Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 34

The light of the water

Water • September Pagan Challenge # 26

In OBOD Druidry, Autumn Equinox is called Alban Elfed, the Light of the Water. So here are some photos of water and light. I think Alban Elfed is a wonderful name — light and water are a natural pairing and the reflective nature of water does amazing things with light. Water is sacred in most Earth-based traditions, including ancient and modern Pagan traditions, and Indigenous traditions of Turtle Island (North America).

The first three are photos of ...

My books

My books are about inclusive Wicca and witchcraft; how to include LGBTQIA people, disabled people, and BIPOC people in ritual and witchcraft; embodied spirituality; and the inner work of ritual.

Dark Mirror: the inner work of witchcraft

The inner work is what happens in the mind and body during ritual, and is intimately connected with embodied spirituality, which celebrates being alive and embodied.

This is a book about how to relate your witchcraft practice to everyday concerns; l...

Autumn Equinox 2021

Happy Autumn Equinox everyone! Time for cooler weather and warm jumpers and scuffing through the autumn leaves.

Autumn Equinox

September Pagan Challenge # 21 • Mabon

I call the festival Autumn Equinox, not Mabon. Mabon is a Welsh god who has nothing to do with Mabon. The name was only applied to the festival in 1974 and doesn’t fit it.

Mabon. A Welsh god, not a festival.

I like the suggestion of calling it Haligmonað, after the Anglo-Saxon month.

Anyway whatever you call i...

Green witch

Green witch • September Pagan Challenge # 18.

Whenever anyone asks “are you a black witch or a white witch?” (thankfully this is an increasingly rare question), I say “neither, I’m a green witch”.

I love walking in the woods and gardening, so I think that makes me a green witch. I also try to be green by doing recycling and using less resources.

Me and a magpie in 1993

When the above photo was taken, I was doing a countryside management course. The first place we went was called Great Co...

As to you O Moon

“As to you O Moon” by Edward Carpenter • September Pagan Challenge # 17 (New Moon)

Today’s moon phase is actually waxing gibbous.

Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) was a gay Pagan vegetarian socialist and one of the founders of the Pagan revival. This poem appears on page 141-142 of his book “Towards Democracy”.

Thanks to James Butler for introducing me to this poem.

Cosy or hyggelig?

Cosy • September Pagan Challenge # 16

The word cosy evokes blankets and cocoa, thick velvet curtains, woolly knitted jumpers, and squishy sofas. It’s slightly chintzier than hyggelig.

The word hyggelig evokes hugs, firelight, candles, warm food, cocoa, mulled wine, rambling conversations, simple rustic pleasures and interiors, and curling up in an inglenook or window seat with a book.

I recently read The Little Book of Hygge and was reassured to discover that I’ve been practicing hy...

Candles

The candle. September Pagan Challenge # 15.

Candles must be the most versatile magical thing there is.

We light them for happy occasions — romantic candlelit dinners, birthdays, and so on. The lighting of the menorah candles by the lady of house is the first thing that happens to usher in Shabbos on a Friday night in the Jewish faith.

We light candles for sad occasions — to ease the passing of a loved one. The candle that I light for someone who has died is what I focus on while I chant...

Autumn’s fiery face

Autumn’s fiery face
shifts and ripples across the woods,
catching and snagging
the lips of Summer
in a blushing kiss.

A tiny patch of red leaves among the green,
scorching and kindling
A rhodochromatic fire.

It starts softly,
Then rages across the land,
Not destroying but creating.

Dropping the leaves quietly on the ground,
Nests for beetles and fungi,
Worms and larvae,
Breaking them down for compost
To feed new life.

© 2021, Yvonne Aburrow

Autumn birds

Birds • September Pagan Challenge # 14

Autumn is when many birds start to migrate southwards. In Canada, skeins of geese are seen flying overhead; in England, birds start lining up on telegraph wires, ready for their long journey south.

In many parts of Britain, geese were known as Gabriel Hounds or ratchet hounds, and their flight was associated with the passage of the Wild Hunt.

People have also uses the flight of birds for divination and augury since ancient times. Geese were ass...

Autumn food

September Pagan Challenge # 13 • Autumn foods.

There’s definitely something about this time of year — I start craving apple and blackberry crumble, and homemade pies.

Homemade pie

As the nights draw in and get colder, and the leaves start to turn red, orange, and gold, and wild fruits start to ripen, my thoughts inevitably turn towards baking things with fruit and pastry and crumble, along with rich autumnal colours, big fluffy jumpers, and other hyggelig things.

A good crumble ...