Secrets In The Sabbats: Imbolg

The week before Imbolg, my eight-year old and I got out the plaster bust of the Goddess that we put on the altar every year, and refurbished her. Basically, we chipped away at the plaster crown on her head, because it keeps getting in the way of the crowns that we make for her, and then we sanded the head smooth. Later, I took her out back and sprayed her with a fresh coat of paint. After she dried, I placed her on the altar, swathed her in veils, and placed the candle crown on her head.

On Yule night, with our sleeping bags unrolled in front of the fire, each member of our family threw pine cones and acorns into the fire, each one representing a wish. For Imbolg, we talked about turning wishes into goals. I wrote simple elemental meditations about how the elements can help us achieve our goals by lending us the strengths of nature.

For our cakes and ale, we served navettes and milk. Each of us had a silver chalice containing whole, organic milk. We read something about the Goddess representing love, and when we take in a sip of the milk, we are taking in the love of the Goddess. Then everyone took a little sip. Then we said that when we pour out some of the milk, we are remembering the importance of loving others. (or something like that.)

Each of us poured a little bit of the milk into the bowl of blessed water, which was a small bowl of water containing a generous pinch of salt. After we each poured the milk in, watching how the white milk spread and formed a cloud pattern in the clear water, I set the bowl down.

We went on to read something about taking another sip of the milk and taking the Goddess herself into ourselves. We took our sips of milk, and then read something about pouring out a bit more milk to remember the importance of sharing our gifts with others.

When I picked up the bowl of milk so everyone could pour again, we saw that the milk had formed a perfect spiral in the clear water. My youngest son looked at the bowl of water and milk, and looked at me, his eyes wide, his mouth open. "Wow!", he whispered.

I realize that there is probably a perfectly good, reasonable scientific reason this happened. Maybe as I turned to put the bowl down, I created a mild centrifugal force in the water. Perhaps the salt in the water and the fat in the milk had something to do with it. I don't know. But it seems to me that it doesn't matter. In sacred space, any scientifically explained phenomenon can also be a spiritual miracle.

Anyway, the surprise of seeing the white spiral, and the expression of awe on the child's face, was sweet.

When we poured again, the water turned a cloudy white, and the moment passed. But it's one of those little moments that I will never forget.

Secrets in the Sabbats: Yule

Khyrsso recently blogged that he feels like hibernating. Wise man.

http://people.tribe.net/khrysso

Several weeks ago the family drove to Temple Bar, a marina and campground on Lake Mead in Arizona, scoping out the perfect campground for Yule. We found a site near a little hill that can be climbed in a few minutes. At the top of the hill is a clear view of sunrise between mountain ranges.

I had fantasies of our well-bundled little family hunkered down near a big fire, all of our cold weather gear in use. Temperatures might be in the 30s, but it would likely be dry. I imagined us imagining what it was like at the solstice thousands of years ago. We would make a holiday feast in a dutch oven, and rise just before dawn to climb the hill and softly drum the sun up.

But for the last couple of weeks, the boys and I have been fighting off our annual visit from the winter crud. I've had to slow down. It's the 16th of December, and the room the tree goes in isn't ready. The holiday decorations are still packed away deep in a closet. We have yet to begin our holiday shopping. Yule is this weekend, and I have been barely able to keep up with normal activities.

In years past, I usually tried to overdo things at Yule. There's the solstice, and there is the commercial Christmas holiday with Santa, and elaborate feasts. There are parties, celebrations, and public rituals. In years past, I used to bravely hope to sing in the choir on Christmas eve in the UU church, despite the twinges of remorse that I feel while singing the Christian Christmas hymns.

At least, that's the winter holidays as I imagine them in my head.

Every winter for the last several years, the kids and I come down with the flu or a cold that morphs into upper respiratory infections. I wash the doorknobs, light switches and faucets, hoping that I can prevent the spread of germs that seem to reinfect each child just as his symptoms subside. Nothing seems to help. We end up backing out of some of the commitments we've made because the children are sick.

This year we even got flu shots.

I think I understand now.

My friend Katlyn's words come back to me: "Yule is a time of dreaming." Every year I repeat those words, and every year, I talk about dreaming but do nearly everything but.

The seed is in the earth, resting.

When discussing volunteerism, I have recently told friends I feel as if I have given everything I can, my seed has sprouted, grown tall and been cut down. Nothing is left, the seed is spent and gone.

This week, we are committed to attend a couple of festive occasions - a holiday dinner for Michael's work, a Make A Wish party for the kids.

