Naturalistic Paganism
Happy Summer Thermstice/Lammas!
Celebrations
Spaceweather.com TCrB Nova watch! Check here anytime to see if the Nova has started.
Heat! Productivity! Success! Growing Darkness! These and many other themes join with the baking of bread and early harvest celebrations of Lunasa. Maybe a good theme for this year’s Lunasa is our moon. It’s still an OK year for the Perseid Meteor shower – the waxing crescent moon will drown out the meteors in the early evening only, but after it sets around midnight on the 13th, the very late night hours after midnight are great for seeing the meteors. Get out this year on the night of the 12 or 13th if you can, because next year the nearly full moon will wash them out all night (and the next really good Perseid moon phase isn’t until 2029). Also, the TCrB Nova hasn’t happened yet! It could be any day from now until September. Spaceweather.com has added a handy monitor on their webpage to see if it is going on yet – check it out! Here is the post describing what this is, how to see it, and ritual ideas. 
A contemporary re-imagining of Chicomecoatl, Goddess of Maize. University of Chapingo, Mexico
Some of the ways many of us are celebrating were recently published (along with many online rituals you can join, some of which are still ahead of us). For my family, celebrations with our annual Lunasa blueberry harvest, baking bread, and evening ritual are coming up! As a special Lunasa treat, check out this Lammas music from Bart Everson, and – like on every Sabbat – the additional music published on this blog, here on the practices hub page (simple page down to the Sabbat you want). It could be part of a ritual, solitary observation, or just having around now.
For some of us, the celebrations will be later this week – the actual midpoint between the Solstice and the Equinox is August 7th. However you are celebrating (including Imbolc celebrations in the Southern Hemisphere), may your be celebration be blessed.
The Summer Cross-Quarter (Summer Thermstice) Approaches (+ online Lunasa Rituals)!
Lunasa is the start of the prime campfire and stargazing season – bringing the unique combination of both warmth and longer nights “Sunlit Summer”, see the 8 season names here. Lunasa arrives again, but it’s not like last year, nor the year before. Why not? Because the many nested and interwoven cycles of our solar system make each stargazing season unique, and hence make every Lunasa unique! Last year the moon washed out the Perseids. This year, it looks like we’ll have a quite good Perseid show, with the moon mostly out of the picture – August 13 – 15! And a literal Nova explosion – the only one you can likely see in your whole lifetime happening any day now! Will it empower our Lunasa rituals? Plus, here are a half dozen online Lunasa ritual opportunities!
Paganism is Different, Part 4: In Paganism, you are Free to Change your Beliefs [Stardust, Contemplating]
Do we yet again see the impact of the same feature of Paganism which was so important in the previous posts in this series – that in Paganism, the focal point of empowerment is you – and not the religion itself (or the authoritarian leader)? I think we do (see Part 1, Paganism Empowers You). But hold on. Isn’t this post about changing one’s beliefs, not about power?
Most of Your Cells Aren’t Yours, by Brock Haussamen
A Sneak Peek at the Suntree Retreat! Plus Authenticity, Aging, and more! Recent Episodes of THE WONDER podcast, by Mark Green
Have you registered for the Suntree Retreat, which will be Labor Day weekend (August 29 – September 1)? It’s a great opportunity to empower yourself with your spirituality, and now there’s a podcast episode about it! Plus the idea of a “Golden Age”, of fertility, and of authenticity, etc. All those, and more, are on the page here.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
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