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 …

Church, and other notes

It’s been a while since I posted. I kept meaning to write another post for October, but then it kept not happening. So here are some brief updates on various things. Church. I am going to church now. Specifically the Anglican church about 5 minutes from my home. Why? Well, I’d heard nice things about …

The Sacred Triad and the Wheel of the Year

Note: this post is written from the perspective of someone living in the Northern Hemisphere on the West Coast of North America. Also it is full of my headcanon about the gods. You shouldn’t take anything here as necessarily backed up by the lore or even other polytheists.  Since deciding on the four fire festivals …

30 Days of Paganism: Holidays

This post is written from the perspective of someone who has lived in the Northern Hemisphere their entire life, and as such refers to the holidays accordingly.  Building my religious calendar is an ongoing, neverending process. When I started out in NeoPaganism it was the 8 sabbats of the Wheel of the Year and all …

Beltane’s Battle Plan

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day. May Day is a day of political upheaval; of revolution; of fighting against oppression. No wonder the Morrigan was so clear with me that it be Her holiday. The epiphany clarified how I was going to celebrate this year’s Beltane. By getting my shit together.

Beltaine and Pop Culture in Ritual (also: updates various and sundry)

Happy Beltaine! (Or Samhain, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere.) A while ago I did a Lughnasadh ritual for a bunch of pagans (it’ll be 3 years ago this Lughnasadh, actually) at a campout. I was asked to high priestess it all by my lonesome, which made me look askance at the organizer because he …

Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy

In case you need more Morag this week, I’ve also posted at Maenads of the (R)Evolution (MaRE for short), my project with partner-in-crime-and-awesomeness Daniel Grey (aka Sage or Danny). As well, Veggiewolf also did a post on Obesity for Pagan Blog Project, and it’s pretty damn good. You should read it. Now. On to the second O. (Sounds …

Eve and Reproductive Rights

Something that a lot of pagans have always associated with fertility is the pomegranate. I’ve been to Beltane rituals that used pomegranate as a symbol of fertility; search “magic associations of pomegranate” and you’ll find several sites attesting to its good fertility magic. Even the New Age health nuts attest to its great fertility powers. …

Flagellation (and Beltane elucidation)

This is a post I wanted to do back when the F first came up. However, I had very little time or energy and no practical experience in using flagellation for religious purposes. (Fun, on the other hand…well. That’s another story.) This post deals with Sacred BDSM and Godslavery; if this squicks you or you …

Beltane 2012

I have Plans for tomorrow (er, today; whatever I haven’t slept yet so it’s still tomorrow). In my constantly evolving personal practice, I worship a Sacred Triad of deities: Brighid, Manannan, and the Morrigan. Each has a holiday: Imbolc, Samhain, and Beltane, respectively. (Each also has a shift of some sort — flamekeeping for Brighid …