Category: Celebration Days

EARTH DAY 2020

, ,
Earth Day 2020

Fifty Years Since the First Earth Day… And we haven’t even started to do enough. I can’t believe, having participated in one way or another in this Celebration for most of those years, that more progress hasn’t been made. The effort to raise Awareness of this Planet’s plight has been going on for more than a half century, and while more people are indeed Aware, the situation remains much as always. Certainly, many more people are actively trying to make changes. their have been accords and agreements, the Talking Heads have debated the issue at length. Legislation has been passed to protect the environment, and then summarily overturned when it suited the current “Powers that Be”. Shame on us All!

Continue reading

Lughnasadh–Harvest Festival

Lugnasadh Or Lammas

Is It August Already? Yes, I know I’ve been kind of falling behind on posting this summer. Well, it’s Summer. And, the Energy Work has been kind of All-Consuming for the past month or better. I knew this year’s Summer’s Solstice (Second Quarter on the Wheel of the Year. Should have done a post–wasn’t able.) was going to bring in some intense and huge change for the Earth as well as myself. We’ve been being hit by one wave of transformative energy after another since, and I’ve been functioning largely on automatic pilot. My oldest daughter was in England during the Solstice and visited Stonehenge shortly after on June 24th. Big things are happening. In the meanwhile, we are beginning a new month and Celebrating the first of the three Autumn Festivals. Even though Summer doesn’t officially end for some time, the Harvest season has begun and the days are…

Continue reading

Beltane–Bright Fire

Beltane

Happy May As the year speeds by, it is only natural to stop, take a breath and observe the natural cycles and passages as they arrive. Beltane, also related to May Day, Walpurgis Night or Calan Mai, occurs from sunset on April 30th to sunset on May 1st. It is a fire festival, a cross-quarter of the Eight-fold year marking the half way point of the succession from spring to summer. It is the time of growth and renewal, fertility and abundance. The Goddess, celebrated as May Queen or May Bride, and the Masculine God―the Oak King, Jack-In-The-Green, or the Green Man―fall in love and consummate their marriage, assuring blessings and abundance for the growing season. Beltane is passionate, sexual and fecund. It is a celebration of the principles of pro-creation, the occasion of the Sacred Marriage (or Heiros Gamos) between god and goddess, earth and sky. Handfasting, a traditional…

Continue reading

Of Equinoxes and Full Moons

Of Full Moons and Equinoxes

Ostara On the Wheel of the Eight-Fold Year as observed by many Pagans, the Spring Equinox (the Second Quarter) is called Ēostre or Ostara. Named for an old Germanic Goddess, Ēostre, and the month called after her (Ēastermōnaþ). This month roughly corresponded with April and is the namesake of our present usage of Easter. It is the celebration of returning life to the land after the death of winter, and often symbolized by hares or rabbits (the hare is associated with goddess Ostara), baby animals like chicks (new life and beginnings) and eggs (fertility and increase). In Celtic or Druidic observation, the spring equinox (celebrated on March 21st) is called Alban Eiler—the Light of the Earth. The balance of Day and Night has always been seen as a powerful opportunity for magic and transition. It is a time to sow seeds, in both physical and spiritual realms. And of course,…

Continue reading

Imbolc—February 1st

Imbolc

The pagan holiday Imbolc is celebrated on February 1st. Also called Brigid’s Day (or Saint Brigid’s Day) it is one of four Cross-Quarter days in the Yearly Cycle— the half way point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Celebrated today by Wiccan and other Pagan groups, it was a traditional Celtic Festival with deep roots in the mass consciousness psyche. As preparations for spring began, lambing season arrived and winter’s hold loosened on the world. The “Quickening of the Year” was greeted with high hopes and the promise of a bountiful year to come. It was a fire or light festival, a celebration of the goddess as she becomes ripe and fertile with possibility, and a time traditionally held for clearing and cleaning both inside and out. It is the traditional time for Spring cleaning to begin. Also a good time to start taking Spring tonics like dandelion greens…

Continue reading