Being one of the celebration-minded, I view the solar holidays as having a “tide” of about two weeks, due to all of the old European holidays that cluster around the solstices, equinoxes, and cross quarter days, as well as all of the historical calendar adjustments. Because February 14th, was known as “Old Candlemas,” we can stretch the meditative energy of Candlemas at least until Valentines’ Day.
Because “The Fairy Ring” Oracle (by Paul Mason and Anna Franklin) has eight cards representing the old pagan festivals, one of the techniques that I have demonstrated at the Triple Goddess is how to use this deck to see what sort of fairy-world energies you can experience at different times of the year. So, if you happen to own that deck, you can see what you can expect from this Candlemas-tide by shuffling, thumbing through the deck until you find the “Imbolc” card, and then looking to whichever cards are flanking it to get an idea of what late winter/early spring has in store for you.
In my own case, I got “The Blue Hag [of Winter]” on the left, and on the right, the fairy Habetrot, (who is a spinning hag, but in this deck, pictured in green and bordered with flowers). That certainly makes a statement about the transition from deep winter to the re-greening of the earth, and offers some philosophical insights into the crone energies in one’s life, and how a winter hag might make the transition into a summer hag.
Time to light a candle. If I may quote from my book of candle spells: “May this candle fair and bright, cheer us all through winter’s flight. Bless us through snow and storm and rain, until the Spring has come again” [“By Candlelight, Rites for Celebration, Blessing, and Prayer,” p. 140].
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Thanks for responding to my post, even though my e-mail address didn't work. I'll try to go into the blog and fix it. My e-mail address has changed and I guess I forgot to change it in the blog. But otherwise, it is dianaherself2@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteI love the way that the pagan holidays make you feel so connected to nature and make everything feel magical. You have such a vast store of knowledge. I could never remember all of those things.
Hi Behind Blue Eyes! I find your own blog very interesting because you range through so many topics. I dug up my previous letter, (which had gotten kicked back), and which was commenting on Bipolar and Aspergers, so I pasted it into your “Dear Demons” post. (Because I'm still new to blogging, I got confused and accidentally posted it twice, so you will want to remove that duplication.) As for my having “such a vast store of knowledge,” my secret is that whenever I read a new book, I tape record the interesting passages, and then play my tapes at night to keep my mind from running and looping. Prior to discovering that listening to information-intensive tapes lets my mind calm down enough to sleep, I had a lot of trouble with insomnia. I have made hundreds of tapes on such subjects as African Lore, Amulets, Beads, Black Elk, Bulgarian Lore, Chinese Lore, etc. Even though magical anthropology is my autistic obsession, I wouldn’t be able to remember all this stuff if I didn’t listen to hundreds of tapes, hundreds of times over. (Otherwise, I have such a bad memory, it’s hard for me to remember what happened six minutes ago.) I also listen to my tapes when I’m driving, exercising, or dong housework--and every time I listen to these notes, I get new ideas and make new connections.
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