The Pagan Circle

[hillfarm]

I have a family tradition of leaving a plate of food and drink for those who have gone before on All Hallow's Eve. Its said to be the time when the deceased are most able to pass thru the veil. I make sure they always have a meal just in case.

Oh and I always leave a candle burning for them.

 

[LilyD]

Samhain is my favorite holiday. I am not a practicing Wiccan but love a lot of the aspects of the religion and I have read a lot about it on the internet. I try to do an altar of sorts on my buffet table to honor the holiday and those who have passed but other than that I haven't done much. I would love to learn more. This year we are going to be baking a feast of sorts. Making foods based on what is available from the harvest and hanging out with family.

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

 

[2dream]

What does salute the moon invovle?

Since FD says she won't be back for a minute or two I decided to try and answer your question as best I can. Not being well versed in all Wicca practices but fairly well read on the subject with some personal practice, maybe I can get this half right.

1st - Wicca is not organzied. You can talk to a 100 practicioners and will find they all do something different.

The moon in Wicca is very powerful. A salute can be as simple as pointing your athame at the moon and saying a simple salute to that particular phase of the moon. Or it can be part of a much larger ritual during a particular celebration.

Anyone else have anything more in depth to add - please do - as I am really quite a novice in the art. As a solitary - all my info is gained from books and the internet.

edited to add - When I say solitary - that might be a little misleading. I love the art - and have read and studied - have done some off and on practice during the years but not on a regular basis. But...as far as my belief system goes - Wicca pretty much describes it.

 

[Marianne]

Samhain is my favorite holiday. I am not a practicing Wiccan but love a lot of the aspects of the religion and I have read a lot about it on the internet. I try to do an altar of sorts on my buffet table to honor the holiday and those who have passed but other than that I haven't done much. I would love to learn more. This year we are going to be baking a feast of sorts. Making foods based on what is available from the harvest and hanging out with family.

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

I see this is your first post, so welcome! Take a moment and introduce yourself over at the 'where am I' part of the forum index, k?

 

[LilyD]

Samhain is my favorite holiday. I am not a practicing Wiccan but love a lot of the aspects of the religion and I have read a lot about it on the internet. I try to do an altar of sorts on my buffet table to honor the holiday and those who have passed but other than that I haven't done much. I would love to learn more. This year we are going to be baking a feast of sorts. Making foods based on what is available from the harvest and hanging out with family.

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

I see this is your first post, so welcome! Take a moment and introduce yourself over at the 'where am I' part of the forum index, k?

Oh I definitely will I was perusing the forums to see what was here and sometimes I can't resist posting when I see something I like

 

[Britesea]

Wow! lots more of us than I thought!

I'm a 2nd degree Georgian Wiccan, which basically means I started out in a coven and am now trained enough (so my High Priestess tells me, anyway) to start my own coven. I haven't done so yet, because I haven't met the right people-- apparently the Lady wants me to be solitary for a while.

Samhain (which I was taught was pronounced Sow-hen) is considered the New Year. Just as we begin life within the darkness of the womb, so we begin the circle of the year in the darkness of winter, which officially begins on the same day as Halloween. The Celts considered the day to begin at sunset (more starting in the darkness! lol) so that's why it's called Hallows-evening (Halloween)

When our children were home, we made quite a big deal about Samhain. We actually started it several days before. Each evening, we would light another candle and remember those that have gone before; starting with the animals and plants that had died that year so that we might live, continuing through our ancient ancestors, military that had died for our freedom, relatives, and finally on Samhain itself we would present the Feast of the Dead for all those that had died in the previous 12 months.

