On Combining Christmas and Yule, Winter Solstice

How do you combine Christmas and Yule in your family traditions? Do you celebrate both traditions?

In our family I have only been a Pagan for approximately four years. My teenage daughters therefore in regards to Paganism, how can I put it; 'gently support' what they term their Mum's 'hippy ways'! They love what I do and I know a lot of it is rubbing off on them but they in in no way put them selves in my camp it just wouldn't be cool! Perhaps if I had become a Pagan whilst they were toddlers it might have been different. I look wistfully every year at the mothers and their very young children all dressed up with flowers in

their hair at the maypole in Glastonbury for Beltane!

Christmas is therefore a very big event in our house. Although adults really now my girls adore Christmas and get really excited which I love. I have no problem with celebrating Christian holidays alongside Pagan ones and have not let go of a lot of my Catholic upbringing. I believe in religious tolerance for all religions, every religion has something to offer and we can never say one is better than another. Personally I like to draw from many different religions in my personal beliefs. For me Paganism is about worshipping our Mother Earth not about whose religion is the better one.

My Yule Altar

So to celebrate Yule at the Winter Solstice this year I will be lighting candles and having a private mediation, welcoming the return of the sun. I struggle with the long dark days so will be very glad that our sun is returning to light our earth. For that I give gratitude to our wonderful Mother Earth Gaia. I like to bring the outside into the house at this time of year so have made our mantlepiece into an altar to honour our Mother Earth, the Goddess Gaia. This is following ancient Pagan customs of bringing greenery such as holly ivy and mistletoe into homes for good luck, more on ancient customs can be found here

Our Pagan Christmas tree

Although our Christmas tree is festooned with baubles and memories of holidays past I also like to Paganise it a little with ornaments I have made and pentacle charms. Perhaps you can have a go at making your own pentacle charm to go on your Christmas tree this year? Pentacle charms like the one depicted here are still available in the Astarte Moon Shop  as well. 

Yule Pentacle charm-Astarte-Moon Shop

Blessings of love and light for the return of the sun at Yule to you, AstarteAlison

Free Lammas/Lughnasadh e-cards. Lammas/Lughnassadh greetings to all my friends

Free Lammas/Lughnasadh e-cards. Please feel free to save and send these free Lammas e-cards to friends and family to show them that you are thinking of them this Lughnassad. For more information on this point on the Wheel of the Year see my post lammas traditions

Lammas/Lughnassadh greetings to all my friends, near, far, in person and in my computer! I value you all and wish for you a day filled with love, sunshine and happiness!

Lammas Lughnassadh blessings to you and all you hold dear. May the warmth of the Lammas fires keep you happy and healthy all year long. Sending you warm and sunny blessings.

Lammas Lughnasadh blessings to you. May your home be blessed with the warmth of the Lammas fire and your harvest be bountiful this year and all the years to come.

Lammas Lughnassad Blessings to you, may the warmth of the sun's rays penetrate your heart and continue to bring joy all year long to you and all those you hold dear.

Lammas/ Lughnasadh greetings to you all, may the sun always shine brightly for you. Sunny blessings, AstarteAlison

Happiness is a journey not a destination. Ben Sweetland

Happiness is a journey not a destination. Ben Sweetland Gratitude happiness quote

Practising gratitude on a daily basis is a wonderful way to help in your happiness journey. Sometimes it feels like happiness is out of your grasp and certainly not possible everyday. Practising gratitude day by day will help you on your happiness route and make the sad days happen less often. Don't just take my word for it though. Give it a go! Just three things to be grateful for at the end of every day. Our ancestors got it right I believe, these ancient Pagans who came before us offered gratitude all the time to our Mother Earth, believing if they didn't then she wouldn't provide for them. 

Let me know how you get on. Stay happy!  Blessings, Alison xxxx

We are born as magical beings, each of us has the innate ability to be magical. Pagan Spiritual Quotation

We are born as magical beings, each of us has the innate ability to be magical, we just need to tap into that source.

Mother nature teaches us that all we need we already have. In our busy lives we have often forgotten the ways of the old. In following a simple Pagan lifestyle we learn to follow the ways of the earth and listen to the ancient wisdom Mother Nature has to offer us. 

Magickal blessings to you, AstarteAlison

Yule pentacle charms, the perfect way to celebrate the Winter Solstice

I thought I would post some pictures of my Yule charms that I have recently made in readiness for the seasonal celebrations ahead of us. Yule or the Winter Solstice has long been an important festival in many corners of our wonderful earth. Solstice rites were practiced among many diverse groups as Native South Americans, Celts, Persians, Orientals, and Africans. The winter solstice of Yule  was known as Sacaea to the Mesopotamians, as the Festival of Kronos to the ancient Greeks, and as Saturnalia to the Romans.
 

Yule Pentacle charm £2.99 yule pentacle charm for love and abundance

As a celebration of this wonderful festival I have created this range of charms. These lovely charms would look great hanging from your tree or together with some mistletoe next to the front door. Alternatively they are great to hang on a chain as a pendant.

