From the Archives: Triple Goddesses in the Celtic World by Judith Shaw

Many neopagans and modern Goddess worshipers mistakenly equate the triadic nature of some Celtic Goddesses with the Triple Goddess concept first …
From the Archives: Triple Goddesses in the Celtic World by Judith Shaw

Northern Lights

Shimmering ribbons of light,Dancing in the velvet night.Aurora borealis, mystical and bright,A cosmic spectacle, a breathtaking sight.A palette of …
Northern Lights

An Aurora Borealis in Florida

Scientists said that this would happen due to solar storms

I don’t know if this is good or bad. The Inuit in Alaska always claimed that the appearance of an Aurora Borealis, meant the ancestors and other spirits were in the skies. Opening doorways between our world and the spiritual world. The veil is very thin right now. Are the ancestors coming to bring us balance in a world that has lost its way? Who knows.

I choose to see this as a good sign. In Santeria and other traditions, we use liminal times of the night and day for magic. Certain special times like this is perfect for asking for wishes to be granted. Or doing other kinds of sorcery. But you need to be careful.

Women on their period for example, are believed to be more open to the spiritual world than men. Pregnant women as well. So they are more vulnerable to the spirits. But if not, go outside and see the skies. And ask for your desires to be done.

This time is good for all magic.

– M

Exploring Our Gods and Goddesses – Coventina

Often times Heathens focus primarily on Viking Age Scandinavia, followed by Anglo-Saxon England, and more rarely continental Germanic Europe during …
Exploring Our Gods and Goddesses – Coventina

I Don’t Want Jesus by Katherine Rose Wort

Well, you may ask, who said I should? My grandparents, mother, father, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, godparents, a good many …
I Don’t Want Jesus by Katherine Rose Wort

The irony is that I am a Christo Pagan, but reading this was awesome. And I loved reading “I don’t want fucking Jesus” 😂 No sugar coating in this one. So if you get offended easily, don’t read.

– M

Mountain Mother: Earth, Woman, Goddess (Part 2) by Jeanne F. Neath

Part 1 was posted yesterday. In Part 2 we’ll complete our travels into Mountain Mother’s realms, as we explore female-centered economics and …
Mountain Mother: Earth, Woman, Goddess (Part 2) by Jeanne F. Neath

Mountain Mother: Earth, Woman, Goddess (Part 1) by Jeanne F. Neath

Growing up in the 1950s in the U.S. I was deeply immersed, trapped like so many girls and women, in capitalist, colonizing, patriarchy. I rescued …
Mountain Mother: Earth, Woman, Goddess (Part 1) by Jeanne F. Neath

Practical Witchcraft and Worship : How I celebrate Beltane

The next installment of my practical magic and worship series. For those who read my blog yesterday, you already saw this section. So you can ignore this. This is for those who want adapt their practices to modern life. I took this from my article the Fires of Beltane.

So my practice is a bit of a mix. A mix of reconstructionism. A mix of the eclecticism. And a mix of practical magic for modern times. So I do start off trying to recreate the rituals as best as possible.

I live around several bodies of water. So I do have holy places where I do magic by the water. I leave offerings there. I have a sacred tree I use as my May Pole or May Bush. And I left a clootie in the form of a red string tied to a branch.

But that being said, it’s not always feasible. I don’t cook caudles of egg and milk and all this other stuff. And I don’t sacrifice animals to Belenus or any other God. So I have to adapt my rituals to something that is possible. And that doesn’t violate my personal beliefs.

So for a few days, I collected the left overs of all my dinners.

I placed them all in the same sealed bag. And infused them with my prayers. Prayer is a form of energy after all. My spirits did the same. Filling them with our desires and wants.

Then today a half an hour before sunset, I set out to do all my offerings. Rather than a caudle of milk and eggs, I gave crema catalana. Americans normally call it Creme Brulee. But it’s got eggs and milk and is delicious. In this case I didn’t pour it as a libation.

It’s almost like a cake. So I have a cake offering. And I also put fresh fruit with the “cake”. For a libation, I gave milk, cream, and some alcohol. Then instead of the typical bonfires, I added a combination of Celtic and Native American influences. I believe we should all have loyalty to the Native Gods and spirits of this land.

And we should always leave a space for them in any of our rituals. I kept it simple. I burned Sage for the Great Spirit and all the spirits of the land. And used that as the first holy fire. I smudged the whole house myself and my family and pet.

Then I lit a holy candle to Belenus. And I sanctified the home. And I filled the void from the banishing with holy fire from Belenus. The candle acted as the second fire. And I blessed each member of the household.

