Category Archives: holidays

Blessed Samhain!

Posted on by
Reply

It’s that time of year again… The veil between the worlds has grown thin and our thoughts turn to the ancestors (whether by blood or by belief)… We honour those who have gone before and ask that they share their wisdom with us for the new year…

While I miss the large-scale Samhain gatherings of my past, I’m comfortable with the solitary practice I’m currently engaged in. It’s a low-key, respect and remember holiday for me. I’ve got some specific questions to be asking this year – and looking for some support in the challenges ahead – so I anticipate lighting some extra candles. I’m mourning, because that’s what I need to do now, but I’m also planning for what comes next.

Blessings to all, and Happy New Year!

The Wheel Turns…

Posted on by
Reply

 

The nights and days come back into balance.

We thank the Earth for that which we have been given.

All manner of things will be well.

At this time of year, I normally decorate my alter with the fruits of labour (mine and others): flowers, vegetables, writings, crafts. I celebrate the joy that summer has brought, and prepare to welcome the Ancestors back to the circle of my life.

But this has been a difficult summer, not a joyous one. I have been questioned about my place in the world, work, family and community. I have spent much time in the halls of mourning, both for those who have left and for those who miss them too. I have watched too many of those around me struggle with their own painful journeys.

The darkness is not evil. It is solace after a long struggle. It is a place from which to start.

Blessed Autumn Equinox to you and yours.

 

Offering to Brigid

Posted on by
Reply

Blessed Imbolc!

Today marks 20 years since I was called to serve the Goddess, since I named myself Witch and took my place amongst those reclaiming, remembering and revisioning a new world into being.

In that spirit, I make the following poetry offering to Brigid on her sacred day, as part of the Seventh Annual Brigid Poetry Festival. The words are a scrap of poetry by Sappho, translated by Anne Carson. Blessed Be!

stars around the beautiful moon
hide back their luminous form
whenever all full she shines
on the earth

      

        silvery

 

 

 

Blessed Samhain

Posted on by
Reply

Metro – Something Wicca this way comes

Email

  katie turner/metro

Tracey Braun, pictured in Riley Park, says paganism is a nature-based religion, with many of their holidays centring around the moon and sun, and the changing seasons.

Which is witch

  • Witches typically do not try to recruit others to the faith, Sally Patton says, but leave people free to choose their own path.
  • Patton says she is not offended by Halloween and its portrayal of witches. In fact, she buys into the fun, donning a pointy hat for the occasion.
JEREMY NOLAIS
METRO CALGARY
Published: October 31, 2011 5:52 a.m.
Last modified: October 30, 2011 11:49 p.m.
When you’re a witch, the phone seems to ring a little more around Halloween, Calgarian Tracey Braun says.“It’s just that Halloween has become the thing that people associate witches with, so it’s usually around this time people start to call around and say, ‘Hey, do you know any?’”The stereotypical association of witches with Halloween can be frustrating because most people don’t understand the underlying religious beliefs, Braun says.

“When I was Christian, it’s not like everyone called me at Christmas and said, ‘So tell me about Christmas.’”

Sally Patton says that when she and fellow Calgary witches get together they don’t fly around on brooms.

“We would if we could,” she adds with a chuckle. “We would love to be able to do all the things they do on Bewitched. Unfortunately, they only work in Hollywood.”

Fun aside, Patton says her beliefs fall more into line with the pagan religion Wicca. She believes in equality and in a God that is both male and female in essence. And she has been known to conjure up and share herbal recipes.

“It’s not that witches just pop out of the woodwork at Halloween,” Braun adds. “We have holidays throughout the year.”

With files from katie turner

Blessed Imbolc!

Posted on by
Reply

Who are the witches?
  Where do they come from?
Maybe your great-great
  grandmother was one.
Witches are wise, wise women they say.
  And there’s a little witch
  in every woman today.
Mmmhmm.

– Bonnie Bramble

19 years ago, I stood in a circle of women and took my vows… oh, wait, that’s someone else’s story. The truth is, 19 years ago I was in my second year of university, taking a class entitled “Christian Understanding of Human Nature”, when I came across the following term: Post-Christan. (Looking back and realizing that the author of that phrase, Daphne Hampson had been influenced by Luce Irigaray, it’s surprising that I also didn’t start wearing a beret and quoting Derrida. But I digress.) Reading Hampson led me to the works of Starhawk, which in turn led me to realize that what the church taught and what I actually believed were farther apart than I realized. And the rest is her-story.

It’s not a Holiday Unless Tech Support is Involved

Posted on by
Reply

I’m lucky enough to be home for the holidays, where I’m spending the week setting up my dad’s new webcam so he can Skype with his grandkids (and earning another Nerd Merit Badge in the process). For those of you who are fielding calls from parents dealing with tech issues, I recommend Teach Parents Tech, where you can send a video showing exactly what you mean:

Poetry for Brigid

Posted on by
Reply

To mark Imbolc (aka Candlemas, aka Brigid’s Day), here is my selection for the Third Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Reading.

The Moon is Always

The moon is always you, and I am drawn
to trace the ripe crescent swelling around
your hip, the arc of your throat, the classic curve
of your eyes, and the velvet indigo shadow beneath.

You are always the moon, and I ache in your
absence, although you never leave me for long,
lingering late into the morning and ascending
again in the afternoon, balm for my sun-blind eyes.

The moon is waxen, bloodless.
The moon does not have your mouth.
The moon does not contain your breath.

You are never the moon, but your dimpled
skin is luminescent, it gleams and lures my gaze,
my hands, and I am always reaching for you.

The moon is never you, but I arch to your rhythms
all the same, and I weep relief with the crashing
tidal pool upon your every return.

The moon has a profile that changes with perspective,
and I have written encrypted love poems within
its every dimple and shadow, secrets that borrow
light from our love making to illuminate
the stars and blaze our skins and stories across the sky.

This moon is only for us.

Chandra Mayor