PaganSquare


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in songs
Start with Loving Yourself—A Ritual for Self-Expression

This is definitely one of the more entertaining solo rituals. It requires you to look hard at yourself, but it’s also fun. Essential elements that are necessary for this ritual include:

  • Big sheets of butcher paper
  • Color markers, glitter, beads, shells, cloth, ribbon, yarn—whatever colorful materials you respond well to
  • Sewing kit and craft boxes with random scraps, buttons, and/or shiny objects

It is good to undertake this ritual on a Sunday, but whenever you need support, reserve half an hour of quiet time and brew up some willpower to help you with your self-expression. Light a white candle anointed with peppermint oil and light spicy incense such as cinnamon. Prepare for your Song of Myself by sipping this warm drink for encouragement: Take a sprig of mint (homegrown is best), a cup of warm milk, and cinnamon sticks, and stir together clockwise in a white mug. Recite:

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
The Horned One and His Ladee

Rewrites can be problematic.

They call for a certain delicacy of touch, and need to be rooted in respect for the original. You can't impose; you need to work with, matching style for style and diction for diction.

When done well, though, they can potentially both renew and transform the original.

Possibly forever.

 

 I Saw Three Ships

 

I saw three ships come sailing in

on New Year's Day, on New Year's Day

I saw three ships come sailing in

on New Year's Day in the morning.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Imperfect Canes

As we learn—or relearn—our native paganisms, the lessons sure do come from some strange places.

After surgery, a friend needed a cane. He told me what he wanted and I went down to the store to get it for him.

It soon became clear to me that his dream cane didn't exist. Eventually I bought the one that was closest to what he wanted, on the principle that, when you need a cane, it's better to have an imperfect cane than not to have the perfect one.

Planning this year's Samhain, we needed a song to call the ancestors.

In a traditional society, of course, we would call the ancestors with the song that they themselves had handed down to us. We'd all know this song, and it would have the quality and the worthiness that centuries of honing can give.

Alas, that song—along with so much else—is now lost to us.

Instead, we have a new song which, frankly, isn't as good as I would like it to be: the dilemma of much modern paganism.

Last modified on

Additional information