Taking back the celebration of the Ancestors and tracing the origins of Halloween

The term “Halloween” is a result of Catholic interference with Samhain in the year 609. All Saints Day is a Roman Catholic holiday that honors and remembers all Christian saints both known and unknown. Pope Gregory IV decided to officially move the date of All Saints Day to November 1, the same day as Samhain. All Saints Day is also called “All Hallows” because “hallowed” means sanctified or holy (for those of you who know The Our Father prayer, think of the part “hallowed be thy name.”) The evening before All Hallows was a popular time to celebrate, so the term “All Hallows’ Eve” was used quite a bit. Eventually the term All Hallows’ Eve morphed into Halloween as we know it, and along the way it snatched up and mingled with many of the Samhain traditions that had already been happening for thousands of years.

In the church calendar All Saints Day is followed by All Souls Day which is a solemn holiday that commemorates those that have died, very similar in many respects to the original meanings on commemorating the ancestors that pre date The Christian Halloween Holiday, festivals such as Samhain, Dia de los Muertos or Winternights to name three which are held at or around the same time.

Halloween got taken over by the film and confectionery industry of America in the last few decades and is now often more than not seen as a purely secular commercialized festival, though it was being celebrated as a fun festival as far back as the Victorian period in this country. Much in the same way as Christmas is not celebrated in a religious manner by many people now but often just seen as a festival of merriment.

It's all very well trying to now write the Halloween festival off as being a purely modern American invention but that shows up ignorance about history. Halloween and it's forebears in their original context are in fact some of the oldest festivals celebrated by humans, they weren't about candy or scary films they were a time of remembrance and it was us (The British) who took the original notions of Halloween to America, not vice versa. The USA just took up the holiday and ran with it so to speak.

Most of the Christian festivals are stolen versions of older pagan festivals that were taken over to help with the conversion of the locals. Now that Halloween has been turned into something completely different from it's original meaning some in the Christian church in Britain can't wash their hands of it fast enough.

"Halloween?? oh no that is nothing to do with us, that belongs to those horrible pagans or it is a new thing from the America, no link to our church at all."

Sadly it's not going to wash, Halloween is one of those stolen festivals that has turned around and bitten the church on the bum. The church disproved of Ancestor worship and tried to sanitize and regulate it, only this time the take over didn't go to plan. Wiping out Ancestor worship was hard to achieve in the first place and then in the modern era those pesky Americans took the Halloween holiday under their wing and played about with it.

I like Halloween, I celebrate it as a secular festival, I like the brightness, the colours and it's almost lost but still there if you look hard enough, connections with the ancestors. I like the fun aspects of it and I also have to admit I can't help but be amused by how many Christians squeal and squirm on some of the forums I visit as they try to disassociate themselves from the holiday (does that make me wicked, hehe). Not that I think there is anything wrong in some people not liking this or any other festival, that's a matter of personal choice and what Halloween has become is far removed from it's  original concept. Yet trying to disown any connection at all, does seem to border on the hypocritical when the origins of the name can be traced back.   

Tonight I'm doing a little social tea buffet for some of the oldies in the family and a couple of neighbours who don't like this night and are worried about trick or treaters so they won't be home to be bothered by knocks on the door. I hasten to add they have no evidence to base their fears of trick or traters on other than scare stories that some newspapers like to peddle at this time of year. I'm sure there are a few places where things may have got out of hand on occasion by the exuberance of youth on this mischief night but I can't remember one report of any such occurrence in my own town, but newspapers do like to spin yarn and tales can become overblown in a kind of Chinese whispers way that end up causing some people unnecessary worries on this night. I quite enjoy seeing the young dressed up in their costumes so I'll be there with sweets to welcome any trick or treat children that turn up on my doorstep tonight. Given today's been officially declared the warmest Halloween on record according to the BBC and that the children are off school I'm expecting quite a few to call.

Tomorrow on the 1st of November I'll start my own personal celebration of Winternights, that will be going back to basics of my faith and my ancestors. Personally I look upon Winternights as being from the 1st of November, as I like to separate it from Halloween, until Remembrance Sunday on the 11th of November.  I'll try to document some of the things I do and what the tide means to me. I'll also have a look at a few other similar festivals that happen at this time and have similar meanings with the ancestors still at the forefront.

Happy Halloween Everyone. 

