Invocation of the Winter Goddess

We invoke Thee,
Luminous Lady in White,
sweeping mount and vale with falling flakes
as Thy Winter-wand
scatters upon us
a spell of sparkling snow!

We
invoke Thee,
Ice Enchantress,
star-studded Goddess of Northern nights;
Thy frosted garments
shimmering in the slumber-still
visions of December dark
as Thou guardest the gateway
to the portals of polar Mysteries.

We invoke Thee,
Crystal Queen,
Crone of cold and Artic climes;
in this season of barren woodlands
and naked branches
upraised to grey-veiled sky,
we invoke Thee
to be here among us!

The Winter Solstice is a magical season . . . one that marks the journey
from this year to the next, journeys of the spirit from one world
to the next, and the magic of birth, death, and rebirth. The longest
night of the year (December 21 in the Northern hemisphere) is
reborn as the start of the solar year and accompanied by festivals
of light to mark the rebirth of the Sun.

In ancient Europe, this night of darkness grew from the myths
of the Norse goddess Frigga (also known as Freya) who sat at her
spinning wheel weaving the fates, and the celebration was called
Yule, from the Norse word Jul, meaning wheel. The Christmas wreath,
a symbol adapted from Frigga’s “Wheel of Fate”,
reminds us of the cycle of the seasons and the continuity of life.

Frigga/Freya was the goddess of beauty, love, and marriage. Wife
of the powerful Norse god Odin, Frigga/Freya was a sky goddess,
responsible for weaving the clouds, and therefore responsible
for rain and for thunderstorms.

Her sacred animal was the goose, and in her Germanic incarnation
as the goddess Holda or Bertha, she was the original Mother Goose
(causing it to snow when she shook out her bedding). Sitting at
her spinning wheel weaving the fates, she was also a goddess of
divination and credited with the creation of runes (though other
stories give their creation to Odin)…more precisely she was
a ‘seer’, one who knew the future but could never change it or
reveal it to others.

In Northern Europe, the year’s longest night is called “Mother Night” for it was in darkness the goddess Frigga/Freya laboredto bring the Light to birth once more. The Young Sun, Baldur, who controlled the sun and rain and brings fruitfulness to the fields, was born. Frigga’s blessing is invoked for all birthing women, and a white candle that last burned on the solstice is
a charm to provide a safe delivery.

Being a seer, she foresaw her son Baldur’s death. Knowing
that there was nothing she could do to avert his fate, the hapless
goddess extracted a promise from all things that they would play
no part in his death. Unfortunately, thinking the mistletoe was
too insignificant to bother with, she neglected to secure its
pledge.

And when the malevolent prankster Loki discovered her oversight,
he crafted a dart made of the poisonous plant. Devious and evil,
he brought it to Baldur’s brother who was blind, suggesting a
game of darts and agreeing to guide his hand. And this he did,
directing the dart directly at Baldur’s heart.

The plant’s white berries were formed from Frigga’s tears
of mourning when her beloved son Baldur was killed Some versions
of the story of Baldur’s death end happily. Baldur is restored
to life, and the goddess is so grateful that she reverses the
reputation of the baleful plant, making it a symbol of peace and
love and promising a kiss to all who pass under it.

Mistletoe is also thought to be the “golden bough” of
Virgil’s Aenid, a plant that once offended the gods and was cursed
to have to look on while beautiful girls were being kissed. In
Rome mistletoe played a role in the Saturnalia, festivals held
during the Yule season to celebrate the birth of Saturn. The tradition
of kissing under the mistletoe (and removing one berry with each
kiss until none remained) emerged from that fertility rite. This
may explain why, unlike other pagan traditions, banning the plant
from churches is still widely practiced even today.

The Druids (British) also revered the plant’s powers as an aphrodisiac,
believing the berries to contain the sperm of the gods. On the
sixth night of the new moon of the winter solstice, they would
use a golden sickle to cut the mistletoe from the sacred oak,
letting it fall into a cloth held under the tree by members of
the order so that the sacred plant would not touch the ground.
The Chief Druid would cut off sprigs for distribution to the people,
who hung them over their doorways for protection against thunder
and lightning.

That the timing of the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ
occurs in the Yule season is no coincidence. Christmas was once
a movable feast, celebrated many different times during the year.
The decision to establish December 25 as the “official”
date of Christ’s birth was made by Pope Julius I in the fourth
century AD, hoping to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian
one, since this date coincided with the pagan celebrations of
Winter Solstice with the Return of the Sun Gods occurring throughout
the world.

Numerous Christmas traditions derive from the earlier pagan celebrations.
Yule, celebrating the birth or rebirth of a god of light, made
use of fire, both in candles and the burning of a Yule log. The
Christmas tree has its origins in the practice of bringing a live
tree into the home so the wood spirits would have a place to keep
warm during the cold winter months. Bells were hung in the limbs
so you could tell when an appreciative spirit was present. Food
and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat and
a five-pointed star, the pentagram, symbol of the five elements,
was placed atop the tree.

Throughout the world gods and goddesses of light were being born
during the Winter Solstice. The Egyptian goddess Isis delivered
Horus whose symbol was the winged Sun. Mithras, the Unconquered
Sun of Persia, was born during the solstice, as was Ameratsu,
the Japanese Goddess of the Sun. Rhea gave birth to Saturn (the
Father of Time), Hera conceives Hephaestus, and Qetzalcoatl, Lucina
(“Little Light”) also celebrate birthdays at this time.
Lucia, saint or Goddess of Light, is honored from Italy to Sweden,
crowned with candles to carry us through the darkness. Sarasvati,
Queen of Heaven in India, is honored during Yuletide.

The Solstice is also a time of plenty. The Hopi Kachinas return
to the Earth during the solstice, and the Deer Mothers dance for
the fertility of the earth. The hearth fires of Hestia (known
as the Roman goddess Vesta) are quenched and then rekindled. The
“first fruits” festival, Kwanzaa, is held to honor the
seven major deities of Yoruba.

And Winter Solstice is a time for visions. Rhiannon, a Welsh incarnation
of Epona, the Celtic Mare Goddess, rides through the dreams of
her people by night, transporting them to the place between the
worlds where they can create their own visions, giving them a
gift of what they need most, helping them to make real their dreams.
In Scotland, the last night of the year is Wish Night, a holiday
when wishes made for the coming year are at their most powerful.

Skadi, Goddess of Winter

As we move toward the cold darkness of winter, we enter the dark
Goddess Skadi’s realm. Skadi (sometimes spelled Skathi)
is the Viking Goddess of winter. Her name is said to mean shadow
or shade. She is the Queen of the shades.

She is a huntress, a dark magician, a giantess Goddess, ruling
especially over mountains, wilderness, winter, revenge, knowledge,
damage, justice, and independence. It is said that she gifted
hunters with the bow and the skill to use it. The scythe, wolves
and venomous snakes are sacred to her. Also sacred to her are
skates, skis and snowshoes. She often did her hunting while on
skis.

All of Scandinavia is named after the Goddess Skadi, and she is said
to dwell in the high snow-covered mountains there.

Skadi is the daughter of the giant Thiazi. In one of her myths,
her father Thiazi kidnapped the Goddess of youth, and then was
killed by the Aesir who came to rescue the Youth Goddess. Skadi
then went after the Aesir to get revenge for the death of her
father.

To appease her, the Aesir said that she could choose any god to
marry, but no god wanted her. Odin declared that she must choose
a god as a husband anyway. There was a catch, though, and Skadi
had to choose her husband by looking only at their feet. Bare
feet are thought to be the ancient Norse symbol of fertility.
Skadi was secretly in love with the most handsome of all Gods,
Balder. Thinking that Balder would have the most beautiful feet,
she chose the God with the cleanest, fairest feet. Instead of
this being Balder, it turned out to be Njord, the homely God of
the sea, and she wed him.

After they married there was some debate about whether they would
live in his realm or hers. They decided to live nine days in her
mountains and then nine days in his sea. After the eighteen days,
the couple separated because they did not like each other’s
domain.

“I could not sleep on the sea’s beds for the birds’ screaming;

he wakes me who comes from the sea every morning, that gull.”

After their separation, Skadi had several sons with the god Odin. Skadi
also has close ties with the trickster god Loki. As part of her
agreement with the Aesir, they not only allowed her to choose
the god of her choice for a husband, but they also promised to
make her laugh, since she had not laughed since her father’s
death. This task was given to Loki. In an effort to make her laugh,
Loki tied one end of a rope to the beard of a goat, and the other
end of the rope to his own testicles.

As the goat tried to get away, both Loki and the goat shrieked
in pain, and this did make Skadi laugh. It is said that Loki then
fell onto Skadi’s lap bleeding, and his blood fertilized
her. When Loki killed or aided in the killing of the God Balder,
Skadi was sent to punish him. He was bound to a rock by Thor,
and Skadi then placed a poisonous snake on his head. The venom
of the snake slowly dripped down upon Loki’s face, forever
burning and torturing him.

In some of the more negative tales of Skadi, she was named Mornir,
the troll woman, and was said to have castrated and then collected
the penises of heroes. It is said that offerings of men’s
blood were made to Skadi, symbolizing the blood of Loki that had
fertilized her. Priestesses of Skadi were said to have bathed
in blood as preparation for their rituals.

Skadi is not an evil Goddess; she symbolizes the many dark times
that we all go through. She also symbolizes the primordial womb.
Without the dark there is no light.

From information obtained from folklore sources Motz established
that the folk figures of Holda, Holle, Bertha and Percht/Perchta
originated from the divine female guardians of nature and animals
found among the ancient hunting culture. This primitive image
developed into the complex female deity known in early civilisations
as – The Lady of the Beasts -. This folk figure of Holda/Perchta
had many local manifestations, but one basic form with definite
characteristics can be recognised. In a Christian culture, where
paganism was supposed to have been eradicated, this form was still
given divine status by the common people. In fact it was worshipped
within a ritualistic structure that included sacrificial offerings
and the wearing of ritual animal disguises in seasonal celebrations.

The Roman Catholic Church recognised the existence of this goddess
figure and feared her popularity among the peasantry. In the 13th
Century one clerical text complained that young people would rather
pray to Perchta than offer prayers to the Virgin Mary. Two hundred
years later, just before the beginning of the witch hunts, the
Church was still condemning sinners who left food out for Perchta
during the Christmas period to ensure good luck and prosperity
for the coming year. These offerings were placed on the roof of
houses in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and are an indication
that Holda/Perchta was regarded as the female leader of the Wild
Hunt.

