Welcome To Chrysalis!
Our main welcome message is at the About "Chrysalis" Page.
Updates have been made to the Pagan Values Page and the Online Pagan Resources are under continual examination and expansion. I have added a number of new links to the Pagan Blogs list on the screen to the right, down there somewhere...--->
Also look for a few different Thanksgiving related posts this week!
Thank you very much for stopping by,
Pax / Geoffrey Stewart
Dear friends and Pagani,
I dedicate this Thanksgiving post to Night Wandering Dionysus and the rest of the Theoi Daitioi (Gods of Feasting).
Folks who look at the evolution of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday will often point out that the Pilgrims weren’t farmers or they would have had arranged to arrive earlier and harvest in October. Luckily for us, they didn’t know much about farming; and however much the pilgrims really had to do with the evolution of the U.S. Thanksgiving, we get the opportunity to enjoy a superlative wine with our Civic Harvest Festival!
For U.S. Pagans, Beaujolais Nouveaux is the perfect wine to toast Thanksgiving in its aspect as a Harvest festival, as it is usually only a matter of weeks before that the wine in the bottle or glass was grapes on the vine waiting until the growers detected that they were at their peak, and ready for harvest.
Beaujolais Nouveau is the briefly fermented first batches of wine pressed from the current years wine grape harvest, Gamay grapes to be specific. Beaujolais grapes are picked only by hand, as are the grapes of the Champagne region; both of which are strictly regulated under French law. Beaujolais Nouveau also under goes a specialized fermentation process known as carbonic maceration, where most or all of the grapes are left whole and very little fermenting must is added, the weight of the grapes themselves helps crush the grapes on the bottom and aids in a fermentation process where the grapes ferment individually and relatively little of the harsh tannins present in the grape skins are pressed into the resulting wine, as is usually the case with longer aged and more traditionally pressed red wines. All of this results in a fruity and light flavor profile.
It debuts in the Third Thursday in November, no matter when the Harvest begun, and its flavor profile tends to blend well with rich and hearty foods of the type common to the Beaujolais region, or of the sort that we in the U.S. associate with Thanksgiving and the Winter Solstice feasts! The average quality Beaujolais Nouveau should be able to last a few months, and may take you as far as a celebration in March or even May. An excellent vintage (in a good year for the grapes) you could very well keep it for a year! Consult a wine professional or expert near you for advice if you are not sure.
In looking at a Beaujolais Nouveau you should be aware that the California wines marketed as a Gamay Beaujolais, or similar title, will tend to use a different variety of Gamay grape, and as they are grown in different land and microclimates the California Beaujolais will tend to have a different flavor profile than the French, in the end, try both and see what you like better and which blends better with your Holiday feasting!
Happy Thanksgiving,
Pax / Geoffrey Stewart
Some informative links…
Beaujolais Nouveau Wikipedia Entry
Beaujolais Nouveau: History Behind the Third Thursday in November
10 Fascinating Facts About Beaujolais Nouveau
Dear Friends and Pagani,
A stick of incense burns upon my altar. An offering unto the Theoi on the Noumenia.
In ancient times the Noumenia honored Selene, Apollon Noumenios, and The Household Gods; including Hestia, Zeus, Hermes, Hecate, Appolon Ageieus, the familial Agathos Diamons, and ones honored Ancestors. Many contemporary Hellenic Polytheists will take this time to honor and make offerings to all of the Theoi.
Technically I am three days late, as the first sliver of the waxing moon, which the ancients considered the New Moon and the start of the new month; however it was on a walk earlier this evening that I caught my first sight of the moon since the astrological New Moon. It helps that I am being inspired by recent discussion of how to handle food offerings on the Neos Alexandria ~ discussion group on Yahoo.
The basic discussion was that once food has been offered to the Gods, it becomes blessed as They partake of its essence, and then the worshiper may eat the food offered to the Gods. (the general feel, based on UPG and some historical sources, is that food offered to the Dead is better left out in the woods or perhaps burnt) Because of my current financial status I have to rely on discussion groups and online sources of information about my worship of the Theoi. Although admitedly almost 40 years of being a history geek have certainly helped to inform my online research… and I am finding a little money here and there to start buying books to increase my knowledge and understanding.
