“It's all about balance, do you see? Balance is the trick. Keep the balance and—" she stopped. "You've ridden on a seesaw? One end goes up, one end goes down. But the bit in the middle, that stays where it is. Upness and downness go right through it. Don't matter how high or low the ends go, it keeps the balance." She sniffed. "Magic is mostly movin' stuff around.” – Granny Weatherwax
        ― Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

Balance. Something that is hard to find these days. Something that most people don’t think about too often, at least not consciously. And yet we do our best subconsciously to balance, every day, with the choices that we make. We do this while corporations are trying to advertise that bigger is better or smaller is better, depending on the item. Balancing life can be tricky, what with bills, chores, work, play, relationships, sleep, exercise, and spiritual work. It's a lot to juggle. Many times we find ourselves overwhelmed. Or we think that we’ve got things balanced until an unexpected random event happens that tilts you off-kilter.

And then there are times that we reach the precipice of a phase of life that no longer fits us, but we haven’t fully fallen into the next phase. I’m currently watching this play out in my home as I observe my three children balance, teetering on the edges of different childhood phases, some more extreme than the others. My oldest son, Ostara-born, is a good example of balance. At seventeen, he has one foot set in childhood while the other has set down on the path to adulthood. He still has to be told to go to bed (often repeatedly). He still goes to school and deals with homework. He still gets into trouble once in a while. He still whines, although he would counter that he does not whine, he merely “debates”. He also is looking toward the future, which is careening towards him at 65 mph—and he’s not sure that he’s comfortable with all of the responsibility that comes with the power of adulthood. But he is taking the steps to learn what he needs to know, and that is a good first step. He is not an adult yet. But he is not a child either. He is balanced on either side, not quite fitting into one or the other, liminal, momentary, precious.

Liminal times are magical times, neither fully one thing nor the other, yet a little bit of both. It is the time when everything blends together, wet paint put to canvas ready to be brushed into a masterpiece. Watching a sunrise at dawn or a sunset that fades into twilight evokes not only a sense of beauty, but of awe. And if you sit silently and just be during those times, you can feel a slight shift—and for just one single moment, everything stills. All is balanced. And then it is gone.

Balance is important. We equally need the light to shine upon the earth, as we do the rain to soak the soil and the seed within it in order to live. We need the night and the day. We need winter and summer. The earth would not be what it is today without both sides of the coin. We would not be here to witness and to celebrate the power of balance.  And we would not be here to seek our personal balance. When I can find that balance within myself, that one moment where I am standing right in the middle of the seesaw, and the moment moves through me? That’s powerful. That’s clarifying. That’s illuminating. That’s magic.

We honor all of this at Ostara, as the light and dark share equal time together for a short while. We honor the Earth's moment of balance. We honor the introspections we have gathered over the dark winter nights. We honor the new intentions that we have created and are ready to put into action for the growing season of the year. We honor the potential of the next step.

The next time you catch yourself in that liminal moment of balance, be it a beautiful sunset or something within your life, or even one that you purposely sought, take a part of it, and give thanks that we are able to join in such magical moments as these. And when the Earth finds its balance one more time this year at Mabon, let us celebrate that powerful moment together.

Frigg's Forest
Heather G
Spring 2019

As the All-Mother, Frigg is the Norse Goddess of Mothers and protector of children. Frigg’s Forest is an ongoing series of tips and activities to involve your children in your practice.

 

 

 

 

This piece is a recurring runic exploration. It is a culmination of study from Taking Up the Runes by Diana L. Paxson (1), A Practical Guide to The Runes by Lisa Peschel (2), and Runes, Alphabet of Mystery available at http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/index.html (3).

 

Ingwaz

Ingwaz (ING-wahz) finds its name directly taken from a god, Ing. Ing is the Old Germanic fertility god, who was consort to Mother Earth. He gave his power over to her, to allow for fruitful release in the spring (1).

Very little is known of him, aside from his foothold as an East Dane, in what is now considered Northern Germany. He led his people away from Sweden in search of a new home, east over the waves. He would have been a Vanir god, rather than Aesir, and this leads many historians to associate Ing as a local dialect translation of Freyr. This name would translate to son of land, and is quite possibly the spiritual name for England. He is also connected to Scyld, which is listed as an ancestor of Beowulf. Looking back to the Danes, he could also be related to King Frodi, who sacrificed himself as an offering to the land during famine to bring plenty back to his people (1). 

Ing is energy in growth; as the seed germinates, it grows into plenty. The shape of Ing shows the cycle of life with growth, harvest, wilting, dormancy, and regrowth. This can also be applied to energetic cycles of people: growth, transformation, withdrawal, and regrowth. Ing not only represents the cycle of growth, but also of male fertility. Some scholars see the dormancy/withdrawal aspect here, though, as it represents the male letting go of his machismo in order to grow into shamanism, a machisma quality. Others see this rune as potent male energy, representing the seed of life itself. Still others see this as a meaning of genetic inheritance and reincarnation passed on to a chosen heir (1). These heirs would link together common virtues and family love. This rune can be both human affection and the home itself (2). 

