Question of the Week: Beltane Celebrations

Hello all!  Happy Beltane!  This week’s question is easy.

Are you celebrating Beltane?  How do you plan on celebrating?

Put responses in the comments section below!  (Keep it PG-13 please, I know some people can take things a little to excess on this holiday.)

Book of Shadows, Part 2: Formats for a Book of Shadows

(This is part two of a three-part series)

There are many different formats to use for a Book of Shadows (BoS for short), and choosing a format is completely up to each person.  Find what works best for you–you may find that you try a few different methods before settling on one that works best.  Keep in mind what you’re likely to be good at, but also keep in mind that this kind of exercise is meant to be meaningful and worth taking time for–so, for example, writing something down rather than typing can be more meaningful to some.

Digital

A digital BoS could be something simple like a Word document or something like an online journal of sorts.  It can be public or private–though I generally say a BoS is something private and personal that shouldn’t necessarily be made an open book.  The point of the Book of Shadows is to find what works best for you and what doesn’t work, and a public BoS is perhaps a bit less personal.  Anyway, a digital BoS is kept on the computer.  You could print off pages if you wanted something tangible.  If you’re  not very good at writing or don’t really enjoy writing, a digital book could be the way to go.  If you’re a technology lover, then typing may come easier to you than writing, and you may prefer keeping a digital copy.

Pros: Easy to compile and move sections around; portable via Internet or flash drive; printable; easily changed; public or private.
Cons: Completely technological; no writing involved; can be lost if not backed up.

Spiral Notebook

A spiral notebook is pretty simple and easy to use as a Book of Shadows.  It will keep everything in one place and neatly together.  If you like to write, this could be a good option.  The spiral notebook doesn’t look like anything special however, so if you’re looking for something with a “witchy” feel to it, I’d say go with the journal.  It’s hard to turn a spiral notebook into a medieval-looking book.  However, if you want to insert pages or keep other materials with the book, there’s no way to keep things with it or insert pages or materials unless you glue it in, and that can be messy.  A spiral notebook could be used alone or with a three-ring binder to keep printed or extra materials together with the book.

Pros: Good for writers; keeps everything neatly together; decent for organization; could be used with a binder or alone; private unless shown to others.
Cons: Hard to move sections around and reorganize; can’t add papers or other materials unless gluing in; finite number of pages without being able to add more.

Three-Ring Binder

This is the option I originally started out with.  I typed up pages and printed them out to keep in the binder.  That way I could write notes in the margins and reorganize whenever I wanted, or combine with notes in a spiral notebook.  In my opinion, this option has the most freedom in terms of organization and combines technology and writing, both of which I like.  You can always add more pages, especially if the binder is large.  Typing is one option, but you can also write on notebook paper and keep it in the binder, which also allows for easier reorganization.  However, a binder doesn’t look very special, even with some decoration–but if you’re in the closet or desiring to keep your BoS looking innocuous, this could be a good option for you.  If you want your binder to look good but aren’t handy with decorations yourself, there are binders you could buy like this one that are pretty nice:

Pros: Good for organization and reorganization; can print out and use with writing; private unless shared; can combine with a spiral notebook; add many more pages; neat and orderly; can include other print-outs or materials in the binder.
Cons: Bulky; not very portable; doesn’t look like anything special.

Journal

The binder may be the most freeing option, but the journal is my favorite option.  This is because I’m a huge sucker for the pretty journals, and I tend to collect journals as well.  However, the journal format can be somewhat inconvenient for your Book of Shadows if you decide halfway through that a different organization of the entries would work better–there’s no way to change things around!  But if you enjoy writing, and appreciate the magical act of writing, a journal could be a good way to go.

Pros: Pretty; good for writers; everything in one place.
Cons: Difficult to reorganize; finite number of pages.

Part One: What is a Book of Shadows?
Part Three: Books of Shadows, Then and Now  Coming Soon!

Why Earth Day is Both a Joy and a Disappointment to Me

You may wonder how Earth Day could be a bad thing.  After all, it’s an entire day devoted to honoring, appreciating, and celebrating the Earth, right?  An entire day devoted to getting the message out that the environment needs help and we humans have responsibilities to said ailing environment.

Sounds great.  And it is a great idea.  But I also find it disappointing that we still have a need for Earth Day.  The commemorative day has been around since 1970.  This is 2012.  That’s 42 years of environmental advocacy, environmental messages, and creation of a heightened awareness of environmental problems.  Yet even after 42 years, Earth Day is as necessary as ever before in getting the message across that we all need to be aware of how we treat the world around us, whether we’re Pagans or non-Pagans.

Image from Google Image search.

This is why it’s disappointing to me.  It’s as if we’re saying that it’s OK to do something so important for one day and then go back to living our lives in unsustainable ways for the other 364 days of the year.  Yes, it’s grand in that the day does serve to bring a reminder to those who may have slipped up, but at the same time, why is it still necessary to have this day?  Shouldn’t we by now have figured it out that we can’t continue the way we are?  Shouldn’t we honor and respect the Earth for 365 days of the year and not just one?

