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 womens mysteries

 Consider baked beans | Food | The Guardian

First off, I'm a man. I've never participated in the Women's Mysteries; by definition, I cannot, and never will.

Nor, being a man of honor, have I ever asked my women friends to reveal to me the secrets of the Women's Mysteries. (Being women of honor, of course, they wouldn't have told me, even if I had asked.)

Nor, frankly—although I am not sworn to guard them—would I reveal to you the secrets of the Women's Mysteries, even if I knew them. Call it a professional courtesy.

This much I can tell you, though: behind those Mysteries, Men's and Women's both, stands yet another Mystery.

That's what I'm about to reveal here.

Kind of.

 

This coming Summer, the men of the Driftless Tribe of Witches will be celebrating the Men's Mysteries, in conjunction with the Rites of Man-Making.

As Mysteries do, they will end with the oath of the Great Silence, in which we swear to keep secret that which we have seen, heard, and experienced.

(At the heart of life with honor lies the ability to keep a secret; but that's a mystery in and of itself.)

Liturgically speaking, the Men's Mysteries are a self-authenticating masterpiece. The central metaphors are so deep, so articulate, so true that I'm staggered each time I re-encounter them: so true, so articulate, so deep that they have the power to create transformation in those who experience them for the very first time.

They encode in themselves a deep meaning which lies at the very heart of our tribe, and define us as a people.

As guardian of these Mysteries, there is much that I am pledged not to reveal, nor will I reveal them here.

But let me tell you my suspicion about the deep Mystery underlying them all.

Call it an educated guess.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Cutting the Cord

At sundown on the eve of her coming-of-age, the grandmothers tied the girl to her mother with a red cord.

One end of the cord, nine ells long, they had bound, with much hilarity, around young Linden's waist; the other (not without a few tears) around her mother's.

And now the women were come, with the red-dyed eggs and the red-wrapped gifts, and so the rites began.

The secret rites of the Women's Side, by which a girl becomes a woman, may not be told; nor could I tell them, I who am of the Men's Side.

But this much I can tell, for it is known to all.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Checking Dicks at the Door

It was the year of the great Transsexual Panic at Pantheacon. The politics of sex, gender, and identity were very much in the air.

That summer Sparky T. Rabbit, Frebur Moore, and I finally decided to put together for PSG the men's ritual we'd always wanted to attend. From this was born the Rite of the God-Pole, an adoration of the Divine Masculine.

And of course, in that atmosphere, the issue arose: who's invited, who isn't?

Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    I think that the laws of hospitality, that immemorial pagan virtue, apply to ritual as well as any other situation. If you're thro
  • Constance Tippett Chandler
    Constance Tippett Chandler says #
    I agree. But as a solitary, what was all the ruckus about Z having just women is her circle? Was it because it was a public space
  • Aryós Héngwis
    Aryós Héngwis says #
    From what I understand the controversy over Z's circle has more to do with her opposition to letting transwomen participate in Dia
  • Constance Tippett Chandler
    Constance Tippett Chandler says #
    Just asking a question..... what do you think of women born women groups? It seems like such an explosive subject. Greybeard?
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    A powderkeg issue for sure, Constance! My opinion (for what it's worth) is that private groups have (and ought to have) a right t

Additional information