Seasons

[Rhiannon]

I don't know if Matt will agree with me, but perhaps the biggest thing in my pagan practice is being in tune with the seasons. Because of how I live and the things I do I'm very aware of when the May is out, the rose hips ripen, when orb web spiders appear. As the energies of nature change I find myself doing the same - I don't push myself so much in Winter as I do in Spring and summer.

Of course you don't gave to be a pagan to live this way. But when discussing my practice with others this for me the biggest pay-off I guess - a sense of connection and balance.

[ekim]

I suspect that we would all benefit from being in tune with our chronobiological rhythms especially the circadian rhythm.  Civilising processes like shift work and artificial light make it difficult.

[Rhiannon]

Indeed.

The academic calendar for school children doesn't help either. The longest term is the one up to Christmas and the two weeks before breakup are a whirlwind of activity, right when things should be winding down in order to fight off the inevitable winter bugs. We shouldn't have our most active period at the darkest time of the year.

[ekim]

Yes, and you can add the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) which quite a number of people suffer from.

[Owlswing]

As the basis of my practice of my belief is the Wheel of the Year I would have to say that the seasons and their changes are the very basic building blocks of my life.

It is not always easy to prevent oneself becoming a "fairweather" pagan when your Imbolc ritual is being held in the Moon Circle at Avebury and there is two or three feet of snow on the ground! Especially when the preceding Yule ritual six weeks earlier was held on top of a hill in a howling rainstorm.

This year it was my turn to write the Autumn Equinox ritual! This was not the easiest of things to do, trying to find something new to say, some new way to celebrate the landmark, when you have already done eight rituals and it does not exactly curry favour with the HPs if you repeat someone else's work!

However, the best part of observing and celebrating the seasons is to watch them pass in parade past the window of my room and to marvel at the Gaia's inventiveness and skill, her mindnumbing palette of colours, and her, sometimes, sheer bitchery at providing a sudden rainstorm just as I have put the duvet cover, pillowcases and sheets out on the line in brilliant sunshine to dry!

All part of life's rich pattern I suppose.

[Owlswing]

I don't know if Matt will agree with me, but perhaps the biggest thing in my pagan practice is being in tune with the seasons. Because of how I live and the things I do I'm very aware of when the May is out, the rose hips ripen, when orb web spiders appear. As the energies of nature change I find myself doing the same - I don't push myself so much in Winter as I do in Spring and summer.

Of course you don't gave to be a pagan to live this way. But when discussing my practice with others this for me the biggest pay-off I guess - a sense of connection and balance.

I think one of the things that can keep you connected to the seasons is being a gardener.

My dad has always been a gardener and as a child I was much more aware of the growing season and what was available when.

I'm not a gardener and I am very much aware that I am disconnected from nature in many ways, because I can get any veg at any time or even frozen.

The only time I notice is if some items get more expensive.

I wonder if in a way if I have lost something in our modern life where we can have everything just when we want it and whether years ago the seasons were much more real and perhaps there was a greater appreciation of the things that were only available when they were in season.

Years ago people "live" the seasons, not sure all of us do now.

Perhaps we take to much for granted now, and are more distant from it.

🌹

I do not think that there is much of a "perhaps" about it.

[Shaker]

I don't know if Matt will agree with me, but perhaps the biggest thing in my pagan practice is being in tune with the seasons. Because of how I live and the things I do I'm very aware of when the May is out, the rose hips ripen, when orb web spiders appear. As the energies of nature change I find myself doing the same - I don't push myself so much in Winter as I do in Spring and summer.

Of course you don't gave to be a pagan to live this way. But when discussing my practice with others this for me the biggest pay-off I guess - a sense of connection and balance.

