Pagan Parents

Do you tie Yule and Christmas together? If you do, which parts? If you have children, what parts of Yule do you share/teach them? Do you do any rituals personally?

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( thoughts, background, questionsCollapse )


x-posted for more answers

... what kind of folklore or Pagan topics would you want to read?

For NaNoWriMo this year, I'm going to be writing a series of children's books about Paganism, adapted for that age group. I'm looking for some inspiration, so if you have suggestions as to what kinds of topics, god/desses, folklore, and so forth that you think you or your kids would want to read, please let me know. :)

(Sorry, x-posted a bit... just in case you see this more than once!)

My name is Sequoia and I am a graduate student in Counseling Psych and a lesbian. As part of a GLBT course I am researching lesbian parenting; both so that I can help lesbian couples as a counselor, and in preparation of my own parenting goals eventually. I want to include some women’s voices as part of my paper so that it is not just about dry research. I am collecting these perspectives through an online survey, and then I will include snippets in my paper. Everything will be anonymous and only used in this paper.

 

Here is the link to the survey: http://tinyurl.com/yfz4e3h

 

This survey is to get personalized, subjective opinions and experiences about the decision-making and interpersonal process of lesbian couples who became planned parents through donor insemination.

To complete this survey, please make sure that you match the following criteria:

• you identify as a woman-who-loves-exclusively-women, regardless of the term you choose to use.
• you and another woman decided to become parents through using donor insemination (not adoption, not from previous relationship, etc) such that either you or your partner became pregnant and the intention is to raise the child together as co-mothers.

Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you feel comfortable, with as much or little detail as you like.

This survey will be used in a graduate counseling paper, not in formal research. The results will all be anonymous.

Thank you so much for your participation and your inspiration!

 

Hi! I'm new here and to parenting, but not to being Pagan. Mind if I join you??

I've been a practicing pagan for many years now, but just recently had my son on Feb. 11th. So as you can see, I'm pretty "green" at the parenting aspect. :) I'm excited to be able to raise my son with a love for the Earth that I and his father share. I currently have developed and created elemental plaques that are placed at the quarters in his room, but that is all I have done so far. But I think that is a good start since he's only 4 months old! :)

A little bit about me and my past work. I was previously an active part of a coven. But I was removed from the group when I got pregnant. I'm a bit hurt with that, for I considered the group my friends and even family. But I've moved past the negative feelings and have been working on things solitarily for the past year. And honestly, since leaving that group and working on my own, I've learned so much and have felt a greater amount of positive energy in my life. 

I also was running a Pagan shop for someone I considered a great friend, who happened to be my old HP, and when I got kicked to the curb, I got kicked out completely. So, I'm currently a stay at home mom with my son. I do some tarot readings on the side to bring in some extra income, and have been keeping up on my herbalism. I'm hoping to one day open my own shop to share my love of the craft and knowledge with others. But most importantly, I'm hoping to find a great group of people to study with and then start and possibly build our own coven.

So, I look forward to get to know you all...and learn from you all. I'm also looking forward to sharing what knowledge I have as well.

Best to you all!! And might I add, a belated Summer Solstice!!

So I had an epiphany of the eight-legged kind this week. Ever since I can remember, there have been spiders showing up in odd places and behaving in very un-spiderish ways. We had a black widow build a web on our front porch when I was little, and that thing lived there for the entire time we lived in that house. It never bothered anyone. When I was in high school there was a brown recluse that took up residence in the latticework below my bedroom window. (Got me to stop sneaking out the window, that's for sure.) When I lived in Atlanta with my ex husband and was having marital problems, a black widow bit him while he was changing the oil in the car. I still giggle over that one. And these weird big honkin brown spiders like to get into my livingroom and hang out by my coffee table, which just happens to be a big wooden packing crate that doubles as storage for all my witchy paraphernalia.

There could be not a spider in sight, and I step outside and at least one or two decide to approach me. Not in an aggressive manner, I've never been bitten by a spider that I can think of.

