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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in ancestors

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

One of the questions I get asked the most about practising Druidry - or Paganism generally - is how to merge that spiritual practice with daily life. I've been pondering this today, as I get on with my chores on a rainy October day.

This morning, I went to the shop for food. I walked the dogs in the rain, chatted to neighbours at the bus stop. I've sorted laundry and washed up pots, made breakfast and rested for a minute with a cup of tea.

All very mundane. Then come the 'Druid-y' bits, you might say.

My next job is to write several articles (including this one), so wracking my brains to ponder what might be interesting, then how to word things appropriately, get over the usual author-angst about the final product not being good enough... ;)

I'm undertaking several Tarot readings for folk today, as well as sorting work for my students. I'm preparing for a Samhain ritual tomorrow as part of my Prison Chaplaincy role, then a Handfasting on Saturday, and of course my household's own private ritual that evening.

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  • Joanna van der Hoeven
    Joanna van der Hoeven says #
    How funny, Cat, I saw this post just as I was about to put up my own Druid priest post! Thinking on similar lines today, lovely! S
Global Third Road Faerie Samhain 2015

You're invited to the global Third Road Faerie Samhain ritual. Attend wherever you are in the world. 

The ritual is Friday, October 30, from noon to 1:00 EST.

We will honor our ancestors.

We'll also ask them for wisdom and power to fight oppression, that we may be fully free and help others gain freedom.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

The first time I ever encountered the idea that a tattoo could be spiritual was in Tahiti.  My wife and I were on our honeymoon.  On day two, we were still recovering from our wedding, a long flight into the middle of the Pacific, and a terribly uncomfortable overnight stint in Tahiti’s international airport that included unsuccessful attempts to stretch out and fall asleep on hard plastic armchairs.  Worse, we were still reeling from the shock of seeing the local food prices ($50 salad, anyone?).

Anyway, on that second day (after we had split that $50 salad for lunch) we were happy to be driven a cultural center and fire dancing show at the Tiki Village.  At the time I had no real appreciation for Polynesian culture or spirituality, but fire dancing sounded cool and I knew they were going to feed us.  So, exhausted as we were, we cheerfully got onto that bus and slept our way through the long drive to the other side of the Island of Mo’orea. The siren song of free food called.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_candles.JPGIn the Northern Hemisphere, and particularly in New England where I live, the leaves are starting to turn, the temperature is cooling off... soon enough the leaves will be falling off the trees, frost will cover the ground, and it will continue to get colder.  But right now, where I live, it's still warm for this time of year and there's some green on the trees still.  The dark half of the year is here, but it's more like "twilight" than full-on darkness.  Still... time to start lighting candles, asking the Powers to guide the way into the dark night.

When Samhain/Halloween approaches, many Pagans remember the dead, and the Pagan blogosphere will often get into the topic of ancestor veneration.  A couple of years ago, I was not in the habit of this practise because I have abusive family members, and the abuse was generational, and I felt highly uncomfortable reaching out to these people's spirits; I also believed there was no point in reaching out to people who have probably since reincarnated.  But my views on this have changed considerably over the last two years, and today, I not only honor the dead - and my ancestral dead among them - but I also believe that honoring the dead is an important part of my practise.

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Riding the tides of Samhain (No sh*t, no flowers)

 

"I can make whatever choices I want in my life, and I will live with the consequences of those choices. But if I want to live a life close to my deepest desires, I have to risk knowing who I really am and have always been. Knowing this, then I can choose."

 Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Invitation

  

We live in a culture and a world of avoidance.  Television, social media, alcohol and drugs are just a few escape routes we have to avoid truly knowing who we really are.  At this time of year, when Samhain is fast approaching we cannot avoid the very real fact that we will die, that death is unavoidable, though we may try.  Looking at death straight in the eye can reveal some very hard truths about ourselves, about how we live in the world, and what our responsibility and duty is to the ancestors, not only ancestors of the past but perhaps more importantly, ancestors of the future.  

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Joanna van der Hoeven
    Joanna van der Hoeven says #
    Hi Anges - I understand your perspective, and find it fascinating - though it vastly differs from mine. I don't believe in a Crea
  • Agnes Toews-Andrews
    Agnes Toews-Andrews says #
    Not true, we do not have to die. We have created a death hormone over the eons. We can bust that death hormone. I know because abo
  • Joanna van der Hoeven
    Joanna van der Hoeven says #
    I see death as I see birth - it's an event that happens in our lives, but it is not a start nor an ending to life. Death is not th
  • Agnes Toews-Andrews
    Agnes Toews-Andrews says #
    This Metaphysician feels you are not understanding immortality, of course the soul--that part of us that is a God spark, lives on
  • Joanna van der Hoeven
    Joanna van der Hoeven says #
    Hi Ted! Yes, at this time of year I go over my Will, closets, mind and attachments, etc and have a really good clean out. It's be

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
What Do We the Living Owe the Dead?

 What do we the living owe the dead?

Three measures of respect: respect of body,

respect of offering, respect of memory.

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Pagan News Beagle: Watery Wednesday, October 7

Who are your ancestors and how should your honor them? Pagan organizations seek aid from the community in the form of fundraising. And a Pagan icon is mourned. It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly segment on news about the Pagan community. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

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  • John Halstead
    John Halstead says #
    Small correction. We're actually publishing an anthology of writings of non-theistic Pagans called "Godless Paganism". You can s

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