And still I practice. I pray to Them, I make offerings of incense, and now apples, and water… maybe some juice or wine…. Practice, practice, practice… Pray, sit in meditation, breathe into my Center, going for walks, writing out my thoughts and feelings and doing my best to become the best me I can be; both for myself and for the Gods.
“Every day, in some small way, I reweave myself, I rebuild myself.”
I am not only dealing with the recent break-up of my increasingly mis-named Life Partnership with the Big Guy; I am dealing with all of the old patterns and hurts that I have acknowledged for years but never really wrestled with, everthing that came roiling to the surface after the break-up.
I am doing it though! I am finding my way. I am learning who I am and what is important to me. I am building my spiritual and religious practices and figuring out how to work within and build upon my relationships with the Theoi, and with the Lady and Lord of the Witches, and the other Gods who I encounter and have encountered in my journey.
I am learning how to budget, and how to eat properly, and how to date and laugh and live and love; both again and for the first time.
For all of these blessings, and all of the blessings in my life, I thank the Gods. I offer my words and sweet smelling incense unto Them.
Peace,
Pax
Dear Friends and Pagani,
So I am working on my own self and spiritual practices and trying to rekindle my creative and spiritual fires. Some of this spiritual hearth-building has involved journaling, and some of it has involved puttering and updating pages on this blog/site. This has included some work on the Online Pagan Resources page. Including the creation of a category for Pagan Economic Empowerment.
Now I have written before of my belief that it is important for the Pagan movement to start examining how we spend our money, and to find ways to increase the economic health and prosperity within our own local and regional Pagan communities in my posts on Invoking the Power of the Pagan Dollar. This issue was highlighted for me again this October when The Wild Hunt did a story about a Wiccan who alleges that Bath and Body Works fired her for her religion. It was actually in the comments/discussion of this last story that my thoughts on Pagan Economic Empowerment were rekindled. Folks brought up the idea of a boycott, and then the idea of spending money with some of the Pagan purveyors of Bath and Body Lotions, Notions, and Potions on Etsy was brought up. This is an excellent idea!
As I have said before if we spend our money in community, with Pagan owned businesses on Pagan made goods and services wherever possible we can build a stronger community better able to face the challenges the 21st Century will bring as the Contemporary Pagan Movement matures and grows. If we spend our money with our fellow Pagans who are business owners and professionals, as well as our artisans and crafts-people, we can improve the economic and social status of our movement. If we can empower our community through our economic choices then we can build a world where it is as unthinkable to fire someone because of their Wiccan Faith as it is to fire someone for being Hindu or Jewish. (Not just as illegal, but as unthinkable…)
Now, what I am NOT saying, is that we should choose an inexperienced or shoddy good or service simply because it is Pagan owned/made. Nor am I suggesting that in pursuing a Buy Pagan approach to our goods and services that we need Out ourselves or our fellow Pagans… being out as a Pagan is a personal choice and a life-long process.
I would also like to once again remind folks that a Pagan business can mean a heck of a lot more than simply a book & paraphenalia shop (or online store). Spending Money at ANY Pagan owned business, with any Pagan professional, and on any Pagan made good will empower our community!
I am suggesting that if you have the option of buying your Pagan books and paraphernalia from a Pagan owned store, do so. I am suggesting that the next time you want to hold a Pagan Pubmoot in your local community, you look at reserving a backroom at the quietly Heathen owned brewpub. If you find yourself looking for a new home go with a Pagan Realtor. When you move into that new home, and you are looking for a new local Doctor, look for a Pagan one. If you have a Pagan Building Contractor/Remodeller in your area go with him for your remodelling needs at the new house. If you go out to eat regularly, and you know some local Pagans work as Servers, go to their restaurants and ask to sit in their section.
(Oh, on that last one, leave a good 20% tip! I know that 15% was standard once upon a time, but times have changed people!)
