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!

A Spiritual Journey

Religion is a touchy topic for most. I was in a physical fight once when I was a kid over the concept of life on other planets. In case you were wondering, I believe in life on other planets, and I defended my belief with a punch to the chest. The other person’s argument: if life existed on other planets, it would be mentioned in the Bible. As I said, a touchy topic.

I can only speak to my experience with religion because it directly influenced how I turned out and how I live my life now. That is to say, I don’t consider myself religious. Over the years, I have been called many things such as a “dirty Atheist” and a “devil worshiper,” but really I am none of those things. My beliefs are simply different than the average small-town person. That is where it all started…in a small town.

I was born a Southern Baptist. At least, that’s all I remember growing up. My parents weren’t very religious but my dad’s mom, Granny, took me to church every Sunday at a small, country, Baptist church. In that church, I only knew love, acceptance, and understanding. When I was in fourth grade, Granny moved to town, and we started attending the Baptist church near her house. The difference between the country church and the church in town was huge. For example, it wasn’t uncommon in the country for the farmers to wear overalls or dusty jeans to church, but in town, it was frowned upon if you dressed less than your “Sunday best.” I remember the church ladies treated Granny differently because she didn’t wear expensive dresses and was not perfectly made up. I noticed this type of prejudice at a young age as well as other subtle things within the church that were disagreeable to me.

At that young age, I began to question things about the beliefs that no one else around me seemed to question, like life on other planets, as well as the behavior and intolerance for anything different. At the same time, the young people were pressured to seal their beliefs through baptism. Enough was enough. I wanted to believe what I wanted to believe, and not what I was pressured to believe. I wanted to ask the big questions. I wanted to be spiritual in my beliefs and not confined by them.

What does it mean to be spiritual? According to Dr. Maya Spencer, “spirituality involves the recognition of a feeling or sense or belief that there is something greater than myself, something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are part is cosmic or divine in nature.”

In other words, I believe there is more to the world than meets the eye, and I am still evolving and exploring my beliefs 28 years later. I was once told that because I was pressured into being baptized, I will always be a Christian and I can’t “take it back,” but the freedom of choice was taken from me in that regard. What I can choose is how I live my life in the here and the now while valuing myself and being open-minded to anything and everything that comes my way. That is the true lesson that I learned growing up in the church: what I did not want to be.

Would I be different if I grew up in a different Christian religion? Maybe. Probably not.

You are probably asking yourself, “what is her religion, again?” I don’t have one. My spirituality is a patchwork of many different beliefs, but I recently took a “What Religion am I?” quiz* (just for fun) and my result was: Mahayana Buddhism.

I want to hear from our readers. Are you spiritual? What does being spiritual mean to you? Let’s continue the conversation on our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

*You can take the “What Religion am I?” quiz here.

What is Pagan

Meditation is considered by many to be pagan.

If you’ve been reading the blog or listening to the podcast, you’ve probably seen or heard us mention things that fall into the category of “metaphysical”. Without a doubt, Amber, Christen, and I are fascinated by such things as astrology, numerology, tarot cards, spirit guides, holistic medicine, and many other aspects of what many would call “pagan beliefs”. I also consider myself a “Christian” because I believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God, and have been baptized as a pledge of that belief. For a long time, I was torn between my Christian beliefs and these so-called “pagan” practices. I had been taught that anything pagan was evil. But what exactly is “pagan”?

We talk more about the origin of the term “pagan”, which comes from the Latin word “paganus”, in the podcast, but the short explanation is that it was used to describe the simple country folk of the Roman Empire who had not yet embraced Christianity, and more strictly so, the people who still believed in the religions of ancient Rome and Greece. The term was later broadened to include a wide variety of religious beliefs and traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, and, most especially, the ancient spirituality of the British Isles and Europe. In more recent years, it has been broadened further to include Native American traditions as well. As someone once told me, “Most people [incorrectly] use the term to include anything that isn’t in the Bible, and thus, isn’t Christian.”