In Central European folk culture the Hunt was mimicked by men wearing
black fur cloaks and terrifying masks who ran through the streets
ringing bells, brandishing whips and shouting.

Holda’s
physical appearance reflected her position as both a bright and
dark goddess figure. She might appear as a beautiful young girl,
veiled, crowned or clothed in a shining white dress. On other
occasions she was seen as a hunchbacked, wizened old crone with
long tangled grey hair, a beaked nose, wolf fangs and glowing
red eyes. As the White Lady, Holda was invoked to increase fertility
of the fields and to bring prosperity to home and family. If she
was insulted however or ignored then she became the Old Hag or
Crone whose gifts were misfortune, illness and death. In this
form she was responsible for the snow and fog, and is a typical
dark goddess of death, the underworld and winter. As a deity who
originated with the ancient – Lady of the Beasts – Holda had many
totem animals. They included wolves, hounds, pigs, goats, horses,
bears and birds of prey. She was also associated with the wildwood
and, while seldom linked to male figures – she is represented
as an uninhibited patron of orgiastic sexuality – in the Southern
Tyrol she appears as the wife of the arboreal – Wood Man. In common
with this male forest spirit/god, Holda was the protector and
guardian of woodland animals.

Another indication that Holda was regarded as the goddess of death
and destiny is her association with spinning. She was the patroness
of women who were spinners and weavers (and of spinsters) and
she punished those who failed at this craft or produced shoddy
work. Those who did not pay her respect while carrying out the
craft could be struck blind or Holda would materialise and beat
them with a whip. During the twelve days of Yule all spinning
ceased in her honour and bad luck came to anyone who defied this
custom. Holda’s attitude to children, who also come under her
protection, was also ambivalent. If they behaved
themselves during the year then at Christmas she rewarded them
with gifts and good luck. If they had been naughty they would
be severely punished. Sometimes Holda was used as a bogey figure
and mothers threatened their children that if they did not behave
then she would come and take them off to the woods and teach them
good manners. Holda allegedly kept the children in a well, endowing
the good ones with abundant luck, health and wealth, and turning
the bad ones into Faery changelings.

It is not fanciful to see folk memories of Holda in popular fairy
tales. Stories of faery godmothers, wicked stepmothers with spinning
wheels and old witches living in gingerbread cottages in woods
spring to mind. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel
and Little Red Riding Hood all have elements that could be derived
from folk tales about Holda. The Grand Dame of fairy tales, Old
Mother Goose, is another version of Holda. In 18th and 19th century
bowdlerisation of fairy tales Old Mother Goose, degenerated into
a comic figure, a foolish old woman who told old wives tales.
Originally she was the wise Sibyl who instilled moral values,
the knowledge of the world, foresaw the future and prepared her
charges for it. (See Marina Warner’s From the Beast to the Blonde
– Chatto and Windus 1994). Eventually Mother Goose became the
stereotyped witch with her conical hat, pointy nose, lantern,
jaw and stick. The Sibyl/wisewoman had become the wicked stepmother
– the alter ego of the faery godmother or gossip who protected
and blessed the new born.

Holda’s connection with witchcraft is mentioned in several historical
accounts. Church records quoted by Motz as late as the 15th Century
describe women who rode with Hold/Perchta. In 1630 an allegedly
male witch in Hesse, Germany confessed he had ridden with Dame
Holda on New Year’s Day and had followed her into the sacred mountain
of the Venusberg. A 16th Century woman from Bern was exiled after
she admitted riding with the Wild Hunt led by Holda. In common
parlance to ride with Holle meant to be dishevelled, to be an
unkempt hag or to ride with witches. This was a reference to the
long flowing hair of the goddess which was also regarded as a
physical characteristic of suspected witches of both sexes, and
was regarded as of magickal significance.

The evidence provided by Motz offers considerable proof that goddess
worship survives into the early modern period and beyond. These
beliefs still survive in seasonal customs enacted at the summer
and winter solstices. In a lesser way it also links with the connections
between werewolves and witches.

In Germany, for instance, December was known as the month of the
wolf or wolf moon. The wolf was one of Holda’s sacred beasts.
Motz says that because the Church identified Holda with Diana
some historians have assumed the cult of this Southern European
moon goddess of hunting was imported into Austria and Germany
by the Romans. Motz however, believes that the hunter goddess
image arose independently in these areas, although it was influenced
by beliefs from the North.

In fact Holda shares many similarities with the Norse goddess
of fertility and magic, Freya. M Oldfield Howey is more explicit,
comparing Freya with Nerthus, Hel and Holda he says – . . .she
was not only the goddess of Life but also of Death. But Death
was not to her worshippers a ghastly grinning skeleton, but a
loving mother recalling her tired children to sleep in her bosom.
– (The Cat in Magic page 59)

Motz concludes that Holda has the common feature of the Mistress
of the Wild Things symbolised by Diana/Artemis, – who represents
. . . the force of nature which is both life giving and life taking
-. She is therefore the archetypal witch goddess.

A pure veil of darkness.
A mysterious fog.
The Moon is full.
And the Wolves you call.
Red as my blood it is the sky above us.
As I witness the arrival of the Winter Solstice.
And I cry from the abyss with the legions of Lilith.
Who grant me, son of Goat, the virtues if the black oath.
And I climb upon the Raven Mountain and yell.
Oh! Thunders of light and pyres of flames
– Fire is my domain –
Oh! Freezing breezes, rain and snow
– Winter is my domain –
So I invocate: Eaaaaaaa! Winter rise!..
And the Ancient Winter Goddess rises
and sits in her throne of snow and stone.
Soon red morning will born and white is the sky above us.
And by the powers of Winter
Die!

Tradition
varies about the type of wood to be used. Oak logs were popular
in the north of England, birch in Scotland and ash in Cornwall
and Devon. Ash is the only wood that burns freely when green and
the world-tree, Yggdrasil, in the Nordic tradition was an ash-tree.
It is important that the Yule log be the biggest and greenest
log available since the Christmas festivities will last only as
long as the Yule log burns.

In some parts of the Scottish highlands, the head of the household
finds a withered stump and carves it into the likeness of an old
woman, the Cailleach Nollaich or Christmas Old Wife, a sinister
being representing the evils of winter and death. She’s the goddess
of winter, the hag of night, the old one who brings death. Burning
her drives away the winter and protects the occupants of the household
from death.

The Yule log is left to burn all night, and, if possible, through
the next twelve without going out, although it may be extinguished
with water. The ashes are kept for good luck. They have magical
properties and can be scattered in the field to fertilize the
soil or sprinkled around the house for protection.

Day of Queen Sigrith Celebration
Sunday November 9, 2008

In many Norse Heathen traditions, November 9 is the day to honor
the great Queen Reina Sigrith of Sweden. The legend goes that
the Norwegian king, Olaf the Lawbreaker, asked Sigrith to marry
him. The queen said yes, but then the Christian Olaf asked her
to give up the gods of her ancestors. Sigrith declined, refusing
to abandon her faith or that of her kinsmen who came before her.
Olaf had a hissy fit and cancelled the wedding, and the Swedish
people retained their Heathen faith for another three centuries.
Today, many Asatru mark November 9 as a day of celebrating Sigrith,
defender of the ancient ways.

Winter Solstice is celebrated as the feast of the Baltic goddess Saule in Latvia and Lithuania. Saule’s connection with light — in this case, the golden apples of the sun:

….At Winter Solstice, Kaleda, Saule is reborn as her daughter
the morning-star….
Based on data from “O Mother Sun” by Patricia Monaghan
(Crossing Press), this page gives more information on Saule. My
favorite part is this beautiful passage on the goddess, her sun-stone
(amber), and spinning…

Among the Balts, the connection between the sun and spinning is
very old, and the sun-stone, amber, forms the link….Sometimes
amber discs were also placed in the grave, perhaps as prayers
to the Sun Goddess to spin forth the lost life in another body….
[A]mber was considered a magical substance for a spinner; as the
light never tangles in the sky, so an amber spindle protected
the new thread from snarls caused by unhappy or malicious spirits…

“Saule, my amber weeping Goddess
creating light like thread.
As “Saules Mat” my mother sun, daily blessing
your thankful world with light.”

The Great Goddess, Saule, (pronounced SOW-lay) whose name means
the sun itself, is queen of heaven and Earth and matriarch of
the cosmos. She is a beloved and popular deity of the Lithuanians
and Latvians, as many old hymns and prayers attest. Her main feasts
occur at the summer solstice (Rasa or Kupolines), winter solstice
(Kaledos) and the equinoxes.

As the days grow shorter in the fall season, Saule weakens in
Her battle against the powers of darkness. Many rituals and spells
are undertaken to aid and strengthen Her at that time. Lithuanians
begin awaiting “The return of the Sun” around November
30th. Closer to the end of December, festivities in Her honour
begin and last until the 6th of January.

This period of awaiting Saule’s return, became the Christian Advent
in later times and Kaledos is now synonymous with Christmas.

Saule is often portrayed as a golden-haired woman, richly dressed
in golden silk raiment with a golden shawl and crown. She drives
her chariot across the heavens, pulled by two white, golden-maned
steeds, called the “Asviniai” or the Divine Twin Sons
of Dievas (God of Shining Sky). Saule has close associations with
the sea, into which She sinks at the end of her daily journey
to bathe and wash her steeds and then crosses by boat. By night,
She travels through the underworld, shining in Her dark aspect.

As the female head of the heavenly family, Saule is the mother
of the planets. Among Her daughters are: Vaivora (Mercury), Ausrine,
(Morning Star or Venus), Zemyna (Earth), Ziezdre (Mars), Selija
(Saturn) and Indraja (Jupiter). Thus, according to some scholars,
Lithuanians named the planets during a matriarchal age. i.e. earlier
than the Romans.

On December 13th, (Feast of St. Lucia), Saule pauses on Her return
to dance with Her daughters. She also dances at Velykos (Easter)
and Rasa (summer solstice).

Saule was married to Menulis (the Moon), but divorced Him due
to His infidelity with their daughter, Ausrine (the Dawn). Saule
scarred His face for this deed. In other versions, Dievas smote
the handsome Menulis and disfigured Him.

