{"id":7711,"date":"2016-02-02T16:03:18","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T23:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7711"},"modified":"2016-02-02T16:03:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T23:03:18","slug":"the-eagles-of-candlemas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7711","title":{"rendered":"The Eagles of Candlemas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pueblo<\/a>Paganism is not the religion of the polis<\/a>, but the polis (loosely defined) can support your Paganism.<\/p>\n

For the last two days, my Facebook feed has been filling up with people posting electronic clip art to the theme of “Happy Bridget \/ Imbolc \/ Candlemas.”<\/p>\n

Me, I spent three hours today enjoying quality time with my snowblower, clearing out a foot of Happy Candlemas that fell in the past two days.\u00a0 (That’s my long wooded driveway, plus the one up to the guest cabin, plus an elderly neighbor’s driveway, in time for him to drive off to lunch at the senior center \u2014 he does have a 4WD pickup.)<\/p>\n

I normally think of Candlemas as an “inner” holiday, compared to Yule. It marks what is usually my most productive writing time of the year. But I also like the idea of tying the quarter and cross-quarter days to events that somehow connect to the natural world, like the Chile & Frijoles Festival at the autumn equinox or the Yule log hunt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I brought up this topic a year ago<\/a>, but I did not make a suggestion for Imbolc, which occurs at 9:30 a.m. GMT on the 4th of February this year (check your dates here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Yet it was looking me in the face \u2014 and I had attended before: Eagle Days, this coming weekend<\/a>! Except that bird plays havoc with the traditional esoteric astrological arrangement: Beltane, 15\u00b0 Taurus (St. Luke-bull); Lammas, 15\u00b0 Leo (St. Mark-lion); Samhain, 15\u00b0 Scorpio (St. John-eagle); Candlemas, 15\u00b0 Aquarius (St. Matthew-man).<\/p>\n

Well, you can’t have everything. I have a blog post planned about the silliness of trying to jam Paganish stuff into neat categorial schemes.<\/p>\n

\"The

The old Jeep CJ-5 celebrates Candlemas.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here on the Eastern Slope of the Rocky Mountains, we say a verse that contains ancient wisdom:<\/p>\n

Winter in the spring,<\/em>
\nSummer in the fall,<\/em>
\nFall in the winter,<\/em>
\nAnd no spring at all.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So by that bit of local knowledge, this is the beginning of snow season. I don’t know how you work a fire festival into that, except that it is nice to have the increasing sunshine to melt April blizzards. Maybe the fire is in the head.<\/p>\n

Have the wintering bald eagles arrived at Pueblo Reservoir<\/a>? I really should pack up the spotting scope and go see. Happy Candlemas, eagles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paganism is not the religion of the polis, but the polis (loosely defined) can support your Paganism. For the last two days, my Facebook feed has been filling up with people posting electronic clip art to the theme of “Happy Bridget \/ Imbolc \/ Candlemas.” Me, I spent three hours today enjoying quality time with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[221,269,23,127,5],"class_list":["post-7711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-birds","tag-candlemas","tag-colorado","tag-festivals","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-20n","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13249,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13249","url_meta":{"origin":7711,"position":0},"title":"The Snow Geese of Candlemas","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I am all for seasonal rituals, but there is also a place for celebrating the Turning of the Wheel with your larger community, your polis, taking a local event and giving it a Pagan spin. The solstices are easy: there is always something going on. Samhain \u2014 too many choices!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"birds\"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/snow-geese-UDWR.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/snow-geese-UDWR.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/snow-geese-UDWR.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/snow-geese-UDWR.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":371,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=371","url_meta":{"origin":7711,"position":1},"title":"Helenic Paganism on DVD","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Contemporary followers of traditional Greek religion got some attention during the recent Athens Olympics, and a new documentary film (made before the games) should help more. (For my earlier posts, see also here and here.)I Still Worship Zeus, a recently released feature-length documentary film directed by Jamil Said, includes footage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12617,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12617","url_meta":{"origin":7711,"position":2},"title":"“W\u00e6lcyrge or Witchcraft: Identifying Heathendom in late Anglo-Danish England”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"? Just one of many presentations from the just-finished online conference\u00a0 Performing Magic in the pre-Modern North. Here, Ross Downing deals with such issues as whether witchcraft and Heathenry were defined differently in the time of King Alfred the Great in the late 9th century, including details as the execution\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Anglo-Saxon England\"","block_context":{"text":"Anglo-Saxon England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=anglo-saxon-england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6986,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6986","url_meta":{"origin":7711,"position":3},"title":"A Billion-Candles Candlemas","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By the Sun, Candlemas\/Imbolc happened this evening, between 8 and 9 o'clock, Mountain Time. And I was watching an episode of PBS' American Experience called \"The Big Burn.\" Coincidence, I think not. :) (You can find it streaming on their site.) Ten minutes in, there must have been smoke in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7734,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7734","url_meta":{"origin":7711,"position":4},"title":"The Eagles of Candlemas, continued","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The first part is here. As I wrote earlier this week, M. and I celebrated Candlemas by going to Eagle Days down at the state park by Pueblo Reservoir.\u00a0 (Chamber of Commerce types want you to say \"Lake Pueblo.\") Scheduling a festival around raptors is a little iffy; you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Diana Miller, director of the Raptor Center in Pueblo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Diana-Miller-eagle.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13567,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13567","url_meta":{"origin":7711,"position":5},"title":"Imbolc on Ice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Look south from Bennett Avenue, the bi-level main street of Cripple Creek, Colorado, across Poverty Gulch (once lined by the saloons and brothels of Myers Avenue), and there it sits, like the citadel of the Ice King. At 9,494 feet (2,894 m.), the early February winds are still cutting and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/DSCN0495-300x139.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/DSCN0495-300x139.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/DSCN0495-300x139.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7711"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7723,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7711\/revisions\/7723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}