Of Yule, Janus, and Thoth

Happy 2018, everyone.   Hope your holiday season (that nebulous time between Hanukkah and New Year’s) is or has been a good one.  Yule for me is a time of Mystery, when so much is happening offstage.  In my own personal Wheel of the Year, the Sun God dies in the Underworld and is reborn.  The Oak God is in his Warrior aspect, keeping vigil alone through the long night that is January. The Goddess is in her fourth form, that of the Star Goddess, but will return as the Maiden at Imbolc, bringing with her the infant Holly Child. But for now, the Warrior waits.

For me, the holidays, and the 25^th in particular, is a respite between the long buildup of hype, music, and shopping madness that is the Christmas season, and the subsequent Boxing Week chaos and return to the normal grind. Almost everything stops, and we can shut out the day-to-day world and concentrate on the things that are important to us – family, friends, self-care – that can so often be ignored in the course of our regular duties.  This may sound trite, but it is truly important.  Yule is a time for reflection, and for beginning to work on our own “resurrections” in the form of New Year’s resolutions. We remember the Roman God Janus, for whom January is named.  His two faces look both backwards into the year just past, and forward to the year ahead.

This time is a modern equivalent of the “intercalary days” – literally, “between the calendars”, when peoples at least as far back as the Egyptians, resynchronized their calendars with the solar and lunar cycles. In Egyptian mythology, back when the year was figured as 360 days, we’re told the goddess Nut was unable to bear children on any day of the year. The wise god Thoth gambled with the Moon for a portion (1/72) of her light, and won the five days on which Nut’s children – Isis, Osiris, Nephthys, Set, and Horus the Elder – could be born.  In the same way, we can use this time to renew ourselves, and prepare to move forward into 2018, with the Oak Warrior at our side.

January Events:

Note these events are listed for information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this listing, please contact me. All times MST.

Jan 1:  New Year’s Day.

Jan 1, 7:24 pm:  Full (Wolf or Cold) Moon. Supermoon.

Jan 3:  Earth at perihelion.

Jan 4, predawn:  Peak of Quadrantid Meteor Shower.

Jan 16, 7:17 pm:  New Moon. Luis/Rowan Lunar Month begins.

Jan 20, 12:00 pm:  Women’s March to City Hall hosted by Women’s March Canada - Calgary and March On Canada - Calgary, at Famous Five monument.  Info: http://www.womensmarchcanada.com

Jan 21:  Celtic Tree-Month of Luis/Rowan begins, according to Robert Graves.

Jan 27, 10:00 am:  He for She – Speaking out Against Misogyny and Sexism, at McDougall Centre.

Jan 27, 7:00 pm:  Calgary Heathens Meet and Greet at Denny’s McKnight.

Jan 31, 6:27 am:  Full (Old or Wolf, Blue) Moon. Lunar Eclipse.

Jan 31, 7:30 pm:  Full Moon Circle in NE Calgary by Calgary Witches’ Meetings Facebook group.

December, 2017

Hi all. I really tried to write a piece on the Weinstein Effect this month, but wasn’t happy with the result. For now, I'll just say that I’m ashamed for my gender. We as men must do better.

December Events:

Note these events are listed for information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this listing, please contact me. All times MST.

Dec 1:  World AIDS Day.
Dec 1, 11:30 am:  Calgary Spiritual Networking Luncheon at China Rose, hosted by Enchanting Mystical Moments.  https://www.facebook.com/EnchantingMysticalMoments/
Dec 2, 12:00 noon:  Winter Goddess Gathering at Calgary Centre for Spiritual Living.  https://www.facebook.com/events/291702871321189/

Dec 3, 12:34 am:  Mercury Retrograde until Dec 22.

Dec 3, 8:47 am:  Full (Cold or Long Nights) Moon.

Dec 6:  Remembrance of L’Ecole Polytechnique Montreal Massacre, 1989.

Dec 7-10:  Festival of Crafts at BMO Centre. http://festivalofcrafts.ca

Dec 16, 10:00 am:  Calgary New Age Market at Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Hall.

