GREETINGS
It’s still hot during the day, but the flavor of autumn is stealing into the days. Personally, since I’m not a summer’s child, I’m ready and looking forward to cooler weather.
To me, autumn means not just cooler weather, but a slower pace with more room for contemplation and more time to read or indulge another hobby. Here’s hoping that you, too, enjoy the turning of the Wheel!
—Alia
THANKS AND A TIP OF THE HAT
Many thanks to Moonsong Coven for a fun and spirited ritual about the seasons and taking life too seriously. I still have the petals in my car, although the scent is long gone by now. And Jake makes a very realistic Faerie. (Wonder why that is?)
—Alia
SEPTEMBER 4 OPEN FULL MOON
The September 4 Open Full Moon will be on Friday, September 4, 1998, at 7:30 PM, at the First Unitarian Church, 1400 Lafayette, Denver, CO.
Dragonmoon Hearth will present this month's ritual in the Dragcuin Tradition. Here is the description sent to us by their HP:
"I intend to share the basic format of Dragonmoon worship with those attending. Worship is the focus of Dragonmoon, worship as mystical union with the divine. The format tends toward "high mass" since I feel the "Bells & Whistles" help focus the deep mind (which thinks in images and pictures) while lulling the thinking mind to sleep with repetition.
"In clan Dragcuin tradition, the season of Mabon is one of balance and decision making. At the Equinoxes of Mabon and Lady Day, the flow of power is in balance, thus it only takes a little push in any direction to start the ball rolling and once started, the momentum takes over. This means that one must choose carefully the direction in which to push. The ritual will include a meditation that will lead each participant on a journey through the elements to the realm of spirit where s/he will meet with (yep, you guessed it) the Mother of Dragons. The purpose is to gain wisdom in making decisions for the approaching season of Mabon."
NEW OFFICER
Introducing the new secretary for Hearthstone:
Catherine Mock (you may know her as Fionnula, or as Catrion) has lived in Denver most of her life and is a graduate of D.U. She's a musician, dancer, legal secretary, historian, priestess (a solitaire, interested in a variety of Celtic and other practices), martial artist, voracious reader, and has been spotted nearly everywhere carrying her harp.
"I'm honored to be asked to do this for Hearthstone- but I am not going to learn that Churchlady dance..."
Welcome to the board, Catherine!
—Alia
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Standard Disclaimer: Please note that information and opinions contained in the articles in this newsletter are the responsibility of the authors only. No endorsement by Hearthstone Community Church, Inc. is implied. |
THE FIVE R’S
Reduce,
Reuse,
Recycle,
Replant,
Remember
by Ken Cannon
kwikbeam@earthlink.net
Send questions or suggestions for tips to: kwikbeam@earthlink.net or give them to me (Blaze) at OFM. You're also welcome to write an entire "guest" column.
----ECO Pagans meet the second Saturday of each month at 11:00AM at Wings.----
Well, this month I got Dem Ol' Post-Dragonfest Blues and am feelin' lazy, so this is a lazy column. (From my point of view only. For you, it may turn out to be work.) [That's one of the best ways to lose your reader I've ever thought of.] Since one of my R's is Remember, I've decided to remind you, and myself as well, of some of the things I've covered in earlier columns. Then you get a quiz--you knew there'd be one sooner or later. So here goes.
**Remember the importance of Reducing: it's the number one priority.
**"Turn off your lights. In the silence of your darkened room, you can hear a thousand trees whispering 'Thanks'." The Whole Earth Catalog.
**Remember the ants. No one of them does very much, but there are so many of them that if most of them do a little, they accomplish a lot. So, if you are new to this, do what you can. One thing worked into your routine so it gets done, rather than forgotten, will eventually lead to something else.
**Remember one minute at one o'clock. Give a minute every day to meditation or prayer for the Goddess. We can build a pretty big anthill, here.
**Target stores will properly dispose of lithium batteries. It's one of their PR services.
**Resources: Choose to Reuse by Nikki and David Goldbeck. The Green Consumer, by Elkington, et al. Coop America's website: www.greenpages.org/ .
Now for the quiz. This quiz was put together with the idea that we need to know the areas we live in with a much deeper knowledge than simply being able to get from here to there. This holds true for everyone. Doubly so for Pagans, I should think. (Yes, I would flunk this quiz today. I will get an A on it in six months or so.) Check it out, and see how much (or little) you know about the world you live in.
WHERE YOU AT?
This quiz was originally published in CoEvolution Quarterly 32 (Winter 1981) and was compiled by Leonard Charles, Jim Dodge, Lynn Milliman, and Victoria Stockley. It is also in Stephanie Fox's Whatever Happened to Ecology? (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1989).
Wasn't that
A) fun
B) discouraging
C) frightening
D) [your choice here]? 
See you next month.