A very great deal of this matches my own life experience. Apart from a few years living near the Great Wen back in the 1990s I've lived in the countryside my entire life - being immersed in the seasons, stopping to pay attention to the natural world, are as fundamental to me as anything has ever been. There would scarcely be a life worthy of the name without it, for me. In many ways I live as 21st century life as any urbanite - laptop, smartphone and all the rest of it - but I go out of my way to keep my roots in nature constantly well nourished. I don't see anything difficult about this; the great 19th-early 20th century nature writers such as Richard Jeffries and W. H. Hudson are heroes of mine, but so are Richard Mabey and Robert MacFarlane today. Obviously I have the advantage of living a rural life; I'm not saying it would be the same for anybody living in the middle of Leeds or Bristol. Perhaps (I don't know) if you're brought up in such an environment you're less likely to feel such an intimate connection to land, landscape and nature anyway. I can't imagine I'd be the same person I am if I'd been raised in Leicester as opposed to rural Leicestershire. Many who live in cities and the larger towns can still have "access" to nature by getting in the car (or better still, on a bike), but with the aforementioned exception of three years down south, all my life it's been a case simply of putting on my coat, selecting my favourite stick and stepping out of the front door.

Every so often atheists get asked what religion they would adopt if they had to choose one. Many say Buddhism for obvious reasons; it's non-theistic, has much about it to admire, the Theravada tradition especially (unlike, say, Tibetan Buddhism) has relatively little with which a sceptical, rational Westerner can argue ... many don't even consider it a religion at all. For me the best things about it - vegetarianism; meditation and so forth - are things I've pursued for other reasons for many years without taking on board any of the other specifically Buddhist baggage. I'm not one and don't call myself one. If I had to choose then some sort of pagan path would be the obvious choice - a path with nature (and English nature at that) at the very centre of it makes the most sense to me by inclination. I don't think I can see what an overlay of religion or spirituality would add to what I already do and have done all my life, but that's just me and could, of course, possibly change in future. I can't, and therefore don't, call myself a pagan any more than a Buddhist as I'm not entitled to without adhering to a whole raft of other beliefs worthy of the name. But it's undoubtedly where my sympathies lie.

[Owlswing]

I don't know if Matt will agree with me, but perhaps the biggest thing in my pagan practice is being in tune with the seasons. Because of how I live and the things I do I'm very aware of when the May is out, the rose hips ripen, when orb web spiders appear. As the energies of nature change I find myself doing the same - I don't push myself so much in Winter as I do in Spring and summer.

Of course you don't gave to be a pagan to live this way. But when discussing my practice with others this for me the biggest pay-off I guess - a sense of connection and balance.

A very great deal of this matches my own life experience. Apart from a few years living near the Great Wen back in the 1990s I've lived in the countryside my entire life - being immersed in the seasons, stopping to pay attention to the natural world, are as fundamental to me as anything has ever been. There would scarcely be a life worthy of the name without it, for me. In many ways I live as 21st century life as any urbanite - laptop, smartphone and all the rest of it - but I go out of my way to keep my roots in nature constantly well nourished. I don't see anything difficult about this; the great 19th-early 20th century nature writers such as Richard Jeffries and W. H. Hudson are heroes of mine, but so are Richard Mabey and Robert MacFarlane today. Obviously I have the advantage of living a rural life; I'm not saying it would be the same for anybody living in the middle of Leeds or Bristol. Perhaps (I don't know) if you're brought up in such an environment you're less likely to feel such an intimate connection to land, landscape and nature anyway. I can't imagine I'd be the same person I am if I'd been raised in Leicester as opposed to rural Leicestershire. Many who live in cities and the larger towns can still have "access" to nature by getting in the car (or better still, on a bike), but with the aforementioned exception of three years down south, all my life it's been a case simply of putting on my coat, selecting my favourite stick and stepping out of the front door.

Every so often atheists get asked what religion they would adopt if they had to choose one. Many say Buddhism for obvious reasons; it's non-theistic, has much about it to admire, the Theravada tradition especially (unlike, say, Tibetan Buddhism) has relatively little with which a sceptical, rational Westerner can argue ... many don't even consider it a religion at all. For me the best things about it - vegetarianism; meditation and so forth - are things I've pursued for other reasons for many years without taking on board any of the other specifically Buddhist baggage. I'm not one and don't call myself one. If I had to choose then some sort of pagan path would be the obvious choice - a path with nature (and English nature at that) at the very centre of it makes the most sense to me by inclination. I don't think I can see what an overlay of religion or spirituality would add to what I already do and have done all my life, but that's just me and could, of course, possibly change in future. I can't, and therefore don't, call myself a pagan any more than a Buddhist as I'm not entitled to without adhering to a whole raft of other beliefs worthy of the name. But it's undoubtedly where my sympathies lie.

