Those old modern pagan festivities

Those old modern festivities

Samhain, Mabon, Yule, and Lughnasadh, are probably the only festivities of the old cult that I personally practice, and clearly not in that order.


Although the pagan cult is full of festivities that celebrate stellar events as well as the cycles of cultivation, and these, in turn, represent or embody some old myths of the Indo-European world, the counter of pagan festivals and celebrations reaches a total that exceeds the 200 annual festivities, at least 25 of them belong to the Viking festivities and another 10 to the Celtic festivities, of which only 8 seem to have remained to this day.

The theme of pagan festivities is like a small cauldron burning in the middle of a forest in the middle of the night, all pagans, 'polytheists', Wiccans and others, see it shines from afar with a different perspective, they all have their own opinion in this regard and everyone has their own vision of the subject. Trying to have a conversation about any of these festivities with at least 5 or 6 people can often (not always) end up in a big discussion, because if something has damaged the pagan community in the last decade, it is the excessive use of social networks, which under the pretext of "uniting people" have done an admirable job in promoting quite mediocre ideas and in many cases, empowering people with misconceptions to believe that they are right under rather absurd pretexts.

If at the end of the '90s, we all adjust to what the book said, and the arguments were discussed respectfully in every sabbat (face to face), now with blogs and social networks, many of us feel (and obviously I include myself) In this wave of "If I have a blog and write on it, it is clearly because I am right", and many times it is not so, many times social networks just end up empowering and magnifying the noise that someone causes regardless of the practical study or the years of experience, although in my years as a blogger I have perceived many times “this post that I made is quite uplifted”, or “maybe here they are very offensive and I must accommodate it”, also in my years as a blogger I have read countless posts written by people who cite as an only source an article in Wikipedia, and based on it they are considered the "owners of the absolute truth".

I have read entire articles of about six pages that they end by citing up to nine books by different authors and anthropologists, which in many cases are coincidentally the same articles that you can find as quotes to a similar post in Wikipedia, and yes, this happens unfortunately more often than many imagine, because I personally have distanced myself from reading other blogs and I have dedicated myself to reading more books by the most diverse authors before consulting with Wikipedia, that is the vague way of all, the easy and unpretentious way of someone who does not take Seriously your own work.

The same is the case with pagan holidays and the whole ideology around them, although my idea is not to promote the "next return to obscurantism" or anything similar, if I consider that the fact that now everyone can freely express their opinions, It does not always mean that “everyone” has the most correct opinions or even the clearest intentions in sharing these opinions.

The Wheel of the Year

I have mentioned it on several occasions, enter the Wicca quite young, more out of foolishness than out of curiosity, I did not have the maturity at that time to go into something like this and I think the result was that it ends in some way 'burned' the process, quite overwhelmed and boring of the continuous norms, ranks, hierarchies, differences of opinion with the 'elders', etc ... And still, I love the Wiccan way as it really is, (far above what some want to make it seem), and especially because for many as in my case, the Wicca was a door that led us to the pagan path and to meet our own truth, to hear that call.

In the Wicca eight important festivities are celebrated based practically on the cycles of cultivation, cycles that although thousands of years ago could be the most important for humanity, because winter would end the harvests and hide the trade routes, the summer eradicated the fruits and flowers, both for the nourishment of men and women and for the veneration of the gods on their altars, the arrival of spring not only represented nature emerging again from the earth as everything began to bloom, but also represented for many lands of that time, the arrival of plagues, allergies, and diseases for which man was not prepared, and not to forget the Autumn...

In a world where knowledge of meteorology and the cycles of agriculture were not much studied beyond of the most basic, when seeing the trees and the nature in general to foresee, the plagues of worms and mosquitos seizing the fields due to the accelerated worsening of crops, the intense red tone of the trees (associated with blood, war and death back then), and the arrival of carrion birds in these months, even the bravest of warriors would have easily thought that the dreaded end of the world was approaching, the evil that seized the earth, the souls of Hades seizing the world, the signs and omens that a gigantic snake would emerge to devour the sun and the other worlds.

Today we know that harvest cycles are rather a side effect of the meteorological changes associated with the equinoxes and solstices, and although this makes everything sound very scientific, I am one of those who still think that all these cycles are associated with work of forces greater than us that we are just beginning to understand, as well as the Maya who imagined three thousand years ago a dark god in the center of the milky way devouring the light and everything in its path, and only in full 2018 the scientific community has agreed to admit that our entire galaxy revolves around a black hole.

All this without mentioning that the Wicca is more consistent with an Indo-European cult where the main deities are a hunting god and a lunar goddess to represent the balance, although most of the pagan community strives to insist now on making the Wicca as a kind of "resurgence of the primal matriarchy before the arrival of the patriarchate", to the point that the veneration of the male deity is rather a kind of taboo in modern Wicca.