Taking back the celebration of the Ancestors and tracing the origins of Halloween

The term “Halloween” is a result of Catholic interference with Samhain in the year 609. All Saints Day is a Roman Catholic holiday that honors and remembers all Christian saints both known and unknown. Pope Gregory IV decided to officially move the date of All Saints Day to November 1, the same day as Samhain. All Saints Day is also called “All Hallows” because “hallowed” means sanctified or holy (for those of you who know The Our Father prayer, think of the part “hallowed be thy name.”) The evening before All Hallows was a popular time to celebrate, so the term “All Hallows’ Eve” was used quite a bit. Eventually the term All Hallows’ Eve morphed into Halloween as we know it, and along the way it snatched up and mingled with many of the Samhain traditions that had already been happening for thousands of years.

In the church calendar All Saints Day is followed by All Souls Day which is a solemn holiday that commemorates those that have died, very similar in many respects to the original meanings on commemorating the ancestors that pre date The Christian Halloween Holiday, festivals such as Samhain, Dia de los Muertos or Winternights to name three which are held at or around the same time.

Halloween got taken over by the film and confectionery industry of America in the last few decades and is now often more than not seen as a purely secular commercialized festival, though it was being celebrated as a fun festival as far back as the Victorian period in this country. Much in the same way as Christmas is not celebrated in a religious manner by many people now but often just seen as a festival of merriment.

It's all very well trying to now write the Halloween festival off as being a purely modern American invention but that shows up ignorance about history. Halloween and it's forebears in their original context are in fact some of the oldest festivals celebrated by humans, they weren't about candy or scary films they were a time of remembrance and it was us (The British) who took the original notions of Halloween to America, not vice versa. The USA just took up the holiday and ran with it so to speak.

Most of the Christian festivals are stolen versions of older pagan festivals that were taken over to help with the conversion of the locals. Now that Halloween has been turned into something completely different from it's original meaning some in the Christian church in Britain can't wash their hands of it fast enough.

"Halloween?? oh no that is nothing to do with us, that belongs to those horrible pagans or it is a new thing from the America, no link to our church at all."

Sadly it's not going to wash, Halloween is one of those stolen festivals that has turned around and bitten the church on the bum. The church disproved of Ancestor worship and tried to sanitize and regulate it, only this time the take over didn't go to plan. Wiping out Ancestor worship was hard to achieve in the first place and then in the modern era those pesky Americans took the Halloween holiday under their wing and played about with it and when Hollywood got hold of it, then all bets were off and most of the it's original origins were lost in a feast of horror films.

I like Halloween, I celebrate it as a secular festival, I like the brightness, the colours and it's almost lost but still there if you look hard enough, connections with the ancestors. I like the fun aspects of it and I also have to admit I can't help but be amused by how many Christians squeal and squirm on some of the forums I visit as they try to disassociate themselves from the holiday (does that make me wicked, hehe). Not that I think there is anything wrong in some people not liking this or any other festival, that's a matter of personal choice and what Halloween has become is far removed from it's  original concept. Yet trying to disown any connection at all, does seem to border on the hypocritical when the origins of the name can be traced back. 

Tonight I'm doing a little social tea buffet for some of the oldies in the family and a couple of neighbours who don't like this night and are worried about trick or treaters so they won't be home to be bothered by knocks on the door. I hasten to add they have no evidence to base their fears of trick or treaters on other than scare stories that some newspapers like to peddle at this time of year. I'm sure there are a few places where things may have got out of hand on occasion by the exuberance of youth on this mischief night but I can't remember one report of any such occurrence in my own town, but newspapers do like to spin yarn and tales can become overblown in a kind of Chinese whispers way that end up causing some people unnecessary worries on this night. I quite enjoy seeing the young dressed up in their costumes so I'll be there with sweets to welcome any trick or treat children that turn up on my doorstep tonight. Given today's been officially declared the warmest Halloween on record according to the BBC and that the children are off school I'm expecting quite a few to call.

Tomorrow on the 1st of November I'll start my own personal celebration of Winternights, that will be going back to basics of my faith and my ancestors. Personally I look upon Winternights as being from the 1st of November, as I like to separate it from Halloween, until Remembrance Sunday on the 11th of November.  I'll try to document some of the things I do and what the tide means to me. I'll also have a look at a few other similar festivals that happen at this time and have similar meanings with the ancestors still at the forefront.

Happy Halloween Everyone. 

Why are you Pagan?

FF#3 - How did you first get interested in Paganism, Wicca and / or witchcraft?

Looking back I think there was always an interest there long before I'd heard or knew anything about paganism. As a child I always thought there was more to the earth than just humans, I felt there was a spirit in things like  stones on the beach or trees in the woods, and that there were other things around as well. I'm sure my parents thought it was just a phase I was going through. Religion's always interested me, I'm sure I was a real pain to my Sunday school teachers with some of the questions I use to ask, yet Christianity never seem to have any of the answers I was looking for. Then as my parent's work took them to other countries and I become an ex-pat brat, I got to know many new friends who had different religions, which of course just beg for more questions.