Easter eggs, Halloween, Christmas trees, and even birthday cakes came from pagan practices.

The truth is, many people have no idea what paganism actually is, nor the differences between paganism, mysticism, spirituality, religion, and Wicca. I thought it would be a good idea to share some terminology with you. Two that seem to confuse people the most are spirituality and religion. I love the explanation given by Pamela Aloia in “Spirituality: The Path to Reconciling Religion and Energy Work.”1 She says, basically:

• Religion is the man-made portion of law, conduct, beliefs, and more surrounding the relationship with God [or other deities] that creates the boundaries within that sect of worship and ritual.

• Spirituality is the personal relationship we have with God that inspires worship and rituals outside of manmade laws and beliefs.

• Basically, spirituality comes from within and religion comes from without.

I like to think of spirituality as being in touch with my soul. It’s what helps me learn to appreciate the beauty that is all around me in the plants, animals, weather, and yes, even people of this earth. My spirituality is what allows me to appreciate all that I have and helps me learn to accept people as they are, life as it is, and the future as something I can help shape. My religion is what has taught me about the divine creator of this world and the magnificent gift of his own son in order for me to learn a better way and to pave my way for a life beyond this life I currently lead.

Like religion and spirituality, three other words that often get mixed up are paganism, mysticism, and Wicca. Here are the definitions. I’ve cited sources where possible.

• A Pagan is an unconverted member of a people or nation who does not practice Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, especially a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome), or one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods – an irreligious or hedonistic person. Paganism is the beliefs or practices of someone who is pagan.2

• Mysticism is the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience.3

• Wicca is a religion influenced by pre-Christian beliefs and practices of western Europe that affirms the existence of supernatural power (such as magic) and of both male and female deities who inhere in nature and that emphasizes ritual observance of seasonal and life cycles.4

• Heathen refers to people or nations that do not practice Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, their religions, or their customs; an uncivilized or irreligious person.5

As you can see, these concepts are closely related, but really not exactly the same thing at all. One can be a Christian and still observe pagan or even mystical traditions. Many of the so-called “pagan” practices I have enjoyed are not religious at all and have no bearing on my religious beliefs, while many of the religious practices widely observed in America (like Christmas trees, Easter eggs, and Halloween) stem from pagan and even Wiccan religious rituals, yet they are enjoyed by Christians and non-Christians alike. I don’t have a problem with that at all.

What do you think? Do you practice any pagan-based holiday traditions? Has that interfered with your religious beliefs? Let us know. Join us in the Facebook group MMC Chat.

1. https://thriveglobal.com/stories/spirituality-the-path-to-reconciling-religion-and-energy-work/

2. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “pagan,” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pagan.

3. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “mysticism,” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mysticism.

4. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “Wicca,” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Wicca.

5. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “heathen,” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heathen.

 

Tea Pots and Toby Mugs

Hello everyone! On this week's podcast, we talked a lot about what is considered a collection. When I think of collecting, I always think of my mom. She always told me that everyone needs something to collect. As I grew older, I began to understand what she meant. Everyone does collect something even if they fail to realize it. My grandmother collected bells, my cousin collects snow globes, my coworker collects Pokémon cards, and my boyfriend collects horror movie memorabilia. What drives us to collect things?

When I was little, I was a novice collector of things such as rocks and crystals, pretty coins, and keychains. When I was in the second grade, my cousin gave me one of her old Archie comic books; I was instantly in love and wanted to read more. Every time we were at the grocery store and there was a new digest available, I would ask my mom to buy one for me. Through those newer comics, there were opportunities for me to order some by mail including back issues of my favorites. I loved everything about Archie and the dynamic he had with his friends and the sweet teen romances he had with Betty and Veronica.