The Sun Goddess is associated with the magical Smith God, Kalvis
(comparatives in Latvian – Dangaus Kalvis and Finnish – Ilmarinen.)
It is said that He created the Sun and placed Her in the heavens.
Other mythologies include tales of Her imprisonment and rescue
by a hero or the signs of the zodiac.

Saule is wealthy, but works hard to care for Her lands, fields,
cattle and family. Unlike the fickle Menulis, who occasionally
disappears for a few days, Saule always rises and attends to Her
duties. In a sense, “Her work is never done.”

She loves all people and shines on all equally and unconditionally.
Her love for humanity is likened to that of a mother. Good women
are often compared to Her. In Saule’s presence, demons and wicked
spirits flee and people feel safe to go about their businesses
and tasks. But, once She leaves the skies, certain work must end.
To continue, without Her guardianship, would be inviting trouble
from dangerous spirits.

Within Saule’s garden, situated in the west, are apple trees bearing
their fruit of gold, silver and diamond. In traditional riddles
and kennings, Saule is often referred to as the “golden apple.”
Other associations include: Fire, horses, zalciai (Lithuanian
grass snakes) birds and trees; in particular, the Linden; Roses
and daisies; White cow or white she-goat at dawn and a black one
as She sets; Bees; Her sled and later, Her multi-wheeled chariot
or wagon; Her golden boat; Burning solar wheels; “Saules’s
Medis” (the Sun’s Tree) and, of course, the solar crosses,
which dot the Lithuanian landscape.

Saule is connected to the wheel. In Lithuanian, She is sometimes
referred to as ‘Ridolele’, the rolling sun. In Latvian, there
are solar songs with the refrain ‘ligo’, (‘Ligot” means to
sway), and ‘rota’ from ‘rotat’, to roll or hop.

On summer solstice morning, Balts anxiously awaited the sunrise,
in order not to miss even Her first blessed rays. Everyone wanted
to see how the sun danced, how it ascended and then descended
for a moment, and how it finally shone in various colours. In
Latvian songs about such feasts we find the refrain: “The
sun, dancing on the silver hill, has silver shoes on Her feet.”

Shepherds in Lithuania consider Saule to be their only guardian
and have many devotional prayers dedicated to Her. Lithuanians
address Her in the morning, as She sets and at the end of harvest
with other songs and rites. All spheres of traditional women’s
work are under Her guardianship, as are earthly fecundity and
healing; and it is She who plays the kankles (a traditional, ritual,
stringed instrument).

Saule has been described as the wife of Dievas, God of Shining
Sky; of Perkunas, the God of Thunder, and Menulis, the Moon. Yet,
in the end, She remains the independent and powerful matriarch
of the Heavens and divine inspiration to all ‘single’ mothers.

Beside the Balts, we find many other peoples with female solar
deities; as in the Norse, Germanic, Japanese, Hindu, ancient Arab
and numerous Native North American cultures. Where one does find
a contemporary masculine sun, (Celts, Greeks and Romans) one also
finds vestiges of Sun Goddesses in myth and place names.

References:
http://www.intuitivetarot.com/wintergoddess.html
http://www.goddessgift.com/pandora%27s_box/winter-solstice.htm
http://www.goddessgift.com/Pandora%27s_box/mistletoe.htm
http://www.matrifocus.com/SAM02/wheel.htm
Snorri Sturluson’s Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes, accessed at:
http://www.anglo-saxon.demon.co.uk/goddesses/skadhi/prose.html
http://des.users.netlink.co.uk//winter.htm
http://www.metrolyrics.com/ancient-winter-goddess-lyrics-moonspell.html
http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/celsolstice.html
http://www.mythinglinks.org/wintersolstice~Archived2001.html
Prane Dunduliene, Lietuviu Liaudies Kosmologija. Vilnius: Mokslas,1988.
Dainius Sirutis, “The Lithuanian Sun Goddess Saule”,
Romuva/U.S.A, issue #4, 1991.
Lietuvos Kulturos ir Meno Institutas, Senoves Baltu Simboliai.
Vilnius: Academia, 1992.
http://www.runestone.org/gods/skathi.html
First published in Sacred Serpent: Journal of Baltic Tradition, Issue
#2, 1994.

May you
be in the protection of creatures
stillness of owl
perception of eagle
humility of wren
speed of horse
strength of bear
courtesy of deer
repose of serpent
silence of mouse
wisdom of salmon
nine creatures about you
to guide and guard you always

(based on a prayer by C. Matthews in the “Celtic Devotional”)

I remember a former nun who came to me in southern California for
a past life session back in the 1980’s. We sat talking at first,
getting to know one another, and she told me about an experience
she had had just before leaving Los Angeles to drive up to my
place.

“I invited a priest-friend of mine over for breakfast this
morning,” she said. “He was making himself a cup of
coffee and I said, ‘Guess what I’m doing today.'”

“‘I have no idea,’ he said, and he poured boiling water into
his cup of instant coffee.”

“I’m driving up to Oxnard to be regressed to a past life.
Do you believe in past lives, Father Jim?”

“‘No,’ he said, calmly stirring his coffee. ‘But then,’ he
added, looking me straight in the eye, ‘I didn’t believe in them
my last lifetime either.'”

A past life is simply a life you lived before your current life. You lived it in a different body, often a different gender, a different race, with different parents and friends, different dreams and beliefs, different priorities, different skills, different loves, hates, and fears. Were you to meet that earlier “you,”
you might not recognize yourself. Nevertheless, some of the physical and psychological makeup of that earlier “you” remains subconsciously influencing you today, for good or ill, just as you will influence your future lives.

Some people can tune into their own past lives unaided. They might
experience them in dreams, meditation, or through travels that
suddenly stimulate past life memories. If you have never had such
experiences and do not know someone who can act as a facilitator
in unearthing past lives, you can still find many hints about
your earlier lives through things that fascinate you. A love for
certain kinds of ethnic music, for example, is a strong indicator
of the peoples you once lived among. Your taste in clothing and
jewelry is another indicator. A love of silks might suggest lives
of wealth in China or India. A preference for simple styles and
fabrics could indicate that you have lived happy lives close to
the earth. If you often dress in severe, unattractive, dark clothing,
a past life as a nun or monk might be guiding such choices because
of the safety and protection they once provided. Flamboyant clothing,
bright colors, gypsy flair, tinkling jewelry, all point to more
dramatic lives, enriching society through the arts but often lived
on the fringes. The possibilities are endless.

If you have unexplained fears without a current life basis, these
fears are another source for tuning into past lives. Fear of drowning,
burning, starving, or being buried alive are among the most common
fears but there are many others. Wounds can be indicators too:
if you died of a specific wound in an earlier life, your current
body might be marked by illness or an increased sensitivity at
the site of that earlier death-wound.

All such experiences from a past life, whether positive or negative,
have the potential to influence a current life. Tuning into the
root cause in a past life might not disconnect the influence —
sometimes it is too deeply embedded in body and psyche for that.
But at least it may help you to understand where it comes from
and this, in turn, may gradually soften any discomfort.

Why Would We Live More Than One Life?

It is said that we need all these varied experiences and roles to be whole. Another way to approach this is to say that we only live one life, but in many different bodies and circumstances. We might say that we are like a kaleidoscope filled with thousands
of different pieces of colored glass, all coming together to create an endless array of beautiful patterns. Or we could compare our past lives to beads on a necklace; each bead is handmade, unique in its own right, but also part of a larger whole.

According to the theory of reincarnation, we live many lives in
order to accumulate wisdom and compassion in multiple layers of
experience. Answering the needs of others as well as honoring
our own, for example, takes many lifetimes of trial and error.
In some of those lifetimes, you might be a healer, a nun, a loving
parent, or a spiritual leader, learning to put the needs of others
before your own. But sometimes you learn to do that so well that
you become totally one-sided, so self-sacrificing that you completely
neglect your own needs, feeling selfish even if you think about
them.

The soul cannot tolerate such one-sidedness for long and eventually
you will find yourself in lives where you might be consumed by
the arts, driven to put the expression of your own creative soul
above more practical considerations. Or you might find yourself
born as a disabled child, forced to be vulnerable and to let others
care for you, as you once cared for them. Finding a balance between
living out of one’s egotistical drives and expressing one’s genuine
soul-yearnings is a delicate and often excruciating process. If
you have been self-effacing for too many lives, you may no longer
be able to tell the difference between being selfish or not. Then
you may need to deliberately do what feels like being “selfish”
in order to re-set the inner balance-wheel.

Another difficult area involves courage, for there are many kinds
of courage. In one life, you might be a warrior learning about
courage in battle. In another life, you might be a farmer’s wife,
equally learning about courage in the face of unpredictable weather,
poor crops, an exhausted husband, and sickly children. In yet
another life you might learn about courage by fighting political
corruption and oppression. A child knows courage, so does a homeless
person, a refugee, a terminally ill person. If we are not to get
stuck in a one-sided “hero” definition of courage, we
have to understand all its many and complex dimensions, not by
reading books about it, but by living it.

Learning to love, to be compassionate, to genuinely desire that
all beings, all life forms, be shown kindness — this take countless
lifetimes — and yet mastering these energies are the most important
of all, for they are what makes us truly human. As Gandhi wrote
about love:

If for mastering the physical sciences you have to devote a whole
lifetime, how many lifetimes may be needed for mastering the greatest
spiritual force that mankind has ever known?

Getting Stuck in Archetypal Roles

We rarely know that archetypes exist unless something happens to activate one. Even then, most people do not understand what has been activated or what it means. An “archetype” can perhaps best be understood as an energy-field within the psyche.
It is a “field” with no content — in other words, it
comes without any images or emotions. It is a very powerful energy-pattern, however, and if a specific image or emotion enters its range and adequately matches its abstract structure, the archetypal field will grab onto that content and “fix” it into place as an expression of that archetype.

Sometimes this process is culturally specific — in India, for
example, Kali might represent the Divine Mother archetype, while
in the West the Virgin Mary might embody that same role. But archetypal
and karmic patterns are often intricately interwoven, which means
that some of the archetypes in an individual psyche may carry
an intense karmic “charge.” Thus the Divine Mother archetype
for some individuals might be embodied by a living woman known
to them from earlier lives — a spiritual teacher, perhaps, or
a loving relative.

