Green Way

“New Year ceremonies are designed to get rid of the past and to welcome the future. January is named after the Etruscan word janua which means door.”
- New Year’s Customs

“Janus was invoked at the commencement of most actions; even in the worship of the other gods the votary began by offering wine and incense to Janus. The first month in the year was named from him; and under the title of Matutinus he was regarded as the opener of the day. Hence he had charge of the gates of Heaven, and hence, too, all gates, Januoe, were called after him, and supposed to be under his care. Hence, perhaps, it was, that he was represented with a staff and key, and that he was named the Opener (Patulcius), and the Shutter (Clusius).”
- Mary Ann Dwight, Grecian and Roman Mythology–Janus

“Ruler of new beginnings, gates and doors, the first hour of the day, the first day of the month, and the first month of the year, the Roman god Janus gave January its name. He was pictured as two-headed (both heads bearded) and situated so that one head looked forward into the new year while the other took a retrospective view. Janus also presided over the temple of peace, where the doors were opened only during wartime. It was a place of safety, where new beginnings and new resolutions could be forged, just as the New Year is a time for new objectives and renewed commitments to long-term goals.”
- How January Got Its Name

January: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Links, Garden Chores

“Leaves fall,
the days grow cold.
The Goddess pulls her mantle of Earth around Her
as You, O Great Sun God, sail toward the West
to the land of eternal enchantment,
wrapped in the coolness of night.
Fruits ripen,
seeds drip,
the hours of day and night are balanced.”
- Mabon Sabbat and Lore

The Autumnal Equinox (Mabon, Harvest Home) Celebration: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Lore, Quotes, Poems

In Red Bluff, California, enjoying a Mediterranean climate, all our crops are irrigated. The reservoirs, the lakes, the rivers, the streams, the dams, the ponds, the aqueducts, the wells, the pipes, and the irrigation ditches all directly help in some way to keep all the plants, crops, animals, and mankind alive. In our home sacred circle, Mabon is associated with due West, facing the great Pacific Ocean, symbolized by the blue pole/stile and the blue cauldron and well pot. Water is precious to us, to All. Without the wells we could not survive.

We now know that the end of the long period of summer sunshine and heat, with little or no rain, is coming to an end. The cooler days ahead will bring rain again soon. The old dry half of the year is nearly done, and the wet half will begin soon. We have two seasons: the cool wet season of November through April, and the hot dry season from May through October. The end of the Dry Year is celebrated on the Autumnal Equinox, Mabon (late September); and, the beginning of the Wet Year is Samhain (Halloween), on October 31st. Samhain is both the end and beginning, at the edge of the many worlds, past and present, a borderline time, a doorway into the Other Realms. In our home sacred circle, the opening to the inner grove is between the West pole (Mabon, Alban Elfed) and the North-West pole (Sahmain, Halloween).

Many argue that these large crop circles are created by teams of human artists and pranksters, and a others argue that they have been created by visitors from other planets or supernatural beings. I am most fascinated by the shape of the design, typically a circle of some kind.

“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more then I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”
- Black Elk, Lakota, Black Elk Speaks

Sacred Circles: Bibliography, Links, Quote, Notes

“In this century and in any century,
Our deepest hope, our most tender prayer,
Is that we learn to listen.
May we listen to one another in openness and mercy
May we listen to plants and animals in wonder and respect
May we listen to our own hearts in love and forgiveness
May we listen to God in quietness and awe.
And in this listening,
Which is boundless in its beauty,
May we find the wisdom to cooperate
With a healing spirit, a divine spirit,
Who beckons us into peace and community and creativity.
We do not ask for a perfect world.
We do not ask for a better world.
We ask for deep listening.”

By Jay McDaniel
Professor of Religion, Hendrix College, Arkansas

“Men, considered collectively, are at all times the same animals, employing the same organs, and endowed with the same faculties: their passions, prejudices, and conceptions, will of course be formed upon the same internal principles, although directed to various ends, and modified in various ways, by the variety of external circumstances operating upon them. Education and science may correct, restrain, and extend; but neither can annihilate or create: they may turn and embellish the currents; but can neither stop nor enlarge the springs, which, continuing to flow with a perpetual and equal tide, return to their ancient channels, when the causes that perverted them are withdrawn.

The first principles of the human mind will be more directly brought into action, in proportion to the earnestness and affection with which it contemplates its object; and passion and prejudice will acquire dominion over it, in proportion as its first principles are more directly brought into action. On all common subjects, this dominion of passion and prejudice is restrained by the evidence of sense and perception; but, when the mind is led to the contemplation of things beyond its comprehension, all such restraints vanish: reason has then nothing to oppose to the phantoms of imagination, which acquire terrors from their obscurity, and dictate uncontrolled, because unknown. Such is the case in all religious subjects, which, being beyond the reach of sense or reason, are always embraced or rejected with violence and heat. Men think they know, because they are sure they feel; and are firmly convinced, because strongly agitated. Hence proceed that haste and violence with which devout persons of all religions condemn the rites and doctrines of others, and the furious zeal and bigotry with which they maintain their own; while perhaps, if both were equally well understood, both would be found to have the same meaning, and only to differ in the modes of conveying it.”