I remember one particularly powerful Samhain ritual that our coven did which involved both a guided meditation to the Underworld, and the High Priest invoked the aspect of the Crone within me. It was amazing. I had expressed a little anxiety about it during the planning- asking "What if She doesn't come?" He told me I could 'fake it' if She didn't come, but he told me later that was just to calm me down. He knew it would happen. When he called Her aspect to come forth, they threw a black shawl over my head, and it was as if it weighed 100 lbs! Suddenly I was all bent over and I felt a calm confidence (which, believe me, is NOT me). After the others helped me to be seated, I called each person to me and had them draw a card from the tarot deck, and then I told them what the card portended. Now- I had just STARTED to learn the cards, and the Major Arcana especially were still shaky for me; but I had absolutely NO trouble telling people what the card meant for them. Also, according to DH, my voice changed a little during this-- not a lot, but he said my delivery was different.
That was the most amazing thing to ever happen to me...

QUAIL: as 2dream said, the moon is very important in Wicca. The phases of the moon coincide with the aspects of the Goddess- New or waxing moon for the Maiden, Full moon for the Mother, Waning moon for the Crone. When we salute the full moon, we are acknowledging the Mother of us all. The ritual of saluting the moon can be very simple or very complex as the worshipper prefers.

All Gods are One God, All Goddesses are One Goddess, and together they are The Initiator.

 

[AnnaRaven]

Merry Meet!

Nice to see a Wiccan Circle here. I was very involved in coven and Wiccan church back when I lived in the midwest, before moving to Italy, and then to California. Here, it's hard to find a group that's serious without being stuffy (if that makes any sense) - guess I'm just happy being solitaire for now. Definitely more into the "crone" energy these days (menopause'll do that...)

Blessed be!

 

[so lucky]

If I wanted to learn more about being Wiccan, where do you suggest I go for information? I have been acquainted with two women who were practicing Wiccans, but since it was a professional relationship, I couldn't question them as much as I wanted to.

 

[Dawn419]

I'm glad to see this here, too!

I was raised Baptist, checked out other religions once I left home and have always felt closer to "something else", for lack of trying to type it as an explanation.

Sit with me around a small fire in our pit and you can't/won't shut me up as far as trying to explaining is concerned.

I don't know if "earthy" is right either but it's the closest I can think of.

 

[lorihadams]

Thanks FD for starting this....I practiced ages ago and then fell out of it when I met my husband and started my family but still feel very close to it. I passed on all my books and supplies to a friend that was just starting out and although I was sad to let go of a lot of the items....I knew it was the right thing to do....I could feel it. I still identify very closely with it but I have a family that is very involved in the christian church and so is my husband's family. I almost feel like I have to hide from it. I have recently started explaining why I have moved away from the christian faith again to my husband and I think he is finally getting it and I no longer feel I have to go to church with him here and now I think he is questioning some of the christian practices, although that wasn't my intention. I have taken my children to church at my mother's prompting and I feel like religion is such a personal experience that my children should be exposed to all faiths and decide what speaks to them personally. My four year old says that she believes in Jesus and my 6 yr old says that God isn't real so I guess the verdict is still up in the air with them.

I have to say that I feel very much at peace when I attend the local pauwau....I can sort of connect the wiccan practices with american indian tribal practices and it just gives me the warm fuzzies. I practiced actively in college and for a few years after I graduated and when I got so attacked for wearing my pentacle at work (I worked in an elementary school in a very southern baptist community as a reading tutor) and told by the principal "this is a christian community and if you do not believe as such you will no longer have a job" I was so taken aback that quit my job, I put everything away for a while, and went to Germany for a month to escape with my boyfriend at the time that was stationed over there. When I came back my mother said that the school had contacted her and asked if she knew I was a witch. I moved away from my parents about a month after that and didn't speak to them for a year because I felt attacked (and sometimes still do, especially by my dad who has had me and my brother (who's gay) on the prayer list at his church for years now). Anyway....

I love Samhain...I think it is just a wonderful time to recharge one's "batteries" and find some lightness again in a period of the year when everything is getting darker on us. I always take the time to thank the animals and plants that we use to nourish our bodies...I think it is only right to properly honor them.

I would love to get back into it and study with a coven but around here I don't think I would find a lot of people willing to say that they were wiccan out loud. I feel like I would have to hide it from everyone and that's not fair.

Thanks for starting this thread FD, it's nice to talk to others about it again even though I have forgotten some of what I have been taught. Blessed be!