In northern New England we’re used to long winters and lots of snow, but on May 9th? Perhaps the Cailleach has not gone away.
Known in Scotland as Cailleach Bheur, she was the personification of winter and ruled the weather from Samhain to Beltane. One of her tricks was to pound the earth with her long wooden staff to make the ground too hard for plants to grow. She especially liked snow, but by the beginning of February her store of wood ran low which meant that it was time to collect fallen tree branches. If the day was bright and sunny she would gather wood and be all set for more cold weather; but if the weather were cloudy and wet she would stay home and work her magic to bring winter to an end. Where grass doesn’t grow under a holly tree, it was said to be the spot where she threw her staff when spring arrived.
To protect your garden, walk around it three times as you say three times: “Cailleach, great crone of winter; mother of darkness whose stories are told. Bless these plants, keep safe my garden; protect us through the storms and cold.”
I usually stick to much older history, but having had the chance to catch the Doreen Valiente exhibit at Preston Manor in Brighton, I figured I should share a few pictures as I know it's a bit tricky for many folks to get there. The exhibit itself is small but there's a great delight in seeing how intimately history is made by a most unassuming woman. I picked up Philip Heseltine's biography too and am much enjoying it. Here are some of the artifacts collected:
New and promising medical treatments debut. The futurism of Back to the Future is examined and compared to our own culture. And the truth about meat and cancer is reviewed. It's Earthy Thursday, our weekly take on science and Earth-related news! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
We could all use a dose of good news from time to time. And today, here at the Pagan News Beagle, we've got just the right thing: uplifting stories of how people are looking to improve our relationship with the environment and make it a safer, better place for all life.
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...