The PF London Conference 2013 - Rites of Passage

I had a panic the evening before the Pagan Federation London Conference 2013 - I realised my ticket hadn't arrived in the post. A quick email to PF organisers Luth Adams and Elle Hull got it sorted. They told me a friend of mine was manning the door and there'd be no trouble getting in. There wasn't - but I got there early anyway and chatted to Eleanor of Pagan Radio outside the venue while waiting. She told me some exciting things are planned for Pagan Radio in the autumn, which I'll blog about in more detail nearer the time.

The venue itself - The London Welsh Centre - was excellent. You can see a photo of the outside of the building at the top. Inside it is really spacious, with a large main hall, a stage, lots of smaller side rooms, a very comfortable reception area with armchairs and a huge bar upstairs that has a magnificent vaulted ceiling with wooden beams. The staff were friendly too.

Rites of Passage was the theme of this year's conference and the programme was designed with this in mind. The first workshop I went to was a women-only event called Black Moon Lodge - Harnessing the Power of Menopause. Being a woman who is approaching that time of life I thought maybe I ought to, even though it sounded a depressing subject. It wasn't. In fact, it was empowering. Hazel Loveridge, who ran the workshop, told the story of Inanna's descent into the underworld. Although I'm familiar with the tale, it is one I can listen to repeatedly - especially when it is well told. For women who might feel that one stage of their life is ending, this ancient story of loss, death, resurrection and empowerment can offer insight into the positive aspects of the wisdom years of cronehood.

Later in the day there was another women-only workshop called The Red Tent Moon Lodge, about women's mysteries. Other talks were on handfastings, funerals, initiation and becoming a priestess. The opening and closing rituals of the day followed the rites of passage theme, with older PF organisers passing on the mantle of responsibility to younger members - and finishing with a lovely ceremony put together by members of the Pagan Threads moot for young pagans.

If you weren't interested in rites of passage, there was still plenty to enjoy, including music in the bar, a showing of the film Spirit of Albion and talks including Anglo-Saxon Place Names with a Pagan Origin and The Cerne Giant: Landscape, Gods and the Stargate (which I hope to be posting more about at a later date). The photo at the bottom shows Brighde Dolls that were on the central table during a lovely meditation on Brighde's Cave and the power of creativity.

I had a fantastic time at the PF Conference. It was lovely to meet up with friends as well as learning and gaining valuable insights from the talks and workshops. Oh, and once again I was lucky in the raffle, winning the wooden board decorated with a rabbit and the moon that you can see in the photo of prizes to the left.

If you want to go along to another pagan event today, the 16th Pagan Pride March in London starts at Red Lion Square, Holborn, at noon, ending at Russel Square by the fountain. This is a free event but bring a picnic - and a towel if you want to paddle in the fountain. For more information about the PF London, and future PF London events visit the website: http://london.paganfed.org/

Previous related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/10/winning-day-at-pf-40th-anniversary.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/10/pagan-federation-london-has-new-website.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/03/all-about-pagan-federation-london-pf.html

Book Review: The God Tree by Janis Fry

As the lights go on all over our cities for the festive season, we start to think about decking the halls with holly, hanging mistletoe over the doorway and dressing a pine tree with sparkling baubles to celebrate Yuletide. Many of us like to think we are at least partly following in the Winter Solstice traditions of our ancient pagan ancestors in the evergreens we bring into the home, but a new book by Janis Fry suggests we might have got the wrong trees.

In The God Tree,Janis suggests that many of the famous trees from mythology, including the Norse Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh and even the tree in the Garden of Eden, weren’t ash, cedar or apple, but yew trees. Druids, rather than worshipping in groves of oak trees, may have considered groves of yews to be most sacred, and the evergreens brought into the house at Yule might have been yew branches rather than firs. Janis even offers evidence that the famed Golden Bough wasn’t mistletoe, as stated in Sir James Frazer’s classic tome,but actually a rare occurrence of a golden branch that grows on yews.

Publisher Capall Bann says on its website: "The God Tree is the first book to take up the quest for the Golden Bough since JG Frazer’s classic study in 1915 with the discovery of the bough growing once more, as the rare adornment of a small number of ancient yews. It reveals the fact that yews of particular significance were brought to Britain from Ancient Egypt and the Holy Lands as dry staffs carried by pilgrims, at great personal risk, thousands of years ago. These were planted in remote sanctuaries, particularly in Wales, where they sprouted and grew into trees. Thus those who carried them ensured the continued existence of something so precious, it was essential it be preserved for future generations."

Janis points out that yews fit the bill for sacred trees in cultures all over the world, including Britain, not only because of the descriptions given in ancient writings, which she has researched carefully, but also because of the properties of the trees themselves. They are extremely long-lived trees. Even after they have died, branches of the wood if planted in the ground can take root, essentially reincarnating the original tree.