There is an old blessing charm that used to be sung around Beltane. But the problem was more than the fact that I can’t speak Gaelic. It was also that the words of the charm didn’t 100% apply to me. People who parrot old spells and charms that don’t apply to them are looking for a world of hurt. A spell or blessing may have been good for a peasant farmer hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

But if you try to cast the same exact spell today, it could backfire. Because you are not a farmer or a peasant. So trying to cast the same spell now would be detrimental to you. Like a spell to protect your farm animals. That’s fine if you live on a farm.

What happens if you don’t?

So it’s necessary to take the old spells and adapt them to your modern and personal life. Personalize them as much as possible to what really works for you. The original spell was this.

” Beannaich, a Thrianailt fhioir nach gann, (Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful,)
Mi fein, mo cheile agus mo chlann, (Myself, my spouse and my children,)
Mo chlann mhaoth’s am mathair chaomh ‘n an ceann,(My tender children and their beloved mother at their head,)
Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann, (On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling,)
Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann. (On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling.)

Gach ni na m’ fhardaich, no ta ‘na m’ shealbh, (Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,)
Gach buar is barr, gach tan is tealbh, (All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,)
Bho Oidhche Shamhna chon Oidhche Bheallt, (From Samhain Eve to Beltane Eve,)
Piseach maith, agus beannachd mallt, (With goodly progress and gentle blessing,)
Bho mhuir, gu muir, agus bun gach allt, (From sea to sea, and every river mouth,)
Bho thonn gu tonn, agus bonn gach steallt. (From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.)”
“From The Songs and Rhymes of May, courtesy of the Wayback Machine

As most of you can see, there’s a lot there that doesn’t resonate with everyone. Not everyone is married or has children. Or even has a wife. A lot of people are LGBTQ. And they may or may not have female partners.

They might not have partners period. And like I said before, not everyone has “crops”. Most people in the world live in cities. So I adapted mine specifically for myself. It goes something like this.

” Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful, Myself, my family, including my animals and spirits, My tender animals and trees and stones, and my beloved mother at our head,On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling, On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling.

Everything within my dwelling or in my possession, all the larders of our food, all our finances, From Samhain Eve to Beltane Eve, With goodly progress and gentle blessing, From sea to sea, and every river mouth, From wave to wave, and base of waterfall, “
My personal adaptation of the Beltane blessing charm

And thus we were all blessed. If I really wanted to get technical about this, I could have taken out the parts about mountains and plains. But then that would have defeated the purpose. Imagine removing parts or Greek prayers that mentioned Mount Olympus. Or taking out prayers that mentioned sacred trees in Yoruba religion.

Its important to not sterilize your prayers. The culture and the land sites and other places are important. You should not remove those parts of the prayer. So ask yourself if what you are taking out, would destroy the cultural identity of the prayer. If the answer is yes then you know you need to leave it the hell alone.

If it needs to be adapted to you, that’s okay. Just make sure you keep the cultural influence alive. I also anointed my animals with lustral water. To keep them safe from malefic influences. The house was blessed.

And from there I did a divination for the Aos Si to speak to me. To grant me any knowledge I needed. And I got answers to some hard questions I hadn’t even thought to ask of yet. And that’s it everyone. That’s how I personally celebrate it.

Cheers,

– M

The Fires of Beltane

For many Celtic peoples, this was said to be the beginning of Summer. Personally, Summer for me is Lughnasadh. Not Beltane. But that’s a matter of where you live. Technically, it’s “summer” all year long in Dumbfuckistan, I mean Florida.

This is the place where Satan sunbathes.

I do not celebrate it on May First. I hate the fixed dates. I try to celebrate them either by astrology or other things. For instance, many Celtic Recinstructionists won’t celebrate it until the Hawthorne blooms.

It’s one of the four fire festivals. I celebrate it every year on May 4th (sunset) the day before May 5th as the Astrological Beltane. But technically I celebrate the festivals as weeks. So Beltane Week for me starts April 30th on May Eve. And continues until today.

Well worship

During the day, the Ancients visited Holy Wells.

Rituals were performed at the site of the holy wells. this has been called “Well worship”. The worship of a God or the veneration of a saint or some other spirit at the place. They exist all over the country. It’s said the holy wells had the purest and most powerful holy waters.

Waters used not only to cure and heal. But to banish evil spirits also. To break curses. Or even to cast spells. They left offerings called Clooties at these places too.

These were necklaces, coins, torn cloth or string. Or even just regular pebbles or nice looking rocks. Even crystals are sometimes left at these places. As well as semi precious stones. Though traditionally, it can be anything.

These are personal tokens. Gifts to the local spirits. And to the Gods. Interestingly enough, in modern times we have cases of both Pagan and Christian clooties being offered. It makes sense since many practice a sort of dual faith.

