Celebrating the Wheel of the Year Your Own Way

Hi everyone, it is Christen here! This week on the podcast we discussed what being Pagan actually means to us and our own experiences related to Paganism. I will start off by mentioning that I believe the word Pagan or Paganism should be capitalized and if you want to know why, please go here. Now that I got that off my chest,  I thought it would be fun to talk about a couple of favorite sabbats, and talk about creating new ones for you and your family.

Like so many other people in America, I enjoy Christmas and Halloween. I am sure that I have mentioned before that the time from mid-October to January is my favorite time of the year. I have also mentioned my favorite holiday traditions in a previous blog post. Christmas has reigned champion for the past few years, but for the longest time, Halloween was my most favorite time. I loved the haunted houses, scary movies, fall carnivals, trick-or-treating in costume, and decorating my home - all traditions that have been passed on from my family or integrated by me.

In recent years, the Day of the Dead has become more prevalent in American culture, especially here in Texas. I have been fortunate to experience the celebrations, and I have taken some of the traditions within this holiday and married it with my own Samhain traditions which are similar in some ways.

If you are interested in learning about the eight Wiccan holidays, I highly recommend the book The Sabbats: A Witch's Approach to Living the Old Ways by Edain McCoy. This book breaks down each of the sabbats by explaining from who and where the traditions came, why these specific times of the year were celebrated, and how you can celebrate them at home. The part that I like the most, is that the traditions are focused on celebrating the wheel of the year or the turning of the seasons. I truly enjoy embracing the seasons and the activities that are enjoyed during that time.

Sometimes celebrations take planning though, or they will just zoom right past you and you will have your hands full and can’t celebrate. And that is why Mom and I are always planning out fun family activities. Once we have done something twice, we consider it a tradition, and, if you do it a specific way every time, then it’s a ritual. I have had serious thoughts about making my own traditions that correlate with the wheel of the year. That's why I am positive I will be picking up Llewellyn's 2023 Magical Almanac this year when it comes out (I mentioned it back when we were discussing astrology). I still believe strongly that we should honor the earth and celebrate the harvest and those who till the earth, and also honor those who have left this earth, and I feel that we should instill those values with our youth, but in these modern times, I feel that the celebrations need to be customized to our current environment. I mean, I do not see a maypole anywhere on Beltane, the celebration of spring and growth on May 1st, so we just have to improvise.

Here is some food for thought: National Taco Day is a celebration of our adoration of tacos; we are not worshiping them by any means, but in a sense we are thankful for the blessing of this delicious cuisine. In doing so, we are creating a holiday tradition, with a ritual. We are in essence creating and celebrating a Pagan holiday, simply because it is not a religious orthodox celebration. In that case, bring on the Pagan holidays, I will have as many of them as I can possibly fill my calendar up with! 

Do you have any family traditions that could be considered Pagan? Have you ever participated in any of the Wiccan holidays? I would love to hear from you! Be sure to comment below or join in on the conversation over in our MMC Chat group on Facebook!

My Take on Astrology

Hey guys, Christen here. This week on the podcast we dove into the topic of astrology.  Well, I guess you could say we cannonballed into it. I know that the three of us,  Amber, Cindy and I, really enjoy discussing topics like astrology, numerology, tarot, crystals, and spiritualism. There are so many topics that I know we want to discuss, and during the podcast we  sometimes barely scratch the surface. 

Observing  the Earth’s position with regards to the sun, stars and moon has been a practice for thousands of years. Only in the last few centuries has that science diverged into astronomy, leaving astrology in the dust. Many consider astrology to be a pseudoscience.  There was a strong pull away from astrology when scientists argued that it could not be proven by fact. Ultimately, once we were able to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, the two “sciences” split ways, and astrology became the scientific fact, and anything else is considered pseudoscience and parapsychology. So Capernicus, the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day, decided that he would follow astrological phenomena, and not astrology, and boom, astrology is “fake news”. He was a Pisces (just saying), and he studied at the University of Bologna - no joke! The shift actually happened over a longer period of time, but astronomy phased in and astrology phased out. But astrology has never died. Over the past 200 years, there has been a new wave of interest in the occult, esoteric topics, and parapsychology. In the 1840’s with spiritualism, and in the 1970’s with the New Age movement, many of the beliefs within astrology have seen a resurgence and are still followed today.

Even so, I will sometimes swap out the words astrology and astronomy by mistake. I have always enjoyed the study of outer space and the ideas of the beyond pertaining to astronomy, the study of space and the universe, but astrology is a topic that has piqued my interests far beyond the facts and figures of astronomy. I was drawn to it at a young age. I know we have mentioned that my mom used to have some books by Linda Goodman, Sun Signs and Love Signs , that went into detail about each zodiac personality type. I discovered those books and was hooked. 

When I got older, I bought a book for myself that I highly recommend called The Secret Language of Birthdays: Your Complete Personology Guide for Each Day of the Year by Goldschneider and Joost. This book features a two-page, in-depth personality report for each day of the year. I have lugged this book from home to home, and it was always a favorite when guests came over. I could almost guarantee that someone would open it and take a look. I often would crack it open myself if I met a new person and happened to know their birthdate. It was an easy way to “get to know'' someone without having to be too nosey.

I will admit though that using the book, or any horoscope, zodiac website, or book to discern a person’s characteristics is not the best way to get to know someone. In reality, it can create a biased opinion of someone, and cause you to inadvertently treat them differently than you would if you had met them and learned about them organically. It is like knowing the future or a possible future outcome, and making different choices based on something that might or might not happen in reality. For example, I know that people born under the Cancer sign are prone to be temperamental according to many personality trait sources, however one Cancer in my life that I am very close to is probably one of the most level-headed people that I know; I actually admire her for it. Had I read that she was temperamental, I probably would have avoided her, and missed out on an opportunity to build the relationship that I have with her today. I know another Cancer, and love-her-to-death, she has a volatile personality that is easily triggered. Cool as a cucumber and volcanic emotions are far from similar, yet they both have the same astrological sign. I have to consider Nature vs. Nurture and wonder how their environment and raising come into play. But I digress... astrology is a tool, and just like a hammer, you can build things, and you can smash things, so use the tool wisely.

Another tool that interests me is Witches’ Almanacs. I have never purchased one, but I am thinking of getting one this year. Very soon actually. The LLewellyn’s 2023 Magical Almanac should be available here in July, from my favorite publishing company, Llewellyn. This almanac, like the Farmer's Almanac, gives the reader guidance based on the sun, moon, and stars, but from a metaphysical approach. If any of this interests you, I recommend checking it out. I have used the internet to pull dates and put them into my own day planner in the past, so I look forward to adding this to my planning rituals. 

I will be sure to follow up once I get one and look forward to sharing it with our readers. I would love for you to share as well. We love to carry the conversation over to our MMC chat group on Facebook. I hope that you enjoy listening to our podcasts as well, if you are not listening, then you are missing out on part of the conversation. Be sure to click on the Listen link at the top of this page or find us on Apple Music or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a YouTube channel where you can listen to the podcast or watch an instructional video.