There are countless archetypes within the psyche. Greek and Roman
deities are the most familiar representations of them in the West.
This does not mean that these deities are archetypes in and of
themselves. It only means that they carry a power or energy that
allows them to function as “content” to otherwise contentless
archetypes. The Roman war god Mars, in other words, is not an
archetype, but he represents what the warrior archetype is all
about. Unfortunately, for several thousand years, this archetype
has been attracting highly addictive contents. Once this archetype
is activated within the psyche, the warrior’s path may exert such
an intense fascination that everything else pales around it. We
no longer worship Mars, of course, but the reincarnations of many
of Rome’s finest are with us still and any sufficiently charismatic
general might easily carry an archetypal “charge” strong
enough to persuade his troops to follow him even into the most
hopeless of battles. Such warriors die, tend to be swiftly re-born,
and fifteen to twenty years later they are likely to be serving
as warriors all over again — unless circumstances allow for the
intervention of a more benign archetype.

Venus also is not an archetype but she shows us what the Lover
archetype is all about — if a Venus-like beautiful woman activates
this archetype within us, we may experience the heights of bliss
but also the depths of folly. Her relationship with Mars creates
special psychological difficulties.

Hera and Zeus are not archetypes either but we can understand
the Royal Leadership archetype by studying how they use and abuse
power; if something activates this archetype within our psyches,
we may find ourselves playing out their mistakes before we realize
what is happening.

The Greek myth of Persephone models for us the anguish of the
Raped Maiden archetype just as her mother Demeter reveals the
depths of the Sorrowing Mother archetype. Many women who have
experienced firsthand either or both of these realms find profound
consolation in the stories surrounding these two goddesses, for
they offer a way through horror to the promise of a mysterious
healing source within the psyche.

The twenty-two cards of the Tarot’s Greater Arcana are another source
that provides examples of what goes on behind the scenes in the
underlying archetypes we recognize in the images of the Magician,
the High Priestess, the Emperor, the Empress, the Hermit, Death,
the Devil, the Hierophant, the Lovers, and so forth. Like all
contentless archetypes, they are value-neutral: they can nurture
us and give us great gifts of wisdom and insight, but if we identify
too strongly with any of them, we can also wind up being possessed.
Honoring one to the exclusion of the others is unwise.

Similarly, a careless dishonoring of any of them is unwise. The
patterns each of them represents are hard-wired into our psyches
and can no more be dislodged than our blood vessels or neural nets.

As mentioned in the above section, “one-sidedness” is
the clearest sign that one has been gripped by an archetypal energy,
or role, with which one was probably over-identified in the past.
We all know insecure comedians who are always “on”;
cloyingly charming Southern Belles; smug fundamentalists who are
unrelentingly “right”; and males who are defined solely
by their arrogant machismo. These people are so one-sided that
they seem like caricatures. They are so caught up in a single
role that it is difficult to relate to them on a human level.

Here are a few other examples of what getting caught in archetypal
energy might look like…

A male who refuses to mature is called a Peter Pan, or puer (an
Eternal Boy). Part of this refusal to mature is cultural, for
the West worships youth, but when such a trait manifests in an
individual male, it could come from a life in which he died young
and never had a chance
to grow up. In later lives, he might cut off his psychological
maturation at that same point. This becomes his way of holding
onto a life he never got to live. Unfortunately, the aging Peter
Pan (or what I call a “wrinkled puer”), does not get
to live either — his life becomes a stale mockery of youth.

Imperious types, whether male or female, express the Emperor/Empress
role, which could stem either from wishful thinking or from an
actual royal life that needs to be released in order for them
to more gracefully rejoin the human race. These are the people
who say, “You’re either with me or against me.” They
expect their relatives and other minions always to agree with
them, praise them, and flutter around them. They become quite
unpleasant, even dangerous, when this does not happen. The “charge”
of the archetypal energy they carry is often quite capable of
constellating a disaster or crisis designed to keep them in power.
Along the way, they often retreat into psychological “bubbles”
and disown disobedient family and friends.

The “saintly” archetypes such as teacher, healer, and
priest-minister-rabbi-guru are notoriously easy to get caught
in. These can be beautiful, nurturing, and necessary roles, but
if we get so trapped in them that we have no life of our own —
and our mates (like C.G. Jung’s wife) are forced to manifest our
own unexplored shadow sides by becoming increasingly bitter and
bitchy — then we need to look at those earlier lifetimes where
we first got trapped, and, again, as with Emperor/Empress, find
ways to rejoin the human race.

If thinking of archetypes as force fields seems too abstract,
another analogy would be to think of the psyche, first, as a vast,
interdimensional ocean mysteriously held within the “leather
bag” of the brain (actually, psyche isn’t limited to the
brain — it’s throughout the body, but it’s simpler to think of
it as living in the brain). Within that ocean are archetypes —
think of them as a patterned potential for “riptides.”
That potential may only rarely be activated.

Let’s use the example of a riptide for the Hermit archetype. This is
a very valuable and healing archetype but it isn’t currently functioning
in as widespread a manner as the Warrior or Lover archetypes.
If you read the luminous writings of Thoreau or the Trappist monk,
Thomas Merton, you may be deeply impressed with the value of living
in a solitary hermitage and communing with nature or a chosen
deity. This may lead you to respect the Hermit archetype but it
doesn’t necessarily mean it will be activated in your own life.

The riptide potential of this archetype will only be activated
if the archetype is interwoven with your own karmic patterns.
This might involve a deep longing for such a life born in a past
life. More likely, it will emerge from your actual experiences
lived as a hermit in earlier lives. Then, it is as if a riptide
reaches out of nowhere, capturing the emotions, memories, and
images, and gripping you so strongly that you leave everything
behind and go off to live in the wilderness. Being gripped by
an archetype can be exhilarating and blissful. One can be a hermit
and reach immense psychological depth and maturity. In this case,
the karmic activation of that riptide was your destiny and highest
good.

But this can be very tricky. If you, in your earlier hermit lives,
already fully experienced the demands, challenges, and rewards
of that life, then to return to being a hermit would be at best,
nostalgia, and at worst, an escape. If the choice is not born
from a genuine desire for growth, the archetypal energies become
destructive. You then lose your footing, your sense of humor,
and your psychological flexibility. Although you may hide this
from others, even from yourself, you will become increasingly
rigid, cold, and misanthropic.

Bottom line: any time we are caught up in an outgrown archetype,
no matter how compassionate and caring it might seem on the surface,
it makes us one-sided and our lives become obsessive. When this
happens, the root of the problem probably lies in an earlier lifetime
where we identified too strongly with the archetypal energy of
a given role.

In such circumstances, exploring our own past lives, not only
to find the obsessive root, but also to explore the wide range
of alternate roles belonging to our own karmic palette, is highly
recommended. Other options include reaching out to alternate archetypal
energies and “wooing” them by taking up new interests
and widening our circle of friends to include those who have already
mastered “roles” we need for our own completion.

For psychic health, one needs to dance with, or at least be on
speaking terms with, a wide variety of archetypes. To overly identify
with one is a clue that one is stuck and unable to grow except
in that one direction, until ultimately one topples over. Just
as the human heart rate is healthiest when it is flexible and
variable (it is locked into a rigid, steady beat only when death
nears), so too the body and psyche need to embrace many flexible,
variable roles.

Why Bother to Explore Past Lives?

If we have had past lives, we have also obviously had past deaths.This fact is a major reason why people are interested in exploring their past lives — it places the inevitability of death in a much larger context and makes it far less fearsome. It also gives
us the hope that when those we love die — whether a family member,
a close friend, or a beloved pet — we will meet them again and
once more share the joys and sorrows of life. We will continue
growing together, laughing, being kind to one another, fighting,
making up – exploring all the nuances of possible relationships.

People may also wish to explore past lives to re-discover skills
they once had, for these can often be reactivated and become a
new line of work, or a cherished hobby. Looking into the past
for root causes of illness or unexplained fears is another important
reason for past life work.

Next to reducing the terror of death, however, the most frequent
reason people desire to explore past lives
is to understand relationships better. Close,
loving relationships never happen by accident — they emerge out of centuries of experience with that other soul. The same can be said of difficult, painful relationships — these too always have a long history. Knowing that history can help us to better understand the deeper issues, allowing either for a long overdue
truce or for a permanent “divorce” if the relationship is too toxic to be salvaged, at least in this current lifetime. Knowing the history of the animosity gives us the clarity and distance to see the wisest course of action. That deeper context allows our choices to come from wisdom, not anger or despair.

Perhaps the greatest benefit to be derived from exploring past
lives comes from a growing sense of serenity and trust in the
process. There is often great pain and confusion in our lives
and we may often feel our lives are meaningless. But when one
explores the complex and often wondrous patterns in the past,
things begin to fall into place and one slowly understands that
a larger mystery is unfolding. As British playwright Christopher
Fry wrote in his The Dark is Light Enough:

There is an angle of experience where
the dark is distilled into light:
either here or hereafter, in or out of time:
where our tragic fate finds itself with perfect pitch,
and goes straight to the key which creation was composed in….

Groaning as we may be, we move in the figure of a dance,
and so moving, we trace the outline of the mystery.

Perspectives on Exploring Past Lives

also by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.

There are many ways to begin an essay on reincarnation. I could write
about ancient burials in Siberia, where, as Joseph Campbell documents,
the body was colored with red ochre as a sign of life’s blood
and then buried in a fetal posture, facing east — an indication
of a belief that the dead would live again like the sun, rising
again in the east. I could also write about the males of Aboriginal
tribes in Australia who sing the spirit of an ancestor back into
a woman’s womb. Or I could mention that the ancient Celts accepted
reincarnation as such a normal part of life that loans were made
based upon repayment in a later embodiment. Such beliefs in rebirth
are common, and the majority of earth’s non-monotheistic peoples
take them seriously. Gandhi, for example, wrote eloquently:

If for mastering the physical sciences you have to devote a whole
lifetime, how many lifetimes may be needed for mastering the greatest
spiritual force that mankind has ever known? 1

India, of course, is well known for accepting reincarnation. The
very word karma, which could be loosely translated, “as you
sow, so you shall reap,” comes from India. What is less known
is that the concept of reincarnation was also openly embraced
by one of the framers of the American Declaration of Independence,
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). When he was twenty-two, he wrote
his own epitaph. It was never used on his gravestone but it reflects
a viewpoint he held the rest of his life:

The Body of B. Franklin, Printer,
Like the Cover of an Old Book,
Its Contents Torn Out
And Stripped of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies Here
Food for Worms,
But the Work shall not be Lost,
For it Will as He Believed
Appear Once More
In a New and more Elegant Edition
Revised and Corrected
By the Author. 2

When Franklin was eighty, he wrote a friend, “I look upon
death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep. We shall
rise refreshed in the morning.” Between Gandhi and Franklin
lie vast numbers of Western philosophers, poets, authors, artists,
and thinkers from all walks of life who have shared these beliefs.

