Link of the Week

Wet Ink

Body Politic

Collective Wisdom

Savvy Spirituality

Total Tomfoolery

Pronoiac People

Rob's Summer Vacation

Pagan's Progress

And we also like these:
Witch on the Go

Wicca.com

Circle Sanctuary

Blue Mountain\

With each Pagan holiday, we are careful to note the European/Celtic traditions associated with them, and tied as the Pagan calendar is to the seasons, we inadvertently off-put the large Australian readership gathered here. For that bit of accidental xenophobia we do apologize. Séan Knight's personal page explains how he and his friends celebrate the wheel; for them the day we tend to as Imbolc is instead the harvest bash of Lughnasadh or Lammas.

And we also appreciate the straightforward Down Under wisdom of Magick Happens

ROB SEZ: Around Feb. 2 every year, Pagans make a pledge to the Goddess about what their main intention will be in the coming year. What's yours? Write to him with TRUE INTENT about your pledge.

SPRUNG!

Does it surprise you to learn that the holiday known as Easter actually has its tendrils in the Pagan holiday of Ostara/Eostre? Of course it doesn't.

Get all green about the mighty egg, the fecund bunny, and the mating of the God and Goddess at WitchVox and at Chantrea's Ostara page.

Author Scott Cunningham suggests in his Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, that the Vernal Equinox (on or about March 21) be celebrated by either collecting wildflowers (a practice we strongly frown on) or allowing yourself the pleasure of visiting a florist, choosing those blooms that best strike you, and then looking their significance up in a flower lore book. ("The Magical Garden" by one Sophia might be a good start.) Those buds you've been naturally drawn to may reveal some instant mojo about yourself or your current feelings.

Cunningham also exhorts us to get outside into the good green world, not as exercise or even appreciation, but rather as a no-holds celebration of nature itself. He further writes, "Other traditional activities include planting seeds, working on magical gardens and practicing all forms of herb work -- magical, medicinal, cosmetic, culinary, and artistic. Foods in tune with this day . . . include those made of seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin, and sesame seeds, as well as pine nuts. Sprouts are equally appropriate, as are leafy green vegetables. Flower dishes such as stuffed nasturtiums or carnation cupcakes also find their place here."

Turning again to Pagan practitioner Séan Knight, we also hail Mabon in the Southern Hemisphere this time of year. Knight describes it thus: "Mabon is celebrated at about 22 March, at which time we give thanks for the harvest, meaning not only the physical harvest but the harvest of knowledge and wisdom and learning that each one of us has received over the year."

BELTANE
Don't Suppress My May Day!
By Dian Sousa

The holiday of Beltane, observed on April 30th and May 1st, is the ancient Celtic celebration of lust and renewal. It's the rebirth-rich debauchery that ushers in the lush, skinny-dipping green of spring and the sun-hot cleavage of summer.

The way I see it -- and I see it a lot since I'm always thinking about it, talking about it, handing out tracts, and lobbying my blushing, well-coiffed congressman to institute Beltane as a national holiday -- is that we should get to incorporate our own meaningful symbols and rituals into this ancient Pagan fest just like we do on all the other less important, really boring and dysfunctional normal holidays. Let me just explain a few details of Beltane and how you might create your own ceremony.

I'll do this now so that when the apocalypse wipes out all of our weird Western holiday apparatus and we can't find our computerized lists of where to send our Beaver Cleaver Christmas letters, our waxy, missionary-position Valentines, and our plastic egg sugar-injection appliances -- and I inadvertently become the benevolent dominatrix of civilization, with my headquarters of course located in Santa Cruz -- I won't have to go over this all again.

What you'll need is a May Queen and four handmaidens acting as her entourage. Kind of like Madonna on her Truth or Dare Tour, except they should be wearing something softer than a nuclear missile bra; I'm thinking flowing silk that pulsates from the cool colors down to the hot.

You'll also need some men: the Green Man, the Blue Man, drummers, and some spiritual guides whom I've renamed as "the surfer," "the artist," "the airline pilot," and "the bare-chested, sweaty, tool-belted handyman." (The latter might be a roofer, dry-waller, mason, or gardener. See D.H. Lawrence).

Most importantly, you'll need the Wild Red Men, spirits representing chaos within nature, destruction of the old order through temptation and dissolution. Basically, these are the guys you'd invite if you wanted to have a really fun party. Allen Ginsburg wearing nothing but a couch on his head for a hat; the Red Hot Chili Peppers wearing one strategic athletic sock; Oscar Wilde and Neil Cassady wearing little bits of everyone; and if you're really lucky -- Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and my good friends Vic and Tom.

Once you've assembled all the people that you like and dressed them in primary colors, it's time for your lascivious conga line to move to the queen's bower.

If I were queen, and I am, my bower would be designed by Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi, with inlaid mosaic mermaids, touchable smooth marble satyrs in the entryway, a groovy table that turns soft when you lay on it (cuz you will), garlands of Rubenesque tulips, voluptuous rose buds and luscious wide-open hibiscus trailing across a trellised ceiling that lets in the full moon and the increasingly humid air.