Dec 17, 11:30 pm:  New Moon. Beth/Birch Lunar Month begins.

Dec 21, 9:28 am:  Winter Solstice.

Dec 22, 6:51 pm:  Mercury Retrograde ends.

Dec 24:  Celtic Tree-Month of Beth/Birch begins, according to Robert Graves.

Dec 25:  Day of Peace.

Dec 26:  Boxing Day.

Dec 30, 7:00 pm:  Calgary Heathens Meet and Greet at Denny’s McKnight.

Samhain, 2017

Happy New Year, everyone.  November as I see it is always an odd time. Pagan seasons, we are taught, begin at the Sabbats, yet the marketing cycle encourages us to think about the next one. As a result, we’re besieged with Xmas commercials and displays at the stores, and the only time we’re encouraged to think about issues of death and sacrifice this month is Remembrance Day. (My own parents being non-combatant Displaced Persons, the day regularly raises its own issues for me.) 

Here at the boundary of the biomes, we’re in the dregs of autumn, wondering if the next snowfall will be the permanent one, and how long we should delay raking the last of the leaves. It can be a month of diversions; some of you will diligently begin writing “free-fall” novels for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), others – how is this still a thing? – will grow or don moustaches for Movember, to the chagrin or amusement of the women around you.

Samhain, I was taught, is a time for closure: for paying off of debts of all kinds, returning what was borrowed, doing what is necessary to start the new year with a clean slate.  It’s somewhat akin to the end of the fiscal year for businesses.  I must admit that in my own case, I’ve been living Samhain in this sense for the last ten years. 

This reminds me that the Wheel of the Year may correspond to the greater Wheel of our lives.  As a rough approximation, Closure at Samhain is followed by Death and Rebirth (Yule), Childhood (Imbolc), Apprenticeship (Ostara), Adolescence (Beltane), Maturity or Mastery (Litha), Parenthood or Mentorship (Lammas), and Harvest (Mabon).  Some of these may be skipped, inverted, or extended, as our own life circumstances dictate. Still, it’s food for thought as we descend into the reflective Underworld of the season.

November Events:

Note these events are listed for information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this listing, please contact me. All times Mountain.

Oct 28, 10:00 am:  Calgary New Age Market at Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Hall.

Oct 28, 7:00 pm:  Calgary Heathens Meet and Greet at Denny’s McKnight.

Oct 29, 7:00 pm:  Paranormal Hallowe’en Party at Rose and Crown, hosted by Ghost Hunt Alberta.

Oct 30:  Calgary Pagan Pride Society AGM at Denny’s, 1804 - 19 Street NE.

Oct 31, 7:00 pm:  Hallowe’en Night Paranormal Investigation at Crossroads/Country Roads Saloon, hosted by Ghost Hunt Alberta.

Oct 31:  Traditional Samhain. Happy New Year!

Nov 1-30:  Movember, a.k.a. fuzzy upper lip month.  https://ca.movember.com/

Nov 1-30:  National Novel Writing Month.  https://nanowrimo.org/regions/canada-alberta-calgary

Nov 3, 11:23 pm:  Full (Beaver or Mourning) Moon.

Nov 5, 2:00 am:  Daylight Savings Time ends. Fall back!

Nov 9-12:  Taboo:  the Naughty but Nice Sex Show at the Big Four Building. http://tabooshow.com/calgary

Nov 11:  Remembrance Day.

Nov 16-19:  Art Market Art and Craft Sale at Telus Convention Centre. http://www.artmarketcraftsale.com/

Nov 18, 4:42 pm.  New Moon. Ngetal/Reed Lunar Month begins.

Nov 25:  Celtic Tree-Month of Ruis/Elder begins, according to Robert Graves.

Nov 25, 10:00 am:  Calgary New Age Market at Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Hall.

Nov 25, 7:00 pm:  Calgary Heathens Meet and Greet at Denny’s McKnight.