April 11, 2009 at 1:45 pm (being a witch, good things, life)
Tags: celebrate, life, nature, pagan, rites, spring
It’s true, just like Christmas, Easter is a Pagan holiday taken straight from the pages of all those people that were supposed to be heathens.
The two things that symbolize Easter for most people, the baby bunny and the baby chicken are Pagan signs of life following death each spring. Does that story sound familar? 
Not that we shouldn’t have a holiday each spring. Spring is a glorious time. The earth is coming back to life after it’s long winter sleep. Flowers, trees and bushes all begin to bloom and bear their fruit. Grasses and other plants push through the damp soil. And new baby animals are everywhere.
Yes, we should celebrate. We should just be truthfull about what we are celebrating.
Leave a Comment
April 8, 2009 at 4:26 pm (being a witch, life)
Tags: faith, life, moon, nature, pagan, sun
The simple definition of a pagan is a country person. That’s also one of the oldest definitions. In centuries past the country people were less educated. The new Christan faith regarded pagans (or country people) as heathens because they would not give up their old ideas and rites.
As uneducated as they were thought to be, they understood the cycles of the moon. Using these cycles, they knew when to plant and when to harvest. If they lived by large bodies of water they understood how the moon effected the tides and when the best times to fish were.
They understood the power of fire. Not only to heat and cook and light the night sky, but how it could be used to place someone your self in a trance. They read the future in the flames and the ashes.
They knew that the sun, like water was a life giving force. They needed the summer sun for crops to grow. They mourned it’s shortened days of winter and praised the longer days of summer.
The idea, that pagan’s were uneducated is far from true. They may have been country people, but they knew and understood a lot about nature.
And all has not been lost. Many are returning to the pagan ways of nature. We are watching nature and looking for the clues that are left for us. We still use the moon to plant and harvest by. We are relearning the ways of using plants for medicine and cures. We will carry on the old ways.
Leave a Comment
April 4, 2009 at 2:52 pm (good things, life)
Tags: life, Mother Nature, nature, spring, weather, winter
The calender may say April 4, but the winds are howling and the snow is blowing.
I waited all winter for the snow and it never came. I gave up and hoped for rains for my poor parched gardens. The sun shone brightly all through March.
I worried more about my gardens this spring. I knew they weren’t getting the live giving moisture. In my mind I began to scale back the gardens in order to conserve water.
And then it came, the snow. Heavy wet snow. Twelve inches or more the last week week of March. And now more. Rain first, it was too warm to snow. But snow during the night. It’s as cold and windy as February this morning.
The seedlings are tucked away in their little greenhouses trying to stay warm, trying to find some sun shine. The ground is thirsty for the rain and the snow. You can almost see it turn green as the snow retreats. The day lilies and tulips are shivering close to the ground. But they both give hope with their bright green leaves.
Just when I had about given up hope Mother Nature sent the life giving snow and rain. She had not forgotten us. She was only reminding us that she works on her own schedule, not on ours. The calender may say April, but Mother Nature has turned back time to the middle of winter. If even for a single day.
Leave a Comment
March 25, 2009 at 11:02 pm (life)
Tags: blogging, family, friends, life, writing
About a week and a half ago I read a blog survey asking the question “Would you blog if it cost?” The amount was a penny a word and from the comments I read the answer was a resounding no. With further explanations of what the people had to say wasn’t important enough to pay for it.
To me, that’s too sad for two reasons.
One, are people just blogging for the sake of blogging? Are they on purpose just adding to the junk already floating around the Internet.
Two, do people really think what they have to say (or write) isn’t worth paying, that it doesn’t have meaning and importance to friends, family or anyone?
I admit, in the past I have been guilty of blogging just for the sake of blogging. So, I’m going to tone it down and back a little. I’ll blog less, and try to make sure what I have to say has some substance. Maybe not for everyone out there, but for people that think like me and have some of the same values.
Leave a Comment
March 15, 2009 at 1:34 am (good things, life)
Tags: blogging, challenge, family, life, rants, write
When was the last time you wrote a letter or sent a card with more than your named signed? For most of the human population it’s probably been a while. Yet we sit here day after day and night after night sending our most intimate thoughts to strangers. So I ask how did we get here???
And I offer a challenge. Right now put down the lap top or push away from the desk top and write a letter to Grandma, or mom, or old aunt Hazel or your best friend from high school.
That’s correct, I said write a letter. Not post a blog, send a text or even make a phone call. Trust me the receiver of the letter will appreciate it more than any “send to all” email or text.
How do I know? I have a grandma in assisted living. My last living grandparent and I send her a letter about every month. She has 9 grandchildren and god only knows how many great grandchildren that can write, but I’m the only one that sends card and letters on a regular basis.
How do I know, my aunt told me so. She also told me that she keeps them out for a couple of weeks and re-reads them often. It made me glad to know that. It also pissed me off that I’m the only one that does it.
So move away from the computer, pick up a pen and make somebodies day.
2 Comments
March 11, 2009 at 9:58 pm (life)
Tags: blog hits, blog titles, blogging, life, rants
Or in blog titles. My last blog title was GAME TIME, it got 95 hits, more hits than the site usually gets in a week. Were all those people looking for free or cheap things (which is the game in game time)??? Probably not. I bet they were looking for some computer game.
So was my blog title untruthful??? Not to me, especially since my tags didn’t mention anything about computer games or board games.
So what’s my point??? There isn’t one really, other than you can’t judge a book by it’s title or a blog by it’s title.
Leave a Comment
March 9, 2009 at 10:55 pm (good things, life)
Tags: cleansing, home, incense, life, ritual
No, not spring cleaning, cleansing. It’s something I look forward each year when it gets warm enough. It can be as simple as opening a couple of windows on a warm day and letting the house air out or it can be an entire elaborate ritual.
I like something in the middle. On a nice warm day I’ll open a couple of windows and light a few incense cones. I walk through all the rooms with the incense . After I close the windows I light one more incense.
I’ll do this a few times each spring until I feel that I have chased out all the old winter air in the house.
Leave a Comment
March 5, 2009 at 11:39 am (life)
Tags: family, luck, superstition, tradition
Someone sneezes, we say “bless you”
When you yawn, you cover your mouth. Why? It’s not just good manners.
Why do we “spring clean” our homes, why not summer or fall clean? Don’t know. You do it because your mother did it, but why did she do it.
Superstition. The spring cleaning one is actually a Jewish superstition that says it is bad luck to thoroughly clean a home after the month of May.
There are dozens of little things that we do each day that can be traced back to a superstition.
So whats the difference between tradition and superstition? Luck or avoiding bad luck and since some of these superstitions are very old, pleasing the gods.
I had a one very superstitious grandmother and a great grandmother that was both a mid wife and preparer of the dead. I grew up with a lot of superstitions. It’s kind of fun really not to mention it wins a lot of bar trivia.
Leave a Comment
