years in) I often forget to prevent illness and backtrack when my little guy comes down with something.  I’ve assembled a quick guide to keeping your family healthy in the winter focusing on prevention since we’d rather not deal with getting sick if possible.  Of course if we do get ill we know that it is a message from our body that slowing down and resting is in order.  Since January is post-holiday craziness time it is hopefully a great time to make some changes to your schedules making restfulness and care for ourselves a higher priority.

Sleep

Getting enough sleep is always important but since this is the darker time of the year it seems to be a better time to make that happen for yourself and your kids.   Let your evenings be as calm as possible.  If you can’t make every evening relaxing try and do it at least once a week.  Use candles or dim lighting to keep everyone more introspective.  Have some herbal tea for dessert and read together.  Have blankets on hand for getting cozy under and make sure that bedrooms are refuge like for everyone.   A great lesson for kids to learn is that clutter does not inspire calmness and a room full of toys does not relax kids but instead stimulates them.

Wash those Hands

I know this one is about as basic as you can get but I am constantly amazed by how many people do not wash their hands properly.  The best way to prevent the spreading of illnesses is by washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with regular soap and water.  Many parents have hand sanitizer and wipes in case a sink is not an option before snacks when you are out and about.   You can help encourage your children to wash their hands by making it as fun as possible.  Soaps in fun shapes, colourful towels, and stools to help everyone reach the sink are really helpful.  Singing while washing always helps with my little one.  It will also help you to remember how long they need to wash.  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is our favourite standby for hand washing.

Eat Ginger and Garlic

Remember to include immune system boosting foods in your family’s diet.  You can find many recipes for stir-fries with ginger and garlic, two super foods for your body at this time of year.  We love hummus which almost always has a healthy dose of garlic, this hot drink recipe looks great (although I would lessen the sugar replacing it with honey or maple syrup and just sweeten to taste)  broths are also great for health; chicken, beef or fish bones boiled down with water.   You can find a recipe here.

Colour Therapy

Grey days are hard for everyone but children can have a harder time communicating a feeling of sadness or moodiness that may be brought on by a lack of sunlight exposure.  One way to help that is to have sunny colours around your home for them to feed off of.  A bright wall hanging, throw pillows, making colourful art together and dressing them in sunny coloured clothing for daytime can all help with this often silent problem.

Skin Care

Staying hydrated is key in cold weather just like in the summertime.  Heaters and indoor re-circulated air dry out the skin.  Try using a gentle cleanser for your young one’s skin and use it sparingly in only the body creases or very dirty areas.  Otherwise use moisturizers and drink lots of fluids to try and keep your skin from drying out or cracking.  Also remember to use sunscreen if out on very bright days with lots of sun reflection.

Get outdoors

Fresh air is good for us and so is natural light.  There may not be much natural light to spare but it is a good practice to get out as much as you can.  The air indoors is never as good for your lungs as that from a brisk walk or an afternoon of outdoor fun.  Light helps keep the winter blues at bay and makes your system function with the natural rhythms of the earth.

Does your family do something special to fight off the winter flu season?  Please share it in the comment section if you care to.  Have a wonderful winter and let’s try and have a healthy season and New Year.

Ó Susun S Weed

Winter is my favorite season. And where I live, winter brings cold and snow. Do you like snow? I do. I like to play in the snow. I admire snow’s beauty. I’m thankful that snow protects the animals and the plants. But what impresses me the most about snow is its country name: “poor person’s fertilizer.”

What fun to sled in the snow (screaming), to ski across the snow (silently), to ride a snowboard in the snow (grinning), to ice skate (laughing), to make snow angels (shivering), to bring a snow person to life (cooperating), to have a snowball fight (competing), to make snow caves (digging), and snow forts (lying in wait).
I never fail to thrill at the sight of moonstruck rainbows glittering off the surfaces of fine snow on a sub-zero night. I love standing out in the snow when it is softly falling, watching the flakes shining in my long dark hair, and catching them on my tongue. I cherish the mornings when I awake to white skies filled with snow, snow, snow. There’s snow on the ground, snow tumbling down, nothing but snow. Even life is canceled for the day. Snow day. It’s no day. No responsibility day. Hooray. Snow!
Snow is beautiful. Each snowflake unique. Each a miniature mandala. Each one a slice of a six-sided crystal. And every snowflake, like a quartz crystal, is vibrant and vibrating. Snow is magic. Everyone feels it. Experiment this winter with using the crystalline energy of snow.
When snow falls without wind, it outlines each branch and bud of each tree and shrub.
Perhaps it is making their auras visible. Snow rounds and softens the shapes of nature. Snow connects everything with sweeping strokes. Snow blots out the details and leaves the big picture. Snow speaks to our pleasure, and our need, to erase the small stuff, to soar wide in imagination, to understand the big pattern.

