{"id":9791,"date":"2018-09-18T18:50:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T00:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9791"},"modified":"2018-09-29T21:39:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T03:39:05","slug":"being-a-solitary-pagan-does-not-mean-that-you-celebrate-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9791","title":{"rendered":"Being a Solitary Pagan Does Not Mean that You Celebrate Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

They’re putting on a Mabon festival, so why not go to it? (Photo: Colorado.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the fall equinox (Mabon) is nearly upon us \u2014 1:54 a.m. Universal (Greenwich) Time on Sunday the 23rd. For North Americans, that is Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

What will you do if you are a solitary Pagan? At Under the Ancient Oaks<\/em>, John Beckett suggests, for example, slicing open an apple and contemplating the pentagram concealed in its inner structure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which sounds very sensitive and contemplative\u00a0 . . . and lonely and depressing.<\/p>\n

John is a smart guy and a good writer, but there is another option. Now, like Samhain and Yule, is one time when the whole society is celebrating \u2014 or at enough of them that you can ride the energy that is out there in the polis.<\/em>((A city-state, or a body of citizens. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Polis.))<\/p>\n

Festivals! All around you are harvest festivals. I wrote once about attending the nearest winery festival \u2014 it was a good time.<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t see Mabon as a time for quiet contemplation.\u00a0The season’s energy is “outer,” not “inner.” Eat, drink, and celebrate the turning of the Wheel!<\/p>\n

Come Saturday, M. and I will be at the El Pueblo Museum farmers market, just below the bottom edge of the photo \u2014 and then we will have to visit some booths and listen to music<\/a>. And buy some fire-roasted Pueblo chile peppers<\/a> \u2014 that is a sacred obligation.<\/p>\n

Maybe I can slice one open and contemplate it, before it it is chopped and tossed into the skillet.<\/p>\n

Happy Mabon! (Or to the people that you meet, “Happy equinox!”)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the fall equinox (Mabon) is nearly upon us \u2014 1:54 a.m. Universal (Greenwich) Time on Sunday the 23rd. For North Americans, that is Saturday evening. What will you do if you are a solitary Pagan? At Under the Ancient Oaks, John Beckett suggests, for example, slicing open an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":[23,64,127,115,65,348],"class_list":["post-9791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-equinox","tag-festivals","tag-food","tag-mabon","tag-pueblo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2xV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9828,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9828","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":0},"title":"Too Late for Protestors, Term “Mabon” is Taking Hold in Pop Culture","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday was the fall equinox (as I usually call it), and various various voices reminded us again that the term \"Mabon\" was not Authentically Celtic. (Although disagreeing, John Beckett sums up the objections here.) Others disagreed: Jason Mankey suggested that perhaps a god wanted it that way. Mankey linked to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10879,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10879","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":1},"title":"The Ghosties Are Here Early","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I came down to Pueblo today and stopped for breakfast at the Hanging Tree Caf\u00e9, where it is already Halloween. And here I was getting geared up for the Chile & Frijoles Festival this weekend, which is my personal autumn equinox ritual. Time is out of joint! But at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hanging-tree-catarina.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":931,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=931","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":2},"title":"Feral Apples","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The equinox is for apples. First M. and walk the small ravine that cuts through our land--that is where the feral apple trees grow. I think of them as growing from apple cores tossed from someone's pickup window 50 years ago, but really I have no idea. As Sally the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9834,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9834","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":3},"title":"Out with Mabon, In with La Catrina","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Grumble grumble. Now\u00a0 D\u00eda de los muertos decorations\u00a0 are on display in late September. The Chile & Frijoles Festival was last weekend, the equinox, and it's on to the next holy day(s)! At the Hanging Tree Cafe, it is kind of D\u00eda de los muertos every day. Today, though, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/la-catrina-2018.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/la-catrina-2018.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/la-catrina-2018.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3261,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3261","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":4},"title":"It’s Mabon, so … canta y no llores","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My approach to the eight-festival Pagan calendar works like this: the cross-quarter days are for ritual\u2014be that outdoor bonfires or black candles at midnight. The quarter days\u2014solstices and equinoxes\u2014are for public and communal celebrations: with the whole public, not just with other Pagans. The fall equinox offers choice of harvest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/MarquezBros-300x293.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13863,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13863","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":5},"title":"Talking about “Pagan Religions in 5 Minutes”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan Religions in 5 Minutes brings together seventy short essays, each answering a question such as \"Do all Pagans follow the same festivals?\"1 or \"What are Technopagans?\" or \"What is the difference between Wicca and witchcraft?\" It's part of a \"5 Minutes\" series from Equinox Publishing, which also publishes a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Pagan studies\"","block_context":{"text":"Pagan studies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=pagan-studies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791","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=9791"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9837,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791\/revisions\/9837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}