Sorry ol' buddy but a fair few Pagans would count you as one of their own.

Paganism is such a broad church that the details of that belief will vary from person to person - the only difference between your opinions and mine are that you do not recognise the creator and designer of the countryside as a diety, except perhaps the Gaia - Mother Earth.

In just about everything else you posted above - you are pagan.

Welcome to the club!

[Shaker]

I'm sceptical but thanks all the same 

[Nearly Sane]

Just to note I really liked Shaker's post and I was about to say it is too long to put in best bits but I think I will pop it in when I am not on the moby. That said I have almost nothing in common with it. This talk of nature makes me itchy, give me a bar anyday.

[Owlswing]

Just to note I really liked Shaker's post and I was about to say it is too long to put in best bits but I think I will pop it in when I am not on the moby. That said I have almost nothing in common with it. This talk of nature makes me itchy, give me a bar anyday.

Without nature there would be nothing to drink in the bar - not even water.

[Nearly Sane]

Unless of course I am a brain in a vat imagining a bar.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Thread,

Must be tough being a pagan in Scotland, did we actually have a summer

Dear Sane,

See those boxes outside the pub, you know, the ones on the windowsill, the colourful things inside them are called flowers

Gonnagle.

[Nearly Sane]

Much more interested in the thing called beer.

[Nearly Sane]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto

[Nearly Sane]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto

Presumably this is why you can be found gazing into your glass of beer.........


 

yep unsubstantiated claims do make me want to drink

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rose,

You are assuming that the beer stays in the glass long enough to gaze into!!

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

I don't know if Matt will agree with me, but perhaps the biggest thing in my pagan practice is being in tune with the seasons. Because of how I live and the things I do I'm very aware of when the May is out, the rose hips ripen, when orb web spiders appear. As the energies of nature change I find myself doing the same - I don't push myself so much in Winter as I do in Spring and summer.

Of course you don't gave to be a pagan to live this way. But when discussing my practice with others this for me the biggest pay-off I guess - a sense of connection and balance.

A very great deal of this matches my own life experience. Apart from a few years living near the Great Wen back in the 1990s I've lived in the countryside my entire life - being immersed in the seasons, stopping to pay attention to the natural world, are as fundamental to me as anything has ever been. There would scarcely be a life worthy of the name without it, for me. In many ways I live as 21st century life as any urbanite - laptop, smartphone and all the rest of it - but I go out of my way to keep my roots in nature constantly well nourished. I don't see anything difficult about this; the great 19th-early 20th century nature writers such as Richard Jeffries and W. H. Hudson are heroes of mine, but so are Richard Mabey and Robert MacFarlane today. Obviously I have the advantage of living a rural life; I'm not saying it would be the same for anybody living in the middle of Leeds or Bristol. Perhaps (I don't know) if you're brought up in such an environment you're less likely to feel such an intimate connection to land, landscape and nature anyway. I can't imagine I'd be the same person I am if I'd been raised in Leicester as opposed to rural Leicestershire. Many who live in cities and the larger towns can still have "access" to nature by getting in the car (or better still, on a bike), but with the aforementioned exception of three years down south, all my life it's been a case simply of putting on my coat, selecting my favourite stick and stepping out of the front door.

Every so often atheists get asked what religion they would adopt if they had to choose one. Many say Buddhism for obvious reasons; it's non-theistic, has much about it to admire, the Theravada tradition especially (unlike, say, Tibetan Buddhism) has relatively little with which a sceptical, rational Westerner can argue ... many don't even consider it a religion at all. For me the best things about it - vegetarianism; meditation and so forth - are things I've pursued for other reasons for many years without taking on board any of the other specifically Buddhist baggage. I'm not one and don't call myself one. If I had to choose then some sort of pagan path would be the obvious choice - a path with nature (and English nature at that) at the very centre of it makes the most sense to me by inclination. I don't think I can see what an overlay of religion or spirituality would add to what I already do and have done all my life, but that's just me and could, of course, possibly change in future. I can't, and therefore don't, call myself a pagan any more than a Buddhist as I'm not entitled to without adhering to a whole raft of other beliefs worthy of the name. But it's undoubtedly where my sympathies lie.

