Daily Pagan Practice

A Daily Pagan Practice for the Year

By Allison Ehrman

Many religions offer (or require, depending on your perspective) daily practices for their adherents. Ranging from prayers and studies of texts, to worship services and holy days, members of various spiritual movements center their lives around a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual compass of internal and external rites and practices. As I face the upcoming transition of both of my sons starting college over the next three years, I have been contemplating what a personalized daily Pagan practice would look like and how it might help me through this challenging period.

So at Samhain I put together a Wheel of the Year Plan for myself, based on my interpretation of the Pagan calendar. I hope to fine tune it each year as I pick up new practices and activities. In addition to my insight meditation, the observances of the Women’s Ritual Circle at my UU fellowship, and family Sabbat celebrations at home, I have begun to use this plan to add more depth and meaning to life on a daily basis.

Like many practicing Pagans, I kick off each new season with a personal Sabbat ritual. This generally involves time at my altar casting a circle, burning candles, and performing seasonally appropriate activities and meditations. I’m not going to share details about these observances in this article, partially because there are so many helpful articles out there already on this topic and partially because my altar rituals are deeply personal and highly fluid according to my needs at the time. The focus of this article is instead on establishing a daily Pagan practice.

In addition to my altar ritual, I enjoy doing activities throughout the Sabbat evening and the following day. These generally involve my family and take place at our home. Over the years I have accumulated a list of craft, cooking, and symbolic tasks that have become favorite traditions. I sometimes try new projects based on ideas from other people. My main goal in this celebration is to mark the transition between the old season and the new. That is what it means to turn the wheel of the year. Sabbats are small rites of passage for me as I shift into a new frame of mind and begin the next phase of the cycle.

This is where the “theme of the season” (listed below) comes in. At Yule this year I will mark the end of my daily contemplation on the theme of death and darkness, which I began at Samhain, and begin focusing on the theme of dormancy and healing instead. I like to find innovative ways to delve into these topics each day. I’ve learned that the TED Talk video series (available on YouTube and the TED Talk website) offers many interesting lectures related to my themes.

They provide excellent fodder for thought and occasionally give me a new perspective on a theme. During this season, I have been reading “The Book of Dead Philosophers” which provides vignettes outlining each philosopher’s outlook on death and then tells how they died, sometimes with darkly humorous results. A month and a half is a good amount of time to work through a relevant book day by day. The Internet is teaming with other articles, videos, and images that relate to each of my seasonal themes. I never need to worry about running out of ways to spend 10-15 minutes a day examining a subject. And if I did, then I could just allocate a portion of my meditation time to focusing on the current topic.

I am finding that the theme of the season becomes a filter through which all of my daily activities and occasional surprises and crises pass. This modifies the way that I view life and offers me insight and wisdom that I might not have discovered otherwise.

As an aside, I was concerned that thinking about death for a few minutes every day for a month and a half would cause me to become anxious and/or depressed. What I’ve found instead is that it has improved my perspective on what is important in daily life and what isn’t, and has taught me to look at life as an exceptional blessing that I can’t take for granted even for a moment.

 

Another activity that I enjoy is changing the essential oils that I add to my homemade face and body moisturizers. A new scent related to the theme of the season helps center me in my place on the wheel of the year and reminds me of my current focus. I also enjoy dressing in colors keeping with the theme. Doing so helps keep me in the right frame of mind. Therefore, my plan includes essential oils and colors for each portion of the year.

Finally, I like to mark the passage of the season with a few larger activities (listed below) in the evenings or on weekends when I have more time. These serve to help me refocus on the daily theme if my practice has wandered due to the typical stresses of life or events outside of my control. These activities may be as simple as taking a walk to enjoy new spring growth, or as complex as planning a weekend cabin retreat with my husband so we can unplug from the digital world and spend a couple of days meditating, doing yoga, and re-centering ourselves for the months to come.

In establishing a plan for a daily Pagan practice, I think there are two key factors to ensure success. First, the plan must be tailored to your own needs and beliefs. Perhaps you’d prefer to focus on a particular god or goddess each season instead of a theme. Maybe you’d like to incorporate crystals or tarot cards into your daily habits. You might even want to structure your plan around activities that you currently practice with a coven or CUUPS group. There are as many possibilities as there are Pagans. The second factor for success is that you have to remain flexible even within your own plan. If you neglect your practice for a couple of days, the season isn’t ruined. Just pick it up the following day. If the theme you’ve chosen for the season doesn’t seem to resonate with you after you’ve begun, change it. Follow the instincts you’ve honed as a Pagan and you won’t go wrong.

I look forward to sharing how my daily Pagan practice is evolving and affecting my life over the coming twelve months. Yule is a time for new beginnings, and I think this is an excellent way to start the cycle anew. I wish you a wonderful Winter Solstice and a fulfilling turn of the wheel this year.