So I have covered Buying Pagan, what about Pagan Selling. Well, Pagan business owners and professionals of all types, ADVERTISE! You don’t have to completely out yourself to advertise in your community! An add saying “your Pagan and Heathen friendly realtor”, or an add saying “please be discreet when making appointment” will work wonders in your advertisememts to local Pagan Newsletter’s and at the local Metaphysical/Occult shops. Depending on your business and how out you are, you could expand to local coffee house postings or in the local Gay publications as well if you and your business is also Gay friendly. (there is some overlap between the Gay and Pagan communities, or so I have heard…)
If you are interested in advertising and networking you might want to check out the Pagan Business Network, an international networking and resource organization.
Peace,
Pax
Dear Friends and Pagani,
So, as previously mentioned, I am working with T. Thorn Coyle’s book Kissing The Limitless recently. The essays and visualizations and meditations and journaling exercises in it have really been helping me to reacquaint myself with, well, myself. I breathe into my Center and pray daily and have been not only acknowledging some of my ongoing issues, but been able to poke and prod and puzzle them out. Not only acknowledging them but actually understanding their history and place in my life in the past and in the present.
Its interesting to me how consciously breathing into my center has gone, in a few short weeks, from an exploratory practice to a habitual or reflexive action. I also am feeling so much more, well, centered – and calm and capable. I am also not feeling nearly as melancholy as I had been feeling lately after the break-up. There’s a point in KTL, where Coyle talks about has as you build your spiritual practice you begin to find a momentum and daily practice builds upon daily practice. I have been experiencing that lately. Inspired by my work with KTL and by some of my past dabbling explorations of my Chakra’s I have also recently picked up and am working with Wheels of Light by Anodea Judith. I have been working with my tarot cards recently, mainly shuffling them and simply spending time with them regularly… not a vigorous study… yet…
I have also been going for walks again, trying to get just a little more excercise and build up to going to the health center/gym in the apartment complex once I can go for a vigorous 30 minute walk without getting winded. Moving again, and feeling like I am finally waking up after the break up. Its like my heart and heart Chakra just shut down in the aftermath of that; a feeling rather like some personal pilot light went out within my soul.
In addition to rebuilding spiritual practices, I have been trying to rekindle my fires by reading my blogs(many of the ones to the right of the screen) and listening to my podcasts and looking for new ones. Here’s a few podcasts that have been helping me rekindle my personal fires.
“SpiritsCast is a (mostly) pagan podcast that is recorded in Southwestern Ontario, but hopes to reach the world with education and information on alternative spiritual practices and beliefs. It is produced by Feithline Stuart, who is the former hostess of “The Dark Side of Fey”.”
So now I breath into my center, and ground myself, and open myself to the inspiration of the Gods, and dive into my spirit and self.
Another long running, and widely distributed Podcast with a discussion format and on occasion a lot of cussing. Some folks have compared this podcast to drive-time DJ’s for the Pagan community. Rarely dull and always informative.
A fabulous Podcast series from renowned Feri Tradition Witch and author T. Thorn Coyle.
Are three podcasts that I’ve been doing a lot of listening to lately in addition to my habitual listening of the Wigglian Way…
A fascinating Canadian podcast entering its 3rd year, Sparrow and Mojo also are the only Pagan Podcast to be included in the religions category of the 2008 Podcast Awards!
So here’s to breathing to our Center’s and rekindling our fires dear friends and fellow Pagani,
Peace,
Pax
Hey folks,
So I have been updating and cross-referencing the Online Pagan Resources page, adding and re-arranging some links and cross referencing the Pagan and Magical resources lists and the Abuse & Domestic Violence and Trouble Makers,Dealing With lists.
If anyone out there has a minute or two to check out the Online Resources Page, and see if you can recommend any additions to the lists or a category I have neglected?!
Peace,
Pax
ps- look for a post on regular spiritual practice and momentum in the next day or so!!!
On this Veterans Day a moment of silence and silent thanks to the Honored Dead; and my heartfelt thanks to their living comrades, both active duty and retired.
Dear Friends and Pagani,
At Samahin many of us Pagans honor the Beloved and Honored Dead, and then (in the U.S.) there’s Thanksgiving and then Yule/Winter Solstice; a smooth and orderly progression within the dark half of the Wheel of the Year, from honoring the beloved and Honored Dead to celebrating and remembering the Beloved and Honored Living.
