scholarship in pagan themed books - Page 3

[heket]

:

Wow, how did I miss this thread before?

I'm not a big Llewellyn fan (and am practicing wiccan), but occassionally there's a good find. I also like some of Phoenix Publishing house's stuff.

While I'm not a big fan of the "fluffy bunny" stuff either, I just wanted to comment that it is a way into learning more about wicca for some. All I hope is that they eventually move on from there to other things with more substance, or at least start asking how and where they can get more info.

Great thread ladies.

[KoalaMama]

Originally Posted by Meiri

The other thing I'm going by in my "argument" in support of Samhain versus the Autumnal Equinox for the beginning of the dark half of the year is that from my reading from multiple sources, the Celts basically did not celebrate the Equinoxes. If I'm going to draw my spiritual practices from that part of my ancestry, then I'm not going to put much emphasis on them either.

I haven't read much on the subject, so you're certainly coming from a place of more extensive research than I am. But back to Uriel's Machine, one of the suggestions is that birth was timed around equinoxes and soltices in the time of the Grove Ware people. Many of their traditions held over to future cultures, suggesting that the importance of these dates may have as well. (I'm just getting into the chapters on Druids and Celtic history, so I haven't read in detail on what is believed to have been carried forward.)

Another way to consider this is to ask what the weather is doing when? I've been trying to pay attention over the last few years, and it seems to me that while the daylight balance does change at the time of the Equinox the weather does not. The change that we humans can see and feel comes later than the actual Equinox. Now continental America where I live is different from the British Isles where the Celts lived and continue to live, but I think maybe there's a time lag in that perception of when the season/year changes there too.

But the weather is inconsistent from year to year, so how that would that be a reliable gauge over time? The Equinox is something very accurate and tangible and can be planned against. So even if other things were bigger days for celebration, I imagine the equinoxes and soltices were the "anchors" that allowed accurate reference for those dates?

[Meiri]

I was just rereading my kid's book about the Celtic holidays and how they are celebrated today (pretty much the title right there ) and one of the things the authors point out is that the Celts were agricultural people. They celebrated the milestones of the yearly cycle when they happened.

You don't celebrate the harvest until you actually have the harvest. You don't celebrate the lambing and such early signs of Spring if they haven't happened yet. You don't celebrate the start of Summer when the crops have been planted until you've done so.

Unlike our calendars which are rigid on what days are when, what holidays are when rather...they were flexible about it. They had to be.

I have also noticed that there is a change around Samhain, give or take a week or 2, a different feel to the air, that just doesn't exist with the Equinoxes. Same for the Spring end of the year. It's probably different at a different latitude, but for mine, those dates do not particularly correlate with a seasonal change from what I've observed.