Brigid, Candlemas, Imbolc

A good Brigid / Candlemas / Imbolc to you!

Brigid is the triple Goddess of smithcraft, healing, and poetry. What are some ways creativity, healing, or both are weaving themselves through your life?

What are some concrete things you might do to them in?

Queries for Samhain

Friendly Pumpkin, (c) Anders Lagerås, used with permission

Friday is Samhain, the Witches' New Year and the Feast of the Beloved Dead. 

It's the time of year when many of us honor those who have gone before, remember our beloved dead, recognize our not-so-beloved dead and let them go, mourn (and celebrate) endings, welcome new babies, welcome the presence of new people in our lives, and celebrate new beginnings.  

Many Pagans feel that this night, the veil between the worlds, between the living and the dead, the seen and the unseen, is thinnest.  Witches have a saying, "Who is remembered, lives."  In Roses, Too! Tradition, Samhain is a time when we honor our ancestors, physical and spiritual, and cultures which have nurtured us.  

Queries for Samhain:

• How are you marking your endings, your losses, the deaths that have happened this year, the deaths that have happened in the past that are still with you?  
• In what ways do you do to honor your ancestors and those who have gone before? 
• What foods have come to you from them?  What ordinary, everyday things?  What special-occasion things?
• What gifts from those who have gone before do you pass down or share in the world?  
• How are you welcoming new babies and new people who have come into the world or your life this last year?  

May your Samhain be blessed. 

May these next weeks between the Feast of the Beloved Dead and the Rebirth of the Sun at Yule be a time of rich darkness for you. 

Queries, and happy Spring Equinox!

Happy Spring Equinox! 

Today we focus on breaking the bonds of Winter and emerging into Spring. 

• From which bonds are you freeing yourself?  
• Who can you call on to help you?  
• What, or who, meets you when you emerge?

Dancing with the Beloved Dead at Beltane

It seemed like an odd time of year to be thinking about death.

It's spring; life is bounding forth.  It's Beltane, a welcoming of spring and celebration of all the new and returning life in nature.

But two things happened: I was getting ready to go to the semi-annual gathering of the Quaker Concern Around Dying and Death (QDD), and one of my social networking friends shared a new video, from the last week in April, of one of my favorite Samhain songs.


I found myself listening to it over and over.

'Cause when I die
I don’t want to rest in peace
I want to dance in joy
I want to dance in the graveyards, the graveyards
And while I’m alive
I don’t want to be alone
Mourning the ones who came before
I want to dance with them some more
Let’s dance in the graveyards
~ from “Dance in the Graveyards,” (c) Ian Holljes; recorded by Delta Rae on “Carry the Fire,” 2012

Walking the labyrinth at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre just before our gathering started, I remembered the Beloved Dead whom Roses, Too! Coven always honored at Beltane.  Several people we love died just before Beltane, or had special connections for us with Beltane or May Day, and we always named them, and tied a black ribbon onto our May Pole for them.

Walking the labyrinth, Spring abundant around me, I was also reminded that at Beltane and Samhain, the veil between the worlds is thinnest.  And while we may not expect visits from the Beloved Dead at Beltane, death and life are part of each other, and if the dead come calling at Beltane, let us dance in joy with them, around the May Pole and in the graveyards.  

Queries for Brigid

Happy Brigid!

It's half-way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, and the days are definitely getting longer.

Have you noticed?

Brigid is the triple Goddess of smithcraft, healing, and poetry.

What creativity are you welcoming into your life?

How is the returning Sun bringing healing into your life?