KITCHEN WITCH RETURNS FROM HER HIATUS (for this month, at least)
by gypsy
I didn't make it to Dragonfest and, since I wasn't frantically packing food and gear, I wasn't thinking of a good camping recipe. But just because I missed Dragonfest for one year doesn't mean I've forgotten how much fun it is to create a family feast on a two-burner propane stove.
Actually, I do sometimes really enjoy that kind of stressful cooking. There's something magickal about it. But what I like even more is cooking that involves a campfire. It's not that it's any neater or easier than cooking on the camp stove; in all honesty, cooking on or in the fire is one of the least convenient ways of preparing food. But there is something dramatically primal in this style of cooking. It's almost decadent.
I've been spending Dragonfest weekend a long way from Colorado, eating Chicken Kiev, listening to Aaron explain why he has to work this weekend (ask Alia what "MEGO" means - it has something to do with an engineer explaining his work to a bookkeeper…) and reading a new cookbook.
Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking is a lovely volume filled with recipes that are alleged by the authors to be authentic Native American dishes. So far, I'm only up to the segment on East Coast tribes, but it seems to be a reasonable representation of native cooking. The following is a Cherokee baked apple recipe to be made in a campfire. Just because Dragonfest is over doesn't mean you can't use this recipe. If you aren't planning on any more camping this summer, there's always next summer. Not to mention your barbecue grill. I'm thinking of putting this in the fire for my Mabon celebration.
Combine sugar, pecans, currants, and spice. Core apples from the top; the hole in center is for filling, not for cutting the skin at the bottom.
Place 1 tsp butter in each apple, followed by a tablespoon of the filling. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil and place, top down, directly in hot coals. After 5 minutes, using long tongs, turn apples right side up and continue to bake 3 to 5 minutes longer.
MODERN BLOOD SACRIFICE
by John C. Mayer
A central component of historical Paganism was sacrifice. Indeed, the giving of things considered valuable seems to have been a universal expression of commitment and gratitude to those powers regarded as divine. Today, the ritualized slaughtering of animals would probably hold little meaning to many of us, but there is still something very important which many of us can offer; a gift of life! The thought of blood donation may seem unimportant or even unpleasant to some reading this article, but this modern sacrifice of ourselves means hope and health to those in need.
To give some basic facts; nearly 97 percent of us living to the age of 72 will require blood or blood products at some point in our lives, but only 4 percent donate blood on a regular basis. It’s up to us to support 170,000 transfusions each year at more than 80 hospitals and health facilities in Colorado. One unit of your blood can help as many as three patients, because whole blood is usually separated into its three main components of red cells, plasma, and platelets. If your blood is by some chance used for pooled serum medication or for research, the effects of your sacrifice can touch countless lives!
The act of giving blood takes less than an hour and with minimal discomfort. Due to the use of sterile equipment, it is impossible to contract communicable diseases from donating blood. However, due to concerns regarding the spread of HIV, those who have been tattooed or pierced within a year’s time (something rather common in our community) and gay males are asked not to donate. Because of this, I believe that those of us who can donate have an increased responsibility to give of ourselves for the benefit of others.
What could be more appropriate than to perform this act of self-sacrifice in gratitude for the life our deities have given us, at the most holy times of the year. This is why I began the Pagan Blood Drives, which take place near the cusps of each season. As I sit in the phlebotomist’s chair, I silent ask my patron god and godde4ss (Freyr and Freya) to accept my personal gift for the good of my fellow human beings. After having made five donations in this past year, I have become aware that now any stranger on the street may have benefited from these sacrifices, and this awareness in itself is truly a form of magick.
The next Pagan Blood Drive will be held at noon on September 26 at the Belle Bonfils Donation Center on 717 Yosemite. We will also be collecting canned food for the Food Bank of the Rockies. This fall, let’s all think of how we can make sacrifices and save the lives of others!
Statistics provided by Belle Bonfils Blood Center
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CELEBRATION and EVENT DATES
1998 OPEN FULL MOON DATES
EARTH TEMPLE DATES
Earth Temple is a non-profit organization offering open celebrations of the Olde Gods. We meet at Wings Metaphysical Book Store located on the NorthEast corner of 44th and Lowell. We gather at 7:00 PM, unless otherwise indicated, with ritual to begin at 7:15 PM. The following is the remainder of the schedule for the 9998 year and is subject to change. For up to the minute information contact Faye Colquhoun at (303) 455-8566. May the Olde Gods bless and keep you.
Mabon |
September 23 |
Esbat |
October 30 |
Samhain |
October 30 |
Esbat |
November 2 |
Yule/Esbat |
December 18 |
If you have a public event that you would like to have listed here, please contact Alia. E-mail is simplest, because I can cut and paste. The information can be in the body of the E-mail or attached. I can handle just about any PC format and some of the Mac formats – I have Word ‘97, which can translate a lot of different files. I’d like to be able to keep some kind of community calendar going – but I need to count on all of you to keep me up to date.
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