 

My Wheel of the Year Plan

Yule

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Stud an orange with cloves and hang it by a ribbon in a south-facing window to welcome the returning sun
• Meditate beside a sunny window
• Decorate the house with fresh evergreens
• Have a Yule feast
• Find a Yule log in the forest
• Have a Yule fire with the new log and the remnants of last year’s log

Sabbat Foods: mulled wine, the best of the vegetables and meats preserved from the year’s harvest

Altar Addition: bowl of earth

Theme for this season: dormancy and healing

Essential oils: lavender and chamomile for soothing and healing

Color: brown

Special activities for the season: plan unplugged retreat days for meditation and yoga

 

Imbolc

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Make a corn husk doll and lay her in a basket filled with white flowers to symbolize the rebirth of the maiden
• Make butter
• Set candles in the windows to encourage the returning sun

Sabbat Foods: fine cheeses and homemade bread and butter

Altar Addition: bowl of seeds

Theme for this season: rebirth and beginnings

Essential oils: ginger and nutmeg to encourage regeneration

Color: yellow

Special activities for the season: grow sprouts in the kitchen; watch for returning birds at the feeder

 

Ostara or Spring Equinox

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Hide plastic eggs filled with small treats throughout the house as surprises for loved ones
• Decorate real eggs
• Bless the garden with compost from the bin and a fertility chant
• Decorate the house with flowers
• Clean the meditation room
• Move the altar back upstairs to the meditation room

Sabbat Foods: eggs, hot cross buns, baby lettuce salad

Altar Addition: vial of water

Theme for this season: growth and health

Essential oils: peppermint and spruce to stimulate growth

Color: green

Special activities for the season: start indoor seedlings for the garden; try new healthy recipes; take walks to look for early spring changes

 

Beltane

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Collect morning dew to anoint my altar
• Cut flowering briar branches, place them in a large vase, and tie colorful ribbons to each branch
• Set seedlings from Ostara out into the garden
• Perform a tarot reading for the harvests ahead
• Plan a romantic evening with my love, including a large fire

Sabbat Foods: savory oat cakes with scallions and spring greens, cocktail with fresh honeysuckle

Altar Addition: flowers

Theme for this season: youth and playfulness

Essential oils: jasmine and yling ylang for passion

Color: pink

Special activities for the season: tend the young garden; plan spontaneous outings and romantic evenings

 

Summer Solstice or Midsummer

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Spend the day outdoors
• Have a large fire at sunset
• Put out seeds and treats for the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks
• Tend the garden

Sabbat Foods: fresh seasonal garden and farm produce, white wine, fruit

Altar Addition: new candles

Theme for this season: nurturing and compassion

Essential oils: rose and coriander for caring

Color: burgundy

Special activities for the season: attend Firefly music festival; plan quality outdoor activities with family and friends

 

Lammas or Lughnasadh

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Pick and preserve garden vegetables
• Preserve farm produce
• Eat dinner outdoors
• Drink a toast to the waning sun and pour out a libation of ale and a sacrifice of grain

Sabbat Foods: fresh seasonal garden and farm produce, beans and cornbread, summer ale

Altar Addition: bowl of mixed dried grains

Theme for this season: maturity and responsibility

Essential oils: neroli and vanilla for balance

Color: purple

Special activities for the season: complete important tasks that have been put off; prepare for the coming work and school year

 

Autumn Equinox or Mabon

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Clean the sun room
• Move the alter back downstairs to the sun room
• Write out a list of the year’s blessings
• Bless the garden with a chant of thankfulness
• Research and share a harvest myth at dinner time
• Enjoy a fire after dark

Sabbat Foods: preserved meat and produce from the year’s harvest, red wine

Altar Addition: basket with apple and hazelnuts

Theme for this season: wisdom and perspective

Essential oils: thyme and bergamot for insight

Color: blue

Special activities for the season: go apple picking; take long walks; write out memories and sort photos

 

Samhain 

Favorite Sabbat Activities

• Remove dead plants and cover the garden with straw
• Light candles in the windows for ancestors
• Put out seeds and nuts for animals preparing for the winter
• Perform a tarot reading for the year ahead
• Burn the corn doll from Imbolc and sprinkle her ashes over the garden

Sabbat Foods: apples, popcorn, candy, pumpkin seeds, nuts, mulled cider

Altar Addition: black cloth and empty bowl of air

Theme for this season: death and darkness

Essential oils: rosemary and cypress for anointing

Color: black

Special activities for the season: fast for a day; read obituaries; visit a cemetery

 

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/naturespath/2015/12/a-daily-pagan-practice-for-the-year/

 

 