There will be no elaborate Yule celebration at Temple Bar. Instead, we'll be spending the longest night warm and cozy at home. We'll have a fire in the fireplace, treats on the table, stories to read, and Yule music playing. We'll have cats and children in our laps. We'll drink herbal tea, then sleep deeply, surrounded by pillows under piles of blankets. Maybe, if we are feeling up to it, we'll get up an hour before dawn and drive somewhere far enough away from town to watch the sunrise.

Or maybe we'll just stay in bed.

Samhain Tag

What are you doing for Samhain or Halloween? Please respond on your blog, and ask your readers to do the same.

I've been tagged by Cindi Epona’Bri, and asked to tag others. I'll post this on my Tribe and LJ blogs, so that others can respond.


Here is what she said:
"Chasmodai is a fellow Pagan and her faith is close to what my own is. One common element that Islam and Pagans share is taking care of our fellow man, and showing charity to others. I liked that you are trying to share your sabbat celebrations, that is something I would like to do more of. What are you planning for Samhain?"

My reply:

This year, our Samhain activities will span about two weeks. Here is the schedule so far:

October 25, BoneDance, http://vegasvortex.com/details.php?id=14

October 31, We are taking the kids to Disneyland, dressed like pirates, (dh and I will be pirate igcognito)

November 4, The kids and I are making a haunted gingerbread house and preparing for our Feast of Remembrance.

http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index506.html

November 6, Feast of Remembrance, (this will be a private family observance)

Normally we attend at least one community Samhain ritual but this year, for the first time in 15 years, we'll be skipping that. I'm having second thoughts - I would love to attend a ritual at my friend's house, but I made a promise to my kids.

700 Billion Wall Street Bail Out - Bail Out The Middle Class Instead

So Crazy It Just Might Work:

I have an idea. Rather than bailing out Wall Street, why not bail out the middle class?

Use the 700 billion to pay down existing college loans and mortgages of single home families. If an individual has no college degree, use their share to pay their tuition. If they have no mortgage and no home, help them get established with an affordable mortgage. If their home and tuition is paid for, or they have more than one home, they don't need a bail out.

The credit and mortgage companies would be infused with cash to use for more loans. The middle class would be able to afford to pick up the tab, since we all know they are going to anyway.

It Happened Eight Minutes Ago

It happened Eight Minutes Ago

This is a edited version of a blog that was posted on September 22, 2008.

Eight minutes ago, right here, the earth was in perfect balance:

http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2008.shtml

So, after a moment of silence, here was the rundown of the big weekend:

Friday: Did the "mom thing," and cooked like a mad dog all day, into the night. Furiously ran around trying to find all the little odds and ends we might want for the weekend, like the Captain Bogg and Salty cds and the pirate flashlights.

http://www.boggandsalty.com/

Did not get everything cooked that I bought provisions for, so the insanity will continue today.

Saturday, up at 2:00 a.m., in order to arrive at Balboa Park when the San Diego Pagan Pride festivities started. I slept in the car while DH drove, but I had stayed up to finish organizing things and he had gone to bed hours earlier. So we both ended up with about the same amount of rest.

We arrived just as the opening ritual was starting. It was very nice, immediately recognizable as A.D.F., and well done. As usual with outdoor rituals, it was hard to hear everything over the sound of trucks and planes and non participants who don't realize how their voices were carried. It was a bit touching too to see the little indications that there were people there who knew and valued each other, like ad libbed comments that brought a chuckle from the community even though Michael and I hadn't a clue what they were referring to.

We visited the San Diego SpiralScouts booth, and the kids played games like bean bag toss and ring toss, and then we wandered around looking at the wares. There were many well-stocked booths. I was impressed with how well-organized and professional everything was.

The crowd wasn't huge, but it was still early. We heard a talk about hypnosis given by Donald Michael Kraig. I figure anytime a guy stands up and gives a free talk, the least one can do is "look" at the wares being offered, so I wound up buying his book "Modern Magick." I wasn't very far into it when I found a "blind," which means it's one of "those books," that contains deliberately misleading information to keep the casually curious from learning the "secrets." I was bummed and felt like a huge idiot for shelling out 20 bucks for the book. I guess I could rise to the challenge and try to see how many blinds I can spot, but honestly I won't even go into a full rant about this right now. For a change I'd like to find a new, straightforward magickal book that won't insult my intelligence.

