Wheel of Wonder November 6, 2016

Everyone has a place they call home, and even as they travel many can feel it calling them back again.  Some will change their place of living, or seek out their ancestral lands, move there.  Most will still feel the call of the place where they defined themselves as people, its part of their identity.  I think all places have a unique energy , a unique sort of song, that I think, is the voice of the Spirit of place.  Perhaps that is what, in part inspires poetry and song.  Yet there is still another level to the experience when we feel connected to that special place, because it is beautiful, because it is part of our life, it occurs when we step into stewardship, the honoring of that special place.  Then we are required to be brave and all of our actions should be considered in terms of the impact we have on that place, and how other people feel about that place, how they are inspired to protect it.  I think this is another step towards the deep Magick of being in relationship with spirits of place.  That loving, yet incessant calling that brings us back home into a good relationship with nature, and through that compassion, helps our spirits to evolve and grow.  Conscious evolution is one of the greatest benefits of living on this earth.  Enjoy the forests, rivers, trees, sunrises and sunsets of the place you call home.  Walk in beauty, live in joy, listen for the song of the spirits.

 Earth my Body
Water my Blood
Air my Breath and
Fire my Spirit

I am born of the Elements

Wheel of Wonder Samhain 2016

Ah yess.....hello again friends!  My naturalist work, as you'll see listed in my profile, has kept me out and about, often in the wilderness, and away from the computer for any reason besides interpretive research and development.  Now as we head into the dark time of the year, I look forward to adding to and updating this venue as the wheel of the seasons turns.  Most people understand Samhain is the name of the original Celtic holiday modern Halloween is descended from.  The costumes are similar to the mumming and guising traditions of people dressing as the sidhe, the spirits of the dead and often other faerie folks both seelie and unseelie (nice and not nice) in order to collect tributes and offerings in order to receive blessings or protections from the spirits of the fay.  Further, food was often collected so you could invite the spirits of your ancestors to a Samhain feast if they were lost or suffering and to pay tribute to them for all the good things they brought to your family during their years of living.
Mummers would sing songs, tell stories. show parlor tricks, or share prose as they traveled door to door to collect the tributes.  Wouldn't it be nice to have "Trick or Treaters" come to your door on Halloween night and share something with you besides a "Trick or Treat?"  I certainly don't feel deeply moved to give offerings for my protection or to honor fictitious superheroes or disney characters!  Chances are if you have kids familiar with consumer culture you've already made offerings of money to the creators of these fictions.

Samhain is believed to be one of those times of the year when the veil, the separation between this world and the world of the spirits is thinner than is normal and a fine night for divining the future and connecting with the spirits of one's ancestry and of the past.  This Samhain it is a night of the new moon, if one does new moon rituals, it may be easier to ask for help in achieving something through ceremony and magic!  But don't get lost in the underworld or faerieland.  Shamans and Druids may see Samhain as a night were it is easy to travel between this world and the otherworld, all or at least most should be sure to ground and center before attempting contact with the spirit world.  It is a thrilling night for people who hold these belief systems close to their heart and spirit. Some will say it is the best night to confront your shadowself , hear its beliefs and understand it and how it can help you through your challenges in life, leaving you free through the coming new year to benefit from the wisdom of darkness, without allowing your darker side to overtake or overrule your better nature.
May your beliefs lead you to wisdom and may your truth burn its way through the fog of confusion, continuing to light the along your journey.  Blessed be.

First picture from elfwood. Second picture Samhain by midnightstouch both from DeviantArt

Wheel of Wonder August 21, 2016

Those who are three generations removed from their Irish or Scottish Roots and are living in another country are among the Diaspora.  Diaspora are people who have been, or are fairly closely related to those that have been displaced from the Mother Country of their ancestors, and are living in other parts of the world.  This usually comes from the ravages of War, a bad economy, or these days maybe a changing climate.  They or their Grandparents had to leave the Mother Country or die.
The Jacobite revolution played a very key role in the Irish/Scottish Diaspora experience.  Unsurprisingly, so did Capitalism.
  The Jacobites and their Anglo-Saxon allies who wished to own other people's property declared it illegal for any non-Protestant  to own property or hold Political office, and with the help of the Frenchman, William of Orange and his Army, successfully put down a rebellion against this law, and forcibly took the traditional property of the Catholic Celts and effectively destroyed the Clan and Tribe system of Scotland. The Highland Clearances in Scotland came out of these policies. Celts were considered a lesser race by the arrogant Anglo-Saxons, and generations of suffering have come out of this displacement.
Those of us now in America, cast adrift from our ancestral, traditional and sacred lands, feel this most keenly.  Many of us are spiritually drifting or lost as a result of it.  We do not need these lands returned, we're Americans now with our own property, some of the time.  The point of this observation is that Government sanctioned Genocide and property theft is not something that is done by whites to folks that aren't white, this is a recurring pattern across ethnicity, and across the whole of the Human Race.  We as a Human race should stand together in spirit and action and say "No more of this!"  Its been happening for many hundreds of years and its time we matured beyond it as we enter the Aquarian Age.