Christian on one side, and indigenous Celtic religion on the other.

Those who go to these wells or holy water sources, will walk round them nine or three times. Well not walk, you’re supposed to creep on your hands and knees. And they will do it from East to West. Mimicking the journey of the sun each day. Traditionally they would recite prayers to the Gods.

Especially to those Gods and spirits who live at the holy sites. Under Christian domination, that changed. The occupiers forced the indigenous peoples to worship their God. So many of the ancient Polytheists secretly hid their worship under the guise of Christianity. Of course at least some were like me.

People who believe in everything. Who see the divine in everything. Even if it’s the religion of a couple of bloodthirsty murderers. Who use violence to enforce the tenants of their faith. And fear to force their faith upon the conquered.

But I digress. When it was a Christianized ritual, they were saying the Our Fathers and the Hail Marys. In both versions, the celebrants would build small shrines made of the rocks there. One group for their Gods and spirits. The other for their saints and one God.

“At the close of each round they build up a small pile of stones; for at the last day the angels will reckon these stones, and he who has said the most prayers will have the highest place in heaven, each saint keeping count for his own votaries,”

From the article, The Holy Wells of Ireland, by Kyle Hunt (2018)

So this is a magical practice done by the Christians. The more votive offerings given, the more blessings by the Saint. It’s possible that the same was done in the Celtic era. And the more rock shrines one gives to their Gods or the Fae, the more favor they gain. Probably the same for the clooties.

The ancients built small temples around these Holy Wells. Usually with steps descending to the well or body of water. And once the celebrant goes down the steps, they go on their hands and knees. Then they would wash their faces and foreheads. Or whatever part of the body was diseased.

The disease would slowly and gradually diminish. And the person would be healed. It’s even claimed they were permanently healed. Cured. The illness would be banished forever.

Central to the worship at the Wells were the rude stone monuments. These are central to the temples at these wells. Clooties are often left there. They’re charged with magical and spiritual energy. The stone is a massive talisman.

When you pray, you have to focus on the stone. You drink the water to be healed. Then leave offerings of different sorts. Offerings that can never be removed.

“Whenever a white-thorn or an ash-tree shadows the place, the well is held to be peculiarly sacred; and on leaving, having first drunk of the water, the patient ties a votive offering to the branches–generally a coloured handkerchief or a bright red strip cut from a garment;

And these offerings are never removed. They remain for years fluttering in the wind and the rain, just as travellers have described the votive offerings on the sacred trees that shadow the holy wells of Persia. They are signs and tokens of gratitude to the patron saint, and are meant to show the devil that he has no longer power to harm the praying pilgrim, or torment him with pains and aches as heretofore,”

– Article, The Holy Wells of Ireland

by Kyle Hunt

Holy Fires

During this time, cattle and people went between two bonfires. The reason for this was to be protected from the influence of evil spirits. Or even of the Fae. So that the Fae would leave the blessed people and animals alone. A testament to the holiness of fire.

But you have to say magical incantations while passing through the fires. Otherwise, they’re just regular fires. Traditionally the fires were need fires or friction fires. Basically, a wooden drill operated by nine naked married men would be used to drill into a standing log. And the friction would cause the log to burn.

It was said, that these flames, smoke, and even the ashes left behind all had protective powers. Or could be used in some sort of magic. The morning dew on the day of Beltane would also be collected. And placed in a jar which was filtered by being placed in the sun.

Also, you take your animals to fairy forts. And you bleed some of their blood there. So that the Fae will grant them protection from the rest of the year until Samhain. People would also make libations of caudles of milk and egg, as well as oatmeal, and butter was cooked. And poured on the ground for them.

Sacrifices were made to Belenus. But what that sacrifice was I have not been able to find. Whether it was an animal sacrifice or a sacrifice of an offering of bread or food. Thus far I have been unable to find out. Though I am certain it may have been an animal.

How I celebrate

So for a few days, I collected the left overs of all my dinners.

I placed them all in the same sealed bag. And infused them with my prayers. Prayer is a form of energy after all. My spirits did the same. Filling them with our desires and wants.

What happens if you don’t?

So it’s necessary to take the old spells and adapt them to your modern and personal life. Personalize them as much as possible to what really works for you. The original spell was this.

” Beannaich, a Thrianailt fhioir nach gann, (Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful,)
Mi fein, mo cheile agus mo chlann, (Myself, my spouse and my children,)
Mo chlann mhaoth’s am mathair chaomh ‘n an ceann,(My tender children and their beloved mother at their head,)
Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann, (On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling,)
Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann. (On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling.)