We watched Wendy Rule perform, which is probably the main thing that inspired me to want to be in SD that weekend. I bought a cd, (I have about five or six of her cds now, and each one is a masterpiece IMO ). She's always very sweet, professional and polite. I have a huge amount of respect for her. http://www.wendyrule.com/ ; My youngest enjoyed her performance too. He was riveted.

We visited the San Diego Museum of Man next, http://www.museumofman.org/ ; and I was especially thrilled with the Ancient Egypt exhibit. Some of the mummies and the cases blew me away. I want to see them again. I was very excited to see that the bottom of one case was painted with a large figure that looked like either Isis or Hathor, and I wasn't 100 percent sure which, and wanted to find out more. There was a definite Isis on the lid, but the figure on the bottom looked to me like it might possibly be Hathor. I didn't see anything in the symbols and writing below the picture to indicate who it was, (I mean like "house of Horus") so I'm not sure, but it reminded me of other funerary images of Hathor. DH took photos, but for some reason they aren't on the camera. All the photos from the weekend are there but those. :(

I've never seen a real Egyptian exhibit like that one before. Of course I've seen pictures in books, documentaries, and reproductions, etc.,
but this was different. There is no comparison. One could see that human hands made these symbols, painted with brushes. It reminded me of the time I attended a baby shower, and visited the nursery that was being prepared for the child who would soon sleep there. The walls were painted with beautiful murals straight from a children's story, and you could see the brush strokes and feel the love and care that went into preparing that nursery.

I was struck by the thought that if people saved their entire lives to be buried this way - elaborately wrapped and painted with symbols. Then I considered their world view in everything they did. What did they do when a baby was born? Some Egyptologists seem to think that their beliefs were completely centered on death and that this was the totality of everything they did religiously. I can't see how that is possible, any more than a fundamentalist Christian's belief in heaven is the sum of their beliefs. Perhaps the concept of death was prominent, and of course death rites were elaborate and very expensive. But consider how much people pay for weddings these days. It seems to me that that evidence of their beliefs about death have survived because they intended these things to be preserved. That doesn't mean that they didn't also have beliefs pertaining to how they went about their daily lives. After all, they have found evidence that they cast spells. So their beliefs weren't just about death and the afterlife.

It makes me wonder how people might view us 10 or 20 thousand years from now, if only a tiny bit of the artifacts from our daily lives remain. Like stryofoam. Would they think stryofoam played a more significant role in our culture and beliefs, because that's all that's left?

There were things for the children, like some rooms where they could get a taste of how things were different then. They could dress in clothes similar to what the Egyptians wore, prepare "pretend" food, barter, play on a pretend barge, play music, and get a taste for the process of preparing a mummy.

After that we went to the campground. It wasn't on the beach, as I had previously thought. DH arranged it. We were at Dos Picos Regional Park, San Diego County. It was actually quite nice, in a grove of oak trees. They were moss-covered giants, dropping acorns the size of a child's thumb, long and tapering to a point. (DH knew I would approve.) Our campsite wasn't crowded too close to anyone else. The amenities were nice too, flush toilets, showers, electric hand driers and outlets. We fell asleep to the sound of acorns dropping, landing on the tent above us on on the ground around us. It was as though we were being blessed with a promise of prosperity.

The next morning, Sunday, we drove to North Island and let the boys play on the beach. After admonishing the boys "no swimming" due to rip currents, the youngest had to fall down accidentally on purpose, in order to fully experience the ocean. (He's a good swimmer for his age - in a swimming pool, so he knows just enough to get into trouble.)

We started to head home shortly after noon, stopping once for ice cream, (and of course the obligatory potty breaks,) eating the remains of our Mabon feast in the car. We arrived home in time for the boys to have a warm bath before bed, to wash the last of the sand away.

Next weekend, we hike at Zion. Tomorrow, the boys and I start our "Samhain book." More on that later.

The Evolution of Our Family Sabbats

DH and I talked about this last night. I told him that the amount of time and effort that we have been putting into the public group Sabbats must go instead to those two little guys we had just sent upstairs to bed. This is not just an "it would be nice" thing, but a necessary thing.

We haven't figured out yet exactly what this will look like. Maybe it will happen out in Nature, or at home. Maybe decorating for the season will amount to changing the tablecloth on the kitchen table. Maybe the ritual, if there is one, will be simplistic and take five minutes.

I do know that this year we will have our Mabon meal on the beach, on a picnic blanket, while we talk about the origins of the food, and about what we are thankful for. DH looked for a harvest festival in Southern Ca. this weekend, but none are scheduled.