Samhain and Yule.

I in particular only celebrated four of the festivities, more for a customary theme of many years than for religious obligation, though, my cycles are favorites are Lughnasadh, Samhain and Yule.

Lughnasadh

Lughnasadh, for his representation of the triumph of light over darkness at the cost of the most sacred sacrifice, nothing more motivating in politically dark times like these.

Samhain

Samhain, although I did not celebrate it with such devotion in my country of origin because we have practically no autumn, it reminds me a lot of several indigenous celebrations originating from the beautiful Amazon that my grandmother celebrated, also when arriving in the United States to celebrate 'All hallows eve ', and finally knowing the pumpkins, the motivation clearly increases, and much.

Yule

Yule, let's be honest, except for the Grinch (and I know a couple of these) it is quite difficult not to fall in love with Christmas, yes !, it is a pagan holiday that the church used to turn the pagans, yes !, Santa Claus in red and white is rather a marketing invention of Coca-Cola based on the commercial restructuring of a Polish story based on San Nicola Di Bari, and Yes !, Jesus was not born in December, and if the case we are not born in Bethlehem either less at the time they tell us, with a notable difference of 8 years.

Special Mention: When I was in the third semester of Marketing and Advertising at the College University, I made an entire project based on promoting Yule and the image of the so-called 'Old Pascuero', which is something like the Argentine San Nicolas, and after six months of effort Professor Natalia Buenafuente reproached my project for appearing 'very ambitious'. ‘Cheeky’ and ‘against good Catholic customs’, not to mention that he shouted in front of the entire class ‘that’s not God!’ ... And the rest is history from another story.

Samhain celebrates the final season of the harvest cycle in Celtic culture, and is closely associated with other similar festivals of other pagan cultures around the world, although mostly in Europe, though, thanks to the celebration of 'All Hallows Eve' ( I hear some radical witches screaming in the background), this celebration remains, has remained, and is one of those few festivities that people outside paganism understand, and even many of them respect without much explanation, and it is quite charismatic to see Children dress up as witches and ghosts in the streets asking for candy and forcing their parents to go out with them.

However, today Samhain's celebration has changed a lot, and contrary to what some people think, this is good, it has become rather a double aspect celebration, while some go out to celebrate freedom of expression, dressed in their more sorcerers attires, masks, and brooms, organizing parties to meet with the local witches, others take this date in a slightly calmer way as the time to honor those witches who have left this world and who still remain among us, with a silent vigil, or in my case, with small rituals at home, accompanied by a pretty minimalist altar decoration, wine, cheeses, flowers, incense and plates full of fruits, homemade garlands and a lot, but a lot, a lot of light on the altar, to illuminate his path and his return in a next cycle.

Yule, this holiday is, on the other hand, more discreet, many outsiders to paganism still do not understand it, and their association with Christmas complicates the matter quite a bit, although today Yule is rather a kind of intercultural celebration among old Roman traditions (such as give gifts), some Celtic traditions, and it has a lot to do with some Viking festivities, the fact that all this is celebrated at the same time as something as great as the Catholic Christmas holiday, if it makes it quite complicated for some to feel comfortable to celebrate.

In my native Venezuela, Yule is practically something unknown, it is not mentioned beyond the books on paganism and Wicca, and only some very closed pagan circles celebrate it, Christmas is perhaps one of our biggest festivities along with the carnivals, the Devils of Yare (the closest we have to Halloween) and some festivals of different virgins that we have in the Country.

In addition, the popularity of Conny Méndez, founder of Christian metaphysics (a branch of contemporary metaphysics from the Catholic point of view and using Saint Germain as a central figure in her study), helped popularize and further promote the tradition of 'the night of the Christmas Spirit' and a series of ritual complexes that we perform in Venezuela every December 21 (winter solstice day).

The Christmas spirit is a pagan-Christian celebration that became popular since 1986, you can find many books dedicated to the topic in your local bookstore, but if you want a summary of it, every two years I upload a post to this blog updated the topic, so just be aware that this year touches a new one.

So while the pagan festivities have changed a lot, and now they revolve more around (most of them) the celebration of the dead and all those who have left this world, these are still celebrated, but let's be honest , we will never be able to celebrate them with the same devotion that our ancestors did, for them to celebrate the arrival, birth, death and resurrection of the gods was something extremely important on which their food, the weather, and their life depended, to We these celebrations are rather a way of remembering the past, honoring the ancient celebrants, and a beautiful reason to connect with other believers and practitioners like us.

Elhoim Leafar 

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