“For many of us, the prospect of multiple family gatherings over the next couple months can be anxiety-inducing. Add shopping, holiday parties, school obligations and packed grocery stores, and we have the ingredients for a very stressful season. The good news is that we know it’s coming, which means we can prepare for it. So…
Author: GlasseWitch
The Wheel turned, and the final harvest lies behind us. The nights grow longer now and cool darkness whispers against the windows after the sun goes down. It is the time of the inward spiral. Living in rhythm with seasonal shifts includes many challenges, though. Although our ancestors were governed by their seasons and climate,…
October 31st marks one of the High Holidays in the widely-used Pagan Wheel of the Year – Samhain. Out of all our holidays, I’d say this one gets the most press. Our celebration of the end of the growing season coincides with all that is spooky in the larger culture. This time of endings in…
The change of seasons can bring in more than a shift in temperatures and sunlight. Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern around the spring and fall equinox: people also make changes in their lives. Sometimes these are small things – they choose to get healthier, they clean (or purge) their houses, they finally boot…
“The green world around us will appear to slip into death or sleep. The truth, of course, is that deep beneath the winter soil, the plant spirits are recovering: healing, resting, growing and rooting deep for their rise in springtime. When we follow the cycle of the inward spiral, we can take advantage of the…
I have a secret to tell you. It goes against everything our Christianity-drenched culture wants you to believe. It goes against a lot of pop psychology. It will probably make you uncomfortable. It’s also true. The first person who told me this secret was the victim of horrific childhood abuse. The kind you don’t recover…
I recently play-tested a new Tarot deck live on my Facebook page (here’s the video). The deck in question is the TrueBlack Tarot and I specifically acquired it for Shadow readings. I’ve gotten a lot of questions since then about how and when to use a Shadow deck and what layouts to follow. So, today,…
I am today’s guest writer on the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans Patheos blog. “It’s bad right now. The news is a horror show of atrocities and it seems like anytime we find a brief moment to breathe, another earth-shattering round of violence explodes across the networks. Our social media feeds are often just as…
The Wheel of the Year just passed August 1st, a cross-quarter day for most of the Pagan world. On August 1st, we honor the halfway mark between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. Two of the most common names we see for observances at this time are Lammas and Lughnassadh. Lammas translates to loaf-mass…
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of leading the service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Below, you will find the video and text of my sermon. My name is Irene. I teach the weekly yoga classes here, facilitate the monthly labyrinth walks, and I’m the squirrel herder in chief for the Frederick…