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 2015
PantheaConvergence prt3: The Black Rose Suite

b2ap3_thumbnail_16829_1072064912809114_8477723549049734674_n.jpg

This year we decided to do something different and get a suite. We planned for months and worked our butts off to make it a fun and exciting atmosphere. The suite was decked out with halloween and witch inspired decor with altars, information, and ribbons everywhere! The entire weekend there was something going on in the room and we even had the honor of hosting two outside groups who each held events in the room. 

...
Last modified on

February

Imbolg also known as Candlemas – Feb 2nd

b2ap3_thumbnail_February.png


 
As I wonder along the quiet country lane on a crisp winter’s morning, a smile begins to spread across my face. A bright beam of sunlight strikes the hedgerow awakening the sleepy flora and fauna and I know the darkness of winter is behind us.

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
Hope for the new year

2014 saw a lot of loss with the passing of friends and family. My uncle died in his home, a film maker friend took his own life and a musician friend suffered from a cold for days and ultimately died, I haven't heard the cause yet, but wonder if it might have been pneumonia.  Our jobs as massage therapists haven't panned out as well as we'd hoped, the spa we both worked at closed it's doors and the part time work at the University Wellness Center is hit and miss on clientele keeping their appointments. And in late Spring I developed an allergic reaction to my blood pressure medication that sent me to the hospital and sent me into a mild anaphylactic shock. From that experience I now get allergic reactions to a variety of unknown things, including some ingredient(s) found in the massage lotion we used at the spa which closed.

On the positive side of 2014, Dean and I got married in May. We had a pirate-gypsy themed wedding that pretty much was a large party for all the family and guest. Just what we wanted it to be.b2ap3_thumbnail_Dean-and-Janice-pirate-wedding-Janice-signs.jpg The remainder of 2014 was a financial struggle for us as jobs in Springfield for LMT's (licensed massage therapists) are few, the market is glutted due to a massage school being here in town. Jobs, in fact, are still an endangered species here in town as large chain grocery stores have recently closed their doors, fast food restaurants and factories had all shut down suddenly.

...
Last modified on
Starting the New Year with Goddess Breath

b2ap3_thumbnail_10858033_10203354997784784_8790265016746719100_n.jpg
(Photograph by Jess Asien Winter Solstice 2014 shared with permission)

The Full Moon Goddesses, a collective soul of women who gather on my farm once a month around the full moon, just finished the second year of practicing Goddess Becoming together.

I thought I would share with you our journey last year but I didn't. I couldn't. It took all year to figure out why I was with-holding. I finally realized that I was still too insecure. The first year found me waiting for the novelty to wear off. The second year made me wonder if women were willing and ready for the work I had in mind. The rituals I was writing and offering were so new and different that I didn't know how people would react to them. I needed the full year to grow some lady balls and step into my power. I'm ready now.

To say that it was an extraordinary year is a complete understatement. As I prepared for Solstice, I wanted to present a summary of the monthly work we did together. I never expected a theme to emerge.

Every gathering and ritual we participated in focused on how to better own The Mind. We worked on becoming more objective observers. We practiced vulnerability and authenticity by giving voice and acknowledging detrimental thoughts and patterns of behavior, as well as affirming all the ways we are excelling. We examined the ways we listen and the ways our minds wander. We honored the delicate balance of remaining present to someone in distress despite the pleas from the mind to flee. We enacted in ritual aspects of our thoughts that resonate with the Higher Self we are trying to remember. I didn’t expect such clarity. I don’t know what I expected, if anything, but I was inspired.

Riding the wings of such coherence made it easy to see the agenda for 2015, which is to study and celebrate the Divine Feminine Body. This work strikes me as so obvious I almost want to laugh but I don’t because the work is too important. When I think about women in our culture, I wonder how many can look at their naked bodies in the mirror and not hear a single chastising voice. How and when did the female body become such a perversion of love and hate? Is the antagonizing attitude many have about their bodies something they want to pass to their sons and daughters? I certainly don’t.

When I think about the 75+ women who gathered in my home for Solstice recently, I marvel at how varied we are. There wasn’t a single woman there who looked like anyone else. Every one uniquely beautiful, uniquely essential, and most importantly, uniquely Divine. That’s the part that gets me. The divine expression is truly infinite and I want to spend a year discussing, embracing, and elevating the holy feminine body.

So, to start off the New Year, our January gathering, just a few days ago, celebrated the first gasp that brings us into Life and the sigh upon which we go into Death.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Julie Landa
    Julie Landa says #
    Beautiful!
  • Julia Hayes
    Julia Hayes says #
    Julie!! Thank you for writing! I appreciate the validation. Stay tuned for more..

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

The calendar New Year does not often feature in pagan festivities, yet it a liminal time; a threshold is crossed and thresholds, as we know, are thin places of transition, magic and manifestation. 

In Ireland, however, the whole period from Solstice/Yule through to Nollaig na mBan (Women's Christmas/Epiphany) has a pagan quality.  Unless you are actively associated with devout, practicing Christians, Ireland often feels to me the best place to celebrate the winter holidays.  You don't have to be celebrating with self-identified pagans or out of the broom closet witches either. It all seems to happen organically. Maybe Spirit is just pagan in the Irish air.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Bee Smith
    Bee Smith says #
    The Cailleach has been throwing down lightening and thunder snow here. And it all feels just as it ought to of be as we move towar
  • Francesca De Grandis
    Francesca De Grandis says #
    Your remark about the lightening and thunder and Brigid's festival makes experiential gut sense to me. Major mojo!
  • Bee Smith
    Bee Smith says #
    A friend on artist retreat in Taos has commented on the weather synchronicities we have experienced over many time zones. It all f
  • Francesca De Grandis
    Francesca De Grandis says #
    Have a wonderful new year! I look forward to seeing what it's going to be like for us.

January

b2ap3_thumbnail_141028-swans.jpg
Crow was right, the storm did come and then it just kept on coming.  Since the end of last month and for many weeks now harsh weather conditions have re-written this island’s coastlines. Rainfall, the likes of which have not been seen for more than a century, leaves the countryside drowning and submerged in its deluge.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_01.jpg

The holidays are wrapping up with the last fiesta just days away - New Year's Eve. Every year, I feel a tinge of sadness when January comes up, because things feel so final. Not to mention, I'm no fan of the winter months as a whole, as I simply hate cold weather. After forty years, people would assume I'd be used to it, but nope. I'd rather deal with those Texan summers than the Chicago winters.

...
Last modified on

Additional information