I do have one idea that I would like to float with DH. For each Sabbat, I'll like to start a family scrapbook, or a binder, or a lap book,

http://www.lapbookladies.com/what_is_a_lb.htm

It might contain stories, recipes, songs, and pictures of the kids celebrating previous Sabbats. Maybe we can help the kids decorate it with a collage of seasonal images. Maybe these artifacts would grow each year with the children.

The background that led up to this:

For many years I went to Sabbats held at a private home with a beautiful community of deeply spiritual people. As wonderful as it was, something was missing because the experience wasn't shared with my children. They would go to a babysitter while DH and I celebrated, unless he elected to stay home. I still consider myself a part of this beloved community, although I don't see them as often as I would like.

For a while, I tried having family Sabbats at home, inviting parents and children from the local community. It didn't last through one turning of the Wheel. While it was rewarding, it was exhausting and expensive. Samhain was especially nice - one parent facilitated a discussion among the older kids about their family Samhain traditions, while the younger kids colored seasonal pictures, and then they carved jack-o-lanterns in the backyard.

I asked the parents if they could help with future gatherings. They simply couldn't. One said she would contribute financially but couldn't help organize or host one in her home. I understood and respected her position, but I realized that it wasn't enough. With three children; one an infant, one an adolescent and one a disabled toddler, my hands were already full.

Next came the CUUPS thing, which I've already blogged about. A major reason that I jumped at the chance to do the Sabbats with them was that it was our intention to be family-friendly. There was a large facility, so I didn't have to entertain in my home, which is something I don't enjoy. There were plenty of people who were willing to join efforts. We worked our tails off, and it was very rewarding.

Recently I realized with a jolt that during the planning, rehearsing, and ritual, my children sit in a nursery and watch DVDs. (Okay, in fairness, sometimes a hired babysitter follows through with an organized Sabbat craft.) That wasn't my vision. If you've been reading my blog you know what happened after that.

A SpiralScouts chapter was formed, and it's nice, but while it is an interfaith organization, it really isn't intended to be "about" the Sabbats. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't fill that particular need, so something else will.

Mabon Menu

Blueberry-Maize Muffins

1 cup stone ground cornmeal

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

¼ cup melted butter or salad oil

Grated rind of one lemon

1 cup blueberries, (fresh, or well-drained canned
or frozen and thawed)

1.Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix
well.

2.Add egg, milk, butter, or oil and lemon rind.  Stir just
enough to blend. Lightly fold in blueberries to avoid
releasing juices.

3. Fill greased muffin pans two-thirds full and bake in a 400
degree Fahrenheit oven 

Apple Walnut Slaw with Grapes:

6 cups shredded cabbage

1-1/2 cups shredded carrots

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

3/4 cup raisins

1 cup sliced seedless grapes

1/2 thinly sliced red onion

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup soy milk

4 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

 salt and pepper to taste

2 medium apples, chopped

 (To decrease the preparation time of Apple Walnut
Slaw, use a 16-ounce bag of coleslaw mix for the
shredded cabbage and carrots.)

1. In a large salad bowl, toss the cabbage, carrots,
walnuts, raisins, grapes and onion. 

2. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, soy milk,
honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper. 

3. Pour over cabbage mixture and toss to coat. 

4. Gently fold in apples. 

5. Cover and refrigerate until serving. 

Chicken-Mushroom Turnovers

Filling:  Sauté ½ pound chopped fresh mushrooms
and ¼ cup minced onion in 3 tablespoons butter
or margarine.  Combine with 2 cups cooked chicken,
finely chopped, 3 tablespoons minced parsley, ¼ tsp
dried tarragon, salt and finely ground pepper to taste.

Pastry:  Thaw two 10-oz packages frozen patty shells,
(6 per package) On a floured board, roll out each patty
shell to about an 8 – inch circle or to 1/8 inch
thickness.  Add about ¼ cup filling in center of circle.  
Fold over, moisten edges of pastry with water and press
together with a fork to seal.  Position on ungreased baking
sheets and pierce top of each turnover with a fork.  Bake
at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until golden, about 20 minutes. 
Makes 12.

 From:  The Complete Book of Picnics

Mabon Harvest Morning Muffins

Yields:12 muffins

35 min 10 min prep

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup grated apples

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-muffin tin
or line it with paper liners. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the eggs, sugar and
oil until well combined. Stir in the grated apples and
carrots.

In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking powder, salt and
cinnamon. Blend the dry ingredients with the apple mixture
until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes.

From:  http://www.wicca.com/celtic/akasha/mabontnrecip.htm