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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in groundhog

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 10 facts about groundhogs

 "It is the Washin' o' the World's Face."

(R. García y Robertson, The Spiral Dance)

 

Our story so far: The Chinese have invaded America and then (for reasons never specified) pulled out again. The East Coast literally walls itself off from the rest of the Continent and becomes a stuck-in-the-head techno-megalopolis.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Continent reverts to tribalism. Foremost among these tribes are the Latter-Day Witches who call themselves "Circle", or "Coven", who through centuries of inbreeding have achieved mastery of the art of direct mind-to-mind communication, what they call lep.

(If you suspect that this has something to do with telepathy, I think you're probably right.)

That's the universe of Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin's Masters of Solitude series, some of the earliest (late 70s/early 80s) popular literature to be profoundly shaped by the emerging Wiccan movement.

Being, in effect, our children, the people of Circle observe the same Wheel of the Year that we do today. Part of the fun of the novels for pagans lies in extricating the names of the firedays from what 1000 years' worth of linguistic erosion have left of them.

For Circle folk, Eostre/Ostara/Easter is Leddy. (I myself can remember back when, in the early days of American paganism, some folks knew Spring Equinox as Lady Day.) Then comes Belten, Sinjin (< “Saint John['s Day]"), Lams, Milemas ( < Michaelmas), Samman, and Loomin for Yule. (I'm guessing that this latter is probably a worn-down form of illumine, drawn perhaps from Doreen Valiente's quintessential Yule chant Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun: "Golden Sun of the Mountains,/Illumine the Land, Light up the World,/Illumine the Seas and the Rivers,/Sorrows be laid, Joy to the World." If so, it's a nicely folkloric touch.)

Their Imbolg/Oimelc/Candlemas is Grannog.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
How Much Ground Would a Groundhog Hog...

Winter's halfway over. In my book, that means: holiday.

Whatever you call it.

Imbolc (various spellings).What, you didn't grow up speaking Irish?

Despite what you've heard, Imbolc probably doesn't mean “In the Belly” (which, when you think about it, is a pretty stupid name for a holiday anyway). What does it mean then?

Nobody knows. Possibly it's a pre-Keltic name. Anyway, it's exotic (pagans like that) and really, really old.

Oimelc (various spellings). What, you didn't grow up speaking Scots Gaelic?

Despite what you've heard, Oimelc probably doesn't mean “Ewe's Milk.” Yes, it's lambing time, and yes, our much-diminished larders are (gratefully) being replenished by a welcome freshet of new milk right now. But “Ewe's Milk” is probably best regarded as folk etymology.

What does it mean then?

Nobody knows. Possibly it's a pre-Keltic name. Anyway, it's exotic (pagans like that) and really, really old.

Candlemas. This is how they name the holiday in Cowan. (That telltale -mas on the end gives it away every time.) Some Old Craft purists, who wouldn't be caught dead using a neo-peg name like Imbolc or Oimelc, still call it this: a habit of protective coloration left over from the Bad Old Days, I guess.

Well, la-de-da-da.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Around here we tend to present the children to the Master at Grand Sabbat. Just like the witch-hunters said we did. "Suffer the
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    Presentation at a temple huh. Okay, so the pagan version of Groundhog day would be presenting children 11 and under to the gods,
  • Tyger
    Tyger says #
    I like this. Magic is not complicated. Ritual doesn't need to be either. Name it what you want, and just celebrate. Life is short
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    What exactly is Candlemas supposed to be about? It sounds like someone is blessing candles. Chapter 4 of "Christianity the origi
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    My understanding (I'm certainly no expert on the various Christianities) is that "Candlemas" is an English folk-name for the feast

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Stomp

Our religion is a danced religion, and right now it's time to stomp.

The ground is frozen, so we dance our stomp-dances for sleeping Earth and the sleeping animals and the sleeping seeds.

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

The stomp-dances begin now and continue while the ground is frozen.

Come thaw, of course, you don't stomp any more. That work will already have been done, that magic made.

No, then we'll start spring's leaping dances. The higher we leap, the higher they grow.

Grow! Grow! Grow!

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Let me add that, since summer is the time when the tribe gathers together (as we still do), it's the time for dances of seperation
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Reaping dances tend to have lots of bending, reaching, and gathering in them. Imagine using a sickle or scythe. But that's a littl
  • Chris Moore
    Chris Moore says #
    Stomping, then leaping, then...? What is the reaping step?

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Groundhog He Say

Minneapolis, Groundhog's Day 2016. It's a snow sky, sunless and white: there's a big blizzard coming.

Thank Goddess.

If you've ever wandered where the song-and-dance routine about the groundhog and his shadow comes from, it's a naturalized American version of some old European folk meteorology.

February 2 marks the mid-point of winter, and supposedly the hibernating animals come out of their hibernacula to reconnoiter. No groundhogs in Europe, so other animals do the job: bears, marmots, hedgehogs.

Traditional weather lore has lots of examples of days whose weather is said to portend what's coming. “If it's sunny on St. Whoozit's Day, the Sun will shine for the next 40 days.” Interestingly, Candlemas Day is the lone example when bad—cloudy—weather portends good weather coming. A cloudy Candlemas predicts only 6 more weeks of winter. (Which brings us, roughly, to the Equinox.) If it's sunny and clear instead, winter will last longer.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    It is nice, but when my family moved back to Richmond in the 70's they didn't bloom until the last week of February/first week of
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Wish I were a cartoonist, Anthony: I'd like to see that one myself. Around here we won't be seeing crocus or maple flowers for (go
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    For some reason I carry the image in my mind of a giant groundhog reaching 12 feet high as it sits on its hind legs wearing a crow

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Groundhog

The sacred dances of Winter's magical midpoint—now a mere fortnight away—have long been the stomp-dances that rouse the seeds and animals that sleep within the frozen Earth.

We generally begin our February Eve doings with just such a dance, turning to the farthings and calling in turn upon their respective animal powers, the hibernating and migrating beings whose stirring marks the turning towards Spring. In the traditional Appalachian song which accompanies this dance we call to Groundhog, Redbird, Rattlesnake, and Muskrat. Those who associate Four Elements with the quarters will not have far to seek.

Groundhog, the holiday's eponymous patron, is also known in American English as Woodchuck, a variant (by folk etymology) of Cree ochek, a name which inspired the playful tongue-twisting folk query:

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck [= toss]

if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

 

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Gh movie Here in the good ol’ Keystone State (Pennsylvania USA) we’re celebrating Groundhog Day on February 2.

In case you’ve lived under a rock the last few decades (or underground in a burrow), in 1993, Groundhog Day was commemorated in a movie starring Bill Murray.

...
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