I must have been in my 20's before I met anyone who actually said they were Pagan and the more I learned and read the more I realised that this was a path that, while not answering all my questions was at least the one I belonged on and made sense of some of the questions that had bugged me since childhood. There is not one true way in Paganism, there is no one book or someone telling you what is the correct behaviour (though there are some who will try). It is very much about self responsibility, learning and trusting your own judgement.

The first Pagan I met was Wiccan and I'm happy to say I've now got many people who study Wicca as my friends, but, I soon realised that is wasn't the direction for me. Then I learned about Heathenry, there are no local groups around me and to be honest I'm not sure I'm a group person. If asked now I'm more likely to say I'm a follower of the old religions rather than a Heathen, yet it is the tenets of the Heathen religion that most sing to me, the Northern gods, my ancestors, the land I live on and the spirits within it. All of these things are part of my faith. There are elements of Druidry that also influence me as well, so for now I say the old religions of this land I feel my roots belong to.

There are many Pagan religions just the same as there are many other sorts of religions, all of which are then split into smaller groups. You can not lump all Pagans together and say we believe the same things, because we simply don't, yet there is often a common spiritual thread of independence that links us.

Now to witchcraft, ahh that is a whole different subject and as, unlike some of my Wicca friends, I don't see it as part of my faith I think it's best covered as a subject on it's own, which I will at a later date.  I'd automatically have been called a witch because of my beliefs in the old religions of the land. So I'll accept that label now with pride, not shame. I'll take it as a description of someone who has an independent mind, spirit and a trust in my ancestors and my faith.


The above post was written as part of the Follow me Friday Blog Hop hosted by 'The Domestic Pagan' please visit the host via the link to find out the details and the other members of the hop are listed below;

My Ancestors, My Bedrock.

My Ancestors are a main, in fact central stone of my faith. I believe I'm a very young branch on a tree who's roots go deep in to this earth. It is not just our ancestors of living memory, but those of us alive now have ancestry that trail back with our DNA to the dawn of human history. Our ancestors must have survived wars, natural disasters and illness for us to be here now. I do believe they still keep an eye on their descendants and it is right that we should honour them and keep those we can in memory.

As far back as I've been able to research all my family are Christians of one form or another but this is no surprise, further back there is simply no way of knowing the beliefs of my ancestors, so I work through what my intuition tells me and hope that I might be pointed in the direction I'm meant to travel. One of the main things Christianity tried to do was server the links with our ancient ancestry and halt the old ancestral rituals, but somethings just seem to be instinct to the human race. We have an urge to find our roots or remember those we've lost, whether by a collection of photos, the telling of family stories or the visiting of graves of those we've lost. Family History is one of the worlds fastest growing hobbies, we are all still looking for those connections.

Setting up an ancestral altar or shrine, researching your family line, visiting graves and keeping them tidy are all ways we can show our ancestors respect, as well as simply talking about them and passing stories we know on to the younger generations. There are some festivals that many associate with the ancestors, one of the most common being Samhain / Halloween and for me personally Winternights, but also I believe they are around all year I choose to remember them year round.

A Heathen book of shadows?

I've been drooling on line again at the various shadow books out there, for them who don't know what I'm talking about, a Book of Shadows is a sacred book of ritual and magical lore, spells, chants, divination and other matters of practice. I look at them frequently and the witchy side of me thinks that maybe I'll do something like that one day.

What I'd really like to do now though is some form of book of my heathen beliefs and thoughts. I admit it's not really a normal heathen thing to do, at least not from what I can see from other heathen sites, but then I've never been one who thought that I must follow the flock and do as others do. I love books and really fancy crafting one for myself with my most important thoughts and notes in. In fact I fancy creating more then one book, because I can think of so many different topics.

I've been trying to think what I could call a heathen version of a book of shadows, of course I don't suppose there is anything stopping me from calling it just that, but to my mind the book of shadows is very witchy and is also something I link mainly with the Wiccan faith. I've thinking on calling it a 'Heathen Materia' materia being an encyclopedia type book on collections of information on a general subject, though I've not made my mind up yet so if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

I got that name materia from the book 'Crafting Magick with Pen and Ink' by Susan Pesznecker. If you've not come across that book and your interested in introducing writing in to your magic and faith practice, then it's one I'd highly recommend. I'm always dipping in to my copy for inspiration and writing knowledge. It's help me find ways to get my often fleeting thoughts on to paper and slowly build them up. One of the parts I love is the list of all the different types of books that may be of some use in a magical way, many of which I've never heard of before, materia being one of them.

