Gather up some soft petals and hold them to your lips. Let them whisper to you of pleasure. Do not let it fade away. May you connect to those things that bring you pleasure, those things that bring you joy, let them speak to you of the wellspring of joy that rests within. Let them sing to you of wonder and delight, of your own magic, of things once lost that can be found. Breathe deep and make a vow of commitment to your life as it breathes now, to your body as it stands now. Make a promise, deep and silent, secret and strong to your own magic nestled within. Take one petal for pleasure, one petal for joy, one petal for delight, one petal for magic. Press them against your skin, let them soak in. One by one, the spell is done.
May we nourish seeds of possibility and joy. May we tend to seeds of connection and seeds of ideas. May we nurture seeds of genius and sparks of change. May we gather up what we’ve created and hold it lovingly and then open our hands and let go. May we plant what we can, savor what we can, harvest what we need to thrive, and love where we are now, hearts alive and hopes extended. May we be as full of promise as a nestled seed, lying in darkness at the fiercest edge of cracking open, ready to see what grows.
Ostara blessings to all! May you nurture tender seeds of possibility.
Imbolc brings an invitation into change, to step into the forge of transformation, to sink into the holy well of healing, to open ourselves up to an evolving path of growth and discovery. It is now that we remember we are our own seeds of promise and while there is time yet to stay in the waiting place biding our time and strengthening our resources so we have what we need to grow, soon we will feel the wheel urging us onward, the call to set forth becoming unmistakable and strong. Let us settle ourselves into center, nestle into trust and determination, and extend outward from here feeling the sweet wind caress us and the fiery forge beckon us as we heed the summons to roll on, the path opening up before us as we move.
This year, my kindred decided to combine Disablot and Alfablot and hold Ancestor Day. Disablot is supposed to be for the female ancestors and Alfablot for the male ancestors. Yes, Alfablot means elf sacrifice, but the line between the elf mound and the grave mound was fuzzy for the heathens of historical times. Even though it's traditional, separating the ancestors by gender just didn't feel right to me, and I asked the rest of my kindred if they would like to combine the two days into one Ancestor Day. Everyone liked the idea so we planned it.
Rounding out the year's posts on the holidays of the reconstructed pagan religion Ridnoveri, here are the winter holidays coming up as 2022 turns to 2023. And if you're using this calendar in a leap year such as 2024, be sure to add in the Leap Year day! I'll be posting about that specifically as it gets closer.
May you let your shoulders soften, the knots loosen and unbind. May you feel the light touch of the ancestors across your brow, their lives leading right up to now. May you savor a moment of silence, of quiet space-keeping and spark-tending. May you take a deep breath of gratitude, a deep breath of satisfaction, and a deep breath of peace. May you weave new stories from the bones of old and forgotten things, mixing them with care into the golden seeds of possibility and the flares of inspiration, that touch this moment of you. May you harvest blessings beyond count from the threads of time.
In September 2022, Amanda planned and led Haustblot for our kindred. Amanda is the first gythia I trained. Haustblot is an autumn seasonal and harvest ritual. When my kindred was creating our ritual calendar for 2022, I asked the kindred members if we wanted to do Rainbow Season for fall again this year, and Amanda volunteered to do Haustblot instead. Just before the ritual started, Amanda, I, and some of the ritual participants posed for a Heathen Visibility Project photo.
I'm so proud of Amanda. I'm delighted she worked a pomegranate into the ritual since it came from my tree. I still got in a Rainbow Season toast to Heimdall on behalf of Tom, and also a toast to Tom, during the sumbel portion of the ritual.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...