Hail the rising sun

Well, it's 8:20am on the morning after the Winter Solstice, and I just couldn't wait to write a post on our blog. We just wrapped up our first ritual together to celebrate Yule, and what a night it was!

Four Women of the Wheel members were able to participate: me, Lindsey, Jill, and Deanne. We began our evening with an outdoor ritual. The air was cold, but the wind was low, the sky was clear, and the bright white moon was high and full, like our spirits. We lit a fire and cast a Circle, saluted the elements and evoked the Gods. Our rite included a banishing spell, led by Deanne, to rid ourselves of things we didn't want any longer. We shared songs, food, and wine, and then opened the Circle to transition to the indoor part of the evening.

We had a lot of ritual/activity things planned for indoors, but as we filled our bellies with hot apple cider, beef stew, cannelloni, hash brown casserole, a cheese and meat tray, and cookie desserts, we re-evaluated our plans and decided to cut out some of the ritual-type activities we'd planned to do, like the lighting of candles in all the windows and the guided meditation.

Instead, we exchanged Yule gifts, then moved on to decorating our own glass ball ornaments. By this time, it was 3:00am, so we were laughing as much as we were creating. Deanne made a beautiful ornament with blue and white snowflakes inside; Lindsey artfully painted a wreath, a sprig of holly, and a snowflake on hers. Myself and Jill didn't have quite as much luck - I went overboard on the sprinkles, so my ornament looks like it has the pox, and Jill went through three balls before she made "Moe," a snowman head that looked so comical, I couldn't stop laughing every time she added something to him. There were tears, I laughed so hard. I think sleep deprivation played a part, too.

After the ornaments, we moved on to decorating the wreath, made from real boughs, that we planned to use as an offering at sunrise. It turned out to be gorgeous: Pine cones, rowan berries, clementine, and small apple-like fruit were weaved in with twine. As we began adding these natural decorations, we chanted, "We are a Circle within a Circle / with no beginning and never ending."

Then, because a couple of us were really tired and Lindsey had to leave, we cleaned up, said our good-byes to Lindsey, and bunked down for the remaining three hours we had before leaving to greet the dawn. We roused ourselves at 7:10am, I grabbed a coffee and the wreath, Deanne and Jill grabbed their things, and we headed for Signal Hill.

There were only a few people at Signal Hill when we arrived, none of whom appeared to be Pagans, as they were either taking a stroll or taking pictures. We got settled in a spot near the tower, but out of site of passersby, and began chanting, "We are one with the infinite Sun / Forever and ever and ever." We could not see the horizon, as a blanket of fog and/or cloud sat upon it, but as we chanted, the sky above this fog began to redden. Then Jill read a blessing and Deanne and I tossed the wreath to the ground.

We stood a moment watching the sky light up and then, between the foggy cloud, a tiny sliver of sun poked up and the breath caught in our throats. It was glorious to witness. The sun rose right in front of us, between a break in those clouds. We were enchanted. Jill said with wonder, "Imagine... This happens everyday."

We admired the sunrise for minutes more, then made a beeline to our cars. Originally, we were going to end the morning by having breakfast together, but we begged off that idea in the end and hugged each other before heading home.

What more can I say? It was wonderful. Happy Yule, everyone.

Celebrating the Solstice

Things are going quite smashingly with our group. We welcomed a new member to our last moot. Tree is an experienced Pagan, feminist, and all-around wonderful person whose perspectives and stories will, I'm sure, bring a new, enriching layer to the dynamics of our growing group.

At our last moot, we decided it was time to get hands-on and celebrate a festival together. We chose this coming Winter Solstice to get together as women and Pagans united, and face the darkness of the year with the same amount of love, courage, and mystery as all women have done in herstory, are doing in our present, and will continue to do in the future.

Our next moot will be held on Sunday, October 14, at 6pm, in a St. John's location. Again, we remain open to new members, so if you are interested, please contact Kelly-Anne at kmeadus@nl.rogers.com.

August moot

Our next moot is scheduled for Sunday, August 26, 6pm, the Goulds. The topic is "Pagan(ish) poetry." Participants should come prepared to share a poem with a Pagan theme.

If you are interested in joining Women of the Wheel, contact Kelly-Anne at kmeadus@nl.rogers.com.

June Moot

Women of the Wheel's next moot is scheduled for Sunday, June 24, at 6pm, downtown St. John's. The topic for this moot is "Pagan or Pagan-ish poetry." For more information, e-mail Kelly-Anne at kmeadus@nl.rogers.com.

We are presently still accepting new members. Our group is child-friendly, so if you have young children, they are more than welcome to attend with you.

NOTE: The topic for this moot has changed to "Pagan stories."

Welcome to Women of the Wheel online

Over a year ago, myself and a fellow Wiccan talked about forming a localized, all-woman Pagan group. This idea was important to us because we wanted to make connections to other Pagans in the area - not an easy task in this province.

Newfoundland and Labrador may be geographically bigger than the country of Ireland, but our population is mainly rural, and so scattered over a wide area. Of the 500,000+ people living in this province, only one-fifth of us live in St. John's. The the rest of us dwell in either the two other cities in this province - Mount Pearl and Corner Brook - or in suburban/rural areas.

Together, I and my Pagan friend co-founded Women of the Wheel in March 2006. When we began, there were three members. We were aiming for six. Just over a year later, we have five, and we are proud of that accomplishment.

We meet once a month as Pagans to talk about what's important to us, as well as to share what we have learned, experienced, or created.

We decided to start an all-female Pagan group for two reasons: 1) we wanted to be an intimate, informal group, and 2) people of the same sex tend to share a bond that strengthens through continued, respected companionship.

In this day and age, Paganism is more often a chosen, rather than an inherited, path. Women of the Wheel hopes to connect to, and to share perspectives and enriched learning experiences with, Pagans locally and abroad.

Blessed Be.