What ever I decide to do I know most of the internal writing will need to be in typed format due to my problem joints and this does bother me. I still look upon the printed form as not being as personal as the hand written word. I don't tend to send many personal letters now for this reason, it seems so formal and unfriendly to send a printed letter somehow. Still I guess if the intent in the book is honest then it's the actual words that will matter more then their form? For now I'll just go on drooling a bit longer over the lovely Shadow books on line, while I decide how best to tackle this project of myself.

Affirmation

I am an Animistic Pagan
I am a Heathen who sees overlaps of her faith with elements of Druidry.
I am a Hard Polytheist.
I believe in natural magic and power of belief.
I feel my roots go deep in to the land I live on.
My ancestors are my roots


All above is central to me being me.


My beliefs that my gods are mental constructs and that all religions are the invention of time and man does not lessen any of my affirmations above. Faith and Religion are not the same. Faith is knowing there are layers beyond our comprehension. Religion is how we try to decipher those layers.

A better question

If you have looked at the post below this one and thought you were having a sense of deja vu, don't worry you are not cracking up. I did post it a couple of days ago but then deleted it, today I've changed my mind again and have re-posted it.

I deleted it because having re read it back a couple of times, I started to wonder if I was showing too much of myself and my inner thoughts. Yet thinking about it again, that's one of the reasons I brought this blog back to life again. I wanted somewhere to put my inner thoughts, a quite area of contemplation where I could write down all the muddle thoughts that were going through my head, in the hope that I might then be able to make some sense out of them. If I start self censoring what I put down then what is the point. This blog becomes just another mask I put on for other people. So this blog is me when I get my serious deep thinking head on. I may well write some very muddle post but they will all be part of a thought process I'm going through. The post below did help me. I started that one by asking 'Am I was a Heathen?' and ended by asking 'Who am I?' further thought has shown me that a much better question is,

Do I let others define me or do I define myself?

and of course there can be only one answer to that. In the end we must all find our own truth.

I know some of the things I am and I know some of the things I'm not

• I am an animistic pagan 
• I am an Heathen in the respect of that term being the common name used for those who follow the religion of Northern Europe. My whole core seems to recognize these beliefs as being part of me a part of my life as a whole. There are many things I'm unsure off but where my faith lies is not one.
• I need to find a way of incorporating my faith in to my life that fits me, not some lay down sterotype.
• The Druid path is also one I wish to explore more. I don't see this as being a contradiction in my faith. Druids and Heathens share many of the same values, which is understandable given the close contact they had. Plus having Celtic ancestors I thing I do have a connection there.
• I do not follow the Wicca religion but I am interested in folk witchcraft and in witches from a folklore and feminist point of view.
• What I believe, my faith is important to me, I can't hide it and need to find a way to incorporate it more into my life.
• It is the Northern European gods that inspire me, but I want to learn more about all religions and the gods that have touch this country as I am interested in this countries pagan heritage.
• I am not one for extensive ritual or groups of people, I want to keep things simple and authentic to me.
• I believe in religious freedom.
• Finding out about my ancestors and family history is an important part of me.
• My home is my sanctuary.

I intend to use this blog to continue to define whats important to me and as a place to honour my ancestors.

What am I?

Am I a Heathen?
I've been quite happily describing myself as a animistic heathen, even put that on the census,  but a few conversations on web chat boards I go on have lead me to doubt how the term applies to myself.

Heathen as a term is almost identical to that of Pagan, which came from the original Latin name for rustic or country dweller, Heathen just being the term for a similar person who lived on the heath. It was thought that people outside of the towns were the ones that hold on longest to the old religions, so it became to mean someone who didn't follow one of the Abrahamic religions but one of the many indigenous one that were traditional to them. Over the last couple of decades thought the name of Heathen has been overtaken as a general term to now mean someone who follows one of the northern religions and their gods.

Well it is the gods of the northern hemisphere that inspire me, to be more precise it's the gods of the Norse, Odin, Frigg, Tyr, Freya, Lofn and all. While I might have an interest in learning, in an educational way about other gods and religions, non calls to me in the way those do. As religions go it's a very pragmatic one and it makes sense  to my sometimes muddled brain on so many levels. I see all the gods of this religion as individuals, even as gods, they are themselves subject to fate and non are infallible or perfect but they all have valuable lessons to teach. I say Norse gods because they are names I seem to naturally use, but it these gods have slight variation in names depending on the geographical area. Odin / Woden, Frigg/Frigga/Frige etc. Some may say they are of Germanic origin or Saxon but they are the gods of Northern Europe. I always wonder if it's right to assign a country to a gods. God's don't need passports is a sentence that sticks in my mind from somewhere and it's true. Religions and gods, traveled in the hearts and minds of people to distant lands and then in turn became part of that land and it's people.

