NMR ISSUE 46

Abundance Circle
Activating Miraculous Success
And Now for Something a Little Different
Astrological Forecast 46
Circle of Fire
Circle of the Stars
Dolphin Magick
Earwig & Cow
Editorial 46
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Finding the Goddess in Ancient Greece
Hear O Humankind
Letters 46
Magick in the Forest
Making the Break
Old Ways to Celebrate New Life
Other Editorial 46
So True, So Real
Spring Equinox Rite
The Lesson of the Tree
The Portrait of the Beast
To Be a Witch
To Pythia
We Are Everywhere
Weasel, Black Beetle & Plover

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Pagan Parenting: Old Ways to Celebrate New Life

By Amanda Cummings

Spring is in the air! You can feel it. It's not quite here yet, but you can tell: The slightest warmth to the sun. The smell of fresh rain. Birds starting nests. There is just a slight tingle of excitement that runs up the spine as we anticipate the coming season and holidays. It's nearly electric, the feeling of energy building all around us and within us, too. And there is knowing that as the weather gets warmer, we can turn our children out into the outdoors and gain a little peace, quiet, and harmony. Spring!

There are so many things to do in this season. It is my favorite time of the year. I turn into quite a child. I never cease to wonder at the miracle of new life every spring. I take such joy in the beauty of fresh flowers, tiny leaves on still black trees. Then there are the traditions associated with the modern celebration of Easter and the not so modern celebration of Beltane. So much to do, and so perfect to do with children of all ages.

The first important thing to do is to clean. I know this isn't the most entertaining, and it's hard to get children to be enthusiastic about it, but it is so important. There is a reason we call it spring-cleaning. Originally this was done around the celebration of Candlemas when the greens and other decking is put away. It was considered bad luck to have any of the evergreen or holly up afterward. Spring is the time to air the linen, sweep the dust and cobwebs out, beat the rugs, and wash the walls. We do these things at Candlemas to prepare for the coming of the spring and the burst of energy inherent in this season. It is time to get the blood moving, as my grandmother says.

A book with some interesting cleaning traditions is Scott Cunningham's Magical Household. I let my mother read it and more than once she commented, Hey, my grandmother did this! Cleaning house after the dead of winter, with its sense of being enclosed, is refreshing and gives great satisfaction. Mind you, I am no neat freak, but once a year I go through all the closets, drawers and cabinets to get rid of what I don't use, what doesn't fit, what is broken, or unnecessary. The last things to be cleaned are the windows, including the curtains, to welcome the newborn sun as it gains strength. It will soon stream in through the clear windows, reaching every part of the rooms.

This is the idea of spring-cleaning. To get rid of the musty sense of winter and prepare to receive the gifts of spring. And my children, much against their will, are part of this. After the whole house is in order (which can take days), it is time to celebrate Candlemas.

Candlemas is a celebration of hearth and home and the season of the coming of the light. So we all make dinner (lamb is appropriate, this is lamming season in agricultural communities), and eat by candlelight. After the dishes are done, I take my ritual besom (broom, in the vernacular) and sweep each room, starting from the front door and coming back around to the same door again. I am sweeping up all the stagnation and negative energy. At the front door, I sweep this dust out the door. Then my youngest takes a sage bundle through the house, room by room.

We go through the house and turn off all the lights, and leave unlit candles in each room. Some folks put out all the pilot lights as well, but I am not comfortable trying to light them all again, so I forgo this. Then we light a fire in the fireplace. From that fire, we each take a candle and go to each room to light candles. Soon, the house is alive with firelight and candlelight. We re-hang the Brigid's Cross over the fireplace and sit back to have dessert and enjoy the warmth.

After a bit, when the children have gone to bed, I stand at the open front door and welcome Brigid to our home. Then I put a penny on the doorjamb over the front door, for prosperity, and salt under the doormat, for protection. I go around the house again, the third time. With salt water, or an appropriate oil (lavender, Consecration, Holy) I mark each window with a pentagram, to seal and bless the house and all who live in it. By then it is near midnight, time to put out all the candles and go to bed in a fresh, clean, warm house.

In the spring you must fly kites. Kites have been a part of my spring celebrations since I was a child. There is something marvelous about watching a sturdy homemade kite, or the brightly colored store bought variety, climb high into the air. I still get such a sense of pure enjoyment from kite flying. I love watching the face of a small child launching their first kite the disappointment when it spins in crazy circles behind them and then dives into the ground! But the first time it finally takes off and they are mesmerized, eyes wide, mouth open, laughing. Hard to imagine a piece of paper on a string in a breeze can be so entertaining, but I can fly kites all afternoon and have a wonderful day. Smaller children lose interest sooner, so don't be too disappointed when you have to pack it up after thirty minutes or so. Be assured that soon enough, they will be big enough to fly their own and stand next to you to kite-fight and outdo you with fancy tricks and grin ear to ear. I can't imagine a more pleasant way to spend a spring day.

