Mōdraniht (Mothers’ Night) approaches. An Anglo-Saxon Heathen holiday, it focuses on venerating “the Mothers,” a grouping of deities who were worshiped throughout Celto-Romano-Germanic Europe as Matres or Matronae. (The Old English word for Them is Mōdru.) They were very localized deities, named for geographic features, bodies of water, the people They protected, or Their attributes. […]
Nearly four years ago, I began exploring Heathenry. I had ended my practice of Kemetism two years prior and was, at the time, focusing on the death positive movement in the West. But I also felt adrift, unanchored by any ritualism or tradition. Heathenry brought me everything I missed: structure, education, community, purpose. But these […]
This past Saturday, I invited a couple of local Heathens and our guests to celebrate the Midsummer holiday and enjoy a picnic. We picked Font Hill Wetlands Park as our location, a small park with a gazebo in the middle of one of the ponds. I had never been there before but trusted the recommendation. […]
Back in April, I suffered mental burnout that almost resulted in a breakdown at work. To recover, I purchased a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Origins and played it all evening. Three months and 47 hours later, I’m glad I did. Not only are the plot, characters, and gameplay enjoyable, but the game has reached into me […]
My great-grandmother Lourdes died two weeks ago, on the morning of November 1st. As I was falling asleep that night, my mother texted me to break the news. We briefly texted back and forth, and I agreed to send some money to help pay for the funeral; we are, in the end, a family of […]
My Midsummer celebration earlier this year was fantastic: Friends gathered, the kitchen filled with dishes for our feast, and libations of blood-wine seeped into fertile soil. I left the party feeling joyful, pleased with our rituals, and looking forward to the next holiday. But as Alfarblót approached, I felt less and less inclined to plan […]
I stand facing the center of the circle, facing the skull mounted on a large, forked tree branch — our ritual stang. Faces blur together around me. When I speak, my voice cuts through the late afternoon calm. I teach my audience the song, and when their voices join mine, we cut through the veil. My mind […]
Thanks to my recent reading of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s memoir, Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey, I have been thinking back on my time in Japan. I stayed for only four months while I studied at Nanzan University in Nagoya. Regardless, it is a time I treasure dearly as one of […]
For most people, the words “pagan” and “witch” conjure images of men and women who connect on a spiritual level to nature, to the untamed wilderness. I have many friends who feel this way. I do not. So when my friend Kaye suggested I go with her to this year’s Witches Sabbat in the forests of Ontario, Canada, I surprised quite […]
On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending my first large pagan event, Sacred Space Conference. It was conveniently held in a hotel only 30 minutes from my office, so in the morning, I packed my bag for work and for the event. For the first time in my life, I found myself asking questions like, “Should […]