And then, things like the Fort Hood shootings happen. That this should happen so close to the upcoming U.S. Veterans Day observance (info here and here,) adds another level to the tragedy.
In the face of such terrible acts we can must choose how to respond. We can breathe deeply and consciously, partaking of both the life and energy around us and the interconnectedness of all things, all beings. We can meditate. We can pray. We can strive to move forward within our lives as best we can. We can learn. Prehaps most importantly we can remember.
Veterans Day gives any Pagan, but especially those of us who are seeking after the Religio Americana, an opportunity to remember and honor those who have lain down their life for our Nation, and equally important, to remember and thank those who are currently living their lives for this Nation or who have served in the past but are still amongst the honored living. Some Pagans, amongst those that observe Samhain, might say that such Veterans Day observances seem superfluous or excessive coming on the heels of The Feast of The Dead.
I would say that given that the Religious Freedom I enjoy to celebrate Samhain is bought and paid for in the blood, sweat, and tears of U.S. Servicemen and women, that honoring them in this way is the very least we can do!
So light your incense, pour your libations, and create your rites of thanksgiving. Make offerings of incense, and pour libations, and speak poems of praise to the dead. Remember their sacrifices and actions. Take a moment to shake the hands of the living, and say “thank you”. Heck, lets aside our differences and come together across the lines of Traditions and organizations to sponsor feasts and special rituals and observances for Veterans Day and for our own Pagan Veterans.
Who, and what, is remembered lives.
Peace, Pax
So you have probably already heard how Maine voted down a Gay Marriage law. Folks are upset and some folks are already “protesting” on Facebookgroups, although quite frankly marching in the streets and writing your elected officials would help too!
I would love to hear from folks from The Pine Tree State to find out if the Pro-Hate forces spent as much time and money spewing misdirrection, half-truths, and outright lies as they did in the Prop 8 battle in California? There’s a guest post over at Quaker Pagan Reflections that asks some very good questions about how the Pro-Hate forces decide to spend their money and effort.
I am not saddened, I am not angry, I am resolved and more determined than ever to see GLBT and Marriage Equality in my lifetime.
It’s a New Year.
At least in some Trads and for some Pagans… The whole Samhain as the Celtic New Year seems to be wavering out of fashion right now, although it comes and goes in popularity, or so it seems.
So it’s a new year time to scry the mirrors of my contemplation, re-read my blog posts to date, and think about my life and spiritual journey. Where have I been and where am I going? Samhain has always been a sort of turning point for me in terms of turning from activity out in the world to a more introspective time focused on myself and family.
I had set up an Samhain altar, and remembered and though about the Ancestors and Beloved and Honored Dead and the turning of the Wheel, and all that jazz. Despite wanting to pick up my Religious practices as a Witch, one whose path and practice have been largely influenced by Wiccan writers and ideas, and despite my love of the Goddess and God, and my desire to reconnect with Them; I was feeling the need to explore other Witcheries than the Seasonal Mysteries or Connection with the Beloved and Honored’s, or the Lord and Lady of the Neo-Wicca.
Lately the Magic and Witchery that has called to the deepest parts of me has been reconnecting with me, myself, and I.
Partly this is the result of reading and contemplating T. Thorn Coyles Kissing the Limitless. In reading, and doing the journaling and magickal exercises in that book I have begun to not only gain some much needed understanding of self… not just an awareness of my issues and habits and the many aspects of myself that have often times struggled within me and led me astray over the years, but perspective on them, and ways to engage with and deal with and accept and bless them and move on with the living of my life.
I really wish I could have found this sort of wisdom and these sorts of teachings within Witchcraft a long time ago; although admittedly had I found a Coven, I might have. It’s possible that that was not meant to be a part of my Journey as a Witch in this lifetime. I accept that, after all when I chose Witchcraft, and started walking this Wicca inspired road, I gave myself to the Goddess and God and asked them to guide me and to help me find the Mysteries and Teachers. In many ways I think they have, Not that it’s been a quick or easy road, but They have guided me on my journey.
