Feeding The Dead

EarthSpirit LogoThe EarthSpirit Newsletter Autumn 96
Feeding The Dead
by Anne Lafferty

At Samhain many members of the Earthspirit Community come together to honor the dead. Before the ritual begins, participants go to one of several ancestor shrines to speak to those who have died and listen to other people tell their own stories. During the ritual itself, we call out the names of our loved ones who have gone before. We come together to remember the dead and honor them.

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Imbolc A Celebration of the Coming Spring

EarthSpirit LogoThe EarthSpirit Newsletter Winter 94
Imbolc: A Celebration of the Coming Spring
by Anne Lafferty

The temperature is only a few degrees above zero and the wind chill factor brings it down to twenty below. This morning you had to wait three times as long as usual for your subway train because, somewhere on the line, a switch had frozen shut. A few days ago there was a snowstorm and another one is expected tomorrow night. The sidewalks are covered with several inches of ridged ice and almost every time you cross the street you have to clamber in and out of snowbanks at the sides. All your co-workers are saying that winter will never end and you’re beginning to think that they’re right. So, why, precisely, are you leaving your warm home and travelling all the way across town in the evening to do a ritual?

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The Waters of Midsummer

EarthSpirit LogoThe EarthSpirit Newsletter Lammas 96
The Waters of Midsummer
by Anne Lafferty

Midsummer is strongly connected with water and there are many beliefs and practices involving water that are associated with this time of year. Folklore being what it is, there are some apparent contradictions in these beliefs. In most of Europe, Midsummer was either a time when you specifically went into the water of a time when you specifically did not. The belief that bathing in natural bodies of water was beneficial at this time seems to have been more widespread.

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Fall Gardening

EarthSpirit LogoEarthSpirit Newsletter Fall 95
Fall Gardening
by Edward Crow

September fifteenth. It was almost twilight and very chilly. There might be an early frost. Half the sunflowers circling the garden had dropped their heads two weeks ago; now all were brown. But at dusk the burgeoning marigolds, almost day-glo orange and yellow, showed only a few dry petals; they could survive the night. So would the squash. The banana peppers and the skinny pointed cayennes wouldn’t. In past years the gardener rushed out to rescue the basil from the first frost threat, but not tonight because then she would come home too late from her toxic institutional job. Even so, she loves the smell and the feel of dirt and since she was beginning her fast for the equinox, she went out into the chilly garden and dug a few of her potatoes for dinner. She had to find them by memory in the near-dark because the plants were long gone.

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Honey-Curry Bread for Yule

EarthSpirit LogoEarthSpirit Newsletter Lammas 96
Honey-Curry Bread

As served at MotherTongue’s Yule 1995 performances baked by Leona Arthen

 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tablespoon curry powder

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Educating Ourselves and Our Children

EarthSpirit LogoThe EarthSpirit Newsletter Autumn 96
Educating Ourselves and Our Children
by Deirdre Pulgram Arthen

[Since the article “Home to Me” was published in the last autumn issue of EarthSpirit, I have received numerous requests for more information about our family’s relationship with our children’s schools, so I collected some thoughts to share here. We would love to hear from other families about their experiences as well, please feel free to write to us in response. ]

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THE FIRST SONG: A tale of how Yule got its name

EarthSpirit LogoEarthSpirit Newsletter Yule 94
THE FIRST SONG: A tale of how Yule got its name
by Andras Corban Arthen

This is the story of the very first song; it is a true story, as all stories are, if you believe in them. This story begins a long, long time ago, when the Earth and Sun gave birth to the first beings-the very first plants, and animals, and people. It was springtime, and the Sun shone warm and bright from his high perch above, and Earth, proud mother that she was, held and fed her newborns and relished them with tenderness and love. It was a time of joy, it was a time of great delight.

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The Flame in the Snow

EarthSpirit LogoEarthSpirit Newsletter Winter 94
The Flame in the Snow
A Desultory Musing on an Imbolg Night
by Andras Corban Arthen

The hard-packed snow crunches underfoot. More than thirty of us, we wend our way in single file on the narrow trail along the frozen pond. All around, the woods are whisper-still, silent watchers of this curious band of darkling figures inching forward on short, halting steps.

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