Every January, I like to look back over my blog posts of the past year and see which ones were the most popular. I usually find the results a little surprising, and this year is no different.
For 2021, my top five blog posts, beginning with the most popular:
I don't do New Year's Resolutions. There is an undercurrent of cynicism about them that implies that giving one's word, even to oneself, is really not a big deal. I don't want to follow that way of thinking. Promises to myself or to the universe can never be a joke to me, because as a heathen my word and my honor are real things that affect real life. Nonetheless, I find myself making new starts in several areas of my life anyway.
It's only a few days into 2022 and I've found myself making a change in what I (and my housemate) give to the landwight, after discussing it with the gnome. I also am going to do some garden tasks to arrange things properly. For example, recently there was a killing frost so the morning glories are dead for the season, and I will be able to clear out the planting bed where Margaret temporarily buried her pet snake Narcissa, because her family had not yet gotten a house at that time, and I made plans to clear the planting bed tomorrow and have her family come move Narcissa this weekend.That was always part of the plan since it was supposed to be temporary in the first place, but I am now motivated to actually get the clearing work done while I do the other garden things I need to do tomorrow.
I've been blogging here for three and a half years now, and I've just been looking back through all my blog posts as the year nears its end. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to discover that my five most popular posts aren't necessarily the ones I was hoping people would pick up and run with, and they're certainly not the ones I expected. But it is interesting to see what draws people, so maybe I can take the hint and provide more of what you lovely folks might like to read.
My most popular blog post? Tying a Sacred Knot - The various types of sacred knots are pretty well known, especially the tet of Isis, which appears to have a counterpart in Minoan Crete. But there's another object that Sir Arthur Evans conflated with this type of sacred knot, and this second object is obviously a piece of fabric, not a cord. I've written about this second object, which we've come to call the sacral scarf, in this blog post. The sacral scarf has its own place in Ariadne's Tribe spiritual practice and is, as far as we can tell, unique in the ancient world.
I had other plans... meaning, that I had other plans for the start of this blog, or should I say, the re-start of this blog. As I'm sliding into the end of Saturn in my sun sign (gather round, fellow Sagittarians!), I've been obsessed with streamlining, simplifying, being more efficient, not wasting time (hahaha), but, here I am. In short: Broomstix is still available as an archive on Blogger.
My gripe-du-jour is about people who volunteer to take on a task or role and then disappear.I know it’s true that with all-volunteer organizations such as most Pagan groups are that the out-of-site-out-of-mind rule applies.A volunteer leaves a meeting or gathering or festival full of zeal and ready to take on the work of whatever project(s) the group is planning.That person may even have been provided with documents, mailing lists, etc. with which to accomplish the task(s).He[1] may even have taken on the responsibilities of an officer within the organization.Then he gets home and more immediate concerns distract and derail him.
This phenomenon was more damaging to Pagan efforts at organizing prior to the advent of the Internet.For instance, within CoG, source of most but not all of my experience, membership applications must be timely processed or the applicant will wonder if her papers were even received.And when a newsletter published eight times a year is the primary, and only official, vehicle of communication within the organization, getting every newsletter to the membership is critical.Of course, today we can renew memberships online, and the newsletter editors of recent years have done a splendid job.But back in the day such lapses in accomplishing volunteer tasks could have a negative impact on the group at large.
Hávamál offers us a glimpse of a past that had already become somewhat nostalgic when a single hand transcribed the poem around 1270 CE.As David A. H. Evans writes in the Viking Society for Northern Research’s edition of the verses, this second poem of the Elder Edda “is deservedly one of the most celebrated works to have survived from the early Norse world.” It’s full of gnomic advice that continues to be of interest—and application—to us in the modern world. Old Norse text via the Heimskringla Project.
1. Gáttir allar, áðr gangi fram, um skoðask skyli, um skyggnast skyli, því at óvíst er at vita, hvar óvinir sitja á fleti fyrir.
2. Gefendr heilir! Gestr er inn kominn, hvar skal sitja sjá? Mjök er bráðr, sá er á bröndum skal síns of freista frama.
3. Elds er þörf, þeims inn er kominn ok á kné kalinn; matar ok váða er manni þörf, þeim er hefr um fjall farit.
4. Vatns er þörf, þeim er til verðar kemr, þerru ok þjóðlaðar, góðs of æðis, ef sér geta mætti, orðs ok endrþögu.
(I'm going to double up for a week or so, and post these notes on Samhain prep at my home site and here. Those of you who are kind enough to read both may feel you're seeing double for a bit. )
As I'm readying myself for this hard and sacred time, I'm reviewing my daily practice and wondering if it is optimum for keeping me focused and open.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...