Pagan Paths

My sister and I celebrated Samhain last night because she has plans for tonight and I didn't want to celebrate alone. We spent the whole day together, getting ready for FaerieCon and just having a great time. After supper we went for a walk at a nearby park and I introduced her to a willow tree that is very special to me. This tree literally knows who I am and gives me hugs with her branches every time I visit. Last night was no exception. I hadn't been there for a while, and after a fe moments I had all these willow branches wrapped around me and touching me. I didn't do anything except stand near the tree and wind just blew them to wrap around me! We stayed there for a while just enjoying the natural beauty of the night, and then we came home and set up for a semi-formal ritual. I cast the circle, called the four elements and the Lord and Lady. I had asked my sister if she would like to write down some negative things about her life that we could burn in a fire as a way of letting that negativity to "die" so that our positivity could "live." So we both wrote down things that we wanted to purge from our lived and then burned them in a coffee can. Then we honored our deceased loved ones, had cakes and ale (pumpkin bread and apple juice), and left an offering in my garden.

I think the burning ritual helped. I feel "lighter" already, like my burden has been lightened. It's not gone, I know that. But I feel more capable of dealing with the stressors in my life because I'm not clinging to anger, guilt, and hurt feelings. I need to let them go.

However you celebrate tonight's holiday, I wish you all blessings and peace.

~Caeldi~

Wishing you Blessings and Happy New Year, also! ;)) Your ritual sounds wonderful and your connection to the tree is incredible! And awesome! ;) I'm glad you had a meaningful time.

Yesterday I also had an insightful and meaningful ritual with my little Circle. :) We honored our dead with pictures on the altar, and we also made a list of things within ourselves we want to shed for the new year, and burned the list in the cauldron. Later we visualized what we wanted in the coming spiritual new year in our lives and meditated on that. I felt as the Circle was cast and we were between the worlds, that my father, who died at this time last year, was sitting next to me, and that many of my loved ones now gone, were within our circle with us. It brought tears to my eyes. Blessed Be! ;)

Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(




"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.

- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator






Mika Dog

"All things share the same breath;
the beast, the tree, the man.
The Air shares its spirit with
all the life it supports."
--Chief Seattle

"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go where they went."
~Will Rogers

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
~~Mahatma Gandhi