You'll need sustenance for the evening's activities. I'm envisioning a curvy, purple velvet-covered table spread out with hand-rolled herbal cigarettes, cloisonné finger bowls filled with melted chocolate and warm caramel, long-stemmed cherries and hourglass-shaped vials of dewy nipple-pink Cosmopolitans.

You'll also need music. The traditional music for Beltane would be pipes, but I'm thinking the ultimate soul-sex trio of Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Barry White.

Once you've got all of this undulating in place, all you have to do is jump over or into the metaphorical fire and cavort. Like crazy. With whomever you desire. And whomever desires you. Do it until May 7th when you go back to work, more vibrant and springy than usual, kinder and more tolerant but with a nice edge of passion, and with a wicked wedge of blissful, uncivilized, human spirit burning through your pocket protector, blooming through your cell phone, and rising through everything like a warm, subliminal incense; like an energetic morphine; like love; like God; like a sweet ash of grace that sticks to your forehead, melts on your tongue, and marks you with the undeniable sign of life.

Once you've recovered from swoon and wiped the dew from your forehead, learn more about Beltane with these links:

the Witches Web
My Thing Links
Athens Forum Beltane
Cyber Witch

AND THE LIVIN' IS EASY

June 21 marks Midsummer, the time of the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere. All snow should be gone from the ground, trees and plants are beginning to bear, flowers are fresh, summer, thank the Goddess, is upon us. This is the longest day of the year, a time to celebrate bounty and beauty and recommit to the Earth. Pagan tradition suggests staying up all night over a bonfire; the Swedes are partial to decorating a Midsummer Tree; and some think that if young women dip themselves in rushing water, both refresh and fecundity await them.

The Religious Tolerance Web site has information on the solstice from many disciplines and a wealth of is-that-right? facts to supplement any lagging moments in party conversation. Highly recommended.

Hope's solstice page offers love potion recipes, a short history, and poems to greet the day with.

And finally, the Ritual Hut not surprisingly is full of tips for performing your own significant ceremony to honor this important and languid time of year.

LAMMAS LARKING

Aug. 1 marks the first harvest of the year on the ancient Celtic calendar, reminding us of summer's fleeting ways and the Earth's ongoing cycles. For ritual, food, and fun ideas to celebrate Lammas, try the following links:

My Things provides a clearinghouse of sorts of the Best Of Lammas links and clearly explicates ritual and, hooray! food.

White Mountains suggests specific rituals to honor the harvest with.

And if sack races, Celtic croquet, piggy-back rides and unbridled outdoor silliness are more your thing, join the happy folks who gather each August for the Lammas Games.

MABON MADNESS
With the light plunk of an acorn dropped from a tree, the autumnal equinox -- also known as Mabon -- falls on Sept. 22. Traditionally a time to give thanks for the harvest and to anticipate the fading of the light, those who honor this festival acknowledge that there can be no spring without winter's fallow. Ritual practice indicates gathering leaves, nuts, and other autumnal bounty into an altarpiece display. We're not talking incense-strewn mantles of burnished copper here -- a clean plate or a rusty old hubcap make beautiful altars.

Yvonne Aburrow offers a Mabon poem in honor of the season.

Witch Vox remains a reliable source of information, history, and great links.

And we're partial to Lance's humble Mabon page, replete as it with good and easy suggestions for celebration and ritual and extra links.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For that one-stop witch talk that you may crave around Samhain (pronounced "sow-in" and more formally known as "Halloween"), try the good folks at Witch Vox. There's a tremendous compendium of links, essays, poetry and information on their Samhain page.

And in case you think that Halloween is little more than kids in masks, bowls of mini-chocs, and a few grinning pumpkins, we're here to shout, "Happy New Year!" Samhain is the traditional beginning of the Pagan year, that night when the veil between the natural and supernatural worlds is at its thinnest. Spirits may roam between the two with an ease they can't normally enjoy, making communion and reflection with passed loved ones more fluent and immediate.

Día de los Muertos, or the revered Hispanic Day of the Dead (Nov. 1), may have more meaning for people of all nationalities this year, current and recent losses being so heavy on our minds. Tradition dictates creating an altar with fruits and sweets, candles, incense, and any other pretty offering from the hands of mortals. Mexican families visit cemeteries and tend the graves of their ancestors, feast and picnic, attend religious services, and reflect on their connection and debt to those who have gone before them.

There's nothing fancy about the San Antonio Public Library's Day of the Dead pages, but there's also nothing that flashes, blinks, or resembles crass American commercialism there, either. Good enough for us.

HERE COMES THE SUN

Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and an important holiday in the Pagan tradition, falls on Dec. 21. Beliefnet.com's Waverly Fitzgeralddiscusses ritual and lore associated with Solstice.

And before you set out that glass of milk and those cookies, take a moment to reflect on the truth that back in the old days, Santa Was a Shaman?

Discover why medieval Romanian housewives dreaded the Solstice (and other real faktz).

A whole bunch of Solstice links await you here.

But we're actually quite partial to the info-packed lecture delivered in honor of the Solstice at last year's meeting of American Atheists.