In addition to the local bookstore, my mom would take me to vintage comic book stores to see if we could find older Archie editions. A few years later, I collected over 1,000 comics and various pieces of memorabilia. My friend Stacy and I started our own Archie Fan Club and we would read our books together while listening to “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies. It didn’t occur to me that the comics I collected might be worth something someday. I was collecting these books purely for fun.

As I grew older, I began to share my mom’s interest in antiquing, garage sales, and auctions. My mom was an avid collector of vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia herself. She also restored antiques as a hobby and resold them on eBay. It wasn’t until my mid 20’s that I (accidentally) started my antique collection, which evolved into a greater appreciation of the art of collecting.

I was sitting in my grandmother’s living room one day and I was admiring her teapots. They weren’t my grandmother’s teapots but my great-grandmother’s teapots on my grandfather’s side, and they had always sat on the top shelf of my grandmother’s built-in bookshelf. There were eight of them arranged perfectly, and I always noticed them – even when I was a kid. One was gorgeous (to me), and it had golden polka dots. I told her and my mom that I would like to inherit them one day when she was tired of them. At that point, I had been a casual teapot collector. I had a Snoopy teapot and a Cow Jumping Over the Moon teapot that friends had randomly given to me. I liked teapots, but it was the sentimental value of my great-grandmother’s collection that drew me, especially the shiny polka dots on the one that I specifically noticed.

Zodiac Teacup from my collection

Not long after that conversation, my mom took me to one of the monthly auctions in our hometown of Vernon, Texas. It was an estate auction and among the wares was a collection of vintage China teapots. My mom handed me some money and said I could bid on whatever I wanted, so I bid on those teapots and won. That started my strange journey in teapot collecting. While I do appreciate the art of collecting vintage items for resale like my mom did, this collection journey was purely for my decorative pleasure. Over the years, I have collected teapots from the many antique, auction, and thrift store outings with my mom, and I have been gifted teapots. My tastes also evolved from pretty, shiny teapots to weird and unique-looking ones.

Benjamin Franklin Teapot

In 2017, at an estate sale with my mom, I bought my first Toby Head. What is a Toby Head? According to the American Toby Jug Museum (yes, it exists), a Toby is a ceramic head molded in the form of a popular character, historical, fictional, or generic. Tobys do not have a specific manufacturer. Any ceramic head can be considered a Toby. That being said, I like unique Tobys. Since 2017, I have collected a number of Tobys in many forms from teapots to creamer jugs to mugs. My favorite find was a Benjamin Franklin teapot from a shop in McKinney, Texas called  The Groovy Coop. Recently, I found a pair of king and queen mugs on eBay.

Toby teapot and mug

Some of my mini Toby collection

Last year, after my divorce, I made the difficult decision to downsize many of the things that I had inherited or collected over the years, and my teapots and Tobys were not left unscathed. I only kept the ones that gave me a certain amount of pleasure and the very important ones that my mom and I curated. Now I keep the pure pleasure of my collection to a minimum.

So, what drives us to collect? Is it s psychological need to hunt and categorize or is it the pleasure of just having something sentimental? I believe that it’s both. My mom was right. Everyone needs to collect.

I want to hear from our readers. What do you collect and why do you collect it? Head on over to our Facebook Group: MMC Chat and continue the conversation!

*20 years later, my first-edition near-mint “Betty” comic book is worth $165 according to Nostomania.

When a Collection Becomes an Obsession

When does a collection become an obsession? I ask myself that question all the time. At times, I feel like I know the answer, and at other times, I look around me and wonder. I think I worry more about it than most people simply because I grew up with someone who tended to obsess over collections…and not just her own.

My mother was an avid collector of…well everything it seems. Sometimes the collections were cool, or even useful. Like the glass apothecary jars, she would buy at garage sales and the flea market. She had hundreds of them, in every size possible, but they all served a purpose, and they were neatly displayed on shelving in our kitchen. Used as canisters, they held our flour, sugar, cornmeal, tea, coffee, baking soda, and everything else you can think of, right down to the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. Whenever Mom bought kitchen staples, she carefully dumped the contents of the box, bag, or can into the jars, labeled them, and put them on the shelf in order by size and priority (flour, then sugar, as per tradition) or alphabetically (the spices). I thought it was so cool. I never gave any thought to the idea that it might be an early warning sign of much bigger problems.