Snow lays quietly, covering the ground, covering the plants. Snow provides an insulating blanket that protects the roots of the plants. Without snow cover, the ground heaves. It freezes at night, and expands up. Then it thaws during the day, and sinks down. This seesaw of freezing and thawing, expanding and sinking, pushes up large rocks from beneath the ground and can uproot plants. A blanket of snow keeps the ground evenly frozen, preventing frost heaves and protecting the plants from upheaval.
That blanket of snow provides safe cover for small animals, too. They can burrow beneath it, running and foraging safe from the watchful eyes of predators. Snow keeps little animals warm, too. And they find it easier to tunnel through than the frozen earth.
But it is snow’s power to bring fertility to the land that amazes me the most. Snow is water. But snow is so much more than water. Each snowflake forms around a mote of dust. That dust is an iota of soil, a minute amount of minerals. And as the snow falls to the ground, it brings with it the nourishment of that tiny bit of mineral dust.
This is true of raindrops as well. Each drop of rain coalesces around a mote of dust. I frequently hear people refer to the rain as “cleansing.” Fortunately for us all, it is not. Just think what a barren wasteland we would inhabit if, instead of nourishing the soil, rain cleansed it. When rain washes the dirt away, we call it erosion. And, without dirt, there can be no plants. Rain is not cleansing. Rain is nourishing. And so is snow.
The minerals in snow are absorbed into the soil. And, when the ground thaws, they are taken up by the plants. The weeds make exceptionally good use of the mineral wealth of snow. Oats and oatstraw consolidate the snow’s magnesium, with 1200mg in 100 grams of herb. Red raspberry grabs onto the manganese, manifesting 146mg in 100 grams of herb. Chickweed loves snow’s iron, offering 253mg in 100 grams of herb. Valerian values snow’s calcium; Skullcap thrives on snow’s copper; hibiscus sops up snow’s chromium; catnip goes for snow’s selenium; while nettle champions snow’s zinc.
Minerals provide structure and allow communication in cells, plants and animals. The healthiest soils are mineral-rich soils. They provide minerals for healthy plants. And those plants create healthy bodies. Minerals are the key to optimum health, for people, plants, and the planet.

That’s why I champion the edible weeds such as nettle, oatstraw, dandelion, burdock, lamb’s quarters, mallows, and purslane. They provide optimum nourishment, including mineral salts in many forms. They heal by nourishing.
When in Switzerland some years back, I visited a cheese factory and watched a movie about Swiss cheeses. “What makes Swiss cheeses so special?” the movie asked. Then, answering its own question, it replied: “The special plants our cows eat.” And there they were, right up on the big screen, the stars of the show: red clover and dandelion, yellow dock and chickweed, sorrel and plantain, burdock and mustard, nettle and thistle, mineral-rich weeds, fed by the snow.
Weeds are green snow. Minerals fall as snow, are taken up by the weeds, and become available to us in forms we can use as food and medicine.
Go out into the snow if you can this winter. Taste it. Savor it. Play with it. Admire it. Open your heart to its blessings. Open your spirit to its richness. Open yourself to its nourishment. You are a beloved child of the Universe and the snow is stardust.

Green blessings.

She has shown me her creatures
She has shown me their shadows
She has shown me the fears
That hide in the daylight

The darkened skies colors are my palette
And I paint on this winter’s night
For this is the time
When the velvet is alive

With the light
She will fade
To be remembered
And, I shall remember

So I decided I wanted to put on a ritual centered on dogs.  Don’t ask why, I don’t even like dogs, but there it is [1].   I also had to write a column, Pagan Pages never sleeps, after all.  So I thought: why not just stick them together and see what comes from it?

One of the most important questions, I think, is what can we take from what we know about Celtic worship.  I’m not talking about modern (including 18^th century) reconstructions.  Those reconstructions often have either a romantic, or a ethnocentric [2], view of the “Celtic” religions.  Instead, I’m asking: what are we really doing when we work with ancient Celtic deities?  If we believe they are real, how do we reconcile that reality with the terrible obscurity that they suffer from today?  Do we make stuff up?  How much do we try to reconstruct, and how much do we construct?  How legitimate is what we bring to worship, as opposed to what was done in the past?

I may not be able to answer all these questions, but I want to use this example to talk about some of them.

