Rain

This morning we had our first thunderstorm of the season. I thought I'd take a pagan look at it, which in reality combines several different views. The first is that of the seasonal changes. We are moving into Spring if you don't already consider us there (I do because the weather has been warming nicely and we passed the equinox last week). In my neck of the woods the rain is extremely important due to the type of crops we grow here, mainly corn and soybeans with alfalfa on the side...yummy. Nebraska has been considered to be in a drought the last 10 years, but hey I look at this as the larger picture of the weather moving in cycles ranging thousands of years with a little mix of global warming. Just something we have to fix what we can and accept the rest. Anyway, as we move into Spring, our fertility season, growing crops is on the minds of many individuals around here, and rain doesn't always mean dreary, a lot of times its much welcomed, unless we get too much and the farmers can't get out to the fields. Anyway, seasonal change and everything that goes with it is important to the growth of crops providing food for us humans as well as livestock and it also is main ingredients in so many products we use daily that even a slight decline in the crop production can hurt all of us on so many levels.

Next I wanted to condense down from the big picture and look at my own personal view of the shower from the sky. My immediate reaction to the rain storm this morning as I lay there in bed was a smile on my face. My husband loves thunderstorms so I had to nudge him awake a little to let him know it was going to storm this morning. For myself, I don't mind the thunder and lightning, unless the lightning gets to be too dangerous...not a fan of that. I focus more on the rain. I'm one of those people who can stand outside in a rainstorm and just dance, shortly after my husband came home from Iraq he danced with me in the rain. I kind of look at it as a cleansing. We are preparing for a new baby to arrive in the house in about a month so we've been cleaning like crazy. I just look at this as another kind of cleansing. Not only is the rain settling the dust and cleaning up the roads a bit from all the sand dropped by the snow plows in the winter, but it is also a spiritual cleansing for me. Later on today I will probably sit down and meditate a bit on those things in my life that need cleaned up, physically, spiritually and emotionally. I can just sit here and imagine the rain washing over me letting mother earth bathe me. It's really a comfort to me. I could go out and just sit in the rain, but since I was ill last week and I'm still getting over that a bit, I probably should stick with my imagination, or maybe a warm shower to give me the effect.

Speaking of the shower, I will often say cleansing prayers in the shower in the morning. It's a great way to imagine the divine washing away all worries and negative energies that are lingering around you. Just another way to incorporate your practice into your everyday life.

Now another thing I don't want to forget to mention here is the symbolism of the water flowing. I live on a hill so it's easy for me to watch the rain water travel down the road, but you can also notice it either as a flowing from the sky, maybe watch the way it flows down the window, if you live by a creek or stream you can even just watch it there. But for me it is a reminder to keep my life in check and make sure that everything is flowing as it should. I'll probably incorporate a bit of this into my meditation today. Just a little something to see if there are any issues in my life that are putting a bump in the road. Even though there is an obstacle in the way, the water will find a way to get around it, but if the obstacle is too big it may end in a flood, my goal is to avoid that happening, because for me it usually ends in an emotional flood, or too much at one time that I get overwhelmed. So I like to keep an eye open for those little obstacles in the beginning that may become big in the end. It's sometimes easier to fix a little one than a big one, and it may be just a matter of changing course a little.

It's amazing how much rain can make me think in the morning.

Blessings
PrairiePagan

Inspiration in the Strangest Places

So I've been sick all week, violent coughing, fever, all kinds of the yucks. While I was lounging, practically immobile in front of the TV, watched a commercial for the Venus razor. Yes, the inspiration I'm referring to in the title came from a razor commercial, sounds cheesy I know, but it worked for me. In the commercial they were referring to finding your inner goddess, the goddess of friendship, etc. So I was thinking, maybe there is a Goddess we find ourselves connected to more based on our most prominent personality traits. That may be the particular Goddess we may find ourselves attracted most to because of the attraction of those things familiar to ourselves. This would be a great way to look into ourselves to find a patron/matron deity. And then to take it even further, look at some of the personality traits we have that might be weaker or not quite so appealing. If we wanted to work on those traits this may be a good method to find a deity to help boost us up in areas we feel we need more work on.

Just a thought, and an odd one at that considering it stemmed from a razor commercial. But anyway, I think I'll tuck this little idea away and use it in the near future for some soul searching and deity research.

Update: Recreating my Lifestyle Ritual

Back in December of 2007 I wrote a post regarding my daily spiritual routine. I ran across this post so I thought I'd give a bit of an update. Unfortunately there isn't an uphill one. I still consider myself to be very spiritual, but I'm having a bit of trouble incorporating that with my pregnancy. I am trying to maintain a spiritual connection with my baby, and aside from the bi-weekly group rituals I attend that is the most spiritual time I get to myself. As you can tell from my lack of posts (hopefully to change once the baby is born and my routine gets going again), I haven't had a lot of time to work on my spiritual side. This is mainly due to the massive amount of changes our household has undergone in the last 7 months.

I'm very excited to become a mother and I've done a lot of thinking about my transition from the "maiden" state to the "mother" state. I'm hoping to have more time in the future to read up on the triple goddess aspect, specifically Robert Graves "The White Goddess" which is where the triple goddess mythology associated with the phases of the moon got started. So I guess, I have done some thinking, just not a lot of actual work.

I do say short prayers in my head when I get the chance, and I spend some time in bed meditating, mainly because I'm at that point where the baby is sucking up my energy so bed is my favorite place. All in all, I think I'm maintaining and learning a bit when and where I can. I just hope to have more time in the future to continue on more educational advancement and especially to post more on this blog.

Blessings
PrairiePagan

Saint Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patty's day, and due to the religious background of what is considered to be a secular holiday I thought I would share some information. I personally do not care much for this holiday both in it's secular and religious backgrounds, however I have gotten word from many different pagans who have a different take on the holiday and have found ways to fit it into their practice in a more acceptable way, while ignoring the traditional background. This can include anything from celebrating on strictly the secular way, celebrating as an ethnic celebration rather than a religious one, and also learning more about the culture and how it falls into their own practice. **(In these cases the pagans I have corresponded with are very aware of what the holiday is about and choose not to celebrate in the traditional (religious) ways, but rather have found a way of their own to enjoy the day without dragging on about negative stuff. This is a much better approach than playing ignorant and following blindly with the crowd)

I in no way consider myself a historian, so I'll leave that to the experts. Here is a link to articles related to St. Patrick from www.history.com.

There is a lot of great information found there, and I think it will give you enough of an overview to help you make your own decision on how you want to rate the importance of the traditional background of the holiday.

The next thing I'd like to point out is incorporating the culture into your own celebration. I caught up with one person who uses the image of the leprechaun in her practice. For more information on the background related to this please check out this site.

For those of you who celebrated today, in whatever form, I hope you had a blessed and fun day.