June 1 Festival of the Oak Nymph. This Pagan celebration honors all hamadryads (female nature spirits who are believed to inhabit oak trees). Decorate a Pagan altar with acorns and war some oak leaves in your hair. Kiss an oak tree or place a small offering of some kind before it, and the tree nymphs who dwell within it will surely bestow a blessing upon you. June 2 Shapatu of Ishtar. A Pagan festival dedicated to the goddess Ishtar is celebrated every year on this date. She is the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian deity who presides over love and fertility as well as war. The birth of the god Apollo…

Purpose Rededication to the Lord and Lady, beginning of the harvest, honoring the Sun God, honoring the pregnant Godddess Dynamics/Meaning Crowning of the Sun God, death of the Oak King, assumption of the Holly King, end the ordeal of the Green Man Tools, Symbols & Decorations The sun, oak, birch & fir branches, sun flowers, lilies, red/maize/yellow or gold flower, love amulets, seashells, summer fruits & flowers, feather/flower door wreath, sun wheel, fire, circles of stone, sun dials and swords/blades, bird feathers, Witches’ ladder. Colors Blue, green, gold, yellow and red. Customs Bonfires, processions, all night vigil, singing, feasting, celebrating with others, cutting divining rods, dowsing rods & wands, herb…

Sunflower Sunflower (Helianthus Annus) is also known as Corona Solis, Marigold of Peru and Solo Indianus.    Sunflowers are very common as happy gifts and there are in many gardens but Sunflowers have some wonderful magickal uses.  The Sunflower energy can be used by anyone who is trying to channel the energy of the Sun and to get in touch with any fire or sun deities. Sunflower was sacred to the Aztecs.  They considered it a religious herb and to honor the Sun God, they would carry and adorn themselves with sunflowers.  In Peru, the temples were decorated and honored with sunflowers. Some of the lore around sunflowers is interesting.  If…

Debunking Paranormal TV Shows Flip on your TV on any given day or time and there’s bound to be a paranormal reality show on.  They’re more common these days than the “evidence” they present.  The list of current shows include SyFy’s Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Hunters Academy, and Destination Truth; ABC Family’s Scariest Places on Earth (seriously? ABC FAMILY?  *ahem…); Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures; A&E’s Paranormal State; Discovery Channel’s Most Haunted, A Haunting, and Ghost Lab just to name a few!  So, really, how authentic are they?  TV is TV.  If it doesn’t get ratings it goes in the bin. Television has a long history of playing in…

Celebrating the Transformation of Maiden to Mother I wanted to share a celebration that I think is steeped in ancient sentiment that has been sorely missing in our culture for many years now.  It centers on Woman’s Mysteries and empowers a milestone that can sometimes be glossed over or denigrated in our busy culture today. Blessingways have caught on in North America recently as an alternative to the “traditional” baby shower.  Becoming a mother is a deeply spiritual step for a woman.  The transition from maiden to mother (when it is literal) is often made more about the baby than about the mother to be.  You open gifts for your…

divination is something that every human marvels about. A Tarot reading by an experienced interpreter can be quite informative. The way the cards are presented in a layout tells quite a story. Each card laid out represents something that could be within the Querent’s life. Each placement of the cards tells what part of the Querent’s life the card is revealing. All the pieces of information given in a reading is important. Each card is different and each card has its own meaning. True believers take into account every detail that is revealed in their reading. I would like to start with the Shape Shifter Tarot by DJ Conway and…

http://www.deepforestproductions.com Where Mind, Body, and Spirit Converge May 6, 2010— R. Wolf Baldassarro once again shares his imagination, his insight, and his passion with the world in Under a Sunlit Sky. Within this new anthology of poetry, short stories, photography, and social commentary unfolds a life filled with hope, despair, passion, and rejection. These are turbulent times in the Motor City.  The hard economic times and social climate has affected every aspect of life and like many people, R. Wolf Baldassarro has experienced the ups and downs of life’s highway.  The poetic verses in Under a Sunlit Sky run the full range of emotion and sensibility while the short stories…

Welcome to the May Issue of PaganPages. In this issue: Interview with Materdea Up and Coming artist Cernunnos Plus all your favorite Regular Columns. We have started a NEW NING NETWORK for our readers to join and get to know each other.  It is free and you can get to it by clicking here.   I look forward to seeing you all there!! Monthly Horoscope Gemini 2010 Horoscope (May21- June 21) Gemini’s stronger than ever are your powers of observation, so use this time to your advantage to figure out what is going on with you romantic relationships. Soon you will be able to make more sense out of not only…

A Rabbit of Doubt We all have doubts. We all have those times in our lives when we are down, depressed, and just plain tired. It is during these dark times that we usually start to have doubts about our beliefs and our chosen paths. This is not only normal it is completely healthy. Paganism does not have the rules and regulations that the Judeo-Christian religions do. This aspect of Paganism is a double edge sword though and can work both for and against us. One of the reasons it is so easy for a Pagan (or Wiccan) to “lose” their faith is because we do not have any higher…

Family Values: Food If there is one thing that attending festivals, gatherings, rituals whether private or public has taught me about the Pagan community is that: we LOVE food.   We strive to worship this earth, and consume the wonderful bounty that it graces us with.   Nurturing your child’s relationship to food is pivotal in their development.   Food weaves through almost every part of our lives our social relations, our relationship with the earth and our relationship and feelings towards our heath and body.   Eating together whether in ritual or family settings can be so rewarding and fulfilling.   It should be a high priority for every family since we have to…