People who are in touch with their own creativity are especially
likely to resonate with concepts of reincarnation because their
very creativity is a mystery of unknown origins. Thus, seeking
those origins in one’s own memories of earlier lives has its own
logic. Pythagoras advised souls returning to rebirth to beseech
the Goddess of Memory, Mnemosyne, to let them keep their memories
by allowing them to drink of her spring waters. Mnemosyne is the
mother of the Muses — in other words, she, as the Goddess of
Memory, is the font of all art. She can give us knowledge of beginnings,
origins, and earlier times because she remembers all the winding,
interconnecting stories.

According to Plato, when we die, we drink of the waters of the
river Lethe, which washes away our memories of the life just lived.
“The dead,” Mircea Eliade writes, “are those who
have lost their memories.” 3 But in another sense, the dead
are in the midst of experiencing celestial realms and garnering
even more memories. When they return to life, they first leave
the underworld by way of the left-hand road that goes to the spring
of Lethe and, “gorged with forgetfulness and vice,”
according to Plato, they drink the waters and their celestial
memories are lost. So the living are also those who have lost
their memories.

Pythagoras advised his followers not to take the left-hand road
to Lethe, but to go to the right instead, and find the road leading
to “the spring that comes from the lake of Mnemosyne. ‘Quickly
give me the fresh water that flows from the lake of Memory,’ the
soul is told to ask the guardians of the spring.” 4 That
soul, its memories intact, is then reborn as a great master.

The Buddha is said to have argued that “Gods fall from Heaven
when their ‘memory fails and they are of confused memory’.”5
Gods who don’t forget remain eternal and unchanging. From this
perspective, to forget is to fall from heaven, which gives an
interesting nuance to the myth of Lucifer in the West — and to
the “Lucifer” within us. Some people say, “the
devil made me do it.” From this Fall-equals-loss-of-memory
perspective, that’s exactly right. The loss of memory, the loss
of awareness of other choices and repercussions, pushes us into
repeating similar mistakes over and over. We fall.

Eliade comments:

…Knowledge of one’s own former lives
— that is, of one’s personal history —
bestows…a soteriological knowledge and mastery over one’s destiny….
That is why ‘absolute memory’ — such as the Buddha’s, for example
—
is equivalent to omniscience…. 6

That’s a very male way of looking at it, of course, in terms of
mastering one’s destiny, getting untangled from karmic burdens,
and returning to the celestial heavens. That may indeed be what
it’s about for many, but I’m not sure that’s all there is to it. Having a body is a precious gift, one to be valued and lived in tenderly, anointing it, allowing quiet joy to be flowing in cell-deep pools, filled with their own memories. The body is a companion,
not a servant, and, in my view, each body we inhabit leaves an indelible imprint upon the soul. How could it be otherwise, when both are so interconnected, when matter itself is understood as a different vibration of spirit?

So in exploring past lives, we go into the Place of Memory, to
her lake, her springs, her fountain, and drink of those waters
and ask for gift of being able to remember.

Over thirty years ago, my personal experience in a past life regression
session facilitated by the late Marcia Moore convinced me of the
value of exploring what seemed to be memories from ancient times.
I began facilitating past life work shortly thereafter, and have
continued to do it all these years, because I believe that by
healing one’s personal past we contribute to a wiser, saner present.
British playwright Christopher Fry wrote in his The Dark is Light
Enough: is an angle of experience where the
dark is distilled into light:
either here or hereafter, in or out of time:
where our tragic fate finds itself with perfect pitch,
and goes straight to the key which creation was composed in….

Groaning as we may be, we move in the figure of a dance,
and so moving, we trace the outline of the mystery.

Exploring past lives is a way of tracing “the outline of
the mystery.” It can be seen as a ritual of time-travel,
a journey into imaginal space, or a journey into the personal
unconscious. It is through such underworld experiences that we
explore what Christine Downing calls “the times of real soul-making.”
7 The work can be called past life regression, story therapy,
far-memory exploration, active imagination, or guided meditation.
The exploration can be viewed as a literal exploration of an earlier
lifetime, but it can also be interpreted in terms of metaphor,
an “as if” adventure, a theatre-of-the-mind, a tapping
into Jung’s “collective unconscious.” Jean Houston calls
such a process, simply, an “intellectual focusing technique.”
Regardless, it’s a way of letting yourself be drawn back into
an ancient life or “story” that is especially rich in
personal relevance for you.

No matter what we call it, the memories are there and most people
can access them in light trance states with full conscious awareness of the process. Belief is not important, nor is one’s personal philosophy. Despite one’s intellectual belief system, we hold within us many worlds, many ages — some tranquil, others full
of drama and passion. Whether we call it soul-work or nonsense,
the memories and emotions are there, influencing us not far below
the surface. We feel them like a fleeting joy — or like the pain
of a phantom limb. In a sense, it’s like childbirth muscles: all
women have them but they’re rarely used more than three or four
times in an entire lifetime, and sometimes they’re not used at
all. Yet they’re still there.

So it is with the “muscles” of these memories, these
stories. If one chooses to explore them, it’s important to set
aside any bias in order to do “fieldwork” within one’s
own mind. Specialists educated in specific disciplines are often
the easiest to regress, for they are trained to bracket-out preconceptions
in order to simply deal with a phenomenon as it presents itself.
But everyone has the natural ability to access these “muscles.”
All one has to do is to stay open and see what emerges. If the
experience gives a new perspective to one’s existence, or if it
activates a renewed sense of wonder, or solves long-standing problems
or questions by re-casting their context, the process will have
been worthwhile.

This does not mean that everyone should rush out and find a past
life facilitator. There are many other ways of accessing the material
— dreams, active imagination, creative work, journaling, dialoguing
aloud with oneself —- and, the most common and miraculous way
of all: falling in love. As Tagore writes on the persistence of
love from past lives:

“I think I shall stop startled if ever we meet after our next birth, walking in the light of a far-away world. I shall know those dark eyes then as morning
stars, and yet feel that they have belonged to some unremembered
evening sky of a former life. I shall know that the magic of your
face is not all its own, but has stolen the passionate light that
was in my eyes at some immemorial meeting, and then gathered from
my love a mystery that has now forgotten its origin. Love then
can be a guide to past lives. And dreams, fantasies, musings,
and strong likes and dislikes for foods, clothes, furniture, art,
colors. All these ingredients offer hints of where we have been
before, with whom, and in what context. It may be that we do not
live many earlier lives, but rather that we live only one, always
the same, but lived in different costumes and played out on many
different stages, with many of the same supporting actors, over
and over and again over, as we garner new insights and greater
compassion each time.”

Much more could be said, for the subject is complex and fascinating,
but since I only wish to touch on a few perspectives concerning
past lives, this must suffice. For those who wish to pursue the
matter further, I offer a selected bibliography below.

FOOTNOTES::

1 Head & Cranston [see bibliography]:412.
2 Head & Cranston: 258.
3 Eliade, Mircea. Myth & Reality: 121.
4 Ibid.: 122.
5 Ibid.:116.
6 Ibid.:90.
7 Downing, Christine. Gods in Our Midst. New York: Crossroad, 1993:48.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Note: there are a huge number of books on these topics and I have certainly not read them all. Of those I have (mostly from the days of my initial involvement in the field), these are among my favorites. Many are classics and still in print. [Added 8 February 2004]: This is a fine review of a scholarly book that looks quite intriguing — Gananath Obeyesekere’s Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth. (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society Series, vol. 14. Berkeley and London: University of California
Press, 2002.) Here is the review: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=4601070867937

Cerminara, Gina. Many Mansions. New American Library/Signet, 1950.
Cranston, Sylvia, and Carey Williams. Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion, & Society. Crown, 1984.

Head, Joseph, and S. L. Cranston, eds. Reincarnation in World Thought. Julian Press, 1967.
Lucas, Winafred Blake, Ph.D. Regression Therapy: A Handbook for Professionals (in 2 volumes). Deep Forest Press, 1993.

MacGregor, Geddes, Ph.D. Reincarnation in Christianity. Quest Books, 1978.
Moody, Raymond A., Jr., M.D. Life After Life. Bantam, 1976.
Moore, Marcia. Hypersentience. Crown, 1976. [Note: Marcia Moore was my guide and teacher in the very beginning of my past life experiences.]
Stearn, Jess. The Search for a Soul: Taylor Caldwell’s Psychic Lives. Fawcett Crest, 1974.
For Children (but I also love this one too):
Gerstein, Mordicai. The Mountains of Tibet. HarperCollins / Harper Trophy, 1989.

Source for both articles:
Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.
The author is a former professor of mythology at California’s Pacifica Graduate Institute who has now returned to private practice as a past life facilitator in southwest Michigan.

Not the loss alone,
But what comes after.
If it ended completely
At loss, the rest
Wouldn’t matter.

But you go on.
And the world also.

And words, words
In a poem or song:
Aren’t they a stream
On which your feelings float?

Aren’t they also
The banks of that stream
And you yourself the flowing?

