Last month I looked back over six years of postings I have done for FAR. In November, I noticed that I usually during that month tend to review the year and find something to be grateful for. I decided this month… Read More ›
Pagan Holidays
Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Barbara Ardinger
Even though Jesus was born during the reign of Augustus, first Roman emperor, the empire didn’t celebrate that birth until three centuries later when his birth date was moved to mid-winter to match the birth date of the sun god… Read More ›
Lifting the Veil – #WontBeErased by Joyce Zonana
Samhain is upon us. Halloween. The Day of the Dead. All Saints’ Day. All Souls’ Day. That liminal time of year when the doorways to what the Celts called the Otherworld, Annwn in Welsh, are open. In New York City, we have the 45th annual Village Halloween Parade, a queer extravaganza of puppetry, masquerade, and cross-dressing that draws some 60,000 participants and over 2 million onlookers. Elsewhere, we have children in costume and lawns covered with plastic skeletons and illuminated ghouls. Everywhere, if we’re lucky, we might catch a glimpse of “the piper at the gates of dawn,” the vision granted Rat and Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows: “something very surprising and splendid and beautiful”—Pan the goat-god, boundary-crosser, Friend and Helper, trans-being.
Princess Peach from The Goddess Project: Made in Her Image by Colette Numajiri
Toy stores and department store aisles are decked with pink and purple princess paraphernalia. Disney has provided an array of princesses for little girls to choose their birthday party or bedroom decor from. But as we all know, there’s a… Read More ›
A Winter Woman by Molly Remer
“When winter comes to a woman’s soul, she withdraws into her inner self, her deepest spaces. She refuses all connection, refutes all arguments that she should engage in the world. She may say she is resting, but she is more… Read More ›
Hooray! The Holiday Season Is At Hand! by Barbara Ardinger
December seems to have more holidays than the rest of the year put together. Days to honor Ix Chel, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Lucy (aka Santa Lucia), the Declaration of Human Rights, and the publication of the Rider-Waite Tarot…. Read More ›
A Light Story by Barbara Ardinger
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— —first there was a dark eye at the window. Then a tap-tap-tapping. Then a long black beak came around… Read More ›
This Time by Joyce Zonana
And the new sun rose bringing the new year. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Passing of Arthur,” Idylls of the King It’s arbitrary, of course, this designation of January 1st as New Year’s Day on the Gregorian Calendar, but it’s also… Read More ›
The Reindeer Goddess by Judith Shaw
Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is the day of the least daylight and the longest night. Long before Christmas our Northern European ancestors celebrated the Winter Solstice, the moment that heralds the return of the sun and with it… Read More ›
Tlachtga, a Light for the New Year (Samhain) by Deanne Quarrie
This is the story of Tlachtga. Her name means “Earth Spear.” Her story gives us the name for a famous place in Ireland where to this day, the rites of Samhain are held in her honor. This location is called… Read More ›
To Every Season by Deanne Quarrie
We are closing in on the last of the season of abundance. Wherever we look we see Her harvest around us. Purple grapes hang from their vines. Branches hang heavy from the weight of fruit and sweet nuts. All the… Read More ›
Epona – Goddess of the Land by Deanne Quarrie
This week I bought a pendant that caught my attention. It is Celtic knot work of horses, meant to represent Epona. This triggered my interest in Epona and off I went to learn more. Epona is a goddess from Gaul. … Read More ›
It’s Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere – not Spring/Eostar by Glenys Livingstone
Despite the chocolate bunnies, eggs and toy chickens in the shops along with the coaxing to buy and celebrate Easter at this time in Australia, it is not Spring: Earth here does not seem to co-operate with the Consumer Faith,… Read More ›
The Goddess Mokosh by Laura Shannon
Candlemas / Imbolc, the midway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox brings with it (in the northern hemisphere) the first signs of awakening spring. Here in Canterbury, southeast England, where I am living this year, the birds are… Read More ›