First of all, for the ritual, I needed to understand the role of dogs in ancient Celtic religion.  Animism and animals were a big part of Celtic worship.  In times when worshipers were surrounded with animals, both domestic and wild, it was natural for them to see in them things they might revere, such as courage, virility, ferocity, and cunning.  Unfortunately most of what we seem to have from Celtic worship regarding animals is either ritual deposits of animal bones (both reverential and sacrificial) or iconography [3].  We don’t have a lot of writing on exactly what was going on back then.

So there is a big difference in the literature between modern, Pagan, practices and exactly what we know about ancient deity.  First, most of what we actually have, both for traditional witchcraft practices and ancient Celtic Pagan practices, is archeological not documentary.  There is little that is written down, and we’re left to infer from temples, stones, and burials.  Second, any writing we do have has to be viewed with great suspicion because it was generally Christians, or at least Romans, who wrote it down.  The stereotypical example of this is Caesar’s description of Druid practices (the Wicker Man).  Third, much of what we have in the Pagan literature, except perhaps for some strict reconstructionists, is synthesized, modified, and modernized worship.  It is extremely unlikely that ancient Celts drew circles, called quarters, and did anything at all recognizable as a modern Pagan ritual.  In fact the Catholic mass is probably a better example of what it actually looked like, but, then again, we don’t really know.

So if our goal is to work with ancestral Celtic deities all we have are pictures and bones.   In my quest for a dog ritual I did have one advantage: I knew that there was a Celtic Goddess closely associated with dogs.   The Gaulish Goddess Nehalennia was almost always depicted with a companion dog.  And not just a lapdog as occurs in many Celtic Goddess depictions, but with a full-sized hound (perhaps a greyhound), sitting beside her at the ready [4].  Many temples have been found in Zeeland and other areas where she is depicted in a fairly standard way:  standing in a nook, her foot next to or on a ship, holding either apples or bread, and with a “hound” or dog.  Information on some of these altars suggests that they were built by sailors who were thankful for safe passage over the North Sea.  Hence the depiction of ships.  Apparently when the storm was blowing the sailors would invoke her, and promise to erect a shrine to her if they were spared.  Naturally if you got to erect a shrine, she saved you.  At the same time there is also evidence of sacred groves associated with her temples [5].  But we really don’t know that much about her, all we have are a bunch of votive statues, some inscriptions thanking her for safe passage, and her association with ships (intact ones) [6].

There are other Goddesses associated with animals in Celtic worship.   While Apollo Atepomarus was associated with horses, the primary Celtic horse Goddess was Epona.  In addition to her name being the word for horse, in almost all her Gaulish temples she is seated astride or between two horses.  Likewise Nehalennia is similarly associated with dogs, though the reason for the association is not well understood [3-5].   Unlike Epona, who is mentioned by Latin writers, we don’t have a lot of documentation on Nehalennia’s association with dogs [3].

And that Latin association introduces another complication.  While Nehalennia may have been worshiped from the 2^nd century BC, her temples can be dated to the 2^nd through the 3^rd centuries AD [4].   This means that much of what we do know about her has been influenced by potential syncretic Roman influences.  When the Romans conquered various parts of Europe many of the deities were merged and cross-associated (e.g. Apollo-Atepomarus), making sorting out exactly what part was Celtic and what part was Roman difficult.

Historically dogs have had four associations in European Pagan lore:  death, hunting, healing, and protection.  These are universal, but mostly documented in the Roman/Latin literature.  While the associations with hunting and protection are pretty obvious, healing is thought to come from the dog’s ability to heal itself with its own saliva.  The chthonic function of dogs may come their association with the hunt, or with the death aspect of the Mother Goddess.  It is believed that this association was with the protective aspects of the Mother Goddess toward the dead, instead of the more vicious guardian aspects found in Virgil’s Cerberus or in the Welsh dog-hunters of human souls [5].  Dogs also provided a guide or a warning, and were often associated with their wild reflections, the wolf [6].  In Irish tradition both the dog and the wolf are associated with young warriors, and in Sweden there are Viking age stones commemorating the arrival of warriors in Valhalla that also depict dogs.

Needless to say, this mashup of material that spans hundreds of years, and several distinct cultures, is difficult to sort through when constructing a ritual.   For ritual purposes the idea of the dog as protector, healer, guide, and hunter is full of possibility.  But what about Nehalennia herself?  How exactly does she enter into the ritual, and how do we approach her given that we are not a) Dutch, b) Celtic, c) living in the 2^nd century CE.

