Sunday 29 July 2018

The Moral of The Story?


Happy Lughnasadh, everyone.  We celebrate the first fruits (though the apples on my tree aren’t quite ready for harvest yet).  In the British Traditions, it’s the celebration of the grain harvest as the embodiment of the green/grain god, who dies and is reborn with the agricultural cycle.  With the first harvest, the autumnal quarter of the year begins, the evening of the year.  In my own interwoven mythos, with the beginning of the harvest, the Goddess begins to show her Crone face, while the Oak King, in his role of Sage/Magus, trains his Holly Apprentice.  In the wheel of our lives, I think of this as the time of mastery and maturity.

As my personal downsizing saga begins to draw to a close, the moral of the story (actually, Margarian’s) is...  I get it. Particularly when we are younger, “as within, so without” means that we, particularly those of us who live on the fringe in various subcultures, surround ourselves with things which assert and reinforce our identities, which are beautiful, or useful, or bring us pleasure. Sometimes these are trophies and souvenirs of things we’ve attended or accomplished.  We live in a consumer society, where the credo is, “whoever dies with the most toys, wins”, and the media reinforces consumerism by celebrating famous collectors. “It will be valuable, someday,” is another motivation to keep things. But mental or physical illness, often associated with people on the fringe, can turn this into hoarding, and our beloved collections can become mere accumulations.  

The thing to remember is that every single item we own, down to teaspoons and push pins, brings with it an obligation. We have a relationship with each and every one of them, much in the same way as we have with our significant others, friends, and furbabies.  We have to take care of them, use them, honour them, pay attention to them. When we cease to do so, we neglect them, put them away in boxes or bags, and forget about them.  They’re there somewhere, and still reinforce who we are by their presence, but in a sense they’ve been left behind, and the only way we can still honour them is to find them a good home where someone else can see the value (beauty, usefulness, or joy) in them by donating or selling them.  And if they’ve reached the end of their life cycle (partially due to our own neglect), we must deal with our “dead” by composting, recycling, or burying them in the landfill.  In a pagan sense, these are all products of the Earth, our Mother, and by honouring our possessions throughout their life cycles, we honour the Earth itself.

August Events:
Note these events are listed for information purposes only; no endorsement should be necessarily implied. 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 MDT.

Jul 31/Aug 1:  Traditional Lughnasadh, Lammas, Freysblot…
Aug 3-6:  Panfest 2018 at Pigeon Lake. http://panfest.ca/
Aug 4-5:  Days of Yore Medieval Festival at Rosebud Park, Didsbury. http://www.mountainviewartssociety.ca/daysyore/
Aug 4-6:  Canmore Folk Music Festival.  http://canmorefolkfestival.com/ http://canmorefolkfestival.com/
Aug 4, 10:00 am:  Inglewood Sunfest. https://www.inglewoodsunfest.ca/
Aug 5:  Celtic Tree-Month of Coll/Hazel begins, according to Robert Graves.
Aug 6:  Heritage Day (AB) and other Civic Holidays.
Aug 11-12:  Brooks Medieval Faire at Old Rodeo Grounds.  http://brooksfaire.com/index.php
Aug 11-12:  Peak of Perseids meteor shower.
Aug 11, 3:58 am:  New Moon. Lunar Month of Coll/Hazel begins.
Aug 11, 10:00 am:  Calgary New Age Market at Hillhurst-Sunnyside.
Aug 16-25:  GlobalFest Fireworks Festival at Elliston Park.  http://globalfest.ca/
Aug 24-Sep 3:  Calgary Pride Week. http://www.calgarypride.ca/
Aug 25, 1:00 pm:  Calgary Heathens Meet and Greet.
Aug 26, 5:56 am:  Full (Sturgeon or Corn) Moon.