Holidays
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With the Fog, Summer has Returned
In many modern Pagan reckonings of the seasons, as well as in some places in the world like Ireland, the solstices and equinoxes do not mark the beginnings, but rather the peaks of each season. The “cross-quarters” in February, May, August and November are the seasonal beginnings. So May Day would be the beginning of summer, as it was reckoned in earlier times in Europe. This has always made sense to me; it is the only way to logically parse that the summer solstice is also traditionally called “Midsummer“, and the winter one “Midwinter”. But different people have different approaches, and that’s fine by me: adapting the Wheel of the…
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May Day: What do YOU Think?
Atheopaganism is a religious path in a general sense, but it’s really a diverse set of individual paths that each of us crafts for ourselves, using pieces of my work or the work of other community members and our own creativity and spirituality. That’s the way we want it! I hope your Atheopagan practice is exactly as you want it to be so it brings you the most meaning, wonder, joy and inspiration possible. You can hear about the diverse ideas, rituals and observances of some Atheopagans on our YouTube channel and through the guest posts here and on the Wonder podcast; feel free to borrow anything that strikes your…
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A Brightening Ritual
It’s the February Sabbath! Midpoint between the winter solstice (Yule or Midwinter) and the spring equinox (which I call High Spring), it is the time when the light is noticeably returning after the deep darkness of winter, and the hope of spring is growing. It can thus be called Brightening, anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Where I live, it’s the time when it rains constantly, and so I have named this Sabbath, for my own purposes, Riverain, the Festival of Water. This is a concept for a Brightening/Riverain ritual I came up with this year. We did an adapted version of it in the Atheopagan Saturday Zoom Mixer today. The…
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A Happy Solstice to You!
The Shortest Day has arrived (in the Northern Hemisphere–Longest in the Southern)! It’s a day viewed with awe and relief by ancestors throughout the world, marking the beginning of the Sacred Sun’s long arc of return to strength. I just want to wish you warm, meaningful and joyous celebrations of this time of year, however you may observe them, and thanks for being a part of the Atheopagan community. Wolcum Yule!
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Sabbath Drop
So, the first week in November was Hallows. The whole week. I wrote about this before: the fun/gross/sexy/creepy launch of Halloween, the days between with their various observances, and then actual Hallows/Samhain, the midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, on Nov. 7 or so. It’s a whole week of fun, introspection, contemplation of mortality, and goth goodness. We Pagans love our Festival of Darkness and Death. It’s a/the high point of the wheel of the year. I got to see and circle with two groups of friends, which, frankly…well, are any of us getting face-to-face time with friends much any more? But it’s over now, and I’m…
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Deep in Hallows
We’re deep in the season of Hallows now. Halloween is a memory; the true midpoint between the equinox and solstice still some days ahead, on the 7th. By then, the clocks will have turned back, and darkness will descend quite suddenly on the evenings. This week always feels liminal to me, a between-time very like the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day: the world holds its breath, and everything is laden with meaning. I’ve been doing my rituals. Took my annual walk in the cemetery on Halloween; gathered a spring of yew that will dry on my Underworld Focus for the next year and then be used to light…
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October
In the arc of the Pagan wheel of the year, October is the time leading up to Samhain or Hallows (the midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice). It is, of course, the time when we all go a little crazy with spooky décor and witchy aesthetic, leading up to Halloween night, although the actual midpoint is around Nov. 7. October is a time when we contemplate mortality and memory, remembering those who have died and our ancestors leading back into the mists of time. The skulls and bones and spider webs remind us that we are here only for a limited time, and will also one day…
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Autumn and Harvest 2022
Outside, blessedly, it is raining. It’s the first rain we have had since April, and it seems like enough to damp down the annual wildfire season we suffer through here in California. Ah, the scent of the wet Earth! The sound of the rain on the roof! The buffets of the wind in the wind chimes, set swinging wildly with each gust! Finally–only a week after we had temperatures up to 117–it feels the corner has been turned to Autumn, and the season of Harvest. I live in a richly agricultural region, and now is the time: gardens are pouring out vegetables, and the wine grape harvest, known locally as…
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The Dimming Sabbath, 2022
After much struggle to find a worthy name for this cross-quarter holiday, I have borrowed a suggestion from a member of the Atheopagan Facebook group and gone with Dimming, with its corresponding Brightening in February. “Dimming” says what this holiday is: yes, it’s summer, but the days aren’t so long now. Where I live, a long, wan late summer will persist well past Harvest (the autumnal equinox), though if we’re lucky we will get a rain storm in September or so. Dimming is filled with meanings, both traditional and in my personal Atheopagan observances. It is the time of the first harvest festival, typically associated with harvests of grain and…
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Happy High Spring 2022!
We’ve been through a lot over the past two years. We’re still going through a lot. And yet, the sprouts rise and the buds swell, the flowers bloom and the birds return. Spring is always a hopeful time, a time to gaze forward with anticipation and optimism. For me this year, I am so close to having a genuinely wonderful life. I just need a job, and I have a second interview for a truly great one in two days. So I am imagining what life with that job could look like. Imagining survival fear waning, and joy swelling with the growing year. Wherever we are, whatever our circumstance, if…