The picture above is a picture of the Famine memorial in Dublin, Ireland.

The Interview with Ginger Doss went well, She is an outspoken, strong, and deeply spiritual person.  As of this writing you can still here Wheel of Wonder, and the Interview, on Radio Free America. check out her site and Music here.

Wheel of Wonder August 7, 2016

The Harvest of Lammas:  Transformation and Change

With Lughnasadh/Lammas behind us, until it returns again, the Wheel of the Year turns steadily along.  How do we experience the first harvest of summer if we are not living the agrarian lifestyle?  Perhaps it is in the changes that have occurred in our lives over the past and passing year?  John Barleycorn is transformed into Bread, Mead and Ale through fire and pain, dissolution and transformation.  That is the alchemy of the season.  Perhaps the sacred fire of the burning wicker man, is also the fire of transformation, if we carry that idea, that energy within us, take it home from the ritual, if we attended one, it can inform our decisions for the up and coming year.  I sacrificed to the wicker man.  I sacrificed fear and aversion to change, I hope the sacred fire that I feel burn within me leads down the path of change.  Not to end Wheel of Wonder and the Wheel of Wonder blog, but perhaps to deepen our mutual experience of it.  Its a matter of facing changes in our lives with hope, or with fear, as we have free will the choice is always ours.  That is the first harvest I've been feeling the presence of as this year draws to a close.  I hope everyones life will see some improvements as we look forward to our further harvests and Samhain, followed by the darker half of the new year.  I've heard the ancient Celts had always said the new day begins at the setting of the sun.  We stumble through the darkness a spell, until the new light of a new day clarifies the experience that day has to offer!

Next week on Wheel of Wonder I look forward to interviewing Ginger Doss, Pagan Musician and Music Director for the Church of the Mind in Fayetteville. Check out This Video on YouTube if you'd like! Or visit her website via the sidebar.

Wheel of Wonder July 31, 2016

Happy Lughnasadh.  It is the time of the first harvest of summer and the sacrifice of the god of the grain, the oak king.  What wisdom do you feel you can harvest from your experiences this year?  Have you felt the need to sacrifice anything for the greater good of yourself or your community? Or
do you just love running around in the sun and eating wild berries?  Many people experience this time of Lammas differently.  In a way perhaps its all a first harvest, a harvest of experiences and memories.  What are people but their memories within their physical bodies anyway?
Lughnasadh is also a celebration of the bread and the death of John Barleycorn symbolized in the scything or harvesting of the grain.  "John Barleycorn must die!" is so true if we are to see him as an embodiment of all the edible plants we need to harvest or transform into food so we can live.  That's what John Barleycorn (An aspect of the god figure, the Green Man) sacrifices himself for, the continuance of Human life.

After he dies he heads to the dark underworld, to face his challenges, his kingdom, or pact, he made with the goddess before he can be born again.  The underworld has oft been described in tales as the prison for the dead.  Today on the Lughnasadh show of Wheel of Wonder we talk with a Druid by name of Moss, who works in prison Ministry.  A clear and present darkness, or some may say "self-induced lease to the underworld,"  prison, where people must meet and defeat their personal demons to learn and rehabilitate before being born again.  It seems an appropriate situation from which to see and learn the meaning of the Lughnasadh season.  I am thankful to Moss who chose to sit and talk with me about his efforts, insights and victories as a person in Pagan Prison Ministry.  Happy Lughnasadh!

Wheel of Wonder July 24, 2016

Although the Wheel of Wonder blog remained quiet for June and most of May, Wheel of Wonder is still broadcasting weekly on KAOS 89.3fm in Cascadia.  Summers can get busy.  I hope you enjoyed many episodes.  I'm just back from the road, staying at another Sea Turtle Sanctuary, as I often do in the Summer.  Not much to report back about the hatching of baby turtles, unlike last year when 110 of the creatures crawled out of the sand beneath the light of their first full moon.  As a Naturalist, I've been enjoying learning and sharing information about the beaches of the wild Pacific Northwest Coastline, most especially in the area of the Salish Sea.

The beaches of
the Salish Sea
appear very rocky, barnacle
ridden and desolate.  But they are an incredible cauldron of cold tides and

abundant, resilient life.

One can spend many hours exploring them.  For an Earth Spiritualist, Ecologist, Biologist, or Bard, they offer many opportunities for stewardship and stories.

