PaganPages.org

Winter Goddesses As I am writing this, it is a week before the holiday of Thanksgiving, meaning that Winter Solstice is just around the corner. Here in the northeast section of the United States, the weather has begun to get quite chilly and we have had the first tiniest taste of snow, while in other parts of this country, the ice and wind chill has already begun to wreak havoc. So, I thought this would be the perfect time to write about just a few of the many Winter Goddesses that abound throughout the world.     Colleda is the Goddess of Winter in Serbia. She was the one to…

#2 Yule Last time I wrote a personal essay about how I feel about the holidays. I promised an educated, informative article this time. Oh stop laughing! I’ll write a little about Yule and a bit about Winter Solstice. Modern Christmas is a mix of these two ancient celebrations as well as what happened to honor the god Mithras. The reasons the Winter Holiday was celebrated differ a bit from why we celebrate today, but not completely. For example. “The Light of the World” , seen by many Christians today as their god is celebrated. In days past, lengthening days were celebrated. THE light of the world! I don’t know…

Ngetal, Ruis and the Nameless Day   Ngetal: From Mabon to Samhain, as we have seen, the comings and goings of the dead serve to thin the veil separating Middle Earth from the Underworld. Now at Samhain the Holly King sends the rest of his youth into the final harvest, his spirit descends once more to the gates of the Summerland, and this time he throws them wide for all spirits, human and non-human, to come up the World Pillar for that liminal time between times, the Celtic New Year. The cosmic order is relaxed for a season and Herne the Hunter, the Holly King’s Underworld aspect, bursts forth into…

Happy New Year! For many pagans across the world Samhain is considered the ‘pagan New Year’. In the late 19th century, Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer (The Golden Bough) suggested that it was the “Celtic New Year”, and this view has been repeated by other scholars. For the Celtic people a new day didn’t begin at dawn, but at dusk. The idea behind this concept comes from the notion that before there was light, there was darkness. Before there was life there was a void. From the darkness, light was born. Thus, a new day begins at the beginning of the dark night. They divided their year into…

Fire and Ice       Merry Meet. Ice luminaries are wonderful to include in your Yule celebration, but they are good for as long as it’s cold. And when it’s cold enough outside, I plan to make these by the dozens in the garage.   I start by choosing a large container and a smaller container. They can be bowls, storage containers, pails and milk containers. If they are glass, be extremely careful. The expansion of the water as it freezes could break a container, so the trick is to get it out at just the right time. You can also buy molds especially for this. Directions often call…

This month’s Bardic Song is called “Community Song”. It is a simple tune that has 4 lines for easier repetition and the melody line is rather easy.   When I initially created this song, I wanted it to have a sense of Community. Some of the words are taken from a Circle Casting I learned from a Shaman many years ago. After incorporating those words, I noticed the word ‘unity’ in the Community and thought I should take advantage of it… and so I did.   As much as possible, all songs are created as a single page in pdf format for easier printing and reading. If you play the piano,…

‘Solstice night’ Merry meet! Yule is one of my favorite sabbats because it signals the return of the light. I put up a Yule tree and decorate it with symbols of nature and the Goddess. Sometimes that stays on lit night, but more often I choose to spend the night with the light of just one candle. My tradition has been to sit in sacred space, in silence, throughout the night. I do as little contemplating as possible, preferring to sit with the darkness, become one with the vast stillness, touch the mystery, listen to the deep silence, count my blessings, meditate, journey to visit the crones and read inspirational…

This month, we will talk about the Eight of Cups. On the surface, this one looks pretty depressing, but it’s a Cups card so it can’t be all bad! Let’s begin our process of breaking down this card. The Eight of Cups is a Minor Arcana card, so we know right away that the message offered by this card will most likely be more immediate in nature, or will most likely be connected to more day-to-day issues. Notice right away that I am qualifying many of my statements with “most likely” or “usually”; as readers and interpreters and students of the Tarot we do need to remember that every message,…

Meditation and Protective Incenses Meditation Incense: I use oils for this, which I purchase from Azure Green, but I’m sure you can find them at other places: 2 drops Sandalwood 2 drops Frankincense and myrrh 2 drops Rose 2 drops Lotus This is a beautiful smelling incense which can induce a calm, peaceful, meditative state. Unlike most essential oils, these blend perfectly and smell intense. (not so intense that you will be overwhelmed) Protective Incense Warning, this is stinky. I burn it on charcoal disks. I found it really works: Pinch of Vervain Pinch of wormwood Pinch of Angelica Root Pinch of Mugwort Pinch of Yarrow As I said, it’s…

David Young: I wrote my first book, Channeling Harrison – Book One, and when I was writing finishing that book, my publisher, who had done many books about channeling and paranormal stuff, he told me that it was very likely that if George was involved in my life, John Lennon was likely to join the party at some point. I really didn’t think that was possible; I thought that was very silly. It just didn’t make any sense. I mean, I didn’t believe in channeling, this stuff was such a stretch to me anyway. That just seemed like a ridiculous thing and I wouldn’t even give it an ounce of…