Joy & Grief: figuring out my Samhain Advent

I completely dropped the ball on doing fire festival advents this year. In the wave of grief following the death of my friend and the death of my mentor, it seems very important to me that I actually follow through with Samhain advent. Despite living in a house that is spiritually blocking me, in which …

The Exhaustion of Grief

When I first started First Nations Studies, I knew Elders would be in the classroom. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but I didn’t expect Uncle Ray. Instead of solemn, he was mirthful; he told jokes, and he laughed and smiled, and he lead us in joyful songs and prayer to start the day. …

When the Magick Dies

I skipped Beltane advent. I didn’t want to. I just did. I forgot about it until the first week of it had passed, and then I forgot again, and again, until it was April 29th and I had no plans for Heksennacht or Beltane. Now it’s May 1st and I still don’t know. See, this …

The Samhain that Wasn’t

Following up on a successful, if belated, Loafmass, this year I wanted to have a good Samhain celebration. I tried to get to it by October 31st, but that didn’t happen — work ate my face last month and I was supremely busy. That’s okay, I thought. Samhain season lasts until Remembrance Day for me …

What cannot be said will be wept

I feel as if I’ve spent an entire week crying; weeping out my anguish first for the betrayal of the mothers who once welcomed me, and today for the physical manifestation of that self-same hate. In the early hours of Sunday morning, a shooter tore up Pulse nightclub in Orlando, killing 50 and injuring at …

World Suicide Prevention Day 2015

I don’t know. There was a big post I wanted to do about my Oma and my mom and my aunt and how suicide/suicidal ideation/suicide attempts runs in our family, at least on the female/FAAB side, and how Oma would have appreciated that her birthday is also World Suicide Prevention Day, and how Mom and …

Kore: Accepting the Past, Preparing for the Future

This is an article I wrote for Immanence Magazine earlier this year, though I don’t know if it made it in or if the magazine even came out in the past few months. I’ve decided to use it as my Kore post for the Pagan Blog Project. It’s written for a non-pagan, lay-audience, as an …

Descent and The Chthonic Ocean

I realized, while trying to pen my two separate posts, The Chthonic Ocean and Descent, that I couldn’t separate the two. So here are both, for D, and I’ll just have to come up with something else for another C post. (Or vice versa.) The Descent to the Underworld myth-paradigm is one that has fascinated …

Gratitude and Healing

Amor vincit omnia. I was going to write out a very detailed post on how grateful I am to everyone who helped me get to SMF and to the gods Who changed me while I was there, but then I realized that I didn’t know how anonymous most of the donors wished to remain, so …