Sabbat Autumn Equinox

Sabbat Beltane

Sabbat Imbolc

Sabbat Lammas

Sabbat Samhain

Sabbat Spring Equinox

Sabbat Summer Solstice

Sabbat Yule

 

 

Sabbat Samhain

Sabbat Samhain

Samhain is known by most folks as Halloween, but for Wiccans and Pagans it's considered a Sabbath to honor the ancestors who came before us.  The fields are bare, the leaves have fallen from the trees, and the skies are going gray and cold. It is the time of year when the Earth has died and gone dormant.  Every year on October 31, Samhain presents us with the opportunity to once more celebrate the cycle of death and rebirth.  It is a time to reconnect with our ancestors and honor those who have died. This is the time when the veil between our world and the spirit realm is thin, so it's the perfect time of year to make contact with the dead.

For the Norse, it is Winter nights.  In the old calendar, winter begins about Mid-October; however this holiday may move about in the calendar depending on your seasons, many match it with Samhain. It is a time to celebrate the completed harvest and honor the ancestors.  It marked the beginning of a time of indoor work, thought and craftsmanship.  It also honors God Odin in his Wild Hunt.

Activities: Divination, Past-Life Recall, Spirit Contact, Meditation, Drying Winter Herbs, Rune Stones

Alter: Autumn leaves, fall flowers, pomegranates, apples, pumpkins, ears of corn, sprays of grain, corn dollies, gourds, nuts, seeds, acorns, chestnuts and images of ancestors are all appropriate. Use whatever is in season where you live, whatever feels right and looks good to you.

Animals: Bats, Cats, Dogs, Owls, Night Animals

Attunement Teas(Individually or Blended): Apple Cider, Angelica, Catnip, Indian Hyppo, Sage, Valerian

Colors: Black, Orange, White

Deities: All Crone Goddesses, The Dying/Dead God

Foods: Apples, Squash, Pork, Pomegranate, Gourds, Rosemary, Red Foods, Mulled Cider, Mead, Nuts  

Goddesses: Hel (Norse), Kali (Hindu), Keli-De (Irish), Marzana (Slavic), Nicnevin (Anglo-Scottish), Psyche (Greek), Hecate (Greek), Lilith (Hebrew),Mara (Persian), Morrigan (Celtic), Rhiannon (Welsh)

Gods: Coyote Brother (Native American), Hades (Greek), The Great Horned God (European), Loki (Norse), Pluto (Greco-Roman), Woden (Teutonic), Corn Father (Native American), Dis (Roman), Ghede (Voodun), Heimdall (Norse), Cronus (Greco-Phoenician), Odin (Norse), Sekhet (Egyptian), Xocatl(Aztec)

Key Action: Return, Clean a Graveyard, Share with the Dead, Change, Costumes, Feasting, Scrying Bowl

Meaning: Wisdom of the Crone, Death of the God, Reflection on the Wheel of the Year, Honoring of the Dead, End of Summer, Celtic New Year

Mythical Creatures: Phooka, Goblin, Medusa, Beansidhe, Fylgiar, Erlkonig, Harpies

Other Names: Halloween, Hallowmas, All Hollows Eve, Day of the Dead, Festival of Spirits, Third Harvest, Celtic New Year, Hallowe'en

Plants: Apple, Mugwort, Gourds, Sage, Allspice, Catnip, Wormwood, Pumpkin

Pronounced: SOW-in

Ritual Oils: Frankincense, Basil, Yarrow, Lilac, Ylang-Ylang, Camphor, Clove

Stones: Obsidian, Onyx, Carnelian, Jet, Bloodstone

Symbols: Jack-o'-Lantern, Balefire, Besom (broom), Masks, Cauldron, Waning Moon, Black Cat, Scarecrow

Taboos: Eating Grapes or Berries

Winternights Meditation

Bare now its limbs, and long its shadow:
while Sol sinks low o'er Sweden's hills,
her light glows through the leafless ash,
whose steadfast roots reach far below.

The barrow-grass has browned with death:
though Freyr had sworn no frost would lie
above the dead, his dearest friends,
still the cold has struck the land.

My thoughts run back to bygone years,
and tales the Northmen told before:
the buried king they called a god,
for harvest-luck they left him gifts.

His bones with earth are blended now,
his earthly kin are kings no more--
though some among the Swedes still trust
his unseen might, the Yngling-father.

I, too, have known his nearness there
and felt the god whom grave-dust hides:
he called me kin and clasped me tight,
he called the land I love my home.

Bare are its limbs and long its shadow--
the ash that wards this wintry land;
Sol's brother lights the barrow-ground,
the sparks of Muspell spread their gleam.

~ Ingeborg S. Nordén

'Twas the Ancestors' Night

'Twas the Ancestors' Night which we call Halloween,
When strange moving shapes near old gallows were seen,
The shadows of those who were hung there with care,
They seemed to grow solid and really be there.