“It is observable in all modern religions, that men are superstitious in proportion as they are ignorant, and that those who know least of the principles of religion are the most earnest and fervent in the practice of its exterior rites and ceremonies. We may suppose from analogy, that this was the case with the Egyptians. The learned and rational merely respected and revered the sacred animals, whilst the vulgar worshiped and adored them.”

- Richard Payne Knight, 1786, A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus. Those interested in the lore and mysticism of Priapus, Priapos, Pan, Bacchus, the Green Man and related fertility gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome will find this essay very informative. “This extended essay on fertility worship in the Classical period was written by Robert Payne Knight (1750-1820), a distinguished English scholar, parliamentarian, writer, and antiquarian. Published in 1786, this book shocked English society to such an extent that Knight took it upon himself to suppress his own book.”

Green Wizard: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotes, Notes

“When the sun hat fits, it’s ugly.
The sun does not shine equally on all yards.
Plants favor sunshine, we thrive in the shade.
Leaves are sunlight, bound by water, shaped by invisible rules.
Ripening grapes in the summer sun - reason enough to plod ahead.
There are many keys to happiness; but, most often, the door is just wide open.
Our choices should maximize, not minimize, the options for choices by others.”
- Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Lately, I’ve been reading about Aleister Crowley:

“The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of Rituals of Thelema.” By Lon Milo DuQuette. San Francisco, Weiser Books, 1993, 2003. Notes, bibliography, 261 pages. ISBN: 1578632994.

“Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader.” Edited by Scott Michaelson. Solar Books, 2007.

“Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.” Book of the Law, I, 18.

“I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life; upon death: peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.” Book of the Law, I, 58.

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a very influential English poet, occultist, hedonist and Magician.

I’m currently looking for quotes, poems, lore, facts, information, and celebrations related to the autumnal equinox, harvest home, Mabon, etc.. My notes are collected in a couple of webpages:

Preparing for the Autumnal Equinox, Harvest Home, Mabon

September: Quotes, Poems, Resources, Lore, Garden Chores

August: Quotes, Poems, Resources, Lore, Garden Chores

“Under the summer sun,
thirty birds feeding
on figs.
Young tree branches
sagging so low -
ripe peaches.
Still in the shade,
on wet soil,
a black dragonfly.

An old mind
surprised by seeing
a purple fairy at sunset,
dancing to the crickets’ tunes,
leaping as guinea hens screech,
wary of the bats,
hovering to say,
“Lugh’s Day, Lugh’s Day.”

Crackling fires
glowing
under the full moon.

Peace in the Valley.”

- Mike Garofalo, Lugh’s Fairy

Preparing for Lughnasadh.

August - Poetry, Quotes, Lore, Garden Chores

August 1st is a day for celebrating the mid-summer harvest. Games and crafts are to be played. A toast to the Celtic god Lugh is to be offered up … may his manifold skills become ours. The fruits of the earth and the Bounty of Mother Earth should be honored.

Preparing for Lughanadsh, Lammas, The Summmer Harvest Festival

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Remember me to one who lives there,
For she once she was a true love of mine.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Without any seam or fine needle work,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Choose when you can an acre of land
As every plant grows merry in time
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
And then you shall be a true love of mine.

Plough it up with an old ram’s horn,
As every plant grows merry in time
Sow it all over with one grain of corn
And then you shall be a true love of mine.”
- Pagan Library of Poetry and Song

“The grain to harvest’s cutting falls
to make the bread for banquet halls.
We’ll save some seeds where life’s waiting,
and plant a new field come next Spring.
We shared the work we needed to do,
and now we’ll share the eating too!
Thank you, fruit, and thank you bread,
for making sure that we are fed.”
- Asleen O’Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon

Lately, I have been reading the following books:

Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon. Lore, Rituals, Activities, and Symbols. By Ashleen O’Gaea. Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New Page Books, 2005. Bibliography, index, 219 pages. ISBN: 1564147320. A good in-depth study of four spring and summer Celebrations in the Wiccan-NeoPagan year. Rich in details and ideas.

Ceremonial Circles: Practice, Ritual, and Renewal for Personal and Community Healing. By Sedonia Cahill and Joshua Halpern. Harper San Francisco, 1992. 199 pages. ISBN: 0062501542. Interesting study of the psychology of circle groups and dances.

The Magickal Year: A Pagan Perspective on the Natural World. By Diana Ferguson. New York, Quality Paperback Book Club, 1996. References, index, 224 pages.

Native American Flute books and instructional manuals

“The Wheel rolls more, and Autumn returns.
Cooler the rain; the Sun lower burns.
The coloring leaves presage the Year:
All things move into harvest’s sphere.
I vow to savor fruits first picked;
nor into grief shall I be tricked.
I vow to offer what once I spurned,
and face the Turning reassured.
- Asleen O’Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon