Autumn Equinox Ritual21 September 1997Indiana Pagan Resource Network Lamplight glimmers in darkened roomsAnd you fold your hands across a swelling bellyCradling the fruits of your labor.The rich scent of new-mown hay, the dark Earth beneath itWhere seeds that fall soon deeply sleepHere as we move towards the darkness of SamhainThe shadow that brings the light … Read more
I see the better things, and approve; I follow the worse. — Ovid As we continue through the harvest festival season, and the time of year when the ancestors are remembered, we come on this date to the opening day of the Ludi Romani, also called the Ludi Magni which were held to honor the … Read more
Please do not offer my God a peanut.— Apu, from The Simpsons Today is Ganesh Chaturthi, the festival that celebrates the birthday of the great Hindu God, Ganesh. Also known as Ganapati and Ganesha, He is the son of Shiva and Parvati. He is the Lord of success, destroyer of evils and remover of obstacles. … Read more
Virgo – from the zodiac window at Chartres CathedralDo not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. — Mother Theresa, spoken like the true Virgo she was Today, the Sun enters the sign of Virgo, and so we enter into, according to some traditions, the Month of Isis, a time of the creative … Read more
… And now, home again. Yes, I am home from my amazing journey, but will not be officially “at work” until tomorrow. All I say is, “After the ecstasy.. the laundry.” I hope you all enjoyed the videos I posted on my website while I was away! “I beseech Minerva and Venus, of whom one … Read more
The wise know that there’s neither unity nor plurality – the world is neither one nor many. Just as a piece of rope is mistaken for a snake, the Atman is mistaken as this diverse world. Duality is an appearance and the non-dual Atman is the real truth. — Gaudapada (c. 8th century CE)The Grace … Read more
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.— J. R. R. TolkeinLughnassadh (pronounced “LOO-nahs-ah”) or the Anglo-Saxon “Lammas,” is one of the Greater Sabbats and honors the First Harvest. In agricultural traditions throughout the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the start of the harvest cycle, … Read more
Say no longer that God is invisible. Do not speak thus, for what is more manifest than God? He has created all only that you may see it through the beings. For that is the miraculous power of God, to show Himself through all beings. For nothing is invisible, not even the incorporeal. The intellect … Read more
Beauteous flowers why do we spreadUpon the monuments of the dead?Nothing they but dust can show,Or bones that hasten to be so.Crown me with roses whilst I live —Now your wines and ointments give;After death I nothing crave,Let me alive my pleasures have!All are Stoics in the grave. — Anacreaon (554 – 469 B.C.E.) Roses … Read more
One may live without bread, not without roses. — Jean Richepin The Grace Thalia guides us onward, as we tour the magical garden. We are deepening our friendship with the Queen of the Garden, the rose. For millennia, the rose has been woven into the fabric of myth and legend in nearly every civilization. An … Read more