The world view and both the values and ethics of the heathen religion, though a relatively recent invention still seem to me a good starting point for anyone and helps to make one think about the choices we make. Many religions have some sort of code of conduct, it gives structure to the society of it's followers. The northern one at least makes much more sense to me than the christian ten commandments did. The Nine Noble Virtues as they are called, are all attributes that help the cohesion of a community while also giving a strength of purpose to an individual. The ten commandments always seem to be about the power of one giving orders, not about taking responsibility to both self and your community. I never understood the part of not coveting your neighbours possessions, to me there is no harm of wishing you had something, the sin or crime comes in stealing or hurting another to fulfill that wish. If wanting something, makes you work hard and make good choices, to help you to achieve what you seek by your own hand, is that not a good thing? I do struggle with these virtues, since finishing work, I hate the fact that I am more dependent than self reliant at the moment. I have always thought of myself lacking in the courage department, being more one of life's cowards, yet there are different sorts of courage, I guess we must all just learn to fine that which is true for us.

Now though some doubts have crept in. The heathen religions set great store by their community and the coming together of that community and family, to celebrate shared values and faith. Some of the chat was that if you didn't attend given the option to, then you could not really be a heathen as the community was the glue that held the faith together. I do not attend any of these gatherings, other than on line I've never met another heathen, (the few pagan's I have met have followed the Wicca faith) there are three reasons for this;

1) There are not to my knowledge any Heathen gatherings close to where I live.
2) It there were, health and practical issues would make getting there difficult
3) I would not want to go.

It is this last one that is making me doubt my calling myself a heathen. I love my family and my community but I've always been someone who is happier working in the background. I do not like crowds, events in my life have made me very wary of people in general. Yet reading the thoughts of others it would seem like being a solitary heathen is not an option. So what am I?

Searching for answers

Ok, my mind still keeps coming up with new questions for me, this is good. We all need to stop now and again and recharge our batteries so to speak, check we are going in the right direction for the life we want. All to often in the past I think I've been guilty of not paying enough attention but just trying to fit in with what society expected and following the path of least resistance. May be it's spring and the thoughts of renewal but I've notice that many in the pagan blogging world are also stopping to refocus and figure out what is important to them in their life now. You might like to check out these posts on The Deepest Well by Aine and At the Well of Mimir by Skye, which are both thought provoking. There are a couple more people I follow in the pagan blogging world who have stated they are changing the direction of their blogs to reflect how they are now feeling. I wonder if as pagans we are more able to stop and then redirect ourselves if we think we are going in the wrong direction? After all many of us have all ready taken the decision to leave the flock and not just follow unquestioningly.

I once read (and I'm sorry I can't remember where) that paganism was religion with homework, it's something we have to work at and find the answers for ourselves. We don't have a book to follow and for many there is no central figure telling us that we should be doing things certain ways. Yet having said that, many of us still feel that there are certain 'rules' that as pagans we are inclined to follow. Things like the wheel of the year and rituals, etc are repeated in most books. Aine makes some very good points about this in her post (see the link above). Most of the different pagan religions around today try to follow and are reconstructions of the religions we believed our ancestors practiced. Being inspired by the religions of our ancestors is one thing but trying to faithfully recreate that religion is very difficult and I'm starting to wonder if that is the right thing to do. To start with we just don't know for sure how they celebrated their religion, we can gather clues from what written sources there are but they are few and far between. Theirs was a religion that was pass down through the generations by the spoken word. What information we have of any religion is often written long after events describe, by people who may have taken a bias view of those events or even changed them to suit their own agendas, from such a difference in time we can not even be sure that we are interpreting correctly these sources. 

Anyone who's read any of my posts will see how important showing respect to my ancestors is to me, drawing inspiration from what we know or think we know is good, but I want a life that's authentic to me now. We do know from archaeological research that our ancestors over time changed how they lived, worshiped, and their rituals over such things of how they buried their dead. These changes came about due to new discoveries, the movement and the mingling of people and fresh ideas, as well as changes in environment and the climate of the times they lived in.. The human race seems programed to always move forward, for thousands of years that movement was slow, now it could be argued that we are moving forward far to fast and we need to slow down. We have gone so fast I think we have become disconnected with the earth as a whole, we somehow now see ourselves as separate rather than have any connection. Many humans it would seem, now think we can control nature and we have become superior over it, instead of part of it.  Science is the only thing that matters, faith is seen as for the ignorant, but do they really need to be separated? Many peoples lives have been helped by science but if we lose all connections with the earth what is the value in the life?