My mother was always a bit obsessive about things. If she had a hobby, she was all-in…at least until she got tired of it. She was even known to record a song over and over on both sides of a cassette tape so she could have it on repeat ad nauseam. I couldn’t listen to the theme song from Grease for years after that torture. We laughed about it then; we thought she was just quirky. 

In the podcast this week, we talked about her obsession with buying collectibles. These collections started for herself…Kiss memorabilia, NASCAR gear (especially Rusty Wallace), and shoes. Oh, the shoes! If she found a pair she liked, she would buy them in every color available. The same went for pants and blouses, too. They would all be identical (or nearly so) but in different colors.

Mom also started collecting things for other people. I think I mentioned on the podcast that she started my sister on a black-and-white-spotted cow collection. After a neighbor gave me a few sunflower-themed dishes, she started buying anything with sunflowers on it to give to me. She did the same with piano and music-themed items for my husband. She even turned a vinyl LP album into a clock for him once. I think, in her mind at least, she knew that he is a musician and so he must love all things related to music. That’s the way her brain works.

In more recent years, as we have learned more about autism, we’ve come to understand that many of these traits are indicators of someone who is on the spectrum, and sometimes a harbinger of things to come. Although she has never been formally diagnosed with autism, Mom eventually started showing the tell-tale signs of memory loss and fixation that come with the mental disorder known as dementia, which, like the autism spectrum, isn’t really just one thing, but rather a lot of very similar behaviors and conditions all lumped together in an easy to label box. Part of me wonders if the two are related, or if not, what impact the two conditions have on each other. Mom’s condition deteriorated rapidly after my father and sister died, and with no one keeping her behaviors in check, she was hoarding. I don’t know if autism and dementia are related, but I do know that autism had an effect on her dementia and vice versa. Autism created challenges in communicating with her about dementia, and because she interpreted everything so literally, she had no understanding of nuance or degrees. Everything was black or white…there was no middle ground. Her dementia made it hard to set routines, an invaluable tactic for people on the spectrum. It also made it useless to reason with her, since the reasoning part of her brain is what has been damaged.

Last weekend, we celebrated my mother’s 75th birthday. We all bought her gifts of the things she is currently most obsessed with: word search puzzles, odd and fun pens, and stuffed animals. She has quite a collection of them all, and my family happily acquires them for her. It’s what she would have done for us. Now, I just hope that the things I collect don’t become an obsession. I look around my office, and I wonder….

Heard it on the Podcast - June 8, 2022

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

8-June-2022

S2E24: Collecting and Our Collections

• Toby Jug/Cup:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Jug
• Dreamcicles:  https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/dreamsicles-angel-hugs-heres-hug-405076329
• Sonic Biscuit Records:  http://sonicbiscuit.com
• Asparagus Nightmares:  http://sonicbiscuit.com/asparagus-nightmares.html
• The Groovy Coop:  https://www.thegroovycoop.com
  

  
  

My Collections

Hi everyone, Christen here…thanks for stopping by today. This week on the podcast, we are discussing collecting as a hobby. We also go into the pros and cons of collecting. One of the neat things that we discuss about collecting is the chase. There is a sort of thrill in obtaining the items to add to a collection. I highly recommend that you check out  The Role of Information in a Community of Hobbyist Collectors, a fantastic article about a study conducted in 2009 in which they researched people who collected rubber ducks to varying degrees. The article dives into the psychology and methodology of the act of collecting and how collecting enriches a person’s social life.