Yule is a fire festival, the red pentacle charm is a wonderful celebration of this. Yule is also a special time to get together with loved ones which is why I have chosen murano glass hearts for this particular range.

Yule Pentacle charm £3.99 pentacle charm for Yule

I have many more pagan/pentacle charms available on my website. Prices start at just £1.99. International postage is no problem, just email me and I will give you a quote for the postage based on the weight of what you are buying. Just click on http://www.astarte-moon.co.uk/shop/ for lots more gift ideas.

Green Yule charm £3.99 Yule pentacle charm for protection and abundance

Happy Yule blessings to you, Alison
xxx

Embrace your dreams through all of the night, tomorrow begins with a brand new light. Inspirational Quote

Embrace your dreams through all of the night, tomorrow begins with a brand new light.

Sweet dreams for everyone tonight, blessings, Alison

Mabon/Autumn Equinox Home Balancing Blessing

Equinox Balancing Blessing

This is a wonderful balancing exercise that can be performed if you feel that your house, or a particular room in your home is feeling out of balance. If you feel that your family is out of kilter it may be worth performing this simple blessing as it may be the house itself or the rooms in it that are causing the imbalance.

Start off with a simple cleansing exercise. First clear away the clutter in your home as much as you are able. Smudge with white sage or incense in all the corners of your home.

When you feel you have sufficiently cleansed you home, take two red apples and slice them in half so that you can see the pentacle inside. The apple signifies new beginnings and is a perfect symbol to use with its natural pentagram. Place a half apple at each of the cardinal points of your home, north, south, east and west. If you are just working in one room then place them as needed in the room you have chosen.  Along with each half apple place a white candle in a holder.

This exercise may be performed at any time of the year but it is perfect completed at the time of the equinox when day and night are of equal length. This is an ideal time to bring your home and your family life into perfect balance too.

Starting in the east, light each candle in turn. As you do so, imagine a white balancing light pouring down into the rooms or room as you work.

When you have finished come into the centre of the room and light a fifth white candle. Imagine a set of old fashioned brass scales sitting in perfect balance in the centre of the room. Sit in front of the scales and watch them as they tip just slightly and then gently rest exactly horizontal. You feel the stillness descend on the room and the house as the exact point of balance is achieved. Sit there for a while enjoying the silence and balance.

When you are ready, snuff out your candles or if you are able, allow them to burn down completely.

Equinox blessings to you, Alison

Is Friday the thirteenth really unlucky? A look at the ancient Pagan standpoint.

Is Friday the thirteenth really unlucky? A look at the ancient Pagan standpoint.

We have been taught to believe that Friday 13^th is unlucky, more accidents and ill health happen on this day however psychologists believe that this is a result of heightened anxiety. This fear even has a name! Fear of Friday the 13th is known as triskaidekaphobes.

Friday 13^th was not always considered to be unlucky, and that some people even find it to be the luckiest day of the year? Many Pagans think that this day is especially magickal due to the fact that it is the Goddess’ sacred day and the fact that there are thirteen lunar months.

Friday comes from "Freya's Day" or "Frigg's Day. Freya was a Norse Goddess, the goddess of Love and Beauty, and also fertility, war, and wealth. She was the daughter of Njord, and the sister of Frey. Frigg or Freya corresponded to Venus, The goddess of love of the Romans, who named the sixth day of the week In her honor "dies Veneris. Freya was said to bring luck and Friday was considered to be a great day to get married due to her being seen as Goddess of Love.

With the advent of Christianity the myth began that Friday was unlucky. Freya was dismissed as so many Goddesses like her were. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Freya was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil – a gathering of thirteen – and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as “Witches’ Sabbath.”

Many Christians believed that Friday was unlucky because it was the day of the week when Jesus was crucified.

The number 13 in Christianity was believed to bring bad luck because there were 13 people at The Last Supper. Cain slew Abel on a Friday the 13th.

In terms of Friday being unlucky. Eve tempted Adam with forbidden fruit on a Friday. The great flood began on a Friday. the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday. In the early days of Rome, Friday was execution day. In Britain, Friday became the Hangman’s Day. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. So a lot of events happened to make people believe Friday the thirteenth was unlucky.

The ancient Egyptians associated the number thirteen with immortality -- there were twelve steps on the ladder to eternal life and knowledge; the thirteenth step meant going through death into everlasting life. In Rome, it was traditional to have thirteen guests to be present at weddings. In the Hebrew faith, age thirteen is when a young man or woman is finally considered an adult. Finally, thirteen has a strong association with the moon for many of us. There are thirteen lunar cycles each year, and many of us celebrate the full moons. Thirteen is the traditional number of witches in a coven. Also, in Goddess and pagan lore, the Number 19 represents the sacred number of the Goddess. Friday the 13th combines the individual sacred goddess numbers of "6" and "13" and when these two numbers are added, you get the Number 19. So we see in ancient Pagan religions Friday the thirteenth being actually a pretty lucky day. 