~~ Gregory Orr ~~
(Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved)

BLENDER : Mingling with others, Stirring up energy

COOKBOOK: Book of Shadows, Excellence, Virtue

COOKIE TIN: Sweet things in life, Pleasure

CRISPER: Invigoration and Restoration

CUPBOARDS: Savings, Supplies, Providence

DISH TOWEL: Stricture, Determined precision

DISHWASHER: Leisure, The Water Element, Convenience

DRAIN: Troubles, Burdens, Bad habits

DRAWERS: Hidden matters, Material goods

FOOD WRAP: Prudence, Conservation, Control, Secrets

FORK: Piercing, Penetrating, Perception

FUNNEL: Flow, Unhindered order, Coaxing energy along

KNIFE: Cutting away, Sharpness of mind, Separation

MEASURING CUP: Evaluation, Allotment, Caution

MICROWAVE: Acceleration, Legal expedition

OVEN: Passion, Fertility, Fire Element

OVENBURNERS : The Four Directions/Elements

OVEN FAN : The Air Element, Movement, Clearing vision

PITCHER : Abundance, Invigoration, Refreshment

REFRIGERATOR : Cooling temper, Preservation, Protection

ROLLING PIN : Discipline, Moderation, Control

SIFTER : Sorting out confusion, Organization, Filtering negativity

SPATULA: Sensibility, Recycling, Changing directions

STEAMER : Slow processes, Even temperament

TEAKETTLE : Divination, Alertness, Kinship, Health

THERMOMETER : Observations Skills, Analysis

WHISK: Excitement, Increasing bounty

WINDOW : Winds of change, Refreshment, Vital energy

~~
Patrica Telesco, “A Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook” ~~

PARSLEY BREAD

2 packages of active dry yeast
1-3/4 cups warm water
6 tbsp. honey
7 to 8 cups (or more) unbleached white wheat flour 6 small whole eggs plus one yolk
2/3 cup currants, softened in warm water 1 2/3 tbsp. melted butter or oil
1-1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1-1/2 tsp. dried basil
2/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Several drops green vegetable color
Butter for greasing bowls and cookie sheet

Sprinkle yeast on 1/2 cup of the warm water; stir in honey.
Let proof for 5 minutes.
Add remaining warm water; beat in about 2-1/2 to 3 cups of flour.

Beat with wooden spoon for about 200 strokes.
Cover with damp towel, put in warm place, and allow this sponge
to rise for 30-45 minutes, or until doubled.
Stir down.
Beat 5 whole eggs plus one yolk.
Stir in currants.
Beat in salt and melted butter or oil.
Mix into the dough.
In a mortar crush the dried herbs and chopped parsley to a paste.
Mix in cinnamon.
Add to batter and beat well. (Bread should be a delicate green hue. If color from parsley isn’t
strong enough, add green food color – sparingly.)
Add remaining flour first with a spoon, then with hands, until dough comes away from the side of the bowl.
Turn out onto lightly floured board or marble and knead until smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 10-12 minutes, adding small amounts of flour if necessary.
Place in buttered bowl; cover with damp towel.
Let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 50 minutes.

Punch down.
Cover; let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

(This rise, though unnecessary, gives the bread a finer texture.)

Punch down.
Turn out onto floured surface.
Let rest for five minutes.
Shape into one or two free-form curls or twists.
Place on buttered cookie sheet.
Cover lightly with damp towel and let rise in warm place to double, about 25 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375º.
Brush loaf or leaves with remaining whole egg, beaten.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until nicely browned and loaf sounds hollow when rapped on top and bottom.
Cool on rack.
Serve with hard cheese, fresh butter and white wine.

SALAD

1 bunch watercress
1 bunch fennel, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
6 to 8 scallions, minced
4 shallots, minced
2 leeks, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp. each of dried sage and borage, or a few fresh leaves
1 sprig rosemary
2 tbsp. minced parsley

Vinaigrette Dressing: oil, vinegar, a touch of mustard, salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients except dressing in a bowl.
Toss with dressing.
Serves 4.

CREAMED TURNIP AND PARSNIP SOUP

1 cup peeled, fresh turnips, diced
1/2 cup scraped, fresh parsnips, diced
1-1/2 cups beef broth
1/2 cup coarsely ground almonds
1 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Gently simmer the turnips and parsnips in the broth until the vegetables
are soft, about 12 minutes.
Stir in the almonds and heat for 3 minutes.
Mix the yolks and salt with the cream; add the lemon juice; pour 1/2 cup hot soup into egg mixture, stirring well.
Then slowly pour this mixture into the soup.
Stir well.
Heat 2 or 3 minutes, stirring and serve warm.

MAWNEYE

1 1/4 pounds lean lamb, cut into small pieces 1/2 by 1/2 inch
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter for sauteing
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup dry lentils
4 cups beef broth
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 cup diced turnip or squash
1 cup currants
2/3 cup coarsely cut figs

Garnish:
“gold” leaves of any edible plant – such as young celery leaves or 6 to 8 yellow dandelion flowers

Salt and pepper lamb and then brown in melted butter.
Add the cup of chicken broth; gently simmer for 45 minutes or until lamb is tender.
Drain.
Bring lentils to boil in 4 cups of beef broth, reducing heat to low; simmer for 15 minutes.
Combine cinnamon, salt, basil and stir into diced turnip.
Add turnip, currants and figs to the lentils and cook very slowly for 10 minutes.
Stir lamb into lentils.
Turn out into attractive serving bowl and garnish.

GINGERED CARP

1-1/2 pounds smoked carp or about 12 slices
1/2 cup candied ginger, slivered or coarsely grated
1/2 tsp. rosemary
3/4 tsp. dried sweet basil
1/2 tsp. crushed pine nuts
1/2 cup beef or fish stock

Garnish:
Parsley sprigs

Preheat oven to 350º.
Place carp slices side by side in baking dish.
Combine spices and herbs with stock.
Pour the thick spiced stock onto the sliced carp.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Serve hot or cold, making sure flakes of ginger accompany each portion.
Garnish with parsley.

LEMON RICE WITH ALMONDS

1 large unblemished lemon
1 cup raw rice
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. butter
2/3 cup coarsely ground almonds
2/3 cup currants
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup fresh peas

Garnish:

12 tsp. honey
Finely grate the skin from the lemon.
Then cut the lemon, thoroughly squeezing its juice and removing most of the pulp.
Reserve the skin, juice and soft pulp, discarding the membranes and pits.
In a large enamelled pot bring to a brisk boil the water, rice, salt, cinnamon, butter and lemon, reducing heat to simmer until most fluid is absorbed (about 10 minutes).
Stir once or twice while simmering; otherwise keep pot tightly covered.
Remove pot from heat.
Slowly simmer the almonds and currants in white wine for 7 minutes.

Fluff rice gently with a fork.
Add the wined almonds to the lemon rice.
Stir in fresh peas.
Very slowly simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.
If the rice begins to stick to the bottom of the pot, add small amounts of boiling water.
Garnish with 1 tsp. honey for each portion.

MULLED CIDER

12 cups apple cider
1-1/2 tsp. whole cloves
1-1/2 tsp. whole allspice
6 sticks cinnamon
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
1 bottle Calvados or applejack

Put the cider in a large saucepan.
Add the spices tied in cheesecloth and the brown sugar.
Bring to a boil, stirring gently to dissolve sugar.
Simmer for 10 minutes to blend flavors.
Add Calvados.
Simmer for 1 minute; discard spices.
Serve in heated mugs.
Makes 18 drinks.

The ancient Chinese text, “The Tao Te Ching” is the
most translated classic of all time next to the Bible. It was
written somewhere around 300 BC and attributed to Lao Tzu, the
great Chinese philosopher. It is the source of the legendary saying:

“Without going out of doors one may know the whole world;
without looking out of the window, one may see the Way of Heaven.

The further one travels, the less one may know.
Thus it is that without moving you shall know;
without looking you shall see;
without doing you shall achieve.”

Perhaps this is a reference to our innate intuitive ability, our
inner resource of knowing, seeing, and being. Our intuition, when
developed, blossoms into extrasensory or psychic perception, revealing
to us a rich vast inner reservoir of possibilities and potential.
We may indeed access all of the world through turning within.

We all have innate intuitive ability. It is so much a part of us that we tend to not notice the subtle ways that we receive information about ourselves and the world around us. Our intuitive sensing is interwoven within our daily reactions and interactions, so much so that it is not always immediately obvious that our intuitive sensors are guiding us in our many daily decisions and concerns. Becoming psychic is in a way simply becoming aware of
our intuitive tendencies and focusing our energy and attention to further developing them.

We interpret and interact with the world in a variety of ways. Some people are highly visual. They connect with their environment primarily through their sense of sight. They notice detail, color and prefer to learn through observation. Other people are acute listeners. They respond to noises, sounds, as they are primarily auditory. Some people are more kinesthetic. They learn and understand the world more through physical sensation and touch. Our approach to intuitive and psychic development is also specific and varied.

The four major modalities that we utilize to connect with psychic energy are our emotions, our mental perception, our physical bodies and our spiritual awareness. With each of these modalities comes specific ways of connecting to psychic energy.

Emotional intuitives are highly empathetic, and emotionally telepathic and
clairvoyant. Pauline sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night
with waves of feelings washing over her. She recalls conversations
and interactions with people who she has talked to during the
day. Emotions and feelings such as sadness, anxiety or even happiness
fill her. She has come to recognize that what she feels as she
lies there in the dark are not only her own emotions, but also
the feelings of those who she has connected with during the day.
Even brief encounters seem to affect her.

Mental intuitives receive psychic energy through mental telepathy, clairvoyance and spontaneous knowing. They naturally attune themselves to others thoughts and ideas and they can be prophets who intuit the future
of cultural, medical, and scientific innovations and developments.

Marina is a successful business owner. She has a special knack for predicting the popular trends in his design business and she always seems to be in the right place at the right time for business opportunities. Before the busyness of the day Marina prepares herself by sitting quietly and clearing her head; she is then able to tune into and act on her inner knowing throughout the day.

Physical intuitives pick up psychic energy primarily through their bodies
and do extremely well with psychometry, which is the ability to
receive impressions and information through objects. Kara works
as a massage therapist. As she works with her clients, smoothing
out the tightness and tension in their muscles, she trusts her
hands to guide her. Over the many years of massaging people she
has found that her hands somehow know where the body may be holding
pain, sadness or anxiety. When she gently touches these areas
she often sees flashes and images of her client in challenging
situations. Kara then imagines love and healing moving through
her hands to them.

Spiritual intuitives often receive energy in a more ethereal way. They may
have visions, precognitive dreams and they may be able to sense
spirits or people who have passed to the other side. Jared always
felt a special kinship with his grandfather. When he was young
he would spend his summers with him on his farm. When his grandfather
died a few years ago he left Jared the farm and over eighty acres
of land. Jared knew that it was impractical for him to leave his
job in the city and move the rural location. But he couldn’t
bring himself to sell the beloved property. He asked his grandfather
in spirit for a sign to let him know what his wishes for the future
of the farm. The next day a neighboring farmer called Jared and
asked him if he was interested in selling the property to him
to increase his pastureland. To Jared this was the sign that he
was waiting for.

