Death & Dying (Pagan Resources)

Hey, Readers,

This post has been sitting in my Drafts folder here for the past year, just about. 2020 saw a lot of unnecessary death, and though I had been planning to share this beforehand, once certain events occurred last year, it no longer seemed appropriate timing to share. On the other hand, maybe some people would have considered it the perfect time to discuss death and dying and grief resources, but to me it felt like it may be construed as "using" the situation to seem relevant, get more views, or whatever. It truly just wasn't the best timing. So I've saved this post, and now, here it is.

Early last year, someone wrote to someone I work with, asking for help finding information about Pagan beliefs and practices around death and grief. The questions were forwarded on to me, and this was my response at the time. I saved it in case it could be helpful to others. Now it's been another year, and I'm sure there are other resources that can be mentioned (I think a few new books on the subject have come out more recently, though I haven't read them yet), but this was my answer as it stood at that time, early last year.

The Questions:

1. What are beliefs about death and dying?
2. What is the belief about autonomy or self-determination regarding treatment or end of life decision making? (Who makes treatment decisions, how much information does the dying person want, etc)
3. What are the death rituals? Is there a focus on burial and/or cremation?
4. How does bereavement play out -- are there expected practices after someone has died?
5. Is there anything that individuals do in order to help with the grieving or bereavement process? (Ex. therapy, community organization)

And my response was as follows:

Reclaiming - Principles of Unity

Hey, Readers,

This past weekend at Cleveland Pagan Pride, I presented two back-to-back workshops. The first was co-taught by myself and my friend Ariawn, a High Priestess of a traditional English coven. We talked about the Art of Ritual, comparing and contrasting public/private ritual, and traditional/eclectic/solitary ritual. My second workshop was my Pagans & Prejudice workshop that I've done before, but in a rebooted format, with more activities to help with understanding concepts.

During the event, I mentioned to people that I'm on the slow but steady track to becoming a teacher in the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft. A few people know what that is, but most people I talk to around here do not. Then I ask, "Have you heard of Starhawk, and the book The Spiral Dance?" Even when the answer is yes, people haven't necessarily heard of the Reclaiming Tradition, because in that book, Starhawk didn't really talk about it as a tradition. It wasn't, really, at the time. It started as a collective, and over the years has grown into a tradition that has groups and practitioners in pockets all over the United States and in other countries, as well.

I'd like to encourage anyone who doesn't already know about this tradition to add it to your mental list of types of Witchcraft you know about by reading about it at the Reclaiming website. And below, I wanted to share the Reclaiming Principles of Unity. The bold formatting is my addition, but the words are directly from the website.

Blessings~
-C-


~

Principles of Unity

"My law is love unto all beings..."
- from The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente

The values of the Reclaiming tradition stem from our understanding that the earth is alive and all of life is sacred and interconnected. We see the Goddess as immanent in the earth's cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration. Our practice arises from a deep, spiritual commitment to the earth, to healing and to the linking of magic with political action.

Each of us embodies the divine. Our ultimate spiritual authority is within, and we need no other person to interpret the sacred to us. We foster the questioning attitude, and honor intellectual, spiritual and creative freedom.

We are an evolving, dynamic tradition and proudly call ourselves Witches. Our diverse practices and experiences of the divine weave a tapestry of many different threads. We include those who honor Mysterious Ones, Goddesses, and Gods of myriad expressions, genders, and states of being, remembering that mystery goes beyond form. Our community rituals are participatory and ecstatic, celebrating the cycles of the seasons and our lives, and raising energy for personal, collective and earth healing.

We know that everyone can do the life-changing, world-renewing work of magic, the art of changing consciousness at will. We strive to teach and practice in ways that foster personal and collective empowerment, to model shared power and to open leadership roles to all. We make decisions by consensus, and balance individual autonomy with social responsibility.

Our tradition honors the wild, and calls for service to the earth and the community. We value peace and practice non-violence, in keeping with the Rede, "Harm none, and do what you will." We work for all forms of justice: environmental, social, political, racial, gender and economic. Our feminism includes a radical analysis of power, seeing all systems of oppression as interrelated, rooted in structures of domination and control.

We welcome all genders, all gender histories, all races, all ages and sexual orientations and all those differences of life situation, background, and ability that increase our diversity. We strive to make our public rituals and events accessible and safe. We try to balance the need to be justly compensated for our labor with our commitment to make our work available to people of all economic levels.

All living beings are worthy of respect. All are supported by the sacred elements of air, fire, water and earth. We work to create and sustain communities and cultures that embody our values, that can help to heal the wounds of the earth and her peoples, and that can sustain us and nurture future generations.