Most religions seem to confront the same problem, but in different ways.  There is often a theme of getting back to the “original” or “honest” and “true” form of the religious practice.  This has been a bit of a theme in Christianity, with various sects and groups seeking to hold true to the original or authentic version of Christ’s teachings.  For Pagans there is not much of an option to return to the original, as we really don’t have even as good an idea of what the original looked like as the Christians do.

So almost from the beginning we are constructing something on a very old, and very worn down foundation.  The idea of the Goddess Nehalennia is about all we have left. We don’t have ritual practices. We don’t have any sort of scripture or theology. And we don’t have any idea what the people actually did in those temples.  While we can generally surmised that they called on her, and may have given sacrifices of one kind of another, all we are doing is extrapolating common practices from the era to her worship.

At the same time, even the extrapolation from temple iconography is suspect. Nehalennia was worshiped during the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries, with worship abruptly stopping in the 3^rd century when her temple was flooded by the sea.  During that time the Roman empire had considerable influence, and her iconography and other attributes seem to have filtered through Roman culture.  So while she was worshiped by Celts, there was also some Roman influence occurring.  In all likelihood she was worshiped well before the 2^nd century, with the erection of temples that date from that time reflecting one aspect of her worship.  So what was she before the Romans?  Is that the Goddess we should seek if we are intent on understanding the Celtic, as opposed to Roman, Goddess worship?

Archeology and history give us little to work with.  This can be both frustrating and depressing.  How can we connect with our ancient Gods and Goddesses if all we have to work with are bones and stones?

There are a couple of paths open to us.  One path involves asking what the Gods and Goddesses mean to us now.  Even historically based religions for the most part change and adapt to the times.  If Christianity wasn’t changing and adapting why would so many of its followers at any one time be seeking to return to older, truer, ways?  Things change, religion is one of them.  The Gods and Goddesses change and grow with time, just like we do.  Remember that Paganism says that the Gods and the Goddesses exist in this world, and this world is subject to change.

This gives us a lot of options when it comes to defining modern Pagan worship.  Some of those options are good, and some are bad.  If we define the Gods and Goddesses the way we want them to be defined, as beings that affirm or reflect our attitudes, needs, or beliefs, then we can be correctly criticized for setting up a self-centered, narcissistic, worship.

On the other hand, if we spend time in careful thought about how the Gods and Goddesses translate from their ancient forms to modern practice, then we can say that we are in “good faith” bringing their existing relevance into our modern lives.  In this sense the Gods and Goddesses have pre-established, existing, forms and intentions.  These forms are established by the foundation of ancient archeological and historical records.  It’s also established by our own, relatively recent elder tradition.  However imperfect either of these are in divining the “true” nature of the Gods and Goddesses, they are a collective building toward that understanding.  It is what we build on when we do our rituals.  It is what builds the form of the Gods and Goddesses in the world we live in today, and it is reflected in how we think about them.

Working with these forms, instead of trying to project ourselves onto them,  creates a kind of spiritual tension.  In the same way that Christianity asks its followers to compare themselves to the ideal of Christ and his path, the “otherness” of the Gods and Goddesses asks us to see ourselves in contrast to the “other.”  Because they are not simply projections of our wants, needs, or personalities, the Gods and Goddesses cause us to ask whether their aspects are in us.  The dark, the light, the loving, and the petty.  Asking who they are means asking who we are.

In addition to the foundation of ancient and elder tradition that we build our understanding of the Gods and Goddesses on, we, as Pagans, have another source.  Direct experience.  When we seek the Gods and Goddesses themselves through shamanic trance, prayer, meditation, or simply keeping an eye out for their glimmer in the world, we bring back a personal understanding of the nature of the Gods and Goddesses.  If the Gods and Goddesses are real, they should be approachable.  They should be capable of being encountered through worship or workings.  Because of that we build our understanding on experience, not just history.  The more those who have authentic experience with deity write, speak, and do rituals about their experience, the more the foundation of ancient worship will grow into a modern understanding of the Gods and Goddesses.

So our ritual would give us an opportunity to encounter the Goddess, and build on what we learn.  This doing, learning, and building gives us a unique way to grow our modern understanding of the ancient Gods and Goddesses.

The legacy of understanding, both historical and experiential, that we bring to our rituals gives us an image of the “other.”  It gives us something to challenge, to reassure, and to inspire us.  If that is true, then the wide variety of Gods and Goddesses that come down to us from ancient times should be an invitation to almost unlimited growth.  Instead of working exclusively with the “big guys” Odin, Thor, Dagda, Ceridwen, Athena, etc. we have an immense range of Gods and Goddesses available to us.  Bringing out, and reviving, some of the more obscure Gods and Goddesses in our rituals will give us more paths for growth, more ways to understand deity, and ultimately more ways to change ourselves.

