Pagan Sunday Brunch for March 2010

March 28th 2010, 10 am sharp
Resto Burgers & Benedicts
2313 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest (AMC)
(514) 228-5210
Breakfast: <$15
Facebook Event page

Winter is on its way out, but a hearty breakfast and excellent company can help to stave off the cold!

No level of pagan experience is necessary, but as long as you can wield a knife and fork like a guru master, you'll be respected and admired by your peers.

This is a kid-friendly event, so feel free to bring your offspring.

If you have any questions, send me a message on FB or email me at jdhobbes @ yahoo.ca. If you don't know anybody, don't fret. Ask the resto guys for Hobbes or look for the pentacle.
--
Hobbes

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DIRECTIONS

Resto Burgers & Benedicts is in the Pepsi Forum that houses the AMC Movie theatre and is across Atwater from Alexis Nihon.

BUS/METRO/WALK:
Get to Atwater metro (Green line), cross Atwater from Alexis Nihon, and enter the Pepsi Forum. Its the first resto inside.

Announcements

I have a couple of announcements to make about next class and April 7th:

Next class (March 31st), if you have one, please bring a USB flash drive to class that have at least 120 MB free on it. I have three lectures I want to give you. If you don't have a USB flash drive, I'll give you a CD with the lectures on it.

April 7th: There is no class because Scarlet will not be available on that day. The test will be on April 14th.

See you next week!

Male Symbols

At some point during the class, I need to draw symbols and shapes on the white board. This is really difficult for me because I don't draw terribly well. It's pretty embarrassing really, so I'm going to try to make it up here on the blog with some proper images.

Oddly, it's the male symbols that are incredibly detailed and therefore, very difficult to draw accurately. Here are some of the male symbols we talked about that I could not draw accurately.

Cernunnos:
From Wikipedia:
"Cernunnos (also Cernenus^[1] and Cern) is a Celtic god whose representations were widespread in the ancient Celtic lands of western Europe. Cernunnos is associated with horned male animals, especially stagsram-horned snake; this and other attributes associate him with produce and fertility.^[2] Cernunnos is also associated mainly as the God of the Underworld." and the

Greenman:
From Wikipedia :
The Green Man motif has many variations. Found in many cultures around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetative deities springing up in different cultures throughout the ages. Primarily it is interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, or "renaissance," representing the cycle of growth each spring. Some speculate that the mythology of the Green Man developed independently in the traditions of separate ancient cultures and evolved into the wide variety of examples found throughout history.

Check out this site for really cool leather Greenman masks.

Stag:
From Wikipedia:
 
White deer hold a place in the mythology of many cultures. The Celtic people considered them to be messengers from the otherworld; it also played an important role in other pre-Indo-European cultures, especially in the north.^[1][2] The Celts believed that the white stag would appear when one was transgressing a taboo, such as when Pwyll tresspassed into Arawn's hunting grounds.^[2] Arthurian legend states that the creature has a perennial ability to evade capture; and that the pursuit of the animal represents mankind's spiritual quest.^[3] It also signalled that the time was nigh for the knights of the kingdom to pursue a quest.^[2]

Snakes and Bladders: Celebrating All Snakes Day

Although Montreal celebrates St. Patrick's Day on a Sunday with its annual parade, March 17th is the actual St. Patrick's Day, which in 2010 falls on a Wednesday. Historically, St. Patrick is one of Christianity’s best-known and most-loved saints who is credited with banishing all snakes from Ireland.

Of course, there never have been any snakes in Ireland for St. Patrick to banish, so we understand that the snakes actually represent the pagans and their beliefs that were replaced by Christian doctrine. Critics often point out that this day is mainly an excuse for the population to drink excessively and wear garishly green clothing.

At face value, the spirit of St. Patrick's Day has certainly been hijacked by boorish behaviour, but it's certainly not the only holiday in which that happens. Let's take a look at the other seasonal celebrations we have and consider their excesses:

• For Summer, we have St. Jean Baptist Day and Canada Day.
• For Fall, we have Thanksgiving and Halloween.
• For Winter, we have Christmas/Yule and New Year's Day.
• For Spring, we have St. Patrick's Day and Easter.

As far as I can tell, Easter is the only holiday where the worst thing that can happen is cracking a tooth on too much chocolate (Halloween can be accused of that too, but there is more boozing in scary masks than at Easter). So why does St. Patrick's Day get all the criticism?