Reclaiming Principles of Unity - consensed by the Reclaiming Collective in 1997. Updated at the BIRCH council meeting of Dandelion Gathering 5 in 2012.

Goddess Worship, Archaeology edition

When people confuse matriarchy with misandry, archaeology edition...

Hey, Readers,

I'm rereading The Spiral Dance by Starhawk and got to the part where she discusses that people say Goddess worship always included human sacrifice in a literal sense (as opposed to the symbolic sacrifice of burning poppets, etc), but archaeological evidence does not support this. She lists several sites determined to be home to matrilineal cultures where Goddess imagery was common, yet no evidence of human sacrifice was present.


One of the sites named was Çatalhöyük or Catal Hüyük, where she notes that many figures depicting the Goddess and animals were found, but there are no provisions for human or animal sacrifice. Not knowing much about Çatalhöyük, I decided to look it up and read a bit. 

Salt Burns

Dear Readers,

I think I gave myself salt burn during my esbat ritual. I'm not entirely sure, but I woke up the next morning with these little marks on my fingers and no idea how they got there!

I didn't put out any flames with my fingers, I didn't touch any flames with my hands at all, and I didn't touch any hot metal. So the only think I can think of is that I got salt burn from consecrating all the crystals/items I was cleansing because I had water left on my fingertips when I pinched the salt. I would be surprised if that were the case, because normally you need ice for that, but hey. It's the only explanation that makes sense. I'm writing this blog a good three nights later, and by now the marks are gone.

I'm probably going to do a video at some point, not about my ritual, necessarily, but about sharing our rituals/how rituals went. It's a strange subject for me, so I think it's worth sharing some thoughts. I don't know yet how much I will say, as is the nature of the strange subject, so I can't promise anything. We'll see.

In other news, I'm almost done reading The Spiral Dance. I'll read the final chapter tonight (this morning) before bed. Right now I have to post some things to my Etsy and finish watching this episode of Without a Trace first.

I hope you all had an enjoyable esbat, whatever you did, and I hope you're enjoying the summer, any nice weather that's come your way, and all the fortunes your life holds.

Blessings~
-C-

Candle Gazing

I started reading Starhawk's The Spiral Dance after I got it a short while ago. I haven't read every day, but I try to read whole chapters at a time, plus her notes from the ten- and twenty-year anniversaries, so I get the updates right after reading the chapter, to better remember.

Today, I read chapter seven, and I might begin chapter eight before I go to bed. But I decided that instead of diving right into chapter eight immediately, I would stop and do one of her easy little suggested activities. The simplest one I can think of, besides grounding and centering which I've done for years (and her definition of centering differs from mine), is candle gazing.

The goal of candle gazing is to increase your focus and concentration by gazing at a candle flame for five to ten minutes without letting your gaze un-focus, or go blurry, crossed, fuzzy, or double-visioned. So I lit a candle, sat comfortably on my futon, and settled the candle in front of me.

At first, I thought it might be difficult. Thirty seconds seemed to take forever and I thought "I'm going to do this for five minutes?!" But it's really not difficult. You just have to LOOK. After a while, it was tempting to shift my focus and scry in the flame--it kept moving in such interesting ways I had never consciously noted a flame moving in before, and I watch flames quite a bit. But after a while, I was sure it had been five minutes, and my gaze hadn't lost focus. I determined that this was probably not a necessary skill-builder for me, and I know I have pretty good concentration, but I still think it's good to test those basic skills every now and again.

I tried doing some other focus exercises with it, then, focusing on a specific size of flame or quickness, playing with wax and heat, and dropping an energy ball onto it. There were varying degrees of success. I doubt myself, suddenly ask myself "What on Earth am I doing?" Even after eight years and several obvious successes, I still occasionally doubt my ability to repeat a feat. Still, the next thing I knew, half an hour had passed.

Get a candle and a comfy spot and try candle gazing for yourself. You don't have to do it a lot if your concentration is already good, but it's worth flexing those muscles and maybe developing some more.

Blessings~
-C-

Spiral Dance

Hey, Readers!

I finally bought a copy of this book, which was recommended to me a couple years ago. It was always at Half Price Books--they always had at least two copies, every time I went--and each time I would look at it, planning to get it, but something always made me put it back. It didn't seem important enough to have it.

I don't know why, but yesterday when I went, I finally took it home. It sort of helped that there was an extra 20% off sale this weekend, but really, I think it was just time.

Has that ever happened to you? Nothing really changes that you can tell, but somehow, something that wasn't right before suddenly is?

Maybe it's just that I have more time to spend on this now. Who knows.

Blessings~

-C-