I have the same kind of issue with Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.  They’re meant to show appreciation for the special people in your life–but shouldn’t you do that a lot more often than one day?  And yet, many people will only show appreciation or do something special on the day they’re “supposed to” do it.  (I should also mention that I don’t count birthdays in the count of number of days you show appreciation–birthdays should always be a given, in my mind, and are a different category altogether.)  I understand that these days can have special meaning and significance even when you do show appreciation throughout the year, and that’s a wonderful thing.  Mother’s Day is still special to my mom even though my sister and I show appreciation more than one or twice a year.  Valentine’s Day is important to me at this time only because I’ve never experienced it and I would like to.  And Mother’s Day and Father’s Day don’t really have particular importance to me personally because I am neither–but I understand that they are important days to my parents.

So these special days can have significance and be special even though you show appreciation or honor the subject of the day throughout the year.  But it is sad and disappointing for a person or thing to be important for only one day of the year.

Truly walking a Pagan path, regardless of your specialty or preference or brand of Pagan, is so much more than honoring the Earth for only one day.

Question of the Week: Earth Day

Hey all!  So yesterday was Earth Day.  This week’s question is very simple:

Did you do anything for Earth Day?  If so, what did you do?

Post in the comments below!  Looking forward to seeing what people did!

Weekly Deity: Ganymede

Zeus (left) and Ganymede (right)

Ganymede is a Greek mortal-turned-deity.  He is the cupbearer to the gods and is associated with water, rain, life, and youth.  He is also the constellation Aquarius.

Attributes

Ganymede has often been portrayed as a young, attractive male, either shirtless or nude, and holding a pitcher.  Sometimes Ganymede is shown with the eagle that abducted him, and so he is associated with eagles.

Mythology

While out herding sheep for his father, Ganymede is abducted by a giant eagle who bears him away to Olympus.  There he is granted eternal youth and immortality and the job as cupbearer to the gods.  This position had once been filled by Hebe.  All the gods enjoyed Ganymede’s company and felt joy upon him taking his office as cupbearer; all except Hera, who disliked him not only for his place in Zeus’ affections, but also for supplanting her daughter, Hebe.  Being the cupbearer to the gods is a very important and distinguished role as the cupbearer brings the gods their life-giving nectar (or just purified and divine water in some stories).  By some stories, Hera became so enraged that Zeus eventually placed Ganymede’s image among the stars as the constellation Aquarius, which is also connected to an Egyptian god of the Nile and of water.

Ganymede doesn’t do very much in the myths.  He shows up in his own myth, of course, about his abduction.  It is unclear whether the eagle that stole him away was sent by Zeus or was Zeus in disguise.  Both are equally plausible.  It is clear that Ganymede was held in very high regard, not only by Zeus but also by other gods, except Hera.  He does appear in one story with Eros, in which Eros cheated him at a game of knucklebones and Ganymede became rather enraged.

Ganymede is never said to have mated or married, and so has no children.  His father is Tros, from Troy (other accounts say his father is Laomedon, a treacherous king of Troy).  His mother is never named.

Because of the affection (myths vary whether it was strictly affection or a sexual affair) between Ganymede and Zeus, Ganymede is often seen as a figure associated with homosexuality or a deity of homosexuality.

Light and Dark Sides

Ganymede is a figure that begins as a humble mortal but gains immortality.  However, he can’t be said to follow the “divine hero” path, as he was not granted immortality for being a hero–in fact, he never did anything heroic.  He was granted immortality for his handsome looks and for his mind.  Despite his mortal origins, he was granted immortality and raised to the status of a minor god.  His domains include libation, water, rain, life, youth, and homosexuality.

Water is almost always connected to the subconscious mind, the emotions, the soul, and psychic ability, whether in dreams or myths.  Ganymede is a giver of water to both gods and men.  It is not a stretch to say that on his Light side, Ganymede has influence over the subconscious and emotions and such because of this connection to water.  This deity is interesting because he is a minor god, yet he fulfills such an important role to the gods.  The water brings life and sustains life, among the gods and among men, and Ganymede carries the water and pours it out.  In a sense, he rations the water to each recipient, which mean he defines how much life is given at a time.

Water is a changeable element, and Ganymede is deeply connected with water.  He also displays the instability in his myth with Eros in which he becomes enraged at being cheated.  It would be easier to get a better sense of Ganymede’s personality if there were more stories about him; sadly, there are so few to go on that it’s hard to say if he was very changeable or if he mostly stuck to the easy-going nature that he seems to have, and also hard to say what constitutes his Dark side.

When working with Ganymede, I suggest keeping in mind his connection to the psyche, the emotions, etc.  He is largely a Light deity; his Dark side may consist of the potential to withhold water, and thus life.  It also may include a changeable or unstable nature, which may require some caution.  Overall, however, he seems to be more Light than Dark, so I would place him on the Light side of the deity spectrum.