Holidays
-
Seize the (Unusual) Day!
Recently, I posted about customizing your own Atheopagan Wheel of the Year— creating a cycle of observances of the equinoxes, solstices and points between as an 8-holiday cycle of rituals and traditions. However, I believe there are more holidays (“holy days”) than just these. Those on the Wheel are the ones we can predict will come every year, but there are also unusual and amazing phenomena that come along once in a very great while which we should also take time out to celebrate. Here where I live in Northern California, for example, thunder and lightning are almost unheard of. They require a combination of precipitation and heat that we just…
-
Creating Your Own Wheel of the Year
In Atheopaganism, similar to many other Pagan paths, we celebrate eight Sabbaths, or holy days: the solar equinoxes and solstices, and the points between them. But I encourage folks to adapt this calendar to fit the circumstances of the places where we live, choosing our own names and meanings for these holidays as necessary. Why your own? Because we all live in different climates, and the traditional Pagan/Wiccan Wheel doesn’t really reflect any except that of England and places with similar seasonal cycles. Ours is an Earth religion, and connectedness to our local seasonal cycles is essential: our celebrations should reflect the land on which we live, not somewhere else. I live…
-
How’s that Maypole Thing Work?
Merry May! I thought I’d write a post about Maypoles because many people want to do Maypole rituals for May Day but don’t know the details. So here goes… First, you’re going to need a pole at least 12′ long and 5″ in diameter. These dimensions are important: you need to embed at least 18″ of the pole in the ground in order for it to be stable during the Maypole dance, and a pole of any narrower diameter will take FOREVER for the ribbons to be wrapped on the pole. Think about it: if every turn around the pole is only taking up a few inches of ribbon, you’ll…
-
High Spring: Themes, Resources and Ideas
As the vernal equinox (which in my version of the Wheel of the Year I term High Spring) approaches, Pagans everywhere prepare to celebrate this important Sabbath. As the “Spring festival” (whether you consider it the beginning of Spring or, as I do, the height of it), themes of High Spring include new life, youth, childhood, innocence, inspiration, new beginnings and the initiation of new projects and efforts, and balance (just as the equinox is the balance point between the primarily-dark and the primarily-light halves of the year). Here where I am, at least, the world is green and blooming with flowers, and hope is in the air. Some common…
-
The Ritual Cycle of the Rain Baby: An Example
So, last year I wrote about a new tradition for Riverain, the Water Sabbath, which is how I celebrate the holiday that falls between the Winter Solstice (Yule) and the Spring Equinox (High Spring). Riverain comes at the height of the wet season in California’s Mediterranean climate, when the hills are green and the creeks and rivers are running high. Riverain is an example of my firm belief that the Sabbaths (holidays) we celebrate around the Wheel of the Year should be rooted in the actual climate, culture, growth cycles, and land where we live, rather than reflecting some other culture or place in the world. The traditional Pagan holiday at the…
-
Introducing SLOGG: The Winter Demi-Sabbath
January is a hard damned month for me. There, I said it. After the colorful lights and parties and presents and many festivities of Yule comes a dark, cold time when we all go back to work. No fun for us now: just trudging through the snow or freezing rain, in the dark, to and from our obligations. It’s the longest, most miserable month of the year. Here where I live, in the wine country north of San Francisco, January is a time when the hills are green from whatever rain we’ve had thus far (not much yet, this year), and rain is typically common. We’ve had flooding in January…
