Happy Ostara 2016

Dear Neophyte,

Happy Ostara everyone. Today is the first day of spring so throw down a picnic blanket, get some fresh flowers and drink some good wine in celebration!

Here are some pictures I pulled off google image search which captures what I like, love, and feel about this holy day.



You see a cute plate of chicks and I see food.  What I love about Ostara is that it means the delicious food is coming back!  All the fresh fruits and vegetables that aren't available during the colder months.  Putting it together on a cute plate it just bonus.



Today is a day to reaffirm our beliefs in our Gods, our way of life, and to reconnect with the changing seasons.  If you don't feel like a priestess of your Gods then the holy days are a time to make it right.



It's still chilly outside, but the Goddess of the Green is coming, already kissing the land awake in some areas.  Hail Ostara!



Music is always a big part of my holy day celebrations.  Here are a few Ostara songs that made it into my playlist this year:

Lisa Thiel - "Ostara (Spring Song)"

"Autumn in Asheville" by Emerald rose

Generic Ostara Music Combination

Decorations are of course important to every holy day.  In my house we change them out seasonally.  That is, four sets of decorations.  Some might think that's too much, but consider that we only decorate the living room by changing out the picture above the fireplace and some hangings on the wall.  It's not more than will fit in one rubbermaid tote and most of us have plenty of room for it in our garage or under the bed.  I go the extra step of also changing out my sheets and curtains to reflect the theme of the seasons.  The old stuff gets stored in the drawers of my 'captain's bed'.

Your inner light also gets honored at this time.  It's growing stronger and should be shared with the world.  This picture also represents the gardens all of us are planning, even if it's only in flower pots in the windows.  The third thing I love about this picture is that it her dress looks very comfortable.  Ostara is the day I begin packing away my winter clothing and bringing out my summer ware.  It's the time I also go through my winter clothing and either give away what I didn't wear that much, reuse the fabric to make something else, or repair it before stowing it away.  Trust me on that last bit: you do NOT want to pull a pair of pants out of storage and find out the front button STILL has not been replaced.

Lastly this is an inspiring and artistic season.  Paintings like this, utilizing symbology of your choice, would be easy to make even using crayons.  As mentioned earlier, the picture hanging over the fireplace gets changed every season and usually to one we've created ourselves.  I painted half the pictures in my house so I very much enjoy the process of creative expression through canvas and acrylic.  No, I didn't paint this one, but it really wouldn't be that difficult if I wanted too.  It's quite beautiful and peaceful. 

I'm so very glad I'm keeping diaries of all the things I do for the holy days.  It's helping me create my own traditions.  Find out what I did and didn't like and dig up deeper meanings in the symbols and acts.

It helps me actually be a Priestess of my Gods.

Salutations,

Sesh

Loreena Mckennitt and Pagan Music

Dear Neophyte,

If my religion had a soundtrack it would be played and sung by Loreena Mckennitt.  I have an entire playlist on Youtube for songs that evoke worship in me and most of it is her!  It's kept in a separated list from my other music so that when I turn on shuffle I dont wind up with my religious music as background noise.  Nothing kills the mood faster than the song that's suppose to set your heart a-flutter playing while you'r trying to pwn noobs in WSG.  

At one point I had heard her songs so much that I was actually skipping past them; they no longer evoked that sense of mystery or the energy that originally made me love them to begin with.  This music is almost sacred to me and too much exposure wears out the 'lore' and the feelings evoked.

Minerva - Goddess of Music

Currently I'm updating the playlist to remove all old videos that got 'copyblocked' (my term for 'cockblocked' when discussing music rights) by copywrite and small print.  I'm going threw and attempting to find the videos that have the best quality of music, not just the prettiest videos.  In face, videos mean nothing to me as I will only watch them maybe once and never see them again.  My playlist stays on in the background of whatever I'm doing.

Ms McKennitt isn't the only artist present in the list, but she is the most prominent.  As I discover better artists I've been adding songs slowly.  Woefull to me I discovered that there are not a lot of good Pagan artists (IMHO), but a LOT of them there are.

I start reading the lyrics to some songs as the music is winding up and I'm liking what I'm reading and in my mind I'm already hearing the words being sung in some angelic or gentle masculine voice and then - OMG EAR RAPE!  I don't know who told some of these people they could sing but they need to be shot lied to you! 


It's so hard to find good Pagan themed music that for a very long time I had must Loreena on my list and that was it.  Slowly I would come across The Spiral Dance or look up chants like The Goddess Song and find that someone did it and put it up for public use and now I know how it's suppose to sound.  It's just sad that 90% of the music slanted at Pagans on Youtube is just stuff you cant listen too.  It's grating on the ears, the music is all wrong, it's cheaply produced (which make sit harder to listen to than a bad vocalist) or it's obviously being sung wrong.  Not to say they author of the song is singing it wrong, but that it rubs me the wrong way to listen to it period because I dont feel the words need be sung that way.

"Female Musicians"
modern take on an ancient mural

Also, not everything has to be sung by five people!  You can do solos!  Just look up Healther Dale.  She sings solo or with her own voice as accompaniment and a lot of her songs are beautiful.  Granted, they are not targeted at Pagans, but a fair few of them are open to interpretation.  Crashing Down is one such song, and could be about any regime being toppled.

It seems as if most Pagan themed music would sound a lot better if you heard and saw it live.  If you could see the expression on the artists faces as they made instrument and voice slip together and create a harmony maybe it would make you not pay attention to the fact that there is only one real verse and the rest is the singer (or ten) doing scales and repeating one line over and over again.  If this is the case then these bands need to realize that in order to market to today's discerning American, they need to step it up a notch with production and sound.

So far nothing I have heard comes remotely close to Loreena McKennitt.  When I hear her I just want to cast a circle and worship.  I want to ride the celestial winds threw the grass while dreaming up at the crescent moon.  The image this woman's artistry puts into my head and what she pulls out of my soul remind me that I am a Witch.  I am a Pagan.  I am a Goddess.

Everything is Sacred.  We all come from the Goddess, and to Her we shall return.

Tools like Youtube made it so much easier to study Paganism since they allow you to see rituals, hear music, feel the beat of the drums and the candescence of the chants.  I'ts been an invaluable tool for me in place of a coven or even any other Pagans that live near me.

One last note: I also like the group Celtic Women.  Most of their stuff is Christian and while their songs evoke a sense of awe and wonder (Orinoco Flow), they don't pull worship out of me the way the Ms McKennitt does.

Salutations,
Sesh