Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Happy solstice eve eve!

My ancestors didn't know the precise time of the solstice, so they never had a celebration like the one we host tomorrow night. They're ok with that. It's the growth and expansion of the tradition, and is perfect timing to begin the yearly renewal of our hearth. I'm not getting into a big history lesson tonight (tho I did school someone on facebook today who was going on and on about how Jesus is the reason we exchange presents. False! I politely informed them of their misconception and corrected it with actual facts and moved on...). I'm just going to lay out our homespun ritual:

Rite of the Hearth Fire
(lofty name for a simple ritual!)

We set the logs in the fire place and I dress them with various incense and herbs, a piece of last year's log, and a shot of home made Strega Liqueur.
We call on our deities, our ancestors, the spirits of the land and our Patrons. (Everything said is from the heart. It's not preplanned.)
We have a candle lit from last year's log. I have used it throughout the year to light offering and ritual candles. I use that to light this year's log.
We let that candle burn down while we play music, sing songs, exchange gifts, eat a log cake, play games, toast each other and have fun, literally gathered together at the hearth.
After the candle goes out of its own accord, we light a new candle from the hearth, asking the blessings of the Goddess of the Hearth and for Her divine spark to reside within.
That's the candle we use to light all other candles in the new year.
We continue our merry making until the fire is embers, give our thanks to those who attended and play with our gifties ;)

However you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful time!

Hiding in plain sight.

I typically enjoy reading Jason Miller's blog posts, but one from the other day has irritated me. This has been my first opportunity to sit down and address it. I would easily shrug off the comment, but besides having heard him say it before in workshop presentations, it reflects part of the inspiration for starting this blog: To counter the disparaging and dismissal of Italic Pagan traditions as nothing more than reinvention as opposed to a continuation, or, as he implied with his comment, a whole other tradition, namely catholicism.

Mr. Miller made the claim, in support of his leanings towards Christianity and magical justification thereof, that "actual Italian Strega [are] (almost all Catholic)." It is more accurate to say, as one of my cohorts put it: Catholics are practicing a modified form of Stregheria. It's even more accurate to say that Catholics took the old religion, edited it, slapped some paint on it, changed the names and called it not just the new way, but the only way.

They commandeered our sacred sites, our statues, our symbols, our tools, our costumes and assimilated our Gods and our festivals, yet the only "actual" practitioners of Italian Witchcraft are Catholic? For years I turned my back on my family tradition because I was angry that they hid behind this more accepted* veneer. I was too young to understand that they were keeping themselves safe. They also had a way to teach the basic tenets and traditions to family members. Those who could handle it were brought into the family proper

*I said "more" accepted because, well, remember the reformation? Catholics were accused of exactly what I've just said- being Roman Pagan Cult: The Next Generation. Even today, some of the best web sites and books out there regarding how very Pagan catholicism is have been written by christians who oppose the Roman catholic church and its Pagan practices.

I decorate an evergreen and exchange gifts beneath it in the name of Nimrud and Saturn and hang stockings on the hearth in honor of La Befana and Vesta and Hestia and Odin. I sing carols and hymns regaling the birth of the savior, the sun, the Lord. So do many Pagans. Are we celebrating christmas? NO! The christians are celebrating the ancient festivals.

Our ways survive today thanks to the fact that our ancestors hid in plain sight throughout the ages and that the festivals and traditions couldn't be suppressed so they were renamed and accepted. They might have succeeded in changing the names, but they did not change the spirit.

Tomorrow is the Feast of Santa Lucia, allegedly an early church martyr, but previously celebrated as the Goddess who midwifes the about-to-be-reborn sun into the world. The feast is a reminder that it is She who guides us through the darkness with her flaming crown of stars. To say that because I celebrate and venerate this feast day with my family under the same of Santa Lucia, or that because I celebrate and venerate the Archangel Michael means I am practicing Catholicism is silly. Each of these beings predates christianity by thousands of years. On the other hand, to say that because we do not go to Church or take communion or call ourselves "catholic" means we're not "actual" Strega is equally silly to the point of being insulting.

Are some Strega Catholic? I'm sure there are some who consider themselves Catholic. We learn what we learn how we learn it. For some people it's easier to speak the language they grew up hearing. However, that it not true for everyone. Here is an excerpt from Leo Martello's Weird Ways of Witchcraft. The quote is from part of a discussion with "Maria," an "actual Strega" whose family posed as catholic. Later in the book she discusses how she still goes to church to keep up appearances:

One of my cousins is an ordained priest. He entered the priesthood to better serve our cause, following the ancient adage: 'If you can't beat an enemy, join him. There are many of us in the underground who are known as practicing Catholics. It's for this reason that my cousin was able to become a priest. He was brought up in parochial schools.
 

They taught him one thing. We taught him the truth.

Truth is, stories like these abound in Italian Witch families. Truth is, I think we're tired of being disparaged.


Tomorrow: The Feast of Lucia!!!!!!!!!!

Deep Thoughts

Someone, whose name rhymes with Pon, complained that my posts have all been quickies lately. It's true. I've found that I've been moving from research to practice in the past month. If I'm working in the practical, I'm too busy to sit at the computer. It could just be the timing; Now that we're halfway through Spring, the weather has been warm enough to be outside. Experiential learning is as important as research. But since much of it is so personal, I'm limited on what I'm comfortable posting.

Here's something I am comfortable post about, especially since today is Mother's Day: From my experience the other night during my waining moon astral meetup:

I went to the Southern area of the astral temple space and there I saw a desert/beach and a large white brick fireplace that you can see through to the other side (The kind that would be in a fancy backyard). In it was a large black cauldron and under the cauldron were logs/a fire. There was also a fire in the cauldron/flames coming out of the top, burning red and yellow.

I didn't sense anything for a moment other than the heat so I walked around the fireplace looking for salamanders (I saw one, but it kinda looked up at me as if to say "Yeah, what? You're not really looking for me"). Then I felt a presence and called out to Hestia. She answered me and came over, first as a young child in brown tunic type clothes. She immediately morphed into wise women, women from my family. She changed into several of them, none of whom I had ever met before. It was wonderful and a little disconcerting how the faces and bodies morphed into each other so seamlessly.

I talked with Her about a few personal matters and asked what I could offer in return for Her guidance and wisdom. She said to light a candle by the hearth because lighting one relights all others that have ever been lit. There was suddenly a mantel on the fireplace and I lit a tealight from the cauldron flames and set it on the mantel. As soon as I did that, hundreds and thousands of picture frames and candles appeared, spiraling upwards into the sky. The longer I looked, the higher the spiral. I wanted to stay and marvel at it, but She told me I had to move along to the West.

Lighting one candle in honor of your Ancestors relights all others that have ever been lit for that purpose.

I walked away from this experience with a deeper connection to those who I didn't know personally, but who were honored by those I honor.