Pagan Pride: Celebrate Harvest Time the Really Old-Fashioned Way
Growing up literally half-a-mile from Salem, MA, I had mixed feelings regarding witches and witchcraft. On one hand, I had recurring nightmares of coming home from school and finding the Wicked Witch of the West at my house. (I could sometimes tell she was there because her car was parked out front—don’t ask.) On the other, I could barely contain my excitement when Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem, visited our elementary school. (It was pretty cool.)
As a pre-teen I frequently saw Cabot walking toward her shop in Salem or around the Commons. And in high school, I was intrigued by, and notably accepting of, a classmate’s announcement that she planned to join Cabot’s circle.
With this “doctor’s kid” kind of knowledge into one branch of the ancient pagan religions, I should mention how misrepresented they are as a group, particularly in popular media. And yet, I must also confess that movies like The Craft and Practical Magic are hopeless guilty pleasures.
While we continue to be fascinated with them, pagans are trying to reclaim their holidays and traditions, as they live pretty ordinary lives. And this month we can celebrate with them.
According to Witches’ Voice, pagans celebrate holidays to “attune themselves with the cycles of nature.” The upcoming Autumn Equinox will find many pagans celebrating Mabon (or Madron), the witches’ version of Thanksgiving. A time to “give thanks to the waning sunlight as we store our harvest of this year’s crops.”
Celebrating can include offering ciders, wines, herbs, even fertilizers—most likely not the toxic chemical kind. Or you can practice a simple spell of thanks by writing down your biggest point of pride and throwing the paper into fire, along with a handful of sage, to ask for your efforts to be acknowledged and blessed.
Since the basic premise of pagan belief is that “each and every human is completely responsible for his or her own actions,” the idea of taking pride in the good you do seems like a decent way to celebrate. Conveniently, Pagan pride festivals will be held across the nation in the coming weeks—and most have good deeds attached.
New York City will welcome an annual harvest festival, food drive and blood drive. In Indianapolis, event admission is free but organizers are asking for donations of food, kitty litter, books or jewelry for one of the charity organizations, including Indy Feral, the Damien Center, or the Indy Prison Ministry. And in Dallas, attendees are asked to bring not only a food donation for the North Texas Food Bank, but a case of water or bags of ice for event water stations.
To find an event near you, check out: http://www.witchvox.com/vn/vn_evw/ev_paganpride.html
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