Our psychic type interprets the world around us and it can also be
our guide into the inner mystical realms, as it reveals to us
our unique spiritual capabilities and purpose. When intuition
is focused within, higher states of spiritual awareness and a
conscious connection of oneness with all of life permeates our
consciousness.

For the emotional intuitive this is the journey through the path of
the heart as they are naturally attuned to divine states of love
and service to others.

Mental intuitives are evolving from ego to enlightenment. They are inclined
to be truth-seekers on a path of transformation of consciousness.
Their task is to open their mind to divine illumination, instead
of just recycling their own thoughts and biases. Their minds can
be attuned to the super-conscious, absorbing truth and possibility.

For the physical intuitive the journey is that of the divine made
physical. They witness the divine in all living things and they
have the natural gift of channeling healing to others through
their touch.

The spiritual intuitive is attuned to the higher realms of essence
and pure spirit. They bring to this world the gift of transcendence
and the ability to be in this world but not of it.

Sherrie Dillard M. Div. is a psychic-medium clairvoyant, author and teacher with an international client list. She has been a professional psychic and medium for over twenty
years. She has been featured on television and radio for her work as a psychic detective and medium. She is the author of Discover Your Psychic Type (Llewellyn Worldwide). Sherrie is available to teach and discus this innovative approach to developing psychic-spiritual
awareness through type. Her website: http://www.sherriedillard.com

You will need:
* wire cutter or old scissors
* needlenose pliers
* string
* wide mouth pint jar
* white pipe cleaners
* blue food coloring (optional)
* boiling water (with adult help)
* borax (available at grocery stores in the laundry soap section, as in 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster – NOT Boraxo soap)
* pencil

Directions:

Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections.

Twist the sections together at their centers to form a six-sided
snowflake shape. Don’t worry if an end isn’t even, just trim to
get the desired shape. The snowflake should fit inside the jar.

Spread out each end.

Add embellishments if desired.

Tie the string to the end of one of the snowflake arms.

Tie the other end of the string to the pencil. You want the length to be such that the pencil hangs the snowflake into the jar.

Fill a widemouth jar with boiling water.

Mix borax into the water one tablespoon at a time. Use 3 tablespoons
of borax per cup of water.

Stir until dissolved, (don’t worry if there is powder settling on the bottom of the jar).

If you want you can add a little blue food coloring now to  give the snowflake a bluish hue.

Insert your pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the pencil is resting on the lip of the jar and the snowflake is freely suspended in the borax solution.

Wait overnight and by morning the snowflake will be covered with shiny crystals.

Hang in a window as a sun-catcher or use as a winter time decoration.

Interior-Star Variation

Cut three 6-inch pieces of pipe cleaner, then cut six 3-inch pieces.
Twist 6-inch pieces together. Center one 3-inch piece at the midpoint
of a spoke, and twist onto spoke. Tighten twist with needlenose
pliers. Repeat on remaining 5 spokes. Twist the adjacent ends
of 3-inch arms together, and tighten with pliers.

The Science Behind the Fun

Borax is an example of crystal – “a solid with flat sides
and a symmetrical shape because its molecules are arranged in
a unique, repeating pattern.” Every crystal has a repeating
pattern based on it’s unique shape. They may be big or little,
but they all have the same “shape”. Salt, sugar, and
Epsom salts are all examples of crystals. Salt crystals are always
cube-shaped while snow crystals form a six-sided structure.

How do the Borax crystals grow?

Hot water holds more borax crystals than cold water. That’s because
heated water molecules move farther apart, making room for more
of the borax crystals to dissolve. When no more of the solution
can be dissolved, you have reached saturation. As this solution
cools, the water molecules move closer together again. Now there’s
less room for the solution to hold onto as much of the dissolved
borax. Crystals begin to form and build on one another as the
water lets go of the excess and evaporates.

This also applies to snowflakes – As water cools the molecules move
closer together. Since all water molecules are shaped the same
(H2O) they align in a six sided crystal.

References:
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/boraxsnowflake.htm
http://underthesun.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/borax-crystal-snowflakes/

This essay is from a member Druid of the Reformed Druids of Gaia –
musing about the first lesson of our curriculum…

(Feel free to quote it, just please keep my name attached.
My muse is flattered. Never thirst, Willow CrowAngel)

First off, the most powerful and legitimate religion for a person is
the one that speaks to their heart, stirs their souls, and makes
them want to be a better person. It doesn’t matter is that religion
has a lineage that can be traced back to Merlin, came from a fiction
book, or was made up this morning while watching the sun rise.
What matters is that it fits the above requirements. I know of
plenty of religions that do nothing for its members.

I will admit that I’ve read some things that have become part of
my religion from books. For example, my image of the astral is
very much like how Marion Zimmer Bradley describes the Overworld
and Laren in her Darkover novels. My concepts of polyamory come
from Stranger In a Strange Land. They are definitions of concepts;
if by using a book image I can understand and explain some sticky
concept of metaphysics, then bully for me.

All too often, in paganism, people get caught up on the idea that
something needs a long history and teachers need credentials out
their didgeridoo. Some of the best teachers are those who teach
from their hearts; they share knowledge because they feel that
by sharing what they know they will make the world better. The
best teachers also learn as much as they teach.

How does all this relate to Druidic history? Well, history is speculation and PR. The accounts of what happened that far in the past were written by people who were not part of the culture. Tacitus, for all his historical records, was pretty much a “tabloid” writer. I’ve read several of his accounts of different cultures
he visited and several versions of his biography. He needed to “sell” copies of his travel logs to make a living and to keep his government post. We don’t have personal journals of
the ancient Celtic people to look at, Sorry, Don Druid’s personal BOS didn’t make it down through history because it was all in his memory. Don Druid’s BOS is part of the soil of Great Britain by now.

What  has come down through history is the concept of Druid, in touch
with the Universe, always seeking knowledge, wise, etc. Those
are the concepts, I for one hope, are recreated in modern druidism.
Those are concepts I hope to recreate within myself. Those are
concepts that attracted me to the character of Valentine Michael
Smith.

Which brings me to Discordianism. Sorry, no segue and no rhyme. Life
is serious enough without me having to be serious all the time.
I love the idea of Discordianism. And truthfully, I believe the
Universe has a sense of humor. I’ve often found that with the
coven I work with, when life gets too serious, the gods find a
way to make us laugh. I believe life is full of mirth. Let others
be super serious all the time – I enjoy laughing with the
Universe. Mirth is healing, mirth is enlightening – mirth
is one of the great Mysteries. Being able to smile in the center
of chaos is a sign of an enlightened person.

Enough rambling for now. Those are my thoughts on the first lesson and
on the recent discussions.

Never Thirst,
Willow CrowAngel

Short version, as told by Marilyn Whirlwind from the Northern Exposure
TV show:

A long time ago, the raven looked down from the sky and saw that
the people of the world were living in darkness. The ball of light
was kept hidden by a selfish old chief. So the raven turned himself
into a spruce needle and floated on the river where the chief’s
daughter came for water. She drank the spruce needle. She became
pregnant and gave birth to a boy, who was the raven in disguise.
The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of
light to play with. As soon as he had the light, the raven turned
back into himself. The raven carried the light into the sky. From
then on, we no longer lived in darkness.

Longer version, from El’s files, so not sure of the source:

There was a time many years ago when the earth was covered in
darkness. An inky pitch blanketed the world making it very difficult
for anyone to hunt or fish or gather berries for food. An old
man lived along the banks of a stream with his daughter who may
have been very beautiful or possibly quite homely. This didn’t
matter to the old man however because after all it was dark and
who could tell.

The reason why the world was dark had to do with the old man who had
a box that contained a box that held many other boxes. In the very last box was all the light in the universe and this was a treasure he selfishly kept to himself.

The mischievious Raven existed at that time because he always had.
He was none too happy about the state of the world for he blundered
about in the darkbumping into everything. His interfering nature
peaked one day when he stumbled by the old man’s hut and overheard
him muttering about his boxes. He instantly decided to steal the
light but first had to find a way to get inside the hut.

Each day the young girl would go to the stream to fetch water so the
Raven transformed himself into a tiny hemlock needle and floated
into the girl’s bucket. Working a bit of his “trickster”
magic, he made the girl thirsty and as she took a drink he slipped
down her throat. Once down in her warm insides he changed again;
this time into a small human being and took a very long nap.

The girl did not know what was happening to her and didn’t tell her
father. One day the Raven emerged as a little boy child. If anyone
could have seen him in the dark, they would have noticed that
he was a peculiar looking child with a long beaklike nose, a few
feathers here and there, and the unmistakably shining eyes of
the Raven.

Both father and daughter were delighted with their new addition and
played with him for hours on end. As the child explored his new
surroundings he soon determined that the light must be kept in
the big box in the corner. When he first tried to open the box,
his grandfather scolded him profusely, which in turn started a
crying and squawking fit the likes of which the old man had never
seen. As grandfathers have done since the beginning of time he
caved in and gave the child the biggest box to play with. This
brought peace to the hut for a brief time but it wasn’t long until
the child pulled his scam again, and again, and again until finally
only one box remained.

After much coaxing and wailing the old man at last agreed to let the
child play with the light for only a moment. As he tossed the
ball of light the child transformed into the Raven and snatching
the light in his beak, flew through the smoke hole and up into
the sky.

The world was instantly changed forever. Mountains sprang into the
bright sky and reflections danced on the rivers and oceans. Far
away, the Eagle was awakened and launched skyward – his target
now clearly in sight.

Raven was so caught up in all the excitement of the newly revealed world
that he nearly didn’t see the Eagle bearing down on him. Swerving
sharply to escape the outstretched talons, he dropped nearly half
of the ball of light, which fell to the earth. Shattering into
one large and many small pieces on the rocky ground the bits of
light bounced back up into the heavens where they remain to this
day as the moon and the stars.

The Eagle pursued Raven beyond the rim of the world and exhausted
by the long chase, Raven let go of what light still remained.
Floating gracefully above the clouds, the sun as we now know it
started up over the mountains to the east.

The first rays of the morning sun brought light through the smoke
hole of the old man’s house. He was weeping in sorrow over his
great loss and looking up, saw his daughter for the first time.
She was very beautiful and smiling, he began to feel a little
better.