Gach ni na m’ fhardaich, no ta ‘na m’ shealbh, (Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,)
Gach buar is barr, gach tan is tealbh, (All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,)
Bho Oidhche Shamhna chon Oidhche Bheallt, (From Samhain Eve to Beltane Eve,)
Piseach maith, agus beannachd mallt, (With goodly progress and gentle blessing,)
Bho mhuir, gu muir, agus bun gach allt, (From sea to sea, and every river mouth,)
Bho thonn gu tonn, agus bonn gach steallt. (From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.) “
From The Songs and Rhymes of May, courtesy of the Wayback Machine

You might not have partners at all. And like I said before, not everyone has “crops”. Most people in the world live in cities. So I adapted mine specifically for myself. It goes something like this.

” Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful, Myself, my family, including my animals and spirits, My tender animals and trees and stones, and my beloved mother at our head, On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling, On the fragrant plain, at the gay mountain sheiling. Everything within my dwelling or in my possession, all the larders of our food, all our finances, From Samhain Eve to Beltane Eve, With goodly progress and gentle blessing, From sea to sea, and every river mouth, From wave to wave, and base of waterfall, “
My personal adaptation of the Beltane blessing charm

Cheers,

– M

Links :

PAGAN CALENDAR OF OBSERVANCES – May 2023

The Folk Magician’s Notebook

To know the Spirits of the Land

This May Day, make Beltane bannock, a simple snack with a long history of superstition and divination

Beltane Blessings

Embracing Ancestral Fires and Fire-starting at Beltane

The Holy Wells of Ireland

Random Links of the Day : Beltane Edition

It’s been a while since I did a good old fashioned Random Links of the day. So here we are. The spring edition. Including monsters, Dracula, Pagan Gods and Goddesses. As well as an obscure Christian Saint and a giant snow man from Wisconsin. Sounds like the set up to a joke right? But it’s true.

All of these things have been associated with this time. So without further adieu here we go.

Embrace the Flower Bride

This Witches Country Life – Beltane

The Floralia : Ancient Roman Festival for Sex Work?

(I think this one is bullshit but I added it regardless)

May Day by Sara Wright

Croatia Bans Winter By Partying Like ‘Where the Wild Things Are’

” The Dark Watchers” of California – From the Article “Ghosts in the Rainbow”

The Brocken Spectre Is an Rare, Yet Beautiful, Optical Phenomenon

The Incredible and Rare Optical Phenomenon of the “Broken Spectrum”, How Does it Originate? (Giant Shadow Men)

What is the Brocken Spectre? A misty figure in the fog – EarthSky

Brocken Spectre: What is it and what causes it? – BBC Newsround

Stunning ‘angel in the sky’ photo caused by rare weather event – USA TODAY

Shades of grey: What is the brocken spectre? – BBC News

Brocken spectre | Optical Illusion, Mountain Haze

Explore Sinister Spring Tales with Atlas Obscura

Forget the Wicker Man, look at the burning of the Böögg, an exploding, weather-predicting snowman in Wisconsin

Spring Is for Monsters, Ancient Rituals, and Scary Stories (From haunting tales of the Bell Witch to child-eating swamp monsters, the season is full of frights)

Rites of Spring at Atlas Obscura (mixed articles)

the ancient origins of Beltane

Modern fire festivals in Edinburgh

Spinning Balls of Fire Light Up Spring in This German Town

The Demon Appeasing Dance of Sri Lanka

Fallen Angels and Black Witches partying with the Devil on Walpurgisnacht

Saint Walpurga and the Witches of Walpurgis Night – Daimonologia

In Poland, Drowning the Pagan Goddess Marzanna Ushers in Spring

Welcoming Spring by Burning the Goddess of Winter

The Italian Town that Welcomes Spring with Live Snakes

by Dania Rodrigues

(Every year on May 1st the small town of Cocullo in central Italy celebrates its patron saint San Domenico Abate. The celebration resembles many other Catholic festivities, but during this religious procession the saint’s statue is fully covered with living snakes)

In North Dakota, the Hideous Miniwashitu Ushers in Spring

by April White, Senior Editor/Writer

A dreadful, one-eyed creature with a sawlike backbone, the Miniwashitu is a hardworking monster that, for the Madan people, is all that stands between salvation and destruction.

Spring Rituals

Croatia Bans Winter By Partying Like ‘Where the Wild Things Are’

Spinning Balls of Fire Light Up Spring in This German Town of Lügde (Plus fireworks, music, and maybe a goddess or two)

Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker (Happy Beltane Halloween!) this one is a special post for me because it’s sort of a Dracula Prequel. When Johnathan Harker stupidly ventures into a curses town on Walpurgisnacht of all nights. It’s a fascinating read and there are YouTube audio books there too.