I thought it would be fun to show you some of my collections that I have, and how I store my collections. I am not a well rounded and knowledgeable hobbyist collector; I am a novice. Although I do have several small collections that I am pursuing, I have very little knowledge about the items that I collect and the proper ways of storing them. I have not invested much time into the research aspect as I am not a serious collector, and there is no museum looking to acquire my collection, nor will you see my collections on a TV show like Oddities or Pawn Stars.  I am just a passive collector. Someday, I may find that I want to change my methods of storing, or acquiring, but for now, I am happy with my collections as they are.

Coin Collection:

I have approximately 183 coins that I have collected over the years. I began my collection when my grandfather gave me an “Indian Head Penny” and a “Walking Half Dollar”. I always had a fascination with the wheat pennies because they looked different, and I also enjoyed looking at foreign currency. It feels like having treasure, and this is probably why I collect it. It also fascinates me that I can hold a penny from 1919 and imagine that someone else used that over 100 years ago to purchase something. Each coin has its own untold story, whether it be where I acquired it, its possible value, and memories that go with it. I also love putting a penny in the coin machine when on vacation and getting embossed memorabilia to add to my collection; I am sure to get one whenever I see an elongated penny machine. I also keep tokens from arcade centers now, which seems to be a rare item, considering many arcades use swipe cards or free-play modes these days. One of my prized tokens is from Putt-Putt, a miniature golf center, circa 1984. I don’t mind getting coins as a gift, it’s not necessarily a requirement that only I select the coins for my collection, I will gladly take any coins that someone offers to me. I do have to say that one of my fondest memories of coin acquisition was in the early 2000 at the peak of my coin collecting. I worked with one of my dearest friends in the restaurant industry. She also had a passion for coin collecting, being more focused on coins of value and historical significance. She was a great mentor on the types of coins made in the US and their evolution in relation to American history. We would enjoy going through the till together at work after closing and checking for pennies, nickels and dimes, in the search for any that were missing from our collection. Now that I do not use change on a regular basis, my coin collecting has dwindled down to obtaining elongated coins for the most part, but I do look forward to traveling out of the country soon and possibly exchanging currency while abroad.

Stamp Collecting:

Another collection was also inspired by my grandfather who had an extensive collection of stamps and was probably a very knowledgeable philatelist. I never really got a chance to look at his collection as he passed away in 2002 after briefly showing it to me, but I was inspired none-the-less. In 2003, I decided to start my own stamp collection. I was not particular about collecting new or used stamps and I am happy to take any used stamps that my family gets in the mail. It's a sweet and thoughtful gesture when my mom hands me a plastic baggy of postage stamps that she has set aside for me from the various mail she has received. I have a nice book that I keep my stamps stored in. I don’t plan on expanding my stamp collecting knowledge at this time, but it might be something to invest more time and money in later in my life.

Rocks, Crystals and Gemstones:

I have always been obsessed with rocks, crystals, and gems. I also consider them treasure, like my coins. I get great pleasure from looking at them and holding them. I currently have them in a small canister, and a few line my bookshelf, but I recently purchased a neat display box at a thrift store that I am excited to decorate and convert into a mini display cabinet. As for my crystals, this collection is more curated. I specifically go in search of gemstones that I have on my wish list. I enjoy reading up on gem properties and where they can be mined. I get excited about visiting shops that sell crystals and can lose any sense of time while looking for the perfect rock. I am not sure where my fascination stemmed from, except that my mother loves them, too, so I must have gotten it from her. Just last year we discovered that Reyna also had a fondness for rocks. Her favorite is Jasper and I know this because she would come home with pocket loads of jasper pebbles and I would even find them in her backpack. When we took Reyna canoeing for the first time last year, we traveled down the Brazos river. The water was shallow enough at the bank of our campsite for her to play safely. She spent countless hours just playing in the rocks and she brought many more home from the trip. Since she was so intrigued by the rocks, we decided to take her diamond digging at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. We had so much fun digging in the dirt! Sadly the only gems I brought home were purchased from the gift store.

