Let us welcome the Celtic fire holiday of Samhain! Forms of this ancient Celtic festival have spread around the world, particularly with Halloween. Such popularity might be seen as both a blessing and a curse. The festival has changed in ways that probably would be almost unrecognizable to the ancient Celts. So in this post,…
A Samhain New Year? It actually makes sense
What if I told you that an argument could be made that the time around Samhain is one of the most natural times of year to mark the new year? This is not a point of view I’ve always held. As a solitary Pagan, for many years I celebrated the New Year at Yule because…
Wheel of the Year criticisms peak at Autumn Equinox
Due to a rather strange set of circumstances, Wheel of the Year criticisms are now part and parcel of the Autumn Equinox tradition. And I’m all for it.
Lammas is not Lughnasadh
Preparing for a semi-public Lughnasadh ritual that I’m leading motivated me to dive deeper into the holiday and its origins. I wanted to ensure that I accurately portrayed the tradition. In doing so, I found something much deeper, richer, and more robust than the generic versions of Lughnasadh/Lammas that Internet content farms often promote on…
Celebrating the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere
The day that gives the Earth the longest daytime in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest nighttime in the Southern Hemisphere goes by many names. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s referred to as the Summer Solstice, and in the Southern Hemisphere, it is considered the Winter Solstice. I often like to refer to the holiday…
Celtic erasure and how my fellow Pagans often unwittingly contribute to it
Up until recently, I wouldn’t have considered using the phrase “Celtic erasure.” Certainly, growing up in Chicago, “Celtic” was everywhere. St. Patrick’s Day—at least the Chicago-several-generations-removed-from-Ireland version—was characterized by green beer, the Chicago River being dyed green, and people dressing in green. It was everywhere. People of Irish descent with the last name of “Daley”…
Bealtainn calling January: How my Celtic heritage charmed me back to Paganism
I hit a wall on January 8, 2020, but maybe that was the best thing to happen to me in a long time. I was burned out for much of 2019. That spring, I had to suddenly find a new apartment and move after the building I lived in became a drug dealing den. I…
Personal Imbolc experiences
It might seem excessive for me to post more than one article about Imbolc in a single week. But Imbolc has intersected with my life in many interesting ways.
Imbolc in Wisconsin
Imbolc is a Celtic holiday and therefore not native to Wisconsin, but Imbolc in Wisconsin arrives in an interesting way.
The end of our civilization and a new beginning
I’ve started following the Substack column OK Doomer by Jessica Wildfire. She pulls no punches–especially in this article. She says that we are facing the end of our civilization, and that we’d better start acting like it. She’s absolutely right.