What are we really celebrating in March? If you take a look outside, you'll no doubtedly notice that the snow has mostly melted away and the days are sunnier. The Vernal Equinox is nigh, signalling the coming of Spring and Summer, a time of growth, rebirth, and warmth. After three months of darkness and cold, St Patrick’s Day is our moment to cast off the dark shroud of winter and welcome the warmth of the sun and the rebirth of nature.

From a pagan perspective, many modern-day pagans refuse to celebrate or even acknowledge this day. The image of our pagan forefathers fleeing the threat of Christianity is not a pleasant thought. But just as our modern-day pagan pioneers attempted to reclaiming the word "witch", I should think pagans can attempt to reclaim the spirit of the Vernal Equinox celebration known as St. Patrick's Day.

If we're going to reclaim the mythology of this day, then we can tongue-in-cheek add our own take on the myth. If St. Patrick's Day celebrates the day when the patron saint of Ireland seemingly drove all the snakes from Ireland, then we can celebrate "All Snakes Day": the day the Druids tricked St. Patrick into thinking the snakes had been banished.

After all, we snakes are still here and we are thriving! We're lean, green, Pagan machines who welcome the Sun God and the Green Goddess with open arms, excited with what the warmer seasons have to offer in terms of their bounty and boundless possibilities. Just like the snake who sheds his outer skin, so do we shed our warm, protective clothing and feel the warmth on our faces and skin. We may even hoist a horn of mead or ale to share with our kith and kin, bringing family and friends together to make plans and celebrate the friendship that got us through the darker winter days.

So Happy All Snakes Day to you, fellow pagans! Go out and revel in the heat that warms your snake skin. And I will raise a toast to you and yours while we enjoy the longer days together. As for St. Patrick? It's only fitting that we extend him some Irish hospitality for his special day if he'll lower his ash staff and share a pint or two with us.

Ritualized Quarterly Directions

Last week, we were covering the five elements in terms of their traditional associations (direction, gender, symbols, etc.) when one of my students wondered why each element was linked to its compass point (earth: North, water: West, air: East, fire: South). I was stumped to explain the mythological evolution of this association, so I promised I'd look it up.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really find anything satisfying in my books about it, other than "This is the way it is". So I turned to the Internet and asked the question to Yahoo Answers. Aside from some asinine responses which basically said I was a fool to believe in such nonsense and I would soon find myself in concrete galoshes in a lake of fire, I got these two great responses:

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From katyask

I can tell you about Native American element and compass correlation.

East (Red-fire/heat) - The direction from which the sun comes. Light dawns in the morning and spreads over the earth.

South (Yellow-earth) - warmth and growing, the sun's rays are powerful in drawing life from the earth. It is said the life of all things comes from the south. also, warm and pleasant winds come from the south.

West (black-water) - To the west, the sun sets, and the day ends. For this reason, west signifies the end of life and sends thunder and : rain, lakes, streams and rivers. nothing can live without water, so the west is vital.

North (white-air) - North brings the cold, harsh winds of the winter season. These winds are cleansing. They cause the leaves to fall and the earth to rest under a blanket of snow.

===================
From Cosimo )O( Basta!

That is the normal convention in the Western tradition. I believe the circle is analogous both to the wheel of the year and to the ages of a human lifespan:

East for Spring, when the wind stirs in the new foliage - air;
South for Summer, when the sun swells the grain - fire;
West for Autumn, when rivers rise and fog swirls - water;
North for Winter, when all things await rebirth and the Goddess welcomes us back to her embrace.

East for sunrise and West for sunset mirror the sun's annual cycle in the daily cycle. And for those in the northern hemisphere, the sun's heat always comes from the south. In European pagan traditions, North is ever a place of magic and mystery, the home of the gods.

Gus DiZerga's Blog

The author of Pagans and Christians (which is required reading in the Level 1 class) has a blog which I highly enourage you to follow. It deals with very challenging issues and topics in the neo-pagan world, and not a single spell on how to cure the common cold.

A Pagan's Blog by Gus DiZerga

Music and Improv

In the last class, we talked about Improvisation and being creative as part of a ritual process. I had the students experiment with improvisation by listening to music and either drawing or writing free form. The musical pieces I played this time were as follows:

Le Reel des Soucoupes Volantes: La Bottine Souriante
Latin Jam: Beau Kavanaugh and the Broken Hearted
Mumbles: Terry Clark and Oscar Peterson
Pagan Soldier: Dragon Ritual Drummers
Team Fortress 2 - Theme 1: Orange Box
Santiago & Sevilla: The Paperboys

Also, Ryan mentioned a local shop called Charme & Sortilege that supposedly played one of the pagan songs. It's not playing the song we mentioned right now, but maybe it'll cycle through eventually. I tried searching for recorded pagan songs/chants on the web, but many of the links are broken. Maybe the MPRC should try to record these songs...

