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When I first started on my pagan journey I was presented with the Wheel of the Year and it seemed most pagans worked with it.  I spent ages trying to remember the dates and learn the names and correspondences, even to this day I have to stop and think about it when trying to recall what is what! 

I also started dressing my altar for each sabbat and looking up all the correct colours, herbs and associations to know what to put on it.  But I have to admit I started to lapse and I realised that I wasn’t connecting with the celebrations and what I was doing was just a mechanical action because I thought I had to. 

The days are getting longer.  Even if the weather is still winter, I can start to see the energy of spring building as we step forward day by day.  My day job is at a university so the new semester has started and the insanity in my day job is stressful and chaotic.  This reminds me of the energy spring brings.

Spring season is all about new beginnings, fresh starts, and moving forward.  In my way of doing things, I’ve considered over winter what is important, what I need to work on.  I may have (very likely have) made a to do list of what I need to do for my goals – what the next steps will be.  

What impacts the amount of energy in a ritual and the type of energy? And what's the difference between the energy in a private ritual and a group ritual? I recently saw a Facebook post about the topic and my response was long enough that it seemed more appropriate as a blog post. 

The conversation centered around this quote from the book Dedicant by Thuri Calafia:

I’ve been spending a lot of alone time lately since my work has decided to send me to training an hour and a half away from home.  I’m staying there through the week to save on the travel time and gas money.  Lacking the responsibility of housework and kids, I felt myself starting to bounce off the walls a bit.  The small apartment that I am staying in doesn’t have a TV, nor a radio.  Sure, I can listen to Pandora on my phone, as well as search YouTube for songs and videos.  Then there is my laptop.  I can stream and search using the wifi that is connected to my work’s system.  But, I needed to be careful as they review sites that people go on.  That limits my searching and researching ability.

Family is one of the most difficult aspects of my life.  My husband and I are both the youngest in our families.  He’s the youngest of seven and I’m the youngest of six.  There are a lot of personalities and opinions in large families. 

Recently, my family had an emergency with my mother (who’s 83).  She spent the holiday weekend in the hospital.  She suffered a very mild stroke.  She was lucky in that she has little residual after affects from the stroke. 

In Wisconsin, we’ve turned cold, had a snow storm (or several) and had our first real slow down for the winter.  I’ve heard nothing but complaints about how we haven’t had cold weather like this since the 1800s.  I work with several people who are from the south and they are questioning why they moved to Wisconsin. 

It is easy to get wrapped up in the complaining and the whining about how bad it is.  With arthritis in every joint in my body, the cold is hard to deal with as it makes me ache.  The slippery sidewalks and roads can be treacherous.  It isn’t fun to drive down the road following someone who can’t drive in the snow or worse to skid around the road rather than driving down it.

The full moon is celebrated and cursed.  Those who work in the police, hospital, and so on will tell you that behavior is odder during this time of the month. 

The full moon is about completion.  It is like a pregnant woman about to give birth.  The energy is high and in some cases giddy.