I want to be inspired by my ancestors, to reconnect with the values I think we are in danger of losing. Re new my connection to the earth and it's natural magic, rediscover the old gods and their meaning in my life. I must do all this though as the person I am now. Just like my ancestors I need to re-adjust my practice and rituals to reflect the world around me.

The Seasons and Festivals

A few weeks ago I got told I was a secular pagan and that I could not be someone who was taking paganism and my faith seriously. This came about because I had told her that I did not celebrate Ostara / Eostre at the Spring Equinox and that I disagreed with her stance that if you were pagan you must celebrate the sabbats of what is commonly called the wheel of the year. It was also her firm belief that to celebrate the sabbats seriously they must be done on certain dates. Sadly my explanation of why I did not celebrate or see a need to, at the Spring Equinox fell on deaf ears. I do in my own way celebrate the festival I know of as Eostre, but for me the first full moon in April seems the most appropriate time. As I intend to write a post nearer the date on my feelings about Eostre, I thought first it would be a good idea to write down how I see the festivals in my pagan faith and the seasons.

Now I as a pagan I do know of the wheel and give a respectful nod to the festivals listed on it, but by no means am I tied to it. I follow the Holy Tides of the northern religions and being mindful of them is of more importance to me. The wheel of the year is a relatively recent invention, though most of the festivals which are listed on it do have their origins in the pre christian festivals and some of them I do celebrate as part of my faith. The names of the festivals listed on it, (Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh / Lammas, Mabon, Samhain and Yule) come mainly from a mixture of both Celtic and Germanic festivals that we have some historical sources for, with a couple of more modern names for what we believe may have been ancient festivals being added in. I have no problem with the wheel of the year, being a list of festivals that have been welded together from different cultures I can see how it has wide spread appeal. I'm also sure that many of our ancestors did celebrate festivals at the times that coincide with the wheel, though there are no historical sources that say all these festivals were celebrated in pre christian times. The wheel as a set of festivals comes mainly from the modern Wicca tradition. What I do have a problem with is being told that as a pagan I must celebrate these festivals and at set times.


In our modern world we seem to be fixated by dates, yet our calendar in the western world alone has been changed enough times, that saying well such and such a festival falls on this day is entirely  meaningless. It always amuses me that people insist that Summer Solstice on the 21st of June, is also the first day of summer, they know this because the calendar tells them it is, yet in the very next breath they will talk of the day as Mid Summers day. Now surely simple logic would declare it can not be both the first day of summer and mid summer? The same is said of Mid Winter being the first day of winter. We seem to have lost our common sense somewhere along the way and just become reliant on being told where we are on a set calendar. Our ancestors did not have our modern calendars, theirs were based on the movement of the moon and the agricultural year, accordingly their festivals reflected this. Due to this few dates of festivals, would have had a universal date of celebration, apart from the solstices.Also due to seasonal variations in different regions the same festival could be celebrated weeks apart from one area to another. Our ancestors were people who in general lived close to the land and took notice of her changing moods and seasons in relation to their own location. Take Winter nights, a holy tide that for me signals the start of winter, in many heathen calendars you will find it can be listed as being from around the start of October till the early part of November. I myself choose to celebrate this tide on the first of November. Now why would I fix myself on a calendar that states that this holy tide falls on the 15th of October when in my area, winter still seems some weeks away. We have now got to the stage where we try to fix mother nature and her seasons in to our calendars, attaching firm universal dates for the start of each season and making no allowances for the different regional weather patterns in our northern hemisphere. If we just slow down and listen to what the earth is telling us, we can actually feel when the seasons begin to change and the festivals we choose to celebrate, should flow from that feeling becoming a natural part of our beliefs not just some date on a calendar. I truly believe that most pagans are free thinkers, who have chosen, the not always easy option of following a religious path that does not involve dogma, a path of their own choosing that speaks to their inner spirit. We should not be swayed by those who wish to insist that there is only one way to celebrate our pagan faith.