New students for 2010

A big shout-out to my new set of students for 2010! We just had our first class and I'm very excited to start this new session with them. We had five students to start and there are three others on their way (they couldn't attend the first class for a variety of reasons).

In case they've come to peek at this blog, I will take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my new show this weekend. Go visit my podcast site to learn more about it.

See you all in a week!

A Powerful Samhain tradition

If you're looking for something meaningful to do for Samhain, here's a suggestion:

Any evening over the next few nights (end of October/beginning of November), sit in a comfortable spot in your house, turn out the lights, light a few candles, and pour two glasses of wine.

Then sit quietly and think about a loved one who has passed away, either in the past year or previous years. You can even just speak out loud to them as if they were sharing the wine with you. They will come to you in that moment, so just allow them to be there and take comfort in it.

When you're done, finish your wine, but take their glass and pour it out onto the ground outside. If you can, leave the glass outside with a candle burning nearby (then pour the wine out in the morning). That way, the spirit of your loved one will be able to find you easily.

Good Reading Online

I've known about The Internet Sacred Text Archive for a few years now, but I decided to revisit it recently. They' redesigned it a wee bit, made it easier to use, and it's amazing what's on there. It's enough to make me what to get a Kindle and load everything into it so I can read it all.

Check out what 's in the Pagan archives! Awesome stuff.

And now they're selling the stuff on DVDs and CD-ROMS. It might be something to invest in...

Pagan Films Online

When we talked briefly about The Goddess Remembered before deciding to watch the Pagans video instead, I mentioned that you can watch TGR online via the NFB website.

The Goddess Remembered by Donna Reed

You may also be interested in seeing the related film The Burning Times also by Donna Reed.

Energy Work and the Wiccan Rede

It's a new season and a new set of students (eight students, in fact!). Very exciting! In the last class, we experimented with energy work and had some really fantastic (or weird) experiences with energy balls and expanding our auras and such.

When also we talked about the Wiccan Rede and the various ways it has been re-written and re-imagined, we reviewed versions by Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente, and Aleister Crowley. It's always interesting to discuss the philosophy behind the "Harm None" ideal to explore our own ethics on spiritual expression and use of magic.

As for Crowley, I mentioned a movie about a guy who resurrects Aleister Crowley's spirit called Chemical Wedding. It's not a fantastic movie, but I'm told by Crowley fans that Cowell does an excellent job of his portrayal of Crowley.

NFB's The Burning Times

You can watch the NFB documentary The Burning Times on their website for free! Watch it here:

http://www.nfb.ca/film/burning_times/

The Burning Times
Donna Read, 1990, 56 min 10 s

This documentary takes an in-depth look at the witch hunts that swept Europe just a few hundred years ago. False accusations and trials led to massive torture and burnings at the stake and ultimately to the destruction of an organic way of life. The film questions whether the widespread violence against women and the neglect of our environment today can be traced back to those times. Part two of a series of three films on women and spirituality, which includes Goddess Remembered and Full Circle.

Yes, this is by Donna Read who also produced the movie The Goddess Remembered that we watched in class.

Last Class, Final Thoughts

We had our last class last night and it was so bittersweet. We just spent the last 18 weeks on this introduction to paganism class and I was amazed through it all. This was my biggest class (in terms of students) and almost all of them stuck it out to the end.

I had a huge going-away speech planned, but I just could not get it out of my piehole in any reasonable way. Maybe it's for the best... maybe it didn't need to be said.

I hope some of my Level 1 students continue on to Level 2 and beyond. Everyone was brilliant and insightful; the tangent discussions in class were fascinating and usually expanded the topic that we were trying to cover, albeit in a unexpected way (and sometimes I had to nip the geek talk in the bud).

As with all of my students, I look forward to crossing them here and there at the local community events and I will delight in challenging them in new and unexpected ways!

*maniacal laughter*

Reaching me during the day

Where I work, my client has blocked stuff like Hotmail, Yahoo, and Facebook. This means I tend to get more productive, but it also means I won't be able to read anything you send to my Yahoo email address during the day.

I noticed that Edith is trying to tell me she probably won't make it to tonight's class (I guessing due to a work-related double-booking), but I can't read the message, nor can I respond to it.