What kinds of things do you collect? Do you consider yourself to be an expert, amateur, or novice? Have you considered investing a significant amount of time researching something in which you already have a considerable collection? Did you find that you had anything of value? Let’s keep the conversation going over in our Facebook Chat and be on the lookout for the podcast coming out on Wednesday.

Wednesday's Child

On Monday, Amber shared information from her natal chart, and we talked about our signs and personality traits on the podcast. I read Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs and Love Signs as a teen, happily absorbing as much as I could about the specific traits assigned by the order of the celestial bodies at the time of our birth. I’ve seen enough in my lifetime to believe it, but still, I have to wonder whether we are somehow influenced by that belief so that it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. And what about our environment and experiences? How do upbringing, genetics, and personal history fit into the equation? It’s the age-old debate about nature vs. nurture.

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace.

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go.

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living.

And the child born on the Sabbath day

Is fair and wise, happy and gay.*

In her blog, Amber mentioned being born on a Monday, and the associated characteristics of someone born on that day. When I first read it, it reminded me of a song I heard as a child, performed by singer Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. The folksy ballad, renamed “Wednesday’s Child,” played with the arrangement of the words a bit, but the poignant message remained…some of us seem to be born with a little black cloud over our heads. Aside from my love of Paul Revere and the Raiders, one of the reasons this message stuck with me is because I am a Wednesday’s child.

In the song, Lindsay croons, “...but Wednesday’s child is full of woe. Woe, I know, for I am Wednesday’s child.’ Even as a young child, that verse haunted me. I feared it because I didn’t want to live a life of woe, but I felt I was destined for it. And in many ways I have. I was first diagnosed with anxiety and depression when I was 21, following my divorce from my first husband. I’m sure my doctor prescribed the Xanax thinking it was a short-term solution to the situational stress of suddenly finding myself a single parent of a 2-year-old with no way to support us. It only made me feel worse, so I stopped taking it. Over the years, I’ve had multiple doctors prescribe various antidepressants without so much as a suggestion to get counseling or any indication that they understood my mental state was more than “situational.” Even though I repeatedly informed them that my melancholy had been present since I was a child, doctors always treated me as though a few weeks of pills would get me out of my slump and I’d go back to being the happy housewife and productive employee, but it never worked that way.

Throughout the years, I would have happy times and sad times that would cycle like a roller coaster, but through it all, even in the happy times, there was this underlying feeling of disappointment, loneliness, and neglect, often associated with my derelict upbringing. I felt out of place, unwanted, unloved, and desperate to feel better – so much so that I made plans with my sister to run away when I was 10, and I actually did it when I was 15. Was this all because I was born on a Wednesday? Or rather, was I born on a Wednesday because this sadness was my destiny? 

Believe me, I don’t think God or the Universe conspired to make my parents poor, or that they were forced to marry when they were young and immature just so that I would have to live with the consequences. I don’t know if I was meant to be sad, or if the sadness affects everyone who is born on a Wednesday, but I don’t think I willed myself into sadness so that I would fit the lines of some nursery rhyme. There is no doubt that the circumstances of my childhood were fraught with significant experiences that created a profound sense of despair and anxiety.  It was bound to happen. A perfect storm, as they say. And I was born on a Wednesday, as was my mother. Oddly enough, though, Mark Lindsay was not actually a Wednesday’s child, but rather Monday’s child…fair of face (certainly).

What do you think? Do you fit the poem? Do you know others who do? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments or join the conversation over on our Facebook group MMC Chat.

*  Wednesdays Child, Wikepdia.org

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.

Heard it on the Podcast - June 1, 2022

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

1-June-2022

S2E23: Astrology

• Linda Goodman, Sun Signs:  https://tinyurl.com/SunSignsAmazon
• Linda Goodman, Love Signs:  https://tinyurl.com/LoveSignsAmazon
• Free Natal Charts:  https://astro.cafeastrology.com/index.php