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Leaving the Dark Side of the Year
Happy Vernal Equinox! Today we in the northern hemisphere depart the darker half of the year’s solar cycle for the brighter days of spring and summer. Perhaps it’s just biology knocking on my brain, but I feel oddly optimistic these days despite the deeply disturbing things happening in the news. One thing I am definitely looking forward to is Suntree Retreat 2026! The third of these in-person gatherings of Atheopagans from throughout the Americas (and others are of course welcome–we just haven’t had any attend yet!), Suntree Retreat is a long weekend of workshops, rituals, socializing and fun in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the gorgeous La Foret Retreat Center. I…
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Happy High Spring 2022!
We’ve been through a lot over the past two years. We’re still going through a lot. And yet, the sprouts rise and the buds swell, the flowers bloom and the birds return. Spring is always a hopeful time, a time to gaze forward with anticipation and optimism. For me this year, I am so close to having a genuinely wonderful life. I just need a job, and I have a second interview for a truly great one in two days. So I am imagining what life with that job could look like. Imagining survival fear waning, and joy swelling with the growing year. Wherever we are, whatever our circumstance, if…
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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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Equanamity, Balance and the Equinox
As I write this, the Earth coasts in its slightly angled orbit towards the Ecliptic, the plane of rotation of the Sun. When we cross it, the days and nights will be of equal lengths (at the equator). It is the Vernal Equinox, the moment when the days begin to stretch longer than the nights in the Northern hemisphere. There are many themes associated with this holiday for Pagans, as we frame our Wheels of the Year based on our local climate and ecologies and, in some cases, on the agricultural cycle and/or the life cycle of a person. But one we don’t talk about quite so often is this…
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High Spring: An Equinox Compendium
I’ve written various posts on celebrating the vernal equinox over the years. Here are a couple of them, to help you plan your celebration of this Sabbath. Happy Spring! The Sabbath of Innocence High Spring: Themes, Resources and Ideas
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Happy High Spring!
The vernal equinox is upon us, as of 2:58 pm PDT today! The days will be longer than the nights, and we will steadily grow in daytime through to the summer solstice on June 20. Unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere, of course, in which case, happy Autumn! A joyous holiday to all of you! For tips on how to celebrate, visit this post from last year. May your celebration of Spring be happy, silly, and childlike! Shown: Ukrainian pysanky eggs, a tradition for spring going back thousands of years.
