Thinking out loud

Preparing everything to celebrate Ostara in a little house a second time. (Thinking out loud)

I come from Venezuela, where paganism and Wicca, are not as conventional as here, in fact, we are culturally very different, in Venezuela the old beliefs are strolled by voodoo and conventional witchcraft, astrology is very popular, Astrologers from all over America Latina, I grew up in a family where the common practice was spiritism, santeria, Kimbanda, Candomble, and Umbanda.

We do not have four stations like the USA (in the North) and Argentina (in the South), in fact, Venezuela is in the middle of "tropical zone", between the equator of cancer, and the Equator of Capricorn, or as we say more colloquially "Where the sun burns you", we have all the Caribbean Sea right up, so we only have two seasons, hot and rainy, although we live there, we think there are really three seasons, warm, very, very hot, and rainy Only three days a year, no more than there).

As you understand, for me, spring is something new, much less winter, in Venezuela, tulips are usually imported, roses bloom all year and what we have more are sunflowers, chrysanthemums and cayenne flowers. Two botanical gardens, the botanical garden of Caracas (that truth has never seen the splendor of his days) and we have the Topotepuy Gardens, where he used to attend once a year to see the flowers.

Wicca and paganism are not practiced very commonly, there are many small "coven" there, even I belong to some, but it was rare to hold the solstices and the equinoxes, when they really do not occur, it also did not make much sense. To celebrate Samhain, we do not have We do not have pumpkins or pomegranates, our apples are imported, as well as grapes and most of the wines, because we do not have a good soil to harvest fruit, but vegetables and legumes, as a matter of fact Of temperature.

Our "summer" is much warmer than here, and also much longer, higher temperatures than California and New York lived until 2016, are usually the average temperature of a normal day in Venezuela for only ten years In certain areas Of the country we arrived The -2C and that for us is usually synonymous of catastrophe.

What we celebrate are the many birthdays of the different virgins, the virgin of the mercedes, the virgin of the rule, the virgin of the chiquinquira, the Virgin of Bethany (to whom largely my partner and I owe our present stay in Nueva York), Virgen De la Candelaria, Virgen del Valle, among many others.

Here in the United States we have the famous French Quarter of New Orleans and endless magical places and witch festivals, which in Venezuela do not have these festivals, in fact, we do not usually celebrate Walpurgis night, we have a "pocket version" Of the night Of San Juan, and colorful carnivals (which were much more colorful two decades before the corruption finished everything). But what we do have is the reservoir of butterflies, a kind of park-forest where the witches of the great city gather day and night to honor the spirits, the dead and the different spiritualist courts. We also have the famous Mountain of Luck "In Yaracuy, also known as Natural Monument" Cerro Maria Lionza "in honor of one of our most revered chthonic deities, here is celebrated the night of San Juan and several pagan festivals.

The Mariposa Reservoir is a small chain of mountains full of worship of the oldest, witches, spirits who walk the roads constantly asking for help and huge altars at every stop, rivers filled with offerings to the saints, and if you go in hours of At night, you will see the spirits descend to the moonlight by attending the witches.

On the other hand, the Mountain of Luck is our power mine, full of enchantments and trees older than the invention of the automobile, witches gathered in each path, in each way and next to each stream, carrying offerings to those who have left us When your family has forgotten you and prefers and does not remember you, when your spirit walks the confused and misunderstood land of the dead, it is there that good-hearted witches find you and help you to emerge. While the rest of the world cares about nonsense, asking the same absurd questions every day, from which makeup to use until shoes match best with the wallet, across the forest, in magical places of our world, such as New Orleans, Machu Picchu And the mountain of Luck, there are powerful and beautiful witches who assisted by wise shamans and sorcerers sacrifice their nights of sleep and rest by attending all those who have been forgotten.

The difference of our cultures is above all a geographic difference, we all see, we all believe and we are born, we die and we are born again, from one corner to another, we walk the world learning a little more each day, thanking those who listen On the other side of the veil, thanking for the opportunities and for each and every one of those wonderful people who put us on the road, thanking us for helping us to remove obstacles and negative or ill-intentioned people. We all move under the same lunar mantle and the same light as the king of the sun that inspires us every day to be better people.

Here I continue to hope to learn a little more, waiting for some of those who come to teach you.

Blessings and Happy day.