When looking for nonliteral meanings, some look to the passage of Ing to the east going overages which became calm as he approached, relating it to the calming, releasing powers of creativity. It is the work that goes towards creation and is ultimately seen upon a project's completion (1). It represents a time when all loose ends are tied and you are free to move in a new direction(2). A successful completion to your task is to be had, and relief from the completion is soon to come (3). It is time to rest (2). 

In all aspects, Ingwaz is a cycle never-ending. It is a rune of both birth and death, and all points through life in-between. It is the return to life after death in regrowth every spring (1, 2). 

Ingwaz, when seen Merkstave, may show literal or metaphorical impotence, or work without change (2). It should be noted, however, that Ingwaz is almost always positive and may only suggest failure if the runes around it read negatively (3).

Ingwaz can be used in meditation, when contemplating where one has been, where one is presently, and where one wishes to go. It is cyclic in nature, allowing for reflection on the past and present as well as planning for the future. When beginning a new project or a new life event, reflect on Ingwaz. At each new year, whether that be your own solar return, the calendar new year, or the growth of spring, reflect on the last year and make plans for the next one. It can also be a reminder that we all need to follow the cycle of work and rest, and to allow ourselves the rest that naturally follows the work.

Richard

Beltane (sometimes spelled Belteinne) marks the halfway point of the waxing cycle of our sun as the scales begin to tip toward longer and warmer days after Ostara, culminating in the full solar power of Midsummer. A feast of life and love celebrating the union of the Sun and Earth, Beltane boasts the majesty of Spring in its full power, much as the other cross-quarter holy days in the Wheel of the Year are often a more intense meteorological representation of the energies in balance on equinoxes and at peak on solstices.

Eriu, Elen of the Ways, and Grannos are just a few deities from some traditions close to my own who are invoked as God and Goddess during this celebration. At its core, though, the names and faces of the powers we choose to honor at Beltane matter less than the principles we celebrate. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the deeply sexual undertones of the holiday, but to truly understand its importance, one must also understand that life and death are tightly intertwined. As the God and Goddess are eternally dying and being reborn, so too are we mortals: the divine spark passes through our bodies, and through the bodies of others our sparks will travel again—both those of our physical parents in lives past, present, and future, and the bodies we either have inhabited or will yet inhabit. By joining in worship of the God and Goddess during their union, with the Sun and Earth serving as their vessels, we open ourselves up to the possibility of eternal rebirth and union with all of nature.

The rituals and trappings of Beltane—maypoles, crowns of vines or blossoms, dolls of straw or husk, hawthorn and woodruff blossoms on the altar—have become almost cliche among Pagans, which is ironic considering how much they have eroded from commonality in modern secular society. Growing up in a social landscape dominated by Southern Baptists, my only conception of the holiday was the nebulous notion of May Day my parents and their peers referenced occasionally, with mentions of maypoles that no one ever actually seemed to erect or dance around anymore, so celebrating at this time seemed an antiquated and quaint practice.

Now, it is a major milestone on the Wheel of the Year in my life. It is also a time when the boundaries between commonly observable reality and other worlds—what some Pagans call ‘The Veil’—are believed to thin. Alongside Samhain, Beltane is a powerful cross-quarter threshold time. For me, that veil thins between the mortal and the supernal at Beltane, allowing me to connect more closely with the universal essence of life in all its glorious interconnectedness. (It is quite the opposite at Samhain...but that is a topic for another time.) I hope that everyone reading this takes some time to mark the occasion in their own way—both by honoring the ancient powers of life’s blossoming as they understand them, by pledging to care for the earth that cares for you, and by indulging in the very best pleasures this life has to offer in veneration of both our own survival as a species and the continuation of our traditions!

Have you heard of AmazonSmile? It's a lovely way to support the Church of the Earth while you shop online. This program is set up by Amazon.com, and for all eligible purchases made via AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to a selected charity.

To get started with the program, you simply need to go to “smile.amazon.com” using the web browser on your computer or mobile device instead of the usual “amazon.com” address you'd use to shop otherwise. It is also a good idea to update your bookmarks to the Smile URL so that you don’t even have to think about the change. The first time you go to the website, you will need to login with your Amazon account and then pick your charity from the many available. You will find us listed as “Church of the Earth of Raleigh, NC”.

That’s it! Once you are set up, just use the smile.amazon.com URL, and AmazonSmile will do the rest! Despite being a different URL, it will offer the exact same great Amazon shopping experience and products. We know 0.5% may not seem like much, but every little bit helps out our community that we are growing here in Raleigh.

If you have any further questions about this program, feel free to send us a quick message at council@cote-nc.org and we can point you in the right direction!

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