Religious/cultural festivals

[oldsilverhead]

Today is the pagan festival of Imbolc(pre Spring)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religi...s/imbolc.shtml

Happy Imbolc everybody!


oldsilverhead

[Hemlock]

Happy Imbolc to you too!

[rantipole]

Happy Imbolc!

I wish I had made time to celebrate in some way. I've been a bad witch lately.

Merry Meet,
rant

[Hemlock]

When shall we three meet again *cackle* We'll have to start a vegan witch coven at this rate

[Spiral]

Happy Imbolc!

[Jane M]

Happy Imbolc to all!

[Roxy]

Wow! That is really interesting.

Can anyone suggest any good resources where I can read more about paganism? I know many members of the forum are wiccan or pagan and many of the things they have posted have interested me.

I'd like to learn more.

[rantipole]

Roxy,

There are supposedly many good pagan web sites. Unfortunately, I've not really explored the pagan net community. I can, however, recommend a few really good books on Wicca and other pagan traditions.

"Wicca: a Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" by Scott Cunningham: as a solitary, this book has formed the core of my practice. Very well-written, as are all of his books.

"Drawing Down the Moon" by Margaret Adler: a great overview of many pagan traditions. It's slightly outdated, but still worth the read.

"The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk: probably the most well-respected book on modern Wicca.

Those are the three I would start with. Anything by the Bucklands or Farrar are also supposed to be very good. I haven't checked them out myself. If I was home in front of my book shelf, I could recommend a couple more. Have fun exploring this path!

Merry Meet,
rant

[Roxy]

Thanks Rant!

I had a look at The Spiral Dance on Amazon.ca, where you can view the first few pages of the book. It looks very interesting and written in easy to understand language.

I have to order another book from Amazon quite soon, so I think I'll include this one in the order.

[Roxy]

Last night, I celebrated the Fall Equinox with 7 other women, at a special Fall Equinox Ceremony.

We are women who know each other from our weekly Yoga classes, and the others have been organising and attending a monthly "moon ceremony", and this time, they invited me to come along.

Wow!!

We met in a park, by a river, and set up at one of the picnic tables under the trees. We met at dusk, so we could meet as the sun went down and the night time came. It wasn't very cold, there was no wind and it was so beautiful to be able to sit out in nature and share all that we did.

We created a beautiful altar on the picnic table. The colours of the fall looked so gorgeous in the fruits and vegetables, candles, crystals and other symbolic items.

We sure must've looked a sight to any passers by (we were in a quiet spot, but there were a couple of people here and there walking their dogs) - 8 women sitting around a beautifully decorated, candlelit table in the darkness

A few days beforehand, one of the ladies had emailed out some homework questions, which we were all to think of our responses, so we could share them at the ceremony. They were questions that really required me to contemplate my life and though I found them very hard to answer, I also found them to be great sources of inspiration for myself.

So we all shared what we had come up with from our homework questions. It was very respectful and non-judgemental and it was very liberating to be able to share such things, in a circle of love, such as it was.

We also smudged (cleansed each others auras with smoking smudge stick made of dry herbs), read poetry, gave back to Mother Earth in the form of thanks, spread nuts for the squirrels, and one of the ladies did some tarot readings with her animal tarot cards.

I felt honoured to be part of such a wonderful evening. It was a very healing, inspiring night for me and it's opened my mind to a more positive way of living for myself.