Different version, from Wikipedia:

Long ago, near the beginning of the world, Gray Eagle was the
guardian of the Sun, Moon and Stars, of fresh water, and of fire.
Gray Eagle hated people so much that he kept these things hidden.
People lived in darkness, without fire and without fresh water.

Gray Eagle had a beautiful daughter, and Raven fell in love with her.
At that time Raven was a handsome young man. He changed himself
into a snow-white bird, and as a snow-white bird he pleased Gray
Eagle’s daughter. She invited him to her father’s longhouse.

When Raven saw the Sun, Moon and stars, and fresh water hanging on
the sides of Eagle’s lodge, he knew what he should do. He watched
for his chance to seize them when no one was looking. He stole
all of them, and a brand of fire also, and flew out of the longhouse
through the smoke hole. As soon as Raven got outside he hung the
Sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly
far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the Sun
set, he fastened the Moon up in the sky and hung the stars around
in different places. By this new light he kept on flying, carrying
with him the fresh water and the brand of fire he had stolen.

He flew back over the land. When he had reached the right place,
he dropped all the water he had stolen. It fell to the ground
and there became the source of all the fresh-water streams and
lakes in the world. Then Raven flew on, holding the brand of fire
in his bill. The smoke from the fire blew back over his white
feathers and made them black. When his bill began to burn, he
had to drop the firebrand. It struck rocks and hid itself within
them. That is why, if you strike two stones together, sparks of
fire will drop out.

Raven’s feathers never became white again after they were blackened by
the smoke from the firebrand. That is why Raven is now a black bird.

And here’s a little shapeshifter treat for those of you who consider
Raven to be your totem animal…it was sent to me by a friend
so I’m not sure who the artist is – but I’d sure like to find out!

You awake just before dawn. As you stretch and rub the sleep out of
your eyes, you realize the longest night has just come to an end.
It is the Winter Solstice.

You fetch your staff and a warm cloak and step outside. The stillness
and the silence roar like the final notes of a symphony. The crescendo
builds until each star hears its voice. The trees whisper a counterpoint,
and Mother Earth joins her ancient heartbeat to the music.

Cymbals clash and the Sun’s first rays lance over the horizon. A
glorious, mellifluous voice resounds in triumph:

“The Sun King has returned! The light is born anew! My death is done
and I circle on my path once more. Come, child, and know me as
your Ancestors have known me!”

The rays brighten to dazzling brilliance. You squint against the brightness.
Then it is dark. As you open your eyes, you are in a cave. The
slippery, mossy walls have been so cold all winter. A hunched
old man, radiating power despite his frail shell, limps to the
entrance, his walking stick in his hand. He is ancient beyond
telling. His skins wrapped around him, he gazes up to the rising
Sun, raises his arms, and chants words echoing from memories even
more ancient:

“Winter’s back is broken. Welcome, Light Maker!”

The people by the hearth fires echo his chant, softly at first, then
increasing to a triumphant roar. They have survived another winter.
The Earth Mother has sustained them!

The Sun’s radiance pierces the cave, momentarily blinding you.
You blink, then find yourself on the banks of a muddy, rain-swollen
river. A brightly-dressed crowd is gathered in the semidarkness.
A Priest raises his staff, his bright headdress foreshadowing
the brilliance about to burst forth.

“Welcome, Great Ra! Your children await your triumph over darkness!”

The people cheer as the waters sparkle, then flame into brilliance
with the Sun’s first rays. The reflection momentarily blinds
you. You blink, then find yourself in a stone circle on an ancient
hill. Power pulses through the ancient megaliths. Druids, dressed
in warm skins and cloaks, wait inside the circle, their excitement
barely contained as they watch the portal in the East-facing trilithon.
Their leader, in the center, raises his staff:

“Prepare for the return of the Light! Behold, He Comes!”

The Sun’s first rays lance through the window in the stones,
perfectly aligned across the ancient Henge. The Druids begin an
ancient dance of joy. You gaze at the Sun through the portal and
are again momentarily blinded.

You find yourself in Salem, Massachusetts. Behind locked doors of
thick pine, a group of worshipers huddles around their Priestess,
an ancient Crone whose wrinkled face is a map of sorrow. Shaking,
she lights a single hand-dipped beeswax candle. Its light is weak
but it is all they dare light, for many of their fellow travelers
on the Ancient Path are in jails, many have been tortured, and several of her friends and family have been lynched by enraged mobs.

“Our light is weak but the God of Strength has returned to us. May He light the way for those to whom hatred has brought death and comfort us with His warmth!” Tears fall from her rheumy eyes as the Sun’s first rays pierce the crack in the heavy draperies on the single tiny window.

Then the Crone’s gaze pierces your soul:

”Many have given their lives for the Light of the Sun God and the Old
Ways. Fear and hatred have nearly extinguished the Light, and
we weep for those in darkness!”

Taking the candle in her gnarled, worn hand, she passes it to you.

“Please, for the sake of the Ancient Ways, keep the Light of truth alive.
It is so feeble! Make it radiant with your intent, your magic
and the ancient drumbeats that echo in your every heartbeat. For
the sake of your children, keep alive the flame that has burned
since the beginning of time!”

In her eyes you see the eager faces of your son, your daughter, the
children of generations yet to come. Each child’s chubby
hands reach for the candle and their eyes glow in the Sun God’s
light.

:”Please, wise one, teach us! The light is so beautiful! Can you tell us
how it began? Can you teach us the cycles of the seasons? Can
you teach us to hear the music of the stars? Can you teach us
to sing to the Goddess when Her light is full? Can you teach us
to call her back when she hides her face? Can you teach us to
ask the trees their names and share the wisdom of the stones?”

Crying now, you take the candle and hold it to your heart.

“I will shelter this Light in my heart, where it can be reborn. I
will protect it, treasure it, and pass it to you,” you promise.
The flickering flame brightens until it nearly matches the brilliance
of the Sun’s rays bursting forth over the tree in your backyard.
You are home. The Sun is reborn. You are reborn.

The Earth
will be going on a long time
Before it finally freezes;
Men will be on it; they will take names,
Give their deeds reasons.
We will be here only
As chemical constituents—
A small franchise indeed.
Right now we have lives,
Corpuscles, Ambitions, Caresses,
Like everybody had once—

Here at the year’s end, at the feast
Of birth, let us bring to each other
The gifts brought once west through deserts—
The precious metal of our mingled hair,
The frankincense of enraptured arms and legs,
The myrrh of desperate, invincible kisses—
Let us celebrate the daily
Recurrent nativity of love,
The endless epiphany of our fluent selves,
While the earth rolls away under us
Into unknown snows and summers,
Into untraveled spaces of the stars.

~~ Kenneth Rexroth ~~
(Sacramental Acts)

Medford, OR:
Clan of the Triplehorses Grove had an incredible three part Samhain
event stretched over two days.

Friday, we started with an outdoor ritual where we worked toward healing and strengthening our relationship with our ancestors.

Immediately afterward, Panther led an in depth workshop for those new to ecstatic trance work. We journeyed to find each others’ power animal, danced for them and then journeyed to meet up with the Bone Mother.

On Saturday, Panther guided us through a ritual drama of the Wild Hunt. Some participants worked directly with Herne, others met up with the Bone Mother for rebirth and others keened for the dead. We had numerous drummers and the pounding filled the air!

Don’t miss our Yule ritual on Friday, December 12. Please contact us for full details: triplehorses@gmail.com

Wintertime blessings,
Clan of the Triplehorses Grove

White Horse Protogrove

Live Oak , FL:
Another of our newly formed Protogroves – Florida is sure becoming a popular place for Druids! More news on this group as it progresses…

Contact: ShadoStr13@yahoo.com

Wilverly Raven Grove

New Milton, Hampshire, UK:
Well, this is a difficult one for an Asatru Grove to report on because we
do not celebrate Samhain. There is no equivalent to Samhain in
the Odinic Calendar and so instead I write to tell you about our
Einheriar Blot which was carried out just last week.

Einheriar is held on November 11th and is a heartfelt message of thanks
to those who gave their lives in defence of our homelands. In
the UK November 11th is also Remembrance Day when the whole country
comes together to honour the dead of World Wars One and Two. In
recent years these honourings have been widened to include the
fallen from many conflicts including the Falklands War, The Gulf
War and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is an emotional day for us Brits, as almost everyone has lost
someone in battle. We wear Poppies as an act of remembrance –
a legacy of the Battle of the Somme and the last post is played
at the Cenotaph in London. It is also traditional for the Queen
to lay a wreath for the fallen.

This year, our first as a Grove, we decided that it would be fitting
for us to commemorate the War Dead from our local town. We also
felt that it would be fitting to do so in the company of other
townsfolk and so, with that in mind, I contacted the local Anglican
Church to see what their plans were.

As a result, at 11 o’clock on the 11th November members of
the Grove joined the congregation of St Mary Magdalene Church
for a service at the town War Memorial. The service was, as you
would expect, Christian in flavour but we as a Grove were allowed
to have an input as were the local Quakers.

As the clock struck we stood for a two minute silence and, when the
silence ended I read out the names of the local people who had
lost their lives in war. It was a long list, it took a long time
to read out and reading it made me, and many others, very emotional.
A trumpeter from the Church band then played the last post and
the Vicar offered Christian prayers. In all about 1,000 townsfolk
attended what was a very moving occasion and an occasion that
the Grove was proud to have been a part of.

For Yule we will be back to fully blown “Paganism” with
the Winter Solstice visit to Stonehenge. So until then, may good
sense and peace prevail in all corners of the world and may we
celebrate next year’s Einheriar with no further names added
to that list.

Hail the fallen!

Derfel Odinsson
Archdruid

Roots  Rocks and Stars
RDG “Proto-Grove”

Albany, OR:
Roots Rocks and Stars currently consists of three humans and two canine companions. We people are all college students, one in natural resources, one in Literature, and one in history. We live together in a small apartment in Corvallis Oregon’s north end. We are all ethnically descended from British
Isle and French folks (some Native Canadian/American ancestry as well) and this colors our rituals. We are primarily dedicated to Cernunnos, Epona, Brigid, and Cerridwen but actually tend toward an abiding devotion to nature and spirit without too much investment in names and images. Our rituals tend to involve home-cooking and plenty of beer.

Contact: juliecolibri@aol.com

No news this season from:

TSU

San Marcos, TX USA
RDG “Proto-Grove”

Thorn & Rose
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
RDG “Proto-Grove”