Greetings of the Equinox everyone, and in this part of the country at least it looks as though it's going to be a sunny one!
Hate to whinge on a Feast, but I've noticed we've gone a bit quiet on here of late - I realise that people myself included are getting to grips with the start of term, but if we are going to have an occult forum it would be grand if more people could start discussions on matters which interest them, or just pop in and say hi - I'm sure I'm not the only OU Pagan who is feeling a wee bit lonely!
For example, how are people planning to mark today's Equinox? I will, as tradition dictates, be sending a million or so texts to various Pagan friends up and down the land, and then tonight I will be participating in a small ceremony in my tradition. I will round things off with a a glass of wine - as I generally only drink alcohol on the Feasts, it really makes the day feel special!
Thanks everyone and blessed be
Therese
Hi everyone out there!
I've just joined the group and am doing my second course on my way to an OU Hons degree focusing on Classics and Creative Writing and my interest in religion shows in the work I produce in both subjects, although I have to say that I am a mere student of all but practitioner of none.
I was thinking about the recent equinox and the focus that pagans have when it comes around. I wrote a kind of novella a few years ago which focused on the ember days, which I'm sure everyone reading this will be aware are the days leading up to an equinox. Apparently, ancients viewed those days as a time for focusing their energies on influencing the coming season and I have to say that I have been in that kind of mindset recently. There is a lot of change going on in my life right now as I have just gained a great new job which fills me with a mixture of excitement and dread that I won't measure up!
I have been concentrating really hard on giving myself the confidence I need which has really helped. Although I did not observe the equinox this year, that is how I interpret how pagans must view the festival as a time of focus on change and believing that you can influence your future path forward. I think maybe a lot of people lose hope and focus on their ability to better a bad situation and, for that, I feel that their is a particular charm to the focus of the equinox festivals.
As I say, I am a mere student of pagan ritual and this post could be a complete mis-interpretation but I would really love to hear from others with their views and I hope we will all have some good chats here over the coming months.
Hope to chat with some of you soon!
Julie
Hi Julie and thanks for your very interesting contribution - this is just the kind of thing I was hoping to get on the forum.
I must admit that I hadn't heard of the Ember Days before - but what a lovely expression for the subtle build up of energies before the magic (in all senses) of the Equinoxes. I wonder if there is an equivalent term for the Solstices too?
This year my focus was slightly different for the Equinox - I concentrated on the idea of bringing in the harvest and giving thanks, recognising our successes during the year and taking the energy of those successes forward into the new season, which to me is once more about preparation, of sowing seeds.
On which note, all the best for the new job! What an achievement, especially the way things are presently.
BB
Therese
I was on holiday so didn't do anything major to celebrate. It was a lovely warm day so I went to the beach.
I'm already getting excited for Samhain. It will be my first and I can't wait to try all the various activities I've found. I work with Hecate and so this day will be very important. I will also use the night to remember my Nanna who passed just over three months ago.
Carrie
Hi Therese et al (please excuse the pretension of a classics' student!)
Just had a look in my favourite point of reference for all things Old Religion and, according to Raven Grimassi, the Ember Days refer equally to the three days before a solstice or equinox, so the same term applies to both.
I really should have made more of that in my story as it seems to be a powerful focus for change (whether for good or evil but, as pagans know, there is no such abstract concept, only what limited human perception can interpret and such perception can encompass so many shades of grey in between such banal polarities).
I like your idea of using the festival as a focus of thanksgiving for the postive experiences harvested during the coming year before embarking on the next truly dramatic festival of Samhaim. I don't think we're so far apart in how we interpret the energies of this time of year: if you are preparing for a figurative 'rebirth' with the start of the incoming pagan year (if such an insultingly all encompassing term can be used with any credulity) it makes sense to focus on the good achieved before the challenges and opportunities for growth present themselves.
I thought it might interest members to know that the term 'Ember Days' is also used in the Catholic church to signify a certain set of three days in the liturgical calendar when (among other things) a new priest can be obtained. I suppose it's another example of christianity apeing established pagan ideology to carry through the idea of change, reflection and development to a new generation of believers (well at least they were new when the architects were still arguing over the plans for St Peter's Church in Rome).
Yet more evidence for the idea that no generation reinvents the wheel on interpreting the concepts and focuses of nature: we merely change the marketing strategy. Many of the Roman ideas of culture and civilisation were Greek but the Romans were so much more successful in their use of them simply because they knew how to market them.
No, I'm actually a solicitor and not in marketing before you ask - I'm probably just being way too pseudo-philosophical for a Monday night!
BB