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 grief

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

In my last post, I talked about going to the John Edward show and getting a metaphorical smack.  Since then I’ve had some interesting things happen.  I read tarot.  I love the tarot and feel very connected to certain decks.  I have one I use for me every time no matter what.  I’ve tried doing readings for myself with other decks and they just don’t resonate like this one deck.  I use the deck for other people as well and always have the best readings with this one deck.  I’ve stopped buying other decks.  I like other decks but they don’t work as well as this one deck I use.

My daughter’s friend called me out of the blue and asked if I would do a reading for her.  I’ve not read for her in probably ten years or more.  She believes but has not come back to me for a reading since I did one which told her a male energy was going to come into her life and have a significant influence on her.  (Shortly after, the reading she got pregnant with her first son.)

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
Time for melancholy

In theory Pagans honour the dark half of the year as well as the light, bright growing times. However, in practice we spend autumn talking about harvest, and while we do acknowledge the dead at Samhain, midwinter tends to be more about the return of the light than the deep darkness. There are many things the wheel of the year doesn’t give us much space to honour and explore. Loss, misery, nostalgia, regret, and despair don’t really find a place.

Of course it’s tempting to focus on the ‘good stuff’ in life – what seeds are you planting this spring, where’s your fertility for Beltain, what have you harvested, and lo, the sun is reborn and round we go again! However, if you don’t have a lover, and your health is poor or your plans aren’t working out, then these are tough things to celebrate and it can feel like there’s no room for your experiences amongst everyone else’s cheerful optimism. The wheel of the year encourages us to look forward in hope, not fear, and not to look back except when we can be pleased by the results.

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
Gifts Hidden In Loss

On February 21, 2015 my second son, Galen, was stillborn.

I wrote out the whole traumatic story, then found myself reluctant to share it.  I wish what happened to me would never happen to anyone else.  So I'm not going to share the details in blog form.  Maybe in my next memoir.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Ann Franke
    Ann Franke says #
    Thank you, Ashley, for sharing your wisdom from this truly painful experience. My condolences on your profound loss.
  • Lia Hunter
    Lia Hunter says #
    Thank you for sharing the beautiful lessons you learned from your community and from your son with the name of a healer. Another
  • Ashley Rae
    Ashley Rae says #
    Thank you, Lia.
  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven says #
    This has to be one of the bravest, saddest, and more amazing blog posts I have ever read on this or any other site. My heart break
  • Ashley Rae
    Ashley Rae says #
    Thank you, Anne.
Ferguson, and why we can't turn a blind eye anymore

 

Actual unedited footage from Ferguson, MO. The clip should start at 8:20, if not, fast forward to it, if you want to see how American citizens are being treated. Why do our police look like an invading force?

...
Last modified on
Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    In very ancient tribal (pagan) cultures the killing of a man from one tribe required the killing of a man from the other tribe to

Posted by on in Studies Blogs
Viking Grief

One of the most moving poems by the Viking poet/magician/farmer Egil Skallagrimsson was one he wrote lamenting the death of his favourite son Böðvarr who drowned at sea, and his son Gunnar who died of fever. In skaldic form the twenty-five verses give voice to his sorrow with passion and beauty. Normally Vikings assuaged loss with revenge but there is no one to attack for these deaths.

Egil composes the poem after vowing to kill himself by starvation, unwilling to live in a world without his son. His daughter Þorgerður tells him she will die with him, but tricks him into drinking some milk and spoiling his hunger strike. She then suggests that the best way to memorialise her brother is to compose a suitable poem in his honour so that he will live forever.

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
Blood Ties

The blood of many species
swirls around me
The blood of many mothers
runs through me
The blood of many generations
comes from me

The blood of earth
feeds me
The blood of the Goddess
holds me

We dance together
in an ancient ecstasy
blood deep
bone rich
holy, potent, and pure.

The blood of creation
The blood of inspiration
The blood of sacrifice
and renewal…

(originally posted here)

Last modified on

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_DarkMother-lowres.jpgAcross the many pantheons and even within single traditions, there are more than a few goddesses to be found personifying sorrow and grief. We can look to these mournful deities to help us through our own times of unhappiness, from mild melancholia to the throes of despair and even to the rising up and moving forward after the worst of the grieving has passed. In our times of need, we can turn to these goddesses for compassion, strength and renewal.

In the Christian tradition Mary bears seven sorrows as a mother who must accept the destiny of her son. Early in Jesus’s life, they are the typical sorrows of any mother, but Mary's heroic strength through the inconceivable grief of his persecution and execution is said to have prepared her heart for the joy of Christ’s resurrection. As a mother I can only imagine the depth of her pain, both emotional and physical. Her stoic countenance tells all. In the hostile atmosphere, she dare not carry on in fits of anguish lest she too be persecuted. Yet it is not likely that fear for her own safety restrained her as much as the knowledge that her son did not need one more added burden; that of worry over the wellbeing of his mother.

...
Last modified on

Additional information