As the Wheel turns, we've passed the Summer Solstice, at which time I had the wonderful opportunity to join the local Sacred Fire Community for ritual.  The theme of the evening was sacrifice.  Sacrifice of bad habits and things that restrain you from becoming your best self and an asset to your community.  As we move forward to Lughnasadh, this idea of sacrifice stays with me, through the dramatic reenactment of the death of the corn king, manifested in the harvesting of wheat and the baking of the bread and brewing of the mead.  It also stands with me in the burning of the Wicker Man, the effigy that holds all the unwanted thoughts, going up in smoke.  It will also drift through my consciousness in the falling of the Oak leaves to nourish the ground, though I realize I wont see the poetry of that dance until we are closer to Autumn.  I hope your summer has been adventurous and educational as well, and may you find a fitting sacrifice of an old, bad habit to improve your life in the coming year!

Wheel of Wonder May 8, 2016

Today lets remember what Mother's Day was always intended to be about:
In 1870 in the American States Julia Ward Howe created the "Mother's Day Proclamation" which was a call to women to engage in a day of protests against War and the Killing and the harm it caused their Sons and Husbands, and all others as a reaction to the losses of the "Civil" War.

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870

The photograph above of Julia Ward Howe came from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarah_Choate_Sears-_Julia_Ward_Howe,_1907.jpg and was listed on that site:  This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

In 1907 Anna Jarvis began the campaign in the USA To have Mother's Day officially recognized as a national holiday.  In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared it one.

Happy Mother's Day, perhaps those of a Pagan heart may also find it a day to honor Mother Earth!

 

 

Wheel of Wonder May 1, 2016

As Spring returns, winter's quiet and reflective, relaxing lifestyle can get busy.  I know mine does.  We just finished up on our spring fund drive at KAOS community radio, and thank you to all the new and returning members that not only helped Wheel of Wonder reach its fundraising goal for the drive, but actually exceed it!  Community without borders!
  If your involved in your community starting just after St. Patty's day, there seems to be an event every weekend.  I think, for an earth spiritualist a new event occurs every day, because spring and summer are returning!  Migrating birds sing their song from the trees reminding us there is more beauty in the world than just what we see in our friends, children's and partner's faces.  Their faces surrounded us through the winter months, bringing a natural warmth to the inside of our homes and the planning of our lives. We love that.  Now the sun shines down warming us outside as the greys, browns, and gusts of wind  are replaced by a rainbow of blossoms, the emerald budding of trees and the songs of the birds. 
Today, is Beltane, a time to celebrate all the growth and fertility of nature and the first shoots of seeds we've planted at the turning of the spring and under the blessings of Bridgit's fire. The sun, he shines down on us and reminds us of life's return.  These rays of hope and life brighten Mother Earth and we see her beauty even more clearly than before.  Happy Beltane!  May your inner fire again return, as you walk about surrounded by spring and summer beauty, feeding your creativity and your passion to do the great work you have awakened on this earth to do, and blessed be.

The picture above and to the right was found on Pinterest, but I could not find out who the artist was before the Pinterest "join now" filter blocked the view of my screen.  Please let me know who it is and how I can reach their website if you know, so I can credit them. Thanks

Wheel of Wonder February 7 2016

January gone already?  The wheel keeps turning and now we've moved past Imbolc.  Imbolc, February 2 is a day of recognition for the multifaceted Irish Goddess Bridgit, some would say the Triune Goddess Bride.  Bridgit is often called the keeper of the sacred flame of inspiration, poetry, and spiritual transformation as well as the protector goddess of the newborn children, and the first maiden of spring whose influence in the people's lives grows stronger than the influence of the crone of winter, and this shows in the land with the warming of the weather and the beginning of the first early buds and sprouts coming out of the ground as we move into spring.  Imbolc is also observed as a good time to renew one's vows and intentions for the coming year.  As the Sun warms the world, more people leave their houses and have occasion to meet and greet other people and consider what sort of positive impacts they could have on one another's lives.

Shortly after Brigid's day is Valentine's day, on February 14th.  Originally know as Lupercalia, it was a three day festival from the 13th to the 15th of February.  Ancient Roman in origin, it celebrates the she-wolf goddess that nursed Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome, before leaving them for a Shepard in the field so they could be taken care of and then go on to create the city of Rome.  It is also known as a day to celebrate Faunus (Roman Pan), horned god of forests, plains, and fields.  So not only can one honor Bridgit in February but the horned god  as well, if they are so inclined.  Lupercalia as a festival was preluded by a spring cleansing festival known as Februa, which is where the Romans got the name for February from.  During Lupercalia ceremonies were done to ward off evil spirits and assure fertility.

Valentine's day in modern times was redefined into a holiday of romantic love in the 14th century.  So I suppose, Male identifying and female identifying romantic love is a celebration of fertility in a way.  Perhaps these days celebration of any romantic love, unbiased by gender identification is the way of the day. But it is interesting to see the origins of the holiday prior to the mythic martyrdom of the people by name of Valentinus under the Roman Empire.

The pictures above:  Brighid is from the website spiritblogger's blog and the picture of Faunus comes from Pinterest