This is my personal thoughts about the seasons. I am a strong believer in dualism, (male / female, night / day, body / soul, etc) and like many historians who believe our ancestors only had two seasons (Summer and Winter), this also seems to be a natural idea. I think that these two seasons were then again split in two so winter and spring as the light half of winter went together and autumn was the dark half of summer, which is how we derived our four seasons. Winter in the location I live arrives around the 1st of November it gradually lightens to it's spring half around the start of February, for me the Spring Equinox is the height of spring not the start. The summer season begins on the 1st of May turning slowly to autumn in August. Many of the festivals I choose to celebrate are linked in to either the moon or the seasons, I feel in this way I connect more with my faith and ancestors. It also means though at each year the dates of some of the festivals may change. I do use dates for convenient  but I try not to tie myself up in knots over particular dates. I think any gods or ancestors looking down on us would find it most amusing that we now have this need to fix everything into a firm place on the calendar. Charming of the plough is a tide I celebrate roughly around the 6th of February, for others it comes in January, but for me the time is right for this celebration when I have seen the snowdrops appear. I can not know how or even if this is a festival that my ancestors also celebrated and it's original meaning is not exactly relevant to our modern world, yet it is one I feel a connection to. So like most things about our pagan faith it is one I have adapted to how it fits in to my life in the world now. I think this is the right thing to do. I don't believe anyone has the right to say, you must celebrate this festival and on this day in order be serious about your faith. No traditions remain static, all of them develop as time progresses. Surly the most important thing is to celebrate what has personal meaning to you, in a way that makes you as an individual feel more connected to your gods and chosen faith, at a time that feels right and with true intent. I feel the old gods and our ancestors are just pleased that we are returning back to our roots of belief and small matters of calendar dates are insignificant to them.

Mani - God of the Moon

Hail Mani, God of the Moon,

I thank your for your luminous light,

In our darkest hours.

I acknowledge your power,

Over our earth and seas

I praise you for your promise of,

Magic and mystery.

I honour your breath taking beauty

On your nightly journey.

Hail Mani, God of the Moon.

In many religions and cultures the moon is seen as a female deity but according to Northern religion and folklore the moon is a male deity called Mani and is the original ‘Man in the Moon’ in the stories we were told as children.

In the Norse mythology Mani is the brother of Sol the sun goddess. He travels through the night sky in a horse drawn chariot, chased by the wolf, Hati. If the wolf gets too close a lunar eclipse occurs, the wolf is destined to catch Mani at the final battle of Ragnarok. Mani is accompanied on his nightly journey by two human children, Bil and Hjuki. It is said he rescued the two children from their father on earth after he watched them being forced to fetch water through out the night. The nursery rhyme of ‘Jack and Jill’ is thought to originate from this legend.

One way we can honour the God of the Moon is by creating a moonlight garden and what better time to plan such a garden than in the spring and with the long summer evenings to look forward too. Most gardens are designed to be seen during the day, but you can create a garden that also comes alive with its own sensual beauty during the twilight and night time hours. Such a garden will also provide a place of delight for the nocturnal wildlife, such as bats and moths.

In creating your garden include as many white flowering plants as possible to best reflect the pale light. Along side your white plants use pastel colours, silvery foliage and lots of fragrant plants to delight all the senses and attract the wildlife. Try to aim for different textures and flowering periods to extend your moon garden through the year.

If you have space, a tree such as the Silver Birch would look stunning with its white shimmering bark or a white flowering Lilac. Some flowers choose to release their fragrance in the twilight hours, Night Scented Stocks, Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Nicotiana – flowering tobacco plant, Evening Primrose and fragrant herbs such as Mint are just a few. If you live in a desert area, there are also some varieties of Cactus that are night flowering.  The choices of plants are endless and will depend on your local climate, but a moonlight garden is a dream to create. Those who live in apartments need not feel left out, an indoor garden place in a moonlight filled window can be just as magical.

Hail to Mani, God of the Moon.

I wish to thank Willow of Confessions of a Country Witch for letting me be a guest on her blog; it has been a real pleasure writing this post.

The above is the guest post I made for Willow's 'Welcoming the God' blog party.

A Beautiful Moon, the Spring Equinox and a Happy Ostara

Did anyone see the moon last night, sadly the sky wasn't very clear here with a bit of cloud but still it looked beautiful and so large and close. It was a Super "Perigee" Moon. They happen when the moon is close to the earth and the last time the moon was this close was almost 20 years ago. I tried to take some photos but non of them turned out very well, this is about the best one.

I know some of my wiccan friends are celebrating Ostara today and would like to wish any of my friends in blogland who are also celebrating this tide a happy one. I celebrate Eostre, which is the anglo-saxon name for Ostara at the next full moon after this Spring Equinox, this year it falls on the 18th of April. I'm hoping to start making some decorations to say thank you to this lady of spring and the dawn, as she brings lighter and longer days for us in time for Summer.

Religion, Faith and Gods

The three big questions, what does Religion, Faith and Gods mean to me?

