Tag: paganism

Pagan Group October News

•

by Mary Bennett

Samhain (saw-wen) is a version of “summer’s end” and we’re experiencing that now. In pagan traditions, this is seen as the “new year”. It’s a time to remember our “beloved dead” and at UCV a much-loved worship service is Encountering Our Ancestors, this year on October 31st. Once again we’ll be creating an ancestors’ shrine and a “day of the dead” altar.

We will host an open ritual for the Winter Solstice on Tuesday, December 21. All welcome – Unitarians, pagans, families, and friends.

The UCV pagan group is approximately 40 people in total. We connect with each other through an email list by sharing information and invitations.  We encourage everyone to take initiative by sharing their knowledge and energy. We meet approximately every six weeks to celebrate the eight “sabbats” (solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days).

We have now started two small groups so that people can get to know each other better. Each group creates their own plan as to when and where they meet and how and where they gather. If there’s interest, we will start a third group. If interested, fill out this form and comment on what you’d like. Open of course to those who are just curious about pagan traditions.

https://vancouver.breezechms.com/form/earthspiritcircle

These small groups

  • meet approximately monthly
  • share leadership and responsibilities for the group
  • once a year do a service project for the wider community
  • determine their own topics and schedule for meetings
  • once formed with 6-13 members will usually remain a closed group for a year

If you want to plan a solitary or small group celebration for Samhain, you’ll find lots of suggestions online for decorating your home, planning activities and readings.

Samhain – Hallowe’en

This is the new year for pagans and when the veil is thinnest between the living and the dead.

UCV honours this time with a special worship service, Encountering Our Ancestors, and creating an Ancestors Shrine. 

If you want to know the exact day and time of solstices, equinoxes and moon phases, we recommend this website: timeanddate.com

 

Pagan Group Fall News

•

The days are noticeably shorter and after the heat dome in the summer, many of us are welcoming the autumn days that bring a cooler, but still warm, temperature outside. As a gardener, I am grateful for the harvest that is still coming. There are herbs for drying or crafts in the UCV Earth Spirituality herb garden.

The UCV pagan group is approximately 40 people in total. We connect with each other through an email list by sharing information and invitations.  We encourage everyone to take initiative by sharing their knowledge and energy.

Our group plans to host two “public rituals” – celebrations for the sabbats (for example winter and summer solstice) that we will invite anyone in the community to attend.

We are also now coordinating small groups using the covenant group model. If you’re interested, fill out this form:

https://vancouver.breezechms.com/form/earthspiritcircle

These groups will

  • meet approximately monthly
  • share leadership and responsibilities for the group
  • once a year do a service project for the wider community
  • determine their own topics and schedule for meetings
  • once formed with 6-10 members will usually remain a closed group for a year

See more about covenant groups here. 

 

There are two upcoming sabbats (sun celebrations). If you want to plan a solitary or small group celebration with friends you’ll find lots of suggestions online for decorating your home, planning activities and readings.

Mabon – Autumn Equinox

This celebrates the second of three harvest periods. It’s a time of balance.

Samhain – Hallowe’en

This is the new year for pagans and when the veil is thinnest between the living and the dead.

UCV honours this time with a special worship service, Encountering Our Ancestors, and creating an Ancestors Shrine. 

 

If you want to know the exact day and time of solstices, equinoxes and moon phases, we recommend this website: timeanddate.com

 

Summer Newsletter from the Pagan Committee

•

Earth Spirituality Summer News

Click here for Fall News

Did you know UCV has had a “Pagan Committee” for over 20 years?

When Louise Bunn, creator of the Unitarian curriculum Paganism 101, asked about how to form an ongoing group for pagan (aka earth spirituality) gatherings, she was told that the only organizational structure we had was committees. So a committee it was!  Since then there have been times when a pagan group was very active, sometimes organizing rituals for 40 or 50 people; and other times when interest waned and then… somehow like the rhythms of nature mentioned in the 6th Unitarian source, a new group would spring up. 

Over covid times, the most active part of what we’ve recently been calling the “earth spirit” group has been our 40-member email group where members sometimes post reminders about the seasons or the phases of the moon, informational links and an invitation to an occasional zoom event. We (mainly Mairy Beam!) coordinated several gatherings in the past year: two outdoors and five over zoom. 

Now, with restrictions lifting and the weather grand, we’re encouraging people to gather on the beautiful grounds of UCV: come on your own–or invite a few friends–and walk the labyrinth; pick some herbs, or even help tend the new earth spirit herb garden or participate in a circle dance or ritual.  Plans are still being considered, but we hope there will be a Lammas ritual in late July or early August.  I, for one, want to dance around that tree again for World Circle Dance on Sunday, July 11th. 

While summer is often a slow time for events, it’s also when a lot of planning happens for the fall start up. As we rest, travel, walk, read, ideas incubate – and so we’d like to invite you to fill out a survey if you’re interested in “earth spirit/pagan” activities at UCV.  https://forms.gle/1eLgGe2t9LPpFXEb8

It looks long, but as it’s multiple choice and you can skip any questions that aren’t relevant, it only takes a couple of minutes. And you get to see what others say. 

Would you like to learn more about pagan practices? Make your own wand or broom? Meet with others to socialize and ritualize? We might just be able to put you together with others who have the same interests!