I have also realized that the Neo-Pagan Religious Withccraft stream popularly called Wicca is only one part of my personal journey both as a Witch and as a Pagan. My few years of steady observation of the Moons and Sabbats gave way to less and less practice and observance… still heartfelt faith and a love of the Goddess and God and a deep sense of my own Pagan self, but not much Witchyness for some years. I reached a plateau. At the time I figured it was the lack of Covens and the Lack of local Community that was my big stumbling block… and that is what if felt like… like if I could just find the right something I’d be alright and back on track. This is where a lot of my passion for Pagan community comes from I think.
That led me into some detailed study of Ceremonial Magic/Magick. Not very much practice though because I didn’t have an income to support that habit! From Ceremonial Magick I wandered over into the Kabbalah, at least long enough and deep enough to realize that I was not ready for that work on either a personal level, or in terms of making a time commitment to it. Then I floundered for a few years, and thought I had hit rock bottom when I lost a retail job and was unemployed for a few months… at the same time I was meeting the Ex who would later help me take rock bottom to new lows, I got back involved in the local community.
I moved across the country, not finding any immediate contacts in the local Oralando community, I started this blog and got an A.S. degree in Restaurant and Hospitality Management. I did some growing up and learning and opened a place in my heart and life for Hecate and Dionysus and for the Theoi and Hellenic Polytheism. Now I find myself learning about a new stream of Witchcraft from the Feri Tradition.
I am no more a Feri Witch than I am a Wiccan (as is an initiate of one of the Traditions originating in the New Forrest region of Great Britain), I am simply a solitary Witch trying to unscrew the inscrutable.
I am learning a lot about myself and my patterns, and more importantly I am finding guideposts as to how to create new and healthier patterns.
How are you spending the day after Halloween/Samhain my dear Pagani?
Here’s some of how I spent mine…
I light the Ocean Breeze Spa Candle that sits on the bathroom counter. (Why yes, as a cavalier, why do you ask?!)
I light the candle, I turn out the lights and run as-hot-as-I-can-take-it water into the bathtub. I position myself into the typical modern apartment shoe-box of a bath tub as it fills. I add some soap, and I do my best to soak. The steam caresses my lungs with each breath as much as the heat relaxes my flesh. I begin to really breath, deep conscious breaths.
In through the nose and out through the mouth. In and out, deep conscious breaths trying to be as present in the moment and paying attention to the sound and sensations of this life drinking and energy raising breathing. After a few moments I begin to breath the energy and air into my center, somewhere below my stomach and above my pelvis it sits, long neglected. This new way of finding it combined with the deep breathing, long familiar to me for raising energy and getting in touch with my own energies, triggers an energetic sense memory…
After a while I find myself moving my breaths and energies destination to my Root Chakra. Even though I have begun working with grounding exorcises and with my Chakra’s again, I am still very rusty. I take a good long time breathing into my Root Chakra, resisting the temptation to move up through my chakra’s quickly… unlike so many times before I am not doing this as part of some other work, or for grounding centering and shielding… I am breathing life and energy and air into my Center and my energy centers to relax my spirit as I have relaxed my body.
In through the nose and out through the mouth, with great “Shhh-ing exhales” as I breath the energy into my Root Chakra, after a few moments I find myself not only drawing energy through my breath; but I find myself calling to the Earth energy and to the Creative Firey and Feri currents from the Earths Core, drawing them up into the red wheel/lotus at my perineum. Slowly, I feel like I have properly opened and relaxed this Chakra and I move up to the Sacral Chakra… I find myself wondering about the relationship between the Center point and this Chakra, seeming from my own sensations and from what I have learned so far to be so close together. Are they the same or simply very close? Very close I think/feel. I breathe, once more resisting the temptation to simply run up this string of Spinning Lights within me, I take my time.
I take my time with each of them. I empty the tub and go to my computer to listen to the Samhain podcasts, read the posts, and to think about how it is that I find some pieces of my soul blossoming. Samhain has, for me, always marked an inward turning time, coupled with the blossoming cooling to temperate temperatures of a Florida Autumn as we move toward the many fruit harvests of Winter here in the Sunshine State, I suppose it’s only natural that one who seeks to align with Natures rhythms would start to bloom once more this time of year.