Thirteen, a goddess number, is one beyond beyond twelve, and, in the eyes of the new "solar" world order, symbolised a move away from harmony and completion into the "evil" of chaos. The church decided that the Goddess led number 13 should be deemed unlucky. There are 12 months in the solar-based Julian and the Church-created Gregorian calendars, a perfect, male number.

  

You can see therefore from all these reasons why it would seem that Friday 13^th would appear to be unlucky from a Christianity point of view.

As Pagans we can continue to believe that Friday, Freya’s day is a lucky day of the Goddess and this combined with the sacred number 13 makes it doubly auspicious, so enjoy this day! Celebrate Friday 13^th, may the luck of the Goddess be with you today and always!

If we are to have magical bodies, we must have magical minds. Wayne Dyer Positive Inspirational Quote

If we are to have magical bodies, we must have magical minds. Wayne Dyer

Ok so after a week of not posting due to horrid migraines I'm on a bit of a roll today! This one in another one from one of my personal favourites Wayne Dyer. I love everything that may writes he says such words of wisdom!

This is another picture featuring my pentacles and flowers, demonstrating how the pentacle appears in nature, showing the magick in all thing. I hope to be taking some more of these photos again soon.


Wayne Dyer has written many amazing books, one brilliant book that I like is  Wishes Fulfilled: Mastering the Art of Manifesting This is a book that shows you how you can truly achieve all that you desire. You really can realise your dreams and achieve your destiny.

Another great book written by Wayne Dyer is and based on Taoist wisdom is Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life: Living The Wisdom Of The Tao "In this book, Dr Wayne W. Dyer has reviewed hundreds of translations of the Tao Te Ching and has written 81 distinct essays on how to apply the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu to today's modern world. Each chapter is designed for actually living the Tao or the Great Way today. Some of the chapter titles are "Living with Flexability", "Living without Enemies", and "Living by Letting Go". Each of the 81 brief chapters focuses on living the Tao and concludes with a section called "Doing the Tao Now".Wayne spent one entire year reading, researching, and meditating on Lao Tzu's messages, practicing them each day and ultimately writing down these essays as he felt Lao Tzu wanted you to know them.This is a work to be read slowly, one essay a day. As Wayne says, "This is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life, and the result will be that you'll live in a new world aligned with nature".Amazon

I also personally find mediation CDs very helpful when I want to mediate but just can't stop the 'monkey chattering' of my mind on that particular day. Some days are better than others. Wayne Dyers CD I AM Wishes Fulfilled Meditations is a fabulous one to listen to, really inspiring.

"I see beauty in all things and I radiate joyful happy energy." positive affirmation

"I see beauty in all things and I radiate joyful happy energy." AstarteAlison

Mother nature, our wonderful mother Gaia is an amazing force. If we can tap into that incredible energy and listen to what she is telling us we can learn a lot from her and join in her incredible happy energy. It is no co-incidence that the pentagram, the symbol for paganism occurs time and time again in nature. The Pentagram has been a widespread sacred symbol used since ancient times. To the followers of Pythagoras it was called the Pentalpha. The pentagram demonstrates a five fold symmetry often found in life- starfish, the inside of an apple, flowers, plants and many living things even down to the molecular level.

Traditionally within Paganism the Pentagram is placed within a circle which represents unity and wholeness. This is called the Pentacle. The five points represent Spirit at the top(the all, divine) and then in a clockwise direction Water (emotion, intuition) Fire(courage, daring) Earth (stability, grounding) and Air (intelligence arts)

The Four elements are also associated with the four cardinal points on a compass, Earth- north, Air-east, Fire- south, Water- west.

The pentagram reminds us of our intrinsic need to be close to mother nature. Sometimes in our busy lives we forget to follow the rhythms of our mother earth and don't pay such close attention to the signs that she is giving us. Our ancestors were so in tune with our earth and our moon and we have lost a little of that and now it is time to try and bring some of that back. We can do that simply by paying attention to what stage our moon is at, what cycle we are in the wheel of the year, walking barefoot whenever we can, spending more time outside in the company of nature, noticing the beauty of nature that is all around us. All of this we can do whether we live in the countryside of the city. Even in the inner city there are parks and grass verges that are teaming with mother nature's abundance. Wild grasses and poppies for example pop up wherever there is a spare inch of waste ground! Mother nature cannot be held back, and the moon may be gazed upon wherever you are living.

So do try and see the beauty of nature, spend some time outdoors, preferably barefoot. Do you know what cycle of the moon we are at currently? Observe the beauty of nature, bask in her glory and radiate back that happy joyful energy. Allow your light to shine brightly so that others may enjoy your wonderful illuminated soul.

Beautiful sparkly blessings of our mother nature, Gaia, to you, Alison