Ghosts by Lauren Raine
GHOSTS Where do the dead go? The dead that are not corpses, cosmetically renewed and boxed, their faces familiar and serene. Or brought to an essence, pale ashes in elegant canisters…. Read More ›
Aine and the Giant Leap by Deanne Quarrie
For our full moon rites coming up on the first of July we will be honoring Aine, Goddess of Love, Light, and Fertility who is also Queen of the Faeries. Aine’s name means “Bright” and She is typically honored at… Read More ›
Spring by Deanne Quarrie
We celebrate the Spring Equinox as a reflection of the birthing time of the year. We have made it through the winter’s cold and ice, experienced the warming of the Earth and the flood waters that prepared for the birth… Read More ›
Holidays and Holy Days Down Under by Kate Brunner
Even though we are not a Christian household, my family celebrates Christmas. In a manner of speaking. When we lived in the Northern Hemisphere, this was not all that challenging to reconcile. We held onto the traditions of cultural and… Read More ›
Winter Solstice Meditation by Molly
When the wheel of the year turns towards fall, I always feel the call to retreat, to cocoon, to pull away. I also feel the urge for fall de-cluttering—my eyes cast about the house for things to unload, get rid… Read More ›
The Descent of Inanna to the Underworld by Deanne Quarrie
Inanna provides a many-faceted image of the feminine. She is a goddess of order, fertility, grains, love, war, heaven and earth, healing, and emotion. She is called the “Lady of Myriad Offices”. Most of the powers once held by her,… Read More ›
Linden – Taste the Sweetness of Summer by Deanne Quarrie
We are in the season of the summer and have just celebrated the Solstice. I work with Ogham in my spiritual practice because it brings nature into my life so effectively. It helps me listen to the many messages available… Read More ›
A Beltane Story by Barbara Ardinger
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess—NO, stop right there. Tales like this do not require princesses. Let’s try again. Once upon a time there was a sturdy young woman who lived in a small town in Mitteleuropa… Read More ›
Witch’s Night In by Kate Brunner
There is doctrine. There is tradition, liturgy, scripture, & exegesis. And then sometimes, there is simply real life. There is the precious gift of spending time engaged in deep communication with everyday women living spiritual lives the best they can… Read More ›
Getting It Done: The Buffy-Blodeuwedd Connection by Kate Brunner
You guys, you’re just men—just the men who did this… to her. Whoever that girl was before she was the first Slayer. You violated that girl… made her kill for you because you’re weak… you’re pathetic and you obviously have… Read More ›
The Pagan Wheel of the Year by Deanne Quarrie
Barbara Ardinger (one blogger here – watch for her “twist” on this in January!) and I were discussing that an explanation of the pagan year and our Sabbats might be in order. Sometimes when we are immersed in our own… Read More ›
Winter Solstice – When Darkness Nurtures Light by Judith Shaw
In the Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice, usually December 21, heralds both the time of deepest darkness and the beginning of the return to light. It is a liminal day offering a transformation from darkness to light. In the mid-latitudes in… Read More ›
Fand – Goddess of the Sea – a Shapeshifter for Samhain by Judith Shaw
Fand is a Celtic Sea Goddess whom some scholars believe originated as a Manx sea deity (the original inhabitants of the Isle of Man). With time She became the most loved of Ireland’s fairy queens, called “Queen of the Fairies. … Read More ›
Entering Winter, the Season of Darkness by Barbara Ardinger
Halloween used to be spelled “-e’en,” with the apostrophe replacing the V in “eve.” The N was probably added so the word ends in a consonant and we don’t have “hallow-wheee.” But people get lazy, and since the late 20th… Read More ›
Feeding the Dead by Deanne Quarrie
Most people really love this time of year and I share much of that. Living in South Central Texas we actually only have two seasons, with a perhaps two to three weeks in between what we laughingly call spring and… Read More ›
Balance and the Autumn Equinox by Deanne Quarrie
We are in the season of the Autumn Equinox. The Autumn Equinox occurs on a specific day each year, as does the Spring Equinox. While it may be a precise moment in time, it is also a season. Nothing happens… Read More ›