The first 'Religion' is relatively easy. I was christened and brought up Church of England but I can't say my parents were ever the religious types, more the sort that went to church for special occasions but I attended Sunday school and learnt the bible stories etc. As a young child you never think to question what you are told by your elders, or at least you don't think to put your doubts in to words. So if I was asked I would say I was christian even though even as a young child I can remember that there were thoughts that niggled at me. I was also well aware that there were other faiths. Being an ex-pat brat who moved from country to country as per my parents work, many who I made friends with were of different faiths and creeds. As I grew older, them niggles in my mind about religion became stronger an I took the subject of religion in schools to learn more. The more I learnt the more certain I was that all religions were man made and that is still my stance today. I think religions were invented by man for a variety of reasons, to explain the feelings they had that were unexplainable (faith), to explain the world around them and some were invented with the sole purpose of having power over a group of people. Sadly I think many religions can get twisted in this latter way, even if the original meaning was of true intent, human kind seem to have a need to want to control those around them and religion gave some that opportunity. So does all the above mean that I don't consider myself to have a religion? Ahhh I did say 'Religion' was relatively easy at the beginning didn't I, well now we get to the complicated bit.

Faith, how do I describe faith, someone who doesn't have it will never understand and them that do will probably see it in a completely different way to me, but here is my definition. Faith to me is just knowing that there is something else, like the world is in layers and some bits we can see and some we can't yet we are all connected. As a child growing up some of those niggles I mentioned above were when what I felt and believed were in conflict with what I learnt as part of the christian religion, from a very young age, long before I knew of the term animist pagan or even of paganism, I felt that everything natural had their own stories, their own spirits / souls. I always felt an integral part of the world, equal to the rain and wind, the pebbles on the beach but not higher. I felt the layers in the world and the thread that connects us all, it wasn't something I could see and I didn't think of it like a god I learnt about in school, this thread of spirit had no gender, no shape, it just was woven in to us from where ever the beginning was. I still feel like this, I know there is no scientific explanation or one I could provide any form of logic for, so for me this is what faith is. A true belief in what I feel even though it can not be seen or proved to exist.

So if I believe religions are man made but have faith where does that leave me on the subject of gods and of course goddesses. They have been the most difficult for me to get my head around, in truth this is a thought process that is still evolving. It is probably the one thing that many other pagans will take issue with me on but this is my thoughts on the gods. Yes I do believe in them, not in the way, I learnt as a child, for a start I'm a polytheist, I believe there are many different gods and like religions they have all been invented by human kind. Yet once something has been invented then it exists. If you take the car, that was invented, it now exists, no one can argue with that, it's a material object. The gods on the other hand are one of those things where faith comes in. I don't think I will meet Frigg in my local supermarket but she is as real in my heart and mind as the car sitting on the driveway. I do not often question how a car is built and likewise I have given up trying to question where the gods I honour came from, they are there and that is enough. Like a respected older family member I value the lessons I can learn from them, the comfort I receive from them but I do not expect them to be responsible for me, I hope if I live my life in respect of them and my code of ethics they will be on my side in moments of strife but I don't expect them to be at my beck and call. I also do not see the gods as infallible, we can all err at times and sometimes make choices that proved to be wrong but it is through our mistakes we sometimes learn our best lessons in life. The gods for me are pragmatic mental constructs. They don't need me to understand them, but through them I can learn better to understand myself.

So where does that leave me with the subject of religion, for some having a spiritual faith is enough, there is no need to give their beliefs a definition of a name. Yet here I am, as someone who thinks religions were invented by man and still I call myself a heathen and follow the Northern religions. I also have an affection for the druidry path, having Celtic ancestors, I can see there is a link there but that does not call me in the same way. There are quite a few similarities between the heathen and druidry ways, such as the ethics and veneration of the  ancestors. This is easy to understand, as few religions develop in complete isolation and both these groups of people were close enough that ideas would have flowed between, yet there are differences and it is the heathen ways and gods that pull me in their direction. I don't know why, is there some ancient ancestral link there as well, who knows? as far as I can go back all my ancestors seem to have been christian of some type, yet heathen is what I am, my heart and spirit says so. The ethics, culture and simple pragmatic nature of the northern religions match my world view. Yes I still believe that it's a religion we have invented and we can not know exactly how it started or was truly celebrated by our ancestors. We can glen some information from historical sources, the myths and sagas to find out what their world view, ethics and beliefs were. It is then down to our own interpretation and like all religions it will develop with time as we fit it in to our modern world but as long as we keep to our core beliefs and honour the our ancestors I think we can leave the rest down to our gods and faith. My religion helps me make sense of the world around me and my place in it,  gives me comfort and strength in times of difficulty, for this reason it is important to me.