NMR ISSUE 42

Astrological Forecast 42
Bass, Grasshopper & Lion
Editorial 42
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Ghigau's Song
Goddess Manifest
Loving's Call
Mirra, Lady of the Pool
On Confronting Our Dark Side
Ritual for Creative and Spiritual Fertility
Ritual for the Waters of Life
Spring Activities
The God of the Witches
The Unknown Founder of the Golden Dawn
Unicorn with Flower Wreath in Candlewicking
Working with Your Shadow, I
Your Soul's Growth

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Pagan Parenting: Spring Activities

By Amanda Cummings

Spring is in the air! OK, spring isn't exactly here yet, but we have to plan ahead to do some of the fun stuff. Are there any particularly Paganish things to do with our children for spring? Certainly! Think about it for a bit? Planting gardens, making kites, coloring eggs? Sounds like springtime, Paganish stuff to do!

Kites are one of my favorite things and it seems I never get out to fly them enough. Sometimes I just go down to the beach or park and watch other people fly theirs. Kites are easy enough to make (once at a day camp I worked for, we made kites out of brown paper bags from the grocery store). You can buy kits or you can buy the pretty nylon already made types. They have all different styles and some can be quite acrobatic. Going down to the bay and watching dozens of them all fluttering in the breeze, rainbows of color, is lovely. To see the thrill on the face of a child, string in hand, watching her kite dance in the sky is a moment of pure magic(k)! The really fun thing about it is? That look never goes away! Grownups flying kites have the same thrilled look as the six-year-old. I know I do!

Why do I think kite flying could be considered Pagan? Is there some record of ancient western European pagans flying kites as a ritual? Not that I can think of! For me, Pagan things are subject to the following criteria: 1) Is nature a component in the activity? 2) Does it make you think differently about something? 3) Is it fun? If the answer to all three questions is a resounding yes! Then I feel reasonably comfortable calling it Pagan. And just because something hasn't been a ritual before, doesn't mean it can't be one now. What a cool idea to have a kite-flying ritual! You could put different pictures or symbols on them or different colors. Heck, even making them could be part of the ritual. What a glorious way to spend the Spring Equinox, flying kites and having a picnic! I think I'll have to do that this year. Hmmmm?

Coloring eggs is something that has been done ritually for ages. The modern celebration of Easter owes a great deal to its pagan predecessors. Christianity's Deity returning from the Underworld coincides nicely with many other myths of the return of life to the world at springtime. Demeter celebrates Persephone's return from the Underworld at this time, too. The date can also give us a clue regarding its pagan nature. Ever wonder why the date for Easter floats around so much? Because it is a lunar holiday! The date for Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox! Even the name, Easter, is a Christianized form of an ancient Saxon fertility goddess, Oestara. Honestly, just what do bunnies and eggs have to do with Christianity? Nothing! They are, however, ancient and powerful fertility symbols - rabbits for their profound ability to reproduce, and eggs as a symbol of regeneration and life in the microcosmic form. Coloring eggs in honor of spring was done long before Europeans ever heard of Christianity.

In my house, we color eggs to give away at the public ritual nearby. We mark them all with Pagan or springtime symbols—spirals, pentagrams, flowers, etc. We usually have six colors, because that's how many come in those egg-dyeing kits. When we give them out, we tell people to choose one by color to symbolize what they want to bring in to their lives at this season, that they will work towards in summer, and harvest in fall. Red for love (I always add red food coloring to the dye, otherwise it's very pink), orange for security, yellow for intelligence, green for growth (including, but not exclusively, prosperity), blue for peace, purple for protection. You, of course, can always make your own other colors and charge them with appropriate things, too. To make your own egg dyes, take 1/2 cup of water and add 1 tablespoon vinegar and enough food color to make whatever color you want. The people you give the eggs to can either eat them (thereby internalizing the energy), or bury them at their home (for vegetarians or those who just don't like hard boiled eggs). It makes a nice tradition, and solves the age-old question of what to do with all those eggs once you have hidden and hunted for them.

My all-time favorite thing to do in the spring is garden. And to do it well, you must plan ahead a bit. If you don't have a yard at all, container planting is fun, too. Kids don't care, they just like to watch stuff grow. It is a wonderful hands-on experience of some of our most basic philosophies/beliefs. The dead, dry seed goes into the soil, and with water and warmth, reemerge as new little plants! Magick! I've told my children that the seeds are like the God, Who is the Goddess' child and lover. When He dies at the end of His time, He does it gladly and willingly, because that is what is best for all living things. The Goddess loves Him so much that She takes Him into Her arms, which are the soil, and loves Him back to life in the form of a new plant. Now that my children are big enough to be studying biology in school, I'm glad they have a basic understanding of how remarkable new life and growth are—before it is demystified and sterilized in the classroom. They still like to plant things and watch them grow. Me, too.

To begin with, you need to decide where to plant. I prefer south facing gardens. There is plenty of light that way. If you plant in containers, south-facing windows will work. The space you have will determine what you plant. If you only have a narrow flowerbed, you won't be planting fruit trees. Ditto for indoor planting. Another thing to consider is the age of your children. Small children love playing in the dirt, but older ones get a bit fussy—they have figured out that gardening involves work! Older children don't have too big a problem waiting for seeds to come up, but little ones need something more immediately gratifying. When my children were younger, I would buy and pant my seed, and then plant a patch of tomatoes. The tomatoes I would buy already growing, with about four or five leaf joints and several flowers on each plant. That way, while they waited for the seeds to sprout, they could watch the tomatoes grow and turn red. By the time the tomatoes were ripe, the seedling would have a good start and be entertaining—always an important factor for little ones.

Next you need to decide what to plant. Try to have them all require similar attention, i.e., same amount of light, water, etc. Plant taller plants in the back and shorter in the front. This is easier to do with plants that are already started, but I like planting from seeds. It takes a little more imagination. If you go to the seed section, you can find what I call garden kits. It is a whole variety of seed, and includes diagrams of how to plant them and how to lay out the garden. Some of them are geared towards including children. These can make planning a lot easier. Then prepare your soil (turn in organic matter) and plant away!

The nice thing about planting things yourself, is you can use them later. Vegetables can be eaten for dinner or as part of a ritual feast. Flowers can go in your house or on your altar, or they can be dried. Herbs can go in your cooking fresh or dried. Dried flowers and herbs can make incense, pillows, teas, and medicines. To dry herbs and flowers, tie them together loosely and hang them cut ends upward somewhere dry and out of the way. A closet is good for this (if you have one to spare), or a rack in a pantry. Drying plants in the kitchen can work if you don't cook too much greasy food; otherwise your plants will become grease covered. Once dried, you can keep them in a plastic bag or in jars with lids.

Gardening is a cool thing to do with kids, and it offers different activities throughout the year. Children can help cut flowers and herbs. They can help harvest vegetables, and clean them and cook them, too. They can help choose what to plant, and help turn under the plants at the end of the season. It is a nice way to spend an afternoon in the company of your children as they nurture tiny plants into full-grown beauty.

Enjoy the spring as it brings new life and new beginnings to you and yours. It is a time to stand in awe with your children at the wonderful ability of Nature to bring forth life again and again. These are the things we share with our children. It reminds us of our place in the universe and how good it is to hear the rain or feel the sun.

Blessed Be!