They gathered and walked through the streets of my town,
When I saw them coming, I cast myself down;
But the scariest thing was, all these deceased,
They looked just like dressed for a Halloween feast.

Then, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a wain which was pulled by some animals queer,
And a broad-hatted fellow who drove with such vim,
I knew in a moment it must be Old Grim.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now, Sleipnir! Now, Loki! Now run, Hildisvin!

"Run, Gullinbursti, it is Halloween!
"To the top of the World! To the top of the Tree!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Onward with ye!"

As valk'ries before the wild battle will fly,
When they've picked up a dead guy, they soar to the sky,
So up to the Tree-top the coursers they flew,
With Grim in the wain, and some other folks too.

With dire foreboding, I heard rustling moves,
The clatter and gallop of thundering hooves;
As I peeked from my bush and was turning around,
Down on the Tree trunk came Grim with a bound:

His eye - how it glittered! His cloak was deep blue,
He jumped from the wain without further ado;
In the smoke that rose from the pipe that he held,
Pale figures were forming, and seethed and dispelled.

He was hollow and gaunt, as dark as an alf,
And I quaked when I saw him in spite of myself;
A glint of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had reason to dread.

He looked around, and he brandished his spear,
And an odd looking crowd stepped from the wain's rear:
A vamp with a necklace, a judge with one hand,
A redhead, a sailor with feet full of sand,

A talking wise guy who was just a head,
A man who looked blind and his bro' who looked dead,
A woman in white who walked like a queen,
And a guy with the biggest pumpkin you've seen.

They did not tarry, but set to their work,
And gathered the ghosts from the gallows who lurked,
They fetched and they beckoned them into the wain,
And when it was full, they too boarded again.

Grim took the reins, and he gave me a wink,
And I dared to hope while in fear I'd still shrink;
And giving a nod, up the Tree trunk he went,
The shadowy people behind him all pent,

And away they all flew, as fast a crow,
And left me dazedly standing below,
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight:
"Y'all have a Happy Ancestors' Night!"

~ Michaela Macha

Ancestor

In cold earth and lightless
In the silent chthonic span
I am a memory, awaiting
In repose are my deeds
My thoughts and feelings
Till a voice beckons
From the light it calls
In an infants tongue of cries
I speed out bringing luck
It is my time to return
To merge and feel fires again
Day dawns as I join my kin
In the glow of mother at the hearth

~ Rob Crocker

New Year's Greeting

I hope the year that passed was good to you,
And if times could be better, they will be;
That you may reap the harvest that is due,
Of doors still locked that you may turn the key.

I wish that you find time to play and rest,
And to see beauty in the little things,
That you enjoy whatever you like best,
And tackle bravely what the future brings.

What warp the Norns have spun, no man can say,
But it's the weft we firmly hold in hand;
We weave the pattern each and every day,
The faith we follow is its golden strand.

Reader, for you and those that you hold dear,
The Aesir's blessing for the coming year!

~ Michaela Macha

Apple of my Eye

Apple of my eye.
Arrow in the night.
Arrow from my quiver.
Star in my sky.
Second of seven in sight.
Little fish swim down ancestral river.

The Ladies whisper
From that Weird Well,
"Wake the Gods, raise the banner."
Follow your sister,
Like Fetch in human shell.

Learn the sign of Red-Beard's Hammer.
Let it grow
Like our tree
Slowly and with patience.
Few will know
What you see,
Arrow of the Ancients.

~ Izak Sample

The mood is one of conserving resources against the scarcities of the coming cold season. This is a time of the year when the animals which could not be fed through the winter are killed and preserved. Usually at least one such animal was the subject of sacrifice with the kin, eating the held meat during the feast.  Libations of ale, milk or mead are traditionally poured onto the Earth as an offering.  Apples may be offered to the fallen ancestors.  Hay may be left out for Odin’s horse Sleipnir.  Odin’s mighty steed thus marks the kindred home as one of welcoming.

To the ancient Germanic people, death was never far away and it was viewed as a natural and necessary part of life.  Starting on this night, the great divisions between the worlds was somewhat diminished, which can allow the forces of chaos to invade the realms of order, the material world conjoining with the world of the dead.  At this time began the Wild Hunt in which the restless spirits of the dead walked amongst the living.  The dead could return to the places where they had lived and food was provided in their honor. 

Ancestor Day

Ancestors

Besom

Dark Goddess

Darkness

Einherjar

Elements Table

Funeral

Hammer

Hela

Jack o' Lanterns

October

Rite of Passage: Death

Sabbats

Samhain

Silent Supper

Smudging

Thanksgiving

The Witch's Sabbat - Samhain

'Twas the Ancestors' Night

Who Are Your Divine Friends?

Winter Night