Category: Lammas

Lammastide and Gratitude

On By PaxIn An Important Message..., Blame Sannion, Lammas, Mabon, Thanksgiving1 Comment

Hello Friends,

So we are betwixt and between the Calendrical and the  Astronomical Lammas right now.   Most traditionally a time of coming together with friends and family and community.   Now I realize that Mabon is the time when I as a Witch am supposed to be thinking of Giving Thanks… but Gratitude is on my mind right now.

It is only slightly less than a year since the Big Guy broke up with me.  It is also a little less than a year since I cast the most fervent prayer/spell I have ever cast.

At the time I decided, sometime in the first couple of months, that I we feeling a LOT of grief and that the thing I needed most was time.  So I gave myself a year.

In that year I have grieved, faced a number of challenges, worked, prayed and done a lot of reading and thinking.  I have had touching messages from friends I have met face to face and friends I (currently) know only through the Internet.  I have had laughter and made new friends face to face and begun finding the pieces and parts of myself that I left behind in the move to Florida and that were knocked out of me when the Big Guy dumped me.

I take a moment to breathe in life force, and to exhale gratitude into my connection with all life.

Everything can be a lesson, every moment can make us wiser and stronger and happier and healthier… if we put in the work and are open to the inspriation.  I have so much more to learn in this particular lifetime, but I feel like the last year has helped me put together puzzle pieces of a number of my life’s lessons so far, and taught me strange and new things.  So this Lammas-tide I find myself Grateful, and looking forward to Mabon and to the Secular Thanksgiving Holidays even as I make my offerings of incense and libations to the Holy Powers in the regular rhythms of my life.

Blessed Be,

Pax / Geoffrey

Lets bring a little Mundane into our Magick?

On By PaxIn Community Building, Creativity, LammasLeave a comment

So some of the writings in the Pagan blogoshpere recently have talked about Lammas or Lughnassadh ~ I think thats right, this is part of why I call it Lammas… 😉  as a Harvest festival. Some of the discussions have gone to talks about memories of canning and preserving fruits and vegetables.

This has me thinking. When we have conferences, or other Pagan events with Workshops, why can’t we have a few arts and crafts based workshops?

Imbolg would be a great time for all sorts of arts and crafts based workshops… maybe making your annual Imbolg event a Pagan community Collegium?

Or sponsoring a bread baking workshop in July such that at the local Lammas festival you could break bread at feast with several home-made loaves of bread?

You have the larger world example of the magick of the Aids Quilt… and I know other organizations have used this physical metaphor for healing those left behind as well as remembering their beloved dead… what about a Samhain quilting event?

There have been a few good Pagan oriented crafts and cook books… but I think maybe we as communities could afford to invest more face to face time with one another…outside of the circle… and it just seems to me that one of the most natural ways a religious community (or related religious communities) can enjoy fellowship is to engage in Creative activities that nourish the soul and bring us in closer contact with the Creator, Creatrix, or original Tree!*

Peace,

Pax

*= depending on your faiths creation story…

Lammas, community, and Harvests

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Community Building, Creativity, LammasLeave a comment

Lammas 1st of the Harvest Festivals

When people gather together to celebrate the grain harvest, to celebrate and reunite with familly and community. When couples come forward to be bound for a year-and-a-day before being bound together, for life or for lifetimes.

A respite from hard work, and a celebration of the work accomplished.

I have pulled back from the church, and have not found very many in my local community to become close to… and yet I have friends, I have familly, and I have community. Not all close by, but they are out there and it is not as if its so difficult to reach out a hand of friendship…to throw them a line of communication as this holliday approaches.

I know in my own life that fighting my own fears… fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of being hurt… has been my biggest obstacle. It took a long journey for me to learn to trust in my instincts and to build a good library of experiences. Now its time I took a few pages from that library and reached out to some important folks.

I hope in your own journeys you can find the path through your own obstacles and learn some wisdom and some strength from your journeys.

Peace,
Pax