Changing Seasons

[qos]

One of the reasons I consider myself a "Bad Pagan" is that I've never paid a whole lot of attention to the seasonal cycles in nature nor to the seasonal celebrations. They just don't resonate with me.

The one exception is the turning from summer to autumn.

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I've always ascribed it to having spent so many happy years in school, including years of graduate school. This always feels like New Year to me: the start of new things, especially new learning. As the summer heat wanes and the air grows cooler, I feel new energy.

Over the past few years it's also been feeling like deepening time. I'm accustomed to seeing other people write about 'planting' in the spring and growth in summer; for me, the time of new growth, of bringing to maturity, begins when I start to move toward the cave in autumn. I'm sure this tendency is being intensified by my Underworld work. It may be that my autumnal orientation is part of my overall nature that's found its home on the underworld path.

My vigil next week is part of this deepening energy. The timing feels so very right.


Do your practices shift in autumn?

Comments

[erl-queen.livejournal.com]

Do your practices shift in autumn?

Absolutely.

Summer is my dead time, spiritually speaking, where there is little progress. But when autumn starts, everything is thrown into motion again (generally, a downwards, towards-the-underground motion). It's wonderful.

Personally, I *am* very aligned with the seasonal changes, and each season brings its own treasures and challenges, but the shift into autumn is hands-down my favorite.

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

Meh. I observe the cycles of Nature on a daily basis. I've never been particularly good about regular observational rituals; I've thought about doing stuff at the solstices and equinoxes, but I thrive on those daily connections.

[ulbh.livejournal.com]

If not basing everything on seasonal cycles makes one a bad Pagan, then you have to add me and most of the civilized Pagans of antiquity to the "Bad Pagan" roster.

[sekhmetkare.livejournal.com]

Oh, we are SOOO much alike in this respect! While I do follow and pay attention to the seasonal cycle, Summer is my absolute least-favorite season, while Autumn is my my FAVORITE. The cooler it gets, the better I like it. Spring is my second favorite season, Winter is third.

Those lovely autumn days we're looking forward to are coming soon... :-)

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

I am very much the same. Autumn for me is a time for when things get going again, despite the paradox that may be for where I live. My city is one of the coldest and snowed in on the earth. >_< So I don't get out much!

[alfrecht.livejournal.com]

With CR, the most important holiday (at least if one is doing primarily Goidelic things) is in the Autumn, i.e. Samain, so that's something...

And in the Ekklesía, arguably the two most important holidays we have that are attested from the ancient cultus are four weeks apart in the Autumn: Foundation Day on October 30, and then Dies Natalis Antinoi on November 27.

I don't think not following the seasons makes one a "bad pagan": one can be a total ancient Roman recon in an urban setting, and yet not follow the seasons because a good few of the important civic holidays in the past had anything to do with the seasons; most were deity-specific, or often significant in other ways (e.g. temple foundation dates, as with the Hercules festivals that just passed on the 12th and 13th).

This idea of all forms of paganism being "nature religions" or "earth-centered" is problematic, I think, because many of the ancient cults (the Antinoan one included) don't seem to have much of that element--and, in my opinion, that's okay, one can look elsewhere if one wants that. I wonder, then, what actually might unite all forms of paganism (ancient and modern)--because if it isn't earth-centeredness (and I don't think it is), nor is it polytheism (because most forms of paganism practiced today are not truly polytheistic--many are at least partially monistic), then there must be "something," and I'm not always certain what it might be...

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

I like to commemorate the 8 spokes of the wheel when I can, preferably with friends. This year I missed doing anything ritual for Lammas but then I was out in the woods making music and getting too little sleep... *wink* so it's a good exchange.

I want to sit with this question about how my practice changes with the seasons... it is a good one and something I haven't really examined. I have a feeling it does, but hm...

[wyldlingspirit.livejournal.com]

I've found practicing the eight spokes difficult alone. I may be a bad pagan for this, but it doesn't seem worth the effort. These are more fulfilling with a group. I've begun doing meditations on these days instead, outdoors if possible.

I pay much more attention to the turning of the Moon, timing meditations, spellwork etc. according to its phases. Not surprisingly, most of my work occurs during the New Moon rather than the Full Moon.

I've always resonated with Autumn. That first breath of cooler, more fragrant air sets my blood thrumming. My energies spike -- sexual, magical, intellectual, creative. I try to plan the things that require the most from me for Autumn.

Summer? I crawl under a rock!