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Happy Harvest 2021!
Today is the Equinox, when day and night are (within a few minutes, depending on latitude) equal in length. It is the Atheopagan Sabbath of Harvest (or High Spring, in the southern hemisphere), and a time for feasting with loved ones. With the pandemic, of course, this is challenging unless all of you are vaccinated and have been safe. But I hope that you will find time today to celebrate the abundance the world pours out for us, as well as the elderly folk in your life, as Harvest time is the metaphorical point in the wheel of the year equivalent to old age. That’s how my wheel of the…
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Yule Metheglin Recipe
Brew this delicious sparkling mead now and have it ready for Yule! Ingredients Montrachet yeast (1 packet) Yeast nutrient, 1 oz. 12 lbs. high-quality honey (thyme, thistle, or wildflower honeys are nice for this recipe) Zest of four large or eight small oranges 5 cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces 12 cloves, broken 10 large slices fresh ginger, bruised with a hammer to release flavor 5 gallons water Equipment Large cooking kettle Candy thermometer Jar Muslin Rubber band Food-grade five-gallon fermenting bucket Brewing airlock Racking (siphoning) cane Glass carboy, 5 gallon Champagne bottles Caps and capping press Method Start the yeast 2 days ahead. Take a sterilized jar and add a…
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On Pagan Misanthropy
These are times when those of us who love the Earth can easily fall into resenting or even hating humanity. It’s not much of a leap: not only are we watching climate change in action and the crashing decline of biodiversity, but social and political movements right now are showing humans at their very worst. This misanthropy can be a terrible burden. It is virtually impossible to be a happy person when weighted down with the enormity of thinking your own kind was a devastating mistake of evolution. I see this kind of thinking sometimes in the Pagan community. It saddens me and I think it undermines the mental health…
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Into the Season of Harvest
We picked our tomatoes this week. They were all ripe and ready to go, so Nemea cut them off the plants and we have them in our kitchen now. Other than a basil plant we keep indoors, this is our harvest: grown in half wine-barrels, the tomatoes are fine varieties, rich and filled with flavor. The light has become more oblique, now, and the days end more quickly. Summer’s Waning is long past and Harvest looms on the 20th. Though it’s 96 degrees F. (35.5 C.) outside, Autumn is coming. Autumn is here. I can feel it in the land. After months of no rain, the brown hills creak and…
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On Spiritual Burnout and Bypassing
Sometimes, the ways and events of the world can weigh you down. Over the past 18 months or so, we have seen a LOT of that, what with the pandemic and the various awfulness happening in the news. I know things are starting to get to me when I am less drawn to my Focus (altar), less motivated to do my spiritual practices. It’s ironic, because spirituality is the cultivation of a feeling of meaning, awe, connectedness and joy, and you’d think we’d go running for that when times are hard. Some do. I’m just not one of them. Instead, my tendency is to lean into what’s the damned point,…
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GUEST POST: Playing with the Senses During Ritual
by Eloise Martel Something I find useful to immerse into the ritual experience (especially when you start and you don’t really know what to begin with) is playing with the 5 senses: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, and Taste. Playing with the senses can trigger specific memories and help you achieve your goal during the ritual. You can find correspondences (herbs, days, colours, stones etc.) in almost all the 101 witchy books, but don’t forget to ask yourself what associations make sense to you personally. If the goal during the ritual is to make yourself feel certain things, what you are going to use has to speak to you. Sight: Many…