It's interesting because in some way we've arrived at a similar place, but by different routes. I didn't grow up in the country, as you know, but in East London suburbia with a family who hadn't engaged much with nature. I think I was about seven when I insisted on buying a pocket bird spotter's guide with boxes to tick, and I was hooked on knowing the names of things, learning to identify one species from another. More books came my way - old wildflower guides that I inherited, the classic Reader's Digest Book of British Birds with those amazing illustrations - and I tried to find as much as I could in the manicured park across the road.

Nature won't leave us be, thankfully, and it turned up in my back garden, much to the annoyance of my grandmother who declared that the dog rose behind my swing was 'a weed' and who made my dad mow the lawn I'd begged him to let grow long. Although I spent much of my time socialising in London, I knew I wasn't meant to be there and by the time I was twenty living in town made me quite unhappy.

This is partly why I've been so interested in finding out about my ancestry, as though there might be an echo of them in my love for nature and countryside. I've discovered just in my maternal side two rural communities, one going back to the 1600s, both forced off the land by Enclosure, both ending up in the East End, apart from the poor man who died in the workhouse some half an hour from where I, his so many times great granddaughter, now call home.

The veneer of spirituality on nature is an interesting concept - for me nature is the spirituality, and is increasingly so every day. A woman from another faith once apparently said she had no inclination to make a window into men's souls; certainly as a pagan I feel I have no right to call who is and isn't entitled to give themselves that label. Not that you feel the need anyway, but I think your 'pagan' identity would in many ways be more authentic than the plastic-fairy-and-a-bag-of-crystals kind.

[Shaker]

Well I am shocked!  Two actual pagans bringing me into the fold!

ETA: Nearly Sane did me the honour of putting my earlier overlong ramblings on the 'Forum best bits' section where Gonnagle wondered what I meant by specifying English nature (rather than nature in general). Rather than derail the thread by answering the question there I thought I'd do so here.

I was specific about English nature not because I mean any disservice to the starker, craggier landscapes of Wales (where I've spent a lot of time) or Scotland but simply because, given my upbringing, it's the English landscape that I automatically think of when I think of nature. It's like word association - nature means England, even my native East Midlands specifically. There are several very (and justly) celebrated explorers and nature writers - Doughty; Wilfred Thesiger; T.E. Lawrence; Edward Abbey, those sorts of people - who fell in love with deserts. By innate temperament, taste, preference, inclination, whatever you care to call it, that's not the sort of landscape to which I would respond as they did, since my tastes run to what I suppose you might call a very European landscape - bosomy fields and valleys, rivers, lakes, woods and the like. Green places, green because of rain in abundance (which I adore), another reason why a desert landscape is the least congenial.

Throw into the mix the fact that - for unknown reasons - all my life I've been fascinated by the Anglo-Saxon era, even to the extent (because I'm fascinated by languages) of trying to learn Old English, without stellar success. It's just something which has always drawn me. Why, I couldn't say for a million pounds; I just know that it does.

[Rhiannon]

I can't grow veg particularly well. Fruit, yes. And herbs, which pretty much take care of themselves anyway.

In my dreams my next home will be blessed with mature fruit trees. And its own mixed native hedge of course - elder, hazel, field maple, hawthorn and blackthorn threaded through with old-man's-beard, woodbine and bramble.

[Rhiannon]

Thanks, Rose. Step one is getting this place sold - can't do a thing til that happens. <sigh>.

[Owlswing]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10911509/7-things-paganism-can-teach-the-modern-man.html

One pagans POV

A very good article.

This is a concise look at what modern paganism is and stands for. Unfortunately it will be summarily dismissed by the other lot as "He would say that wouldn't he" addressed to both then author of the article and myself.

[Owlswing]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto

I am sorry NS but I cannot see anything in the link that connects it to Paganism.

[Nearly Sane]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto

I am sorry NS but I cannot see anything in the link that connects it to

 Paganism.

The article Rose linked to mentioned Emoto as if there was no controversy about his work.

[Rhiannon]

Not a typical pagan pov IME, although his work has some value if treated as art and not science.

Eta I meant Emoto. The article itself is ok if a bit lightweight - but in a newspaper it would be.