Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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Time Between

Well, I saw it last night, right on cue.

The season's first domestic Yule tree.

It was November 7.

Oh, I understand Christmas creep. I understand the thirst for magic. I understand the craving for celebration by those who really only have one holiday.

By my reckoning, we're a little past the midpoint of the Samhain thirtnight. We're still in the season of the ancestors. The big, public rituals and gatherings are over now. This is the quiet part of Samhain, the interiority, the tag-end, the tail: the time to reflect and look within.

And then comes Time Between: what my friend and colleague Magenta Griffith calls “The Fallows.”

To the eye stunned by the riot of color that was autumn, the sere winter landscape looks colorless. But it's not. The land becomes a symphony of subtle variations on tawny. There's much in fine gradation to be seen, for those with eyes to see.

 

There's wisdom in waiting, in taking time to breathe. Time to settle, time to take stock, time to clean.

Rebirth will come; there's no stopping the Wheel.

But first comes the time of Not-Yet.

First come the Fallows.

Time between is Fallows called

which fallow lies between

Midwinter's and the hinder end

of harvest, Halloween.

 

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Tagged in: Fallows Samhain yule
Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

Comments

  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham Monday, 09 November 2015

    Back in the early 70's when my family first moved back to Richmond the stores still had Thanksgiving decorations after Halloween. Big paper cutout figures of turkeys and pilgrims to put in the store windows. Small effigy candles of turkeys and pilgrims to put on the dinning room table. By the end of the 70's Christmas decorations had swept that away and were going up the day after Halloween. Now the Christmas stuff competes with the Halloween stuff for shelf space in October.

  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch Tuesday, 10 November 2015

    I think that as the People of Many Holidays, we've got the long-term advantage here. In the pagan future, I foresee less Yule and more of the other firedays.

    Or so I like to tell myself.

  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham Tuesday, 10 November 2015

    I'ld love to see what stories and lore would accumulate around groundhog day if it was celebrated with as much enthusiasm as Easter or Valentine's day let alone the enthusiasm to match that of Halloween.

  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch Wednesday, 11 November 2015

    May we both live to see it.

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