This was a news story last year (2007), and in response a number of Pagans hereabouts in Maine (especially me I must admit) took to wearing t-shirts or other items which had a snakey theme to them.
Source: Calgary Pagan Network Yahoo Group.
In less than 2 weeks, it will be St. Patrick's Day. A day that St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland. Well, the snakes were the Pagans. And they weren't just chased out. They were executed; Men, women and children.
So, I've started a tradition with my coven and other friends. On St. Patrick's Day, all Pagans should wear something with a snake on it. A t-shirt, necklace, ring, etc.... This is our way of saying that the "snakes" are still here and that we are here to stay. The Snake is a symbol of wisdom and free will. Which is why the church wants to get rid of all Pagans.
We believe in free will and responsibility for our own actions. So, I am reaching out to all my pagan friends to join me in this new tradition and to pass it on to all other pagans you know. If we can get at least 1,000 people wearing a snake this year, it would be a great start.
Please Pass this on.
Thank You and Blessed Be.
And May the Goddess Kiss Your Brow and Bring Light into Your Darkness.
Respectfully
SeekingWolf
Perhaps the modern Pagans of the world should adopt March 17th as the "Festival of the Wisdom Serpent" or similar type of holy day observation. No flashy parades, no drunken brawling, just some kind of observation which celebrates the very wisdom itself that so many of us are seeking to attain to.
So, I'm proposing some discussion of this idea, with the hopes that modern Pagans will work out a way to celebrate this that makes it appropriate to create an official observance for this on March 17th every year.
Perhaps the patron deities of the observance would be those to whom serpents are among the beasts held as their sacred ones.
March 17th Proposal to the Pagan Communities
Saturday, March 1, 2008, 10:32 AM EST [Pagan Ritual and Liturgy]
The Rede -- 38 years on my pathway
Sunday, January 20, 2008, 12:44 PM EST [Pagan Ritual and Liturgy]
Survival of the fittest does not mean the same thing as survival of the most brutal, or survival of the most selfish. Being the only "culture-bearing animal," humanity has interfered with its own natural course of evolution.
I gave up on using the term "Wiccan" years back, when people first began to fight over it being different from everything else which was happening (and I realized that I didn't fit into either side's "definitions."). I was originally able to use it on my USCG personnel file for "Religion: Wicca" because back then ('72) the term was so obscure that nobody realized it was an excuse to hassle me over.
But I do not seem to see the Rede the same way as many. To me, it is a declaration of Personal Responsibility (somewhat like Heinlein's discussion in that one scene of Stranger about the phrase "Thou art God!"). After all, it states "will," not "whim," and of course whims are wants and not actual needs of the organism.
I suppose that if I had to write an adaptation of the Rede, (I guess sort of an addendum) to illustrate how I have come to see its meaning, it would go something like this:
An ye harm none, do as ye will :
___An ye are forced to defend, hide not thy necessary deeds;
___An ye must protect others, takest thou some responsibility for thy community;
___An thankest thee those beings who feed us, and to the compost of ancestors upon which we all depend.
or "Go about your life with no intent to go out of your way to cause deliberate harm to any others, but when the situation calls upon you to cause harm, if it must be done for the greater good then you must do so, and step up and take responsibility for what your conscience has required of you."
• Vegetarianism based in principles against killing (even though there are still plants dying) is an Idea I have no problem with.
• Vegetarianism based on the false idea that it is wrong for an omnivore species to be so, I have no use for. (culture interfering with nature once again)
All of this is of course still a "work in progress" as my knowledge and level of understanding continues to change and (hopefully) grow over the decades.
Experimental Egyptian Runes Set
Monday, April 2, 2007, 06:15 PM EST [Pagan Ritual and Liturgy]
Never having worked with any runes sets, it seemed a possibly good idea when it struck me a couple of years back, and after much head-scratching, image scanning, and a whole lot of guessing, I can announce that Version 0.0 of the Experimental Egyptian Runes Set is now ready for people to "play with."
http://downeastpagan.com/freeb/runes1.php
Input of people knowledgeable of things Kemetic, of people who understand runes (again, I don't as yet), and of people who print out the runic images for experimental work is welcome, desired, and WANTED !
Weird, just werid
Saturday, March 24, 2007, 10:19 PM EST [Pagan Ritual and Liturgy]
It seems that I foolishly posted my "Ostara" poem on the forums of The Pagan Activist dot com during their online Ostara Party. Apparently, it managed to become the first place winner in the Ostara Poetry contest that was a part of the party.
text for Ostara ritual
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 10:12 PM EST [Pagan Ritual and Liturgy]
Wrote this for my part, as one of the three Pagan clergy leading our clan's open Ostara celebration, gathering this Saturday. Having been a Solitary for over three decades, this is the first thing I've written for group worship. Treading the labyrinth is planned to be immediately prior to entering and calling the circle.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Ostara
Creative Commons Copyright 2007 by Ananta Androscoggin
We join together to celebrate
The Equinox of Springtide,
We gather to join our calls as one,
Ostara, goddess, awaken!
The earthly Wheel of the long year,
Turning, turning, never fails or halts;
The longer days -- the shorter nights,
This day, match, each for each.
Long slumbering through winter's cold
The land, the fields, the woods,
Now feel the season's change toward warmth
And stir as the goddess wakes.
Thump-thump! the stangs and staves signal:
Awake! ... The lands prepare for Thee,
The goddess, Springtide's driving force,
The fallow fields grow clear and warm.
The snows do melt, mud comes and dries,
The seed, the nut, the spores and mold
Spread far by bird and beast and man
Lie ready for Ostara's touch.
We ... here ... though few in gathered clans
Are joined by groups like this worldwide,
Out stangs and staves keep Her drumbeat
Upon the sacred grounds.
The Labyrinth we've walked this day
To draw and focus our intent,
Life, through death, to life again,
The cycles turn, our part accept.
We know Thee by so many names,
The different faces you've show each tribe,
O goddess of the springtide season
We greet thee with great joy!
The Green Man too, in all his names,
In all his places wild and lonely,
Thou too, we bid our joyous greetings;
Thou too we welcome here.
The Wheel turns on, spring supplants winter,
And soon the lands will bloom.
The farmers and the herdsmen now
Fulfill their labor's role.
Awakened now, to this: Thy season,
Springtide's god and goddess bring
To us their blessings, to us ...
The knowledge that the Wheel still turns.