Your best bet is to call me on my cellphone during the day if you need to reach me. If you don't have my number, remind me in class and I will repost my number.

Also, seeing how we have just a few classes left together, I feel the need to remind you all that you owe me three essays to complete the class:

1. History of Paper/Writing/Books/Book Binding
2. About [insert male deity here]
2. About [insert female deity here]

About Wiccan Sacred Circle

For those of you who didn't take Meri's contact info or her website, here it is:

http://www.wiccansacredcircle.com/

For more information on Therapeutic Touch:

http://therapeutictouchontario.org/othercanadianttnetworksc33.php

Deity-palooza

This is just a quick note to my Level 1 students about their presentations on Deities and Cultures:

You people seriously Rock!

The presentations are great and the discussions are even better. This part of the course can sometimes be kinda painful, but you all are making it a pleasure. Thank you.

Remember that we have a guest lecturer coming in next week, so please bring a $5 gift for the guest lecturer.

Deity Presentations

Congrats to all my Level 1 student on their fantastic presentations on cultural deities. I've been giving this class a few times now and you're all finding new information that I didn't previously find or present.

Next week, there are three students who will be giving their presentations on Judeo-Christian, Monotheistic, and Islamic deities and beliefs. I can't remember who is doing what, but I highly recommend that you watch this debate on YouTube in relation to your presentation. I know I mentioned it before, but in case you've forgotten:

Admed Deedat vs Jimmy Swaggart

The debate presents two fascinating viewpoints on the same sacred text. Try to suspend your own bias and really listen to what both speakers have to say.

April 8th Ritual Calls and Stuff

For those of you who missed the last class, here are the calls for stirring, calling, and dismissing the elements. Don't forget to bring your stones for the protection circle.

Also, make sure you review your notes because you will have the opportunity to retake the first test and correct the mistakes you made the first time. If you got only a couple of them wrong, you don't need to take the test again (unless you want to). You can use the time to prepare your elemental expression, meditate on the coming ritual, or complete some of your homework.

Stirring:

EAST: (light candle) I call upon light and Air at the East to illuminate and enliven the circle.

SOUTH: (light candle) I call upon light and Fire at the South to illuminate and warm this circle.

WEST: (light candle) I call upon light and Water at the West to Illuminate and cleanse this circle.

NORTH: (light candle) I call upon light and Earth at the North to illuminate and strengthen this circle.

Calling:

EAST: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East. Ancient powers of Air Let us breathe your clarity and knowledge. We bid you, join us during our rite.

ALL: So mote it be!

All turn to face the south.

SOUTH: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the South Ancient ones of Fire Let us be filled with your warmth and passion for life. We bid you, join us during our rite.

ALL: So mote it be!

All turn to face the West.

WEST: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the West Ancient ones of Water May we drink of your wisdom and healing. We bid you, join us during our rite.

ALL: So mote it be!

All turn to face the North.

NORTH: Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North Ancient ones of Earth Portal to all that was and all that will be Touch us with your strength and bounty. We bid you, join us during our rite.

ALL: So mote it be!

Dismissal:

NORTH: Guardians of the watchtower of the north, thank you for your presence here. Stay if you will, go if your must, Hail and farewell.
ALL: Hail and farwell.

WEST: Guardians of the watchtower of the west, thank you for your presence here. Stay if you will, go if your must, Hail and farewell.
ALL: Hail and farewell

SOUTH: Guardians of the watchtower of the south, thank you for your presence here. Stay if you will, go if your must, Hail and farewell.
ALL: Hail and farewell.

EAST: Guardians of the watchtower of the east, thank you for your presence here. Stay if you will, go if your must, Hail and farewell.
ALL: Hail and farewell.

HP will take up athame, go to the north quarter, point athame down and move widdershins around the circle (N-W-S-E-N). Envision the blue light drawing back into the athame and HP will say:

The circle is open yet the circle remains as its magical power is drawn back into us. So mote it be.

ALL: So Mote it be!

Good Reading on the Web this Week

I found a few really cool articles on the web this week that you might enjoy reading. Be warned though: there's alot of text (and I haven't even rebutted yet!). Be sure to read all the comments as well!

Dr. Brendan Myers: Is the pagan movement a community?

Gus DiZerga: The Perils of Pagan Clergy
First Argument
Second Argument
Third Argument

And lastly, my own essay was published on Witchvox:
Raven vs. The Big Bang