What makes it funny is that quite frankly, spiders freak me out. I'm a big sissy girl when it comes to the things. I've never been bitten, and you'd think I'd be used to the darn things following me around by now, but I didn't have my epiphany til this week. It was said to me that I needed to stop and think, and connect the dots between the times spiders have been at their most present and when things have been difficult in my life ... and I came to a realization. Whenever I'm under the most stress or upheaval, that's when I see more spiders.

So hence the epiphany. I decided to put on my big-girl panties and deal with the fact that spiders are drawn to me. So going with that train of thought, I did some asking around about Celtic pantheon and any deities with an affinity or connection with spiders. And Ariadne was brought to my attention. I was told that she was the only Greek Goddess that was worshipped by the Celts. I did not know that before.

So apparently I've got another patron ... I'm not saying I gained a new patron, just that I've recently become aware of her. Since She's been present in my life since I was a child, and I'm only just now noticing it. And another animal to add to the planning of the backpiece tat of animal representations of my patrons.

Okay first off, for those who either don't know me that well or have only recently begun reading my journal, let me start off by saying that I am very openly Pagan. Being that I live in southeastern Georgia, this can pose some problems at times. Let's just say that the buckle of the proverbial bible belt is not very friendly to Pagans in general. Savannah has made some positive strides in the past few years since they started having a Pagan Pride Day (which is coming up pretty soon, I'll have to check my calendar again but I think it falls on Summer Solstice this year). But still, although I'm "out of the broom closet" as it were, I usually tend to keep religious matters to myself. I have a Goddess symbol tattooed on the back of my neck that I make no attempt to cover up, and I wear my pentacle every day. I just don't preach, and when people ask I generally say that it is a religious symbol and leave it at that unless asked further questions.

So I was kinda floored this morning when I came into the office. I hadn't even poured my first cup of coffee yet, much less consumed it. I was talking to our receptionist while I sliced up some baked goods I had brought for the office, and she said "Oh I love your necklace, it's beautiful .... is that Wicca??"

I was stunned! After a second or two to recover my wits, I said "Yes, it is." And then we got into a great discussion about nature religions in general and how she loves how in tune with nature they are, and she said "it isn't just a religion, it's a lifestyle!" I wanted to hug her. Really. Because it's so rare down here to have someone who, even though they aren't a follower of nature religions themselves, they still GET it. Granted, I'm not exactly Wiccan, although I am openly Pagan, but still, she was close enough to the general idea that it made my entire day better.

Was just wanting to find out if anyone has any special Ostara rituals or activities that you do with your children... since it's coming up this weekend and I would really like to celebrate it with the kids. We always celebrate Beltaine and Yule with ours, and I would like to try and incorporate some more of the pagan holidays into their lives, and educate them in the process. So any suggestons anyone has, or ideas for reading material about it, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! :)

 In an effort to get my kids (2yo, 5yo and 8yo) to remember to set aside the first bit of each meal as an offering for Hestia, I began to leave a little decorative jar in the center of the table.  This only sometimes works, so I've gone a step further.  I made a simple table topper from the Homeric hymn to Hestia and some clip art.  It will sit in the middle of the table next to the offering jar to remind the kids to pray, or at least get them meditating on the image of Hestia for a moment.

 
A word to the wise: if you decide to get a jar for offerings, and you have cats, be sure it's a jar that can withstand being turned upside down and knocked about the table.

Hi, all. I'm Alumah, and I co write The Soccer Moms' Guide to Wicca with Fae. I'm married to a Jewish man, and we work hard at blending our religious viewpoints and teaching our kids (girl-boy twins) about our shared values. While my husband and kids know about my religious path, I'm firmly in the broom closet in our community. Given that we're actively involved in local Jewish schools and organizations, I don't want to put my kids in the position of having to defend their mother's religious choices.

I also teach and mentor students of Wicca in our on-line learning coven, The Athame's Edge. Fae and I, along with her husband and our coven sister, have been running the coven since 2004. It's amazing how much you learn through teaching.

If you are struggling with raising your kids in a two-religion household, or if you're dealing with staying in or coming out of the broom closet, I'd love to share stories and experiences with you.

Bright Blessings,
Alumah