High Days: Imbolc

Imbolc has always been a very simple holiday for me. When the time comes for Imbolc, I celebrate the return of the sun (or the God) and the beginning of spring, as well as the ending of winter. It is a time when the ewe’s begin lactating, thus milk is very sacred. In my Grove, this holiday is most particularly devoted to Brigid’s fire and all three of her aspects, as she is often associated with milk and many farm animals. Even though people overshadow Imbolc with the secular Groundhog Day, the tradition remains the same. Will winter continue on, or will spring return light upon the land?

I enjoy this holiday in its simplicity, and celebrate it as one of the three fertility holidays, followed by Ostara and Beltane. Many dishes prepared in traditional yellows and whites, often with milk and corn, are prepared in honor of the season.

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High Days: Yule

Traditionally, the Nordic Yule (or the “Winter Solstice”) is known by majority as the shortest day of the year and the longest night. When I originally became interested in paganism at the age of 16 (rather, I just called it “witchcraft” back then), I read that this was the time when the Oak King killed the Holly King Read More

Home Shrine

I’ve been taking pictures of my altar for many years now, just out of photographic curiosity. So when it came time to work on the description with photos of my altar portion of the Dedicant’s Program, I was already halfway there. (Keep in mind, I worked at a rock and gem shop for a number of years, so rocks and stones are somewhat of an obsession of mine)
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Building Mental Discipline

I’m amused as I write this essay, simply for the fact that before I even heard of CedarLight Grove or ADF, I had a teacher when I was 18 that would ask me to meditate daily and record the experiences down in a journal. He would review them once a week to observe my progress, but I could only do this for a few weeks.

When I first started out with the Dedicant’s Program, it was in 2003, and many were still following the old DP format. In the previous format, we were to record 5 months worth of meditation in a journal. I think I got through a week. The fault was none but my own, as I attempted to force myself to conform to plain ordinary ol’ meditation with some soft music under candlelight.
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Book Review: Idiot’s Guide to Paganism

I noticed while pushing the book review portion of my dedicant’s program towards the end, that finding time to read in my daily tasks was ridiculously difficult. I finally resolved to reading an hour everyday during my lunch break and randomly during the weekends. Thus it made this task infinitely more difficult. But I found that keeping notes in an online journal while I read made it easier for me to look back and remember portions and pieces that I wanted to speak on during this review.

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