Of course yew trees have long been known to have symbolic associations with death. They frequently grow in churchyards and pre-Christian burial sites. Because of this, and because the trees are poisonous, in recent centuries people have often considered yews to be unlucky.

Janis points out that although pretty much all parts of the yew tree are toxic, the flesh of the berries has healing properties and a carefully-made preparation of the sap can be used shamanically to give a hallucinatory near-death experience. (Don’t try this at home, kids, as you’ll probably end up really dead). She goes on to recount several tales of miraculous cures people have experienced while meditating under yew trees – sometimes even being brought back from the brink of death after being told by doctors that they had terminal conditions. This leads the author to claim that the Holy Grail, rather than being a chalice or even the bloodline of Christ, might in fact be the wood and juice of the yew tree.

So, next time you see a yew tree, it might be worthwhile paying it respects as the true God of the Trees.

Links and previous related posts:
http://www.capallbann.co.uk/
The God Tree
http://www.sacredyewinstitute.com/main_page.html
www.yewshamanism.com
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Oxford World's Classics)
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/11/act-now-to-save-our-ash-trees_4.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/08/review-wildwood-tarot.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/08/pagan-eye-druid-oak.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/12/evergreen-ivy-pagan-fertility-symbol.html

We are all made of stars...

Last Sunday evening I watched a programme on BBC called Stardust, an episode in the science series Wonders of the Universe.

In it, Prof Brian Cox talked about how all the elements that make up our bodies - and all the elements that make up everything on Earth - were formed in ancient stars. "Every piece of you and me was forged in the furnaces of space," he said.

Yes, we are stardust; we are all made of stars; and every man and every woman is a star - to quote two songs, one album and one well-known occult text.

Stardust was a fascinating documentary - and very pagan considering it was about hard science. It started with Brian Cox attending a Hindu cremation on the banks of the Ganges and explaining that everything that dies is reborn. Every element that makes up our bodies has in the past been part of other bodies - people, animals, plants and the very rocks that make up our planet. After we die those elements will return to the earth to become new plants, animals and human beings.

Of course, he was talking about this in a physical sense - although he was also touching on questions of metaphysics such as what are we and where do we come from?

I found that this helped me come to terms with the death of my mother last week.

Her name was Stella. And she was a star.

The BBC series is shown on Sunday evenings on BBC2 at 9pm and in it Prof Brian Cox tells the epic story of our universe and shows how its story is also our story. Programmes on BBC TV Channels are usually available to watch on iPlayer for at least a week after they are shown: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

Based on the series, the hardback book Wonders of the Universeis available through Amazon as is the Wonders of the Universe [DVD] [2011]

Previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/03/my-mother.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/03/my-mother-has-died.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/10/quantum-tarot-20-tarot-of-physics.html

Death, rebirth and a mystery

At Samhain 2007, I attended a requiem for the high priestess who taught me most of what I know about witchcraft.

It was a beautiful ritual, for an amazing woman. At the end of the ceremony, I was given a small packet of sea holly seeds to plant in the memory of a this great witch, who had loved the sea.

I planted them last March, because it is the time for festivals of rebirth and of life returning to the land as well as being the right time to sow sea holly seeds. They are supposed to bloom in September, producing silvery-blue perennial flowers.

Although I love flowers and plants I am not the best gardener so I wasn't surprised that, despite regular watering, no little seedlings emerged.

By autumn, the pot of bare compost was still sitting in my porch when I urgently needed somewhere to put an aloe vera plant. So there I planted it. The aloe did OK over the winter, and a week or so ago I noticed some spiky plants growing alongside it. Now, they have produced some small, silvery flowers.

Are they sea holly? To be honest, I doubt it. Sea holly is supposed to flower in September, not March, and the flowers are silvery, but not blue.

It is probably some weed that has self-seeded, but I am rather curious as to what it is and would love this little mystery solved. If you think you can tell the identity of the plant in the picture above, do leave a comment below.

Links
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/03/from-ashes.html

From the ashes

Last October I attended a requiem for the high priestess who taught me most of what I know about witchcraft. She was an amazing woman, a larger-than-life character and a fantastic teacher.

At the end of the ceremony, the lovely lady who organised the it gave everyone there a small packet containing sea holly seeds in a handful of the funeral ashes. The high priestess had loved the sea and it seemed a suitable symbol of the cycle of life that each of us should take these away to plant them in the spring.

March is the time for festivals of rebirth and of life returning to the land. It is also the right time to plant sea holly seeds. They germinate best when there is still the chance of a cool spell soon after they are sown.

They should grow into seedlings that can be planted out in August and bloom in September, producing silvery-blue perennial flowers.

I am not the best gardener, so I will be watching carefully to see if they grow. If they do, I will photograph them for A Bad Witch's Blog.