So we have this relatively obscure Goddess, Nehlennia that we need to incorporate into ritual.  How do we do that?  Well, I suspect dogs have not changed much ancient times, and, in fact, many of the aspects of the dog were seen as aspects of the divine image of the dog in ancient times.  With that I could either focus on the chthonic aspects of Nehalennia and dogs, or the protective and healing aspects.  I figured no one that would be at the ritual would be worried about taking long sea voyages on the North Sea anytime soon, so that aspect wouldn’t be helpful (though it would certainly give us an “other” to consider).  Building a ritual around loyalty, protection, and healing, the attributes of the dog, would emphasize the need to be those things in our own lives.

And that is what I did.  In addition to a ritual incorporating calls on, and sacrifice to, the Goddess, we did work that connected us with our own “dogness”.  Dogs live in the moment.  Emptying our minds and using that focus to understand what our goals are, what is important to us, was the way we began the ritual.  Likewise I had a piece on companionship and loyalty, where people considered, and spoke, about those whose loyalty they valued, including dogs.  And finally we did a magical energy working to invoke the protection of the dog, and ask for protection from the Goddess for something that was important to us.  This may not have been the perfect way to incorporate dogs and the Goddess into ritual, but it was an interesting first try.  Hopefully the next time we work with Nehlennia we will be able to better understand how to connect the ancient reality of Nehlennia to the modern lives we live, and the worship we do.

[1] But I like them better than cats.   What this means that this would be a serious ritual working, not some fun piece about honoring pets.

[2] The ethnocentric piece is a fun column all by itself.  The “ethnos” that we bring to the problem is 20^th century liberal metropolitanism, which would include things like reverence for nature, equality, and nonviolence.  We see the world through very different eyes than they did thousands of years ago, as is the case with almost all religions.

[3]  Miranda Green.  The Gods of the Celts, Bramley , UK, 1986.  This is an excellent book on Celtic religion and the various manifestations of deity.  Note that all of the references in this paper are archeological, as there is little else to base our understanding on.

[4] Miranda Green.  Celtic Goddesses:  Warriors, Virgins, and Mothers, British Museum Press, 1995

[5]  H.R. Ellis Davidson.  Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, Syracuse University Press, 1988

[6] http://www.livius.org/ne-nn/nehalennia/nehalennia.html

The Winter Solstice was important to many different cultures in times past. It really marked the passage of seasons and marked a time of celebration for the winter months, it was finally the time to rest at least in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere it marked the time of summer and sunshine filled days.

The Solstice celebrations are a hard thing to put a time line on without knowing the exact date the Earth was born. But as far back as recorded history goes, the Winter Solstice, no matter which hemisphere you lived in, was an important event. For our purpose here, we will focus on what many pagans will participate in or have participated in for their celebrations around the world.

For many cultures of pagans, divination is a fun way to celebrate the Solstice. This was a popular activity in years past. Some of the methods of divination in years past might include scrying. With so many lakes and ponds freezing, they acted as a perfect “mirror” back in the day, especially when scrying under a full moon in the dead of night.

Many cultures used fire or candles to celebrate the coming of Winter. Once mirrors were created, two candles could be set to reflect their flames and enlightenment could be found by sitting and observing the reflections. Another way to celebrate the return of Light to the world, after the first early days of Winter, was to light a Yule log which was brought in from the woods many months ahead of the celebration. It was believed to help bring protection from harm to the family that had a Yule log within their home.

Some cultures would put their shoes lined up in a row together to signify harmony throughout the year. Others still would created an alter to their gods and goddesses and look for guidance for the coming year in dripping wax, or the drifting smoke of candles or bon fires. Some considered it bad luck to allow the candles or fires to burn out.

In the most ancient of times, the changing of seasons became a beacon of hope. During the winter cold it was a bleak hard time for peoples living so long ago. When the sun came up on the day after the Solstice it was a signal for hope that warmth and the growing of plants and foods would indeed return after the time of rest.

How did you celebrate your Solstice this year? Did you mark the day with presents? Did you celebrate the sun returning? Have you stored enough to last through the winter months? For pagans, it is an important time to recognize the need to relax and rest and celebrate the seasonal changes but also the time of rebirth. For magical practitioners of all cultures, it was and continues to represent a time to let go of old ways of thinking and living, and start new ways. Many celebrations will incorporate magical ritual to help people change their old ways and adopt new, more enlightened ways.

I hope everyone had a truly wonderful, loving holiday time with family and friends, without stress and worry, with good health and prosperity for all.