Peace,
Pax
“Let us remember that the arc of a moral universe is long
but it bends toward justice.”
~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1962
In this season when so many of us will be remembering our own Ancestors and a variety of Honored and Beloved Dead, casting Circles, dancing in Spirals; it is both funny and synchronous I now find myself contemplating an Arc.
It started as I was surfing through FaceBook the other day, and someone had posted about how they couldn’t believe that they were seeing GLBT folks being added to Federal Hate Crimes legislation here in the U.S. They were surprised, and amazed and overjoyed, to see it happening in their lifetime. I am glad for them, and a little saddened that it should come as such a surprise to folks.
I am really not all that shocked or surprised at this development. As a Pagan and a Gay man I have seen a lot of changes already in my lifetime. I was born in March of 1972. Later that year the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, its authoritative list of mental disorders and illnesses.
Surprised? No. Gladdened, yes; and heartened, and inspired to pick up some torches I had dropped recently, but not surprised. I AM surprised that it took so many average people of conscience so long to see the rightness of equal rights and human rights, but we humans can be pretty dense sometimes. I am something of an idealist, or so I have been told, and I have every expectation that I will see true GLBT equality, and Gay Marriage, in my lifetime; because these are right and true causes rooted in morality, honor, love, and justice.
As the example of Dr. King, and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s shows, when people of conscience and faith gather around shared values they can change the world for the better. We can change the world for the better. So now, in this season of Samhain, when I remember and seek ways to honor the memories and spirits of my Beloved and Honored Dead; I find my mind turning to those causes of equality and justice and rights that some of them lived and died to help bring about. I find myself wondering…
“What can I do? What can we in the Pagan community do?”
(And YES, as a matter of fact I did go there, I DID say that oh SO scandalous “C”-word!)
I have said here before, among other places, that Paganism is a religious, spiritual, and social movement made up of several overlapping and intertwined religious and regional communities. Recently I am debating about that definition with myself. Juniper from Walking the Hedge made some excellent points in An Open Letter to the Pagan Community that, Yes, we are a community actually and could we please stop arguing that point and look at how we could be a better and more functioning one please?
Yewtree over at the dance of the elements bog, in her post on Community among Pagans and Unitarians, makes the point about how Unitarians (British cousins to the Unitarian Universalists) who, like U.U.’s are of many faiths, gather around and covenant within and are unified into beloved community by shared values and principles and moral beliefs. I know that part of why I have become a Unitarian Universalist is that going to Services and seeking to covenant around the Principles of Unitarian Universalism allows me to better act upon and live the virtues and values I have embraced as a Witch. These facts and this ability of U.U.’s to covenant and create beloved community based on shared values was, I now realize, part of what inspired the 2009 IPVBM.
We are a Community and we share similar and interwoven and interconnected values. We do not all share the exact same list, nor should we, but our lists and their key points have enough in common that I think we could engage in a little forgiveness about past infighting and Pagan drama and work together in service of our many Gods, living our values and faiths, and stand up for what is right and honorable and true and loving and good; so, inspired by the example of some of the Honored Dead, what should we do?
Beth Owl’s Daughter reminds us that Freedom of Religion is one of those Rights that is not simply handed to us, we must be willing to stand up and invoke and protect our rights. Even with legal protections in place we can face hardship and injustice simply for our faiths.
In a similar vein, T. Thorn Coyle in her blog post for IPVBM 2009, observed that we in the U.S. have let much of our public policy debates fall to the arguments of (predominantly) Christian Conservatives and Secular Liberals. Where is the diversity of voices one would expect in the Great American Melting Pot?
Here in the U.S. 1 in every 8 people is going hungry, and across the U.S. and the world, poverty and the recession are hitting folks harder and harder.
Then too, there are those who seek to line their pockets and fill their pews while stepping over the blood and bones of children and helpless old women.
What would our Ancestors think of thse things? What DO our many Goddesses and Gods think of that? Do such things serve the All That Is? Most importantly, what are WE as people of conscience, and values, and many faiths; what shall we do about these things?