Meanwhile, Louise has led or co-led the Paganism 101 program about 8 times since the first one in 1999 and would love to see it offered again, with a team that she could support, but not lead herself. If you’d like to be part of a team like that, please contact Louise at [email protected]

 

Bright blessings,

Mary Bennett for the UCV Earth Spirit group

 

Summer Solstice at UCV

•

Next earth spirit celebration is Lammas/Lughnasahd August 1st. We’ll post some suggestions for how to celebrate. Bread is a good start! It’s the grain harvest

We’ll walk the labyrinth; share our abundance and enjoy the UCV grounds. Lammas time and other details here.

We’ll collect herbs for a pouch and maybe tie some wishes onto the trees.

 

For more information and to help plan contact Mairy Beam or  Mary Bennett

Paganism 101 Wait list – Sign up for next year

•

Louise Bunn’s Paganism 101 course was offered as a once-a-month session for 10 months with a team of facilitators in 2018-19 and then 2019-20.. Both years we had an extensive wait list. Because of covid-19, the 2019-20 group will complete their program in the fall.

UCV now has a database for ensuring people can join the wait list and we can easily send updates when a new course is starting, likely in January, 2021. Please complete the form below if you want to be notified when the course is next being offered. Contact [email protected]  with any questions.

More information here.

 

Paganism 101

•

Paganism 101

Paganism 101 is a 10-session curriculum created by Louise Bunn, a member of our congregation.
Today’s Pagans revere the Earth and all its creatures. We see all life as interconnected, and we strive to attune ourselves to the cycles of nature. Our practices are rooted in a belief in immanence – the concept of divinity residing within.

The many modern pagans who have found a home in the Unitarian community are grounding our work in the rational structure, the intellectual balance, and the humanist core values that have descended to us from the Enlightenment. We’re working to develop a religiosity that is entirely compatible with, and complementary to, modern Unitarian rationality.

Paganism 101 is an experiential curriculum that will enable participants to conduct Pagan rituals on their own as independent practitioners. It introduces the practices, beliefs, and history of Modern Pagan spirituality, a nature-based worldview that is deeply rooted in Western Esoteric traditions. It is an active and powerful way to engage with Unitarianism’s Sixth Source — Spiritual Teachings of  Earth-centred Traditions that Celebrate the Sacred Circle of Life and Instruct us to Live in Harmony with the Rhythms of Nature.

We have an Earth Spirituality e-newsletter and a monthly Earth Spirit Circle open to all. Click here and follow the links.

 

Cakes for the Queen of Heaven – Feminist “Thealogy” curriculum starts Feb 6

•

Laurie Anderson and Paula Stromberg will co-facilitate In Ancient Times (Volume I of the Cakes for the Queen of Heaven program) starting on February 6, 2020, for five weeks on Thursday evenings 7 – 9 pm in the Fireside Room at the Vancouver Unitarian Centre

The course is limited to a maximum of 12 women. Pre-registration is required. http://tiny.cc/ucv-cakes

More information about the program can be found here:

https://www.cakesforthequeenofheaven.org/

If these dates don’t work for you, but you’d like to be on a wait list for any future offerings, please sign up here: https://vancouver.breezechms.com/form/cakesforthequeenofheaven

CUUWA (Canadian U*U Women’s Association) * may also offer this popular curriculum by Zoom. Stay tuned!

Here’s some information from the UUWF (Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation)

Cakes resources can now be downloaded

The UU Women and Religion Store has had many requests to make the digital resources for the classic curriculum, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, available as downloadable files instead of on a CD shipped with the books. We’re happy to announce they’ve made that happen! Now the spiral-bound curriculum books will be shipped with a link and password to access the files. If you have already purchased the curriculum and would like access, please email [email protected].

Cost of the curriculum is $75 US. UCV has the curriculum for any member to borrow. Thank you to North Shore Unitarians for lending two copies to us as well

From the Cakes website:

IN ANCIENT TIMES

This five-session Volume I of the popular adult religious education curriculum includes an introductory section featuring author Shirley’s Ranck’s “Statement of Feminist Thealogy,” Elinor Artman’s “Brief Herstory of Cakes,” and Nancy Vedder-Shults, “Baking Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.”

The themes of the Session Plans are: The Sacred Female, In the Name of the Mother and the Daughter, Womanpower, The First Turning-From Goddess to God, and Reclaiming Women’s Heritage of Peace. The resource section includes supplementary essays by a number of important authors, a listing of highly recommended materials, and the sheet music of songs by Carole Eagleheart and Ann Forfreedom for use with the curriculum. The curriculum also includes a CD-ROM with five Visual Programs to accompany the sessions, plus resource material for easy distribution to participants.

ON THE THRESHOLD

In the six-session continuation of the course, Volume II, we will continue our journey into the past to reclaim the stories of powerful women to be found in ancient Judaism and in early Christianity. We will also look at the global silencing and brutalization of women that accompanied the rise of patriarchal religion and society. Finally we will celebrate the exciting new world-view and thealogy that has emerged in our time, and explore the personal and social changes that may be suggested by that new world-view and thealogy. We will continue the complex process of telling a new story.
In addition, you may order Carole Etzler Eagleheart’s CD “She Calls to Us,” which contains many of the songs in the curriculum. Sound samples are available on her MUSIC page.

* To join CUUWA email group, please contact: [email protected]

Visit the CUUWA Facebook page. It is public so there is no need to be a Facebook user. Feel free to post articles of interest to all.