I always have felt a certain euphoric connection to the Elements when flying kites. And isn't that what we hope to achieve in our rituals and our lives? Flying consecrated kites would be a wonderful ritual with children. There are several types of kites to make, and books with how-to instructions can be found in the local public library. The kites can be made out of specific colors to reflect our hopes for the year, or season. They can then be vibrantly colored with symbols of the season and lifted by the air over the ground, hovering between heaven and earth. What a special picture of our hopes and dreams of the future.

One of the more familiar spring traditions is coloring eggs. It is a perfectly pagan tradition that some of the more modern religions have incorporated into their spring rituals. Even the celebration of Easter is run on a pagan calendar. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox. It is a lunar holiday, which is why the date shifts around the calendar. Easter is named after the Saxon goddess Oestara, Who is associated with eggs, rabbits, and birds. After all, bunnies and chicks and eggs don't have much to do with Christianity, but they have long been associated with the rituals of the rebirth of life in the spring. Heck, even Christ comes back from the Underworld in the spring, just like Persephone. Spring is the season to remember rebirth, even for Christians. Eggs, bunnies, and the lot have historically been symbols of fertility and the potential of life. That's why they are associated with this season.

Some of the colored eggs (pasanky) in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine are works of art, to this day. I am not, however, that gifted, or that patient. Our eggs are much tamer. They are all marked 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. 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.

When we give out our eggs, we tell people to choose one by color to symbolize what they want to bring into 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 properties. They can then bury them at their homes and release the energy in their environment, or they can choose to eat them, thereby internalizing that energy. Either way, you have solved the perennial problem of what to do with three dozen hard-boiled eggs!

My all-time favorite thing to do in the spring is garden. Gardening is a terrific thing to do with children, and making things grow is so pagan! It's Magick! I've told my children that the seeds are like the God that is the Goddess' child and lover. When He dies at the end of His time, He does it gladly and willingly, because it is what is best for all living things. The Goddess loves Him so much that She takes Him into Her arms, which is the soil, and loves Him back to life in the form of a new plant.

When planting with children, be sure to let them have some input as far as what gets planted. I've had the best luck with narrowing the field for them (direct sun, likes water, etc.) and then we set about choosing tall, medium and short ones. Tall go in the back, and shorter and shorter till you plant the shortest or groundcover in the very front. You can plant already started plants for more immediate results, or from seed. Some seed needs to be started indoors and then transplanted when the weather is warm enough not to kill the little seedlings. These are perfect for small children, since the small peat pots will be accessible and easy to watch as the seeds sprout. They are also marketing garden kits at the garden stores. They have several different kinds of seeds, well suited to each other, with landscaping hints and garden layout plans. Some are designed specifically with children in mind. So if planning is not your forte, someone else has already gone to the trouble! The kits are more expensive than a bunch of seed packets, but the time it takes to lay it all out and choose what you want and what will work can well be worth a few bucks. And in a schedule of full time work and parenting and hobbies and family and friends, timesaving help is really useful.

The big celebration of spring is Beltane. Spring is at its height, in all its intemperate, young passion. The blood that began moving at Candlemas is rushing now. Some of the traditions associated with this holiday are logistically difficult in today's culture. Most of us cannot go out all night collecting greens in the forest, having sex all night, and come back all dewy-eyed in the morning to pass out and sleep all day. Not everybody has a Maypole just lying around, either. If there are public celebrations in your area, it might be good to check out. My children always loved the Beltane celebration we went to. We would make flower wreaths to go in our hair, have a big potluck picnic, dance the Maypole, and usually witness some young couple getting handfasted. There would be lots of music and socializing. It was always a good time. The group that organized this event has left the area now, so we celebrate at home. It is a terrific party. I don't live near a forest, but there is a florist up the street, so I get bunches of flowers and greens. All the people who come over can make flower wreaths for their hair. My children have gotten to be pretty good at it. We still do a potluck picnic in the back yard. Some other friends bring a Maypole. Although this year, it looks like I'll actually have one myself.

Dancing the Maypole is the best part of Beltane for my youngest. We also play a game of tag, where a man chases a woman until he catches her. Then he kisses her. Then it's her turn to chase the men, and so on, until everyone is winded, or more interested in kissing than in running. My two older children are getting to be big enough to appreciate this game. This is not an exclusively Pagan/Wiccan gathering, so depending on the makeup of the crowd we don't necessarily cast a Circle; but, guaranteed, a good time is had by all. That evening (after the children are asleep in bed) the love of my life and I spend outdoors, making love under the stars. In the morning we gather up all the leftover flowers and greens, decorate the house, and go to bed, exhausted. Isn't spring great!?

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, and to celebrate with great vitality the coming of the Light to the world 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!