To Walk a Pagan Path: Practical Spirituality for Every Day (28 page)

enough tea to fill an Olympic sized pool and giving away jars

of honey as Yuletide presents, most Pagan beekeepers will

still have plenty of honey left over to experiment with mead

making.

Whether using your own honey or buying it from a

supplier, begin brewing when the moon is waning. If you

observe astrological (zodiac) signs, the best time is when the

moon is in one of the Water signs: Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces.

BUTTER FOR IMBOLC

Many Pagans celebrate a holiday at the first of February. For

Saxon Pagans this holiday is called Ewemeolc, Irish Pagans

call it Imbolc and still others know it as Candlemas. Whatev-

er the name, the celebration takes place on or near February

2nd (or for those living in the southern hemisphere, August

2nd), and is one of the eight seasonal festivals in the “wheel of the year” observed by most Pagans today.

The holiday means different things to different peo-

ple. In the Irish calendar the second day of February is the

Feast of Saint Brigid, one of the Christian patron saints of

Ireland. Many Pagans who follow Irish and other Celtic tra-

ditions believe that Saint Brigid is one and the same as the

older, indigenous northern goddess known variously as Brig-

id, Bride, Brighid, Brigantia and Brigindona. The assump-

tion is that since Saint Brigid is revered by Gaelic Christians in early February, then the goddess Brigid must have been

revered during this same season. Whether or not this is true

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does not diminish the meaning of Imbolc for the Pagans who

make offerings to this goddess.

The name Candlemas is also Christian in origin, and

unrelated to the Feast of Saint Brigid. Candlemas celebrates

the presentation of the child Jesus at the Temple of Jerusa-

lem. According to the Bible, Joseph and Mary took their son

to the Temple forty days after his birth in accordance with

the Law of Moses (Luke 2:22–40). Because of its name, Can-

dlemas is sometimes confused with Saint Lucia’s Day, which

is traditionally associated with a procession led by a girl

wearing a crown of candles. But Saint Lucia’s Day occurs

in December, not early February. Nevertheless, for many

Pagans today Candlemas is a celebration of candles, repre-

senting the “returning light” as the days grow longer.

Ewemeolc and Imbolc are names meaning “ewe’s milk”,

in reference to the lactation of female sheep that begins

shortly before the lambing season. Ewemeolc is a Saxon

name, while Imbolc is Gaelic in origin. (Depending on your

source, Imbolc is also sometimes interpreted as meaning “in

the belly”, still in reference to the gestation of ewes.) For our pre-Christian ancestors in northern Europe, ewe’s milk was

the first fresh food available after long weeks of subsisting

on old cabbages, root crops and heavily salted meats. More-

over, lactation heralded the birth of the new lambs that were

so important to the northern economy. Sheep were the very

foundation of prosperity for the early English people (Hart-

ley, p. 129). Sheep provided not only wool and mutton, but

also leather hides, ram’s horns for elaborate drinking cups,

lanolin secreted around the ewe’s neck and udder, and tallow

from fat which was used as a lubricant and later for making

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candles. And of course sheep provided milk and its byprod-

ucts, cheese and butter.

I have heard some Pagans say that the lactation of sheep

has no meaning or significance to them, since we can now

purchase fresh milk and an endless array of other foods at

our supermarkets throughout the year. But the same can

be said for the “returning light” in an era when the flick of

a switch can fill a room with artificial daylight in the mid-

dle of the night. The lengthening days are important, but

the theme of lactation is just as meaningful to the season-

al celebration of Imbolc. If you have any northern Europe-

an ancestry in your pedigree, you might not be here at all to

read these words if it were not for the lactation of ewes. This miracle—and it really is nothing short of a miracle—helped

our ancestors survive long enough to produce another gen-

eration of men and women to carry on, and then another,

until at last you and I were brought into this world. And that, I think, is cause enough in itself for celebration.

Imbolc (or Ewemeolc or Candlemas) is a traditional time

to seek omens, especially in relation to the weather. The

American tradition of Groundhog Day—waiting to observe

if the groundhog sees its shadow, which supposedly foretells

whether there will be six more weeks of winter—came from

older, European customs of watching other animals such as

badgers or snakes. Celebrations often involved specific foods:

butter, milk and a flat, scone-like bread called a bannock.

These same foods can be incorporated into your own sea-

sonal celebration. We Saxon Pagans usually honor our gods

and ancestors with offerings of mead (a fermented honey

drink), but at this time of year my inhíred gives an offering

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of whole milk. It is the Saxon custom to share what is being

offered, much as you might share a meal with close friends,

and so we each drink as we give thanks for the miracle that

allowed our ancestors to survive. The remainder of the milk

is then shared with our gods as a libation.

I say we use whole milk in our Ewemeolc rites, but even

this is not as “whole” as milk when it comes from the cow;

most of the butterfat has already been removed. Whole milk

has a fat content of only 3.2% (in contrast to 2% milk which,

of course, has a fat content of 2%). The remaining butterfat

is separated into cream which can have a 20% or better fat

content. Heavy whipping cream has a 36% butterfat content.

Butterfat, as you probably surmise, is the primary con-

stituent of butter. Butter can be made from sheep’s milk or

goat’s milk, but almost all butter consumed in the United

States is made from the butterfat produced by cattle.

Making your own butter at home is a great project to

engage in with your children during the Imbolc season.

The wondrous, almost mystical transformation from liquid

cream to a semi-solid butter fascinates most children, and can

be used as a catalyst for family conversations addressing the

transformative events that can and do affect each of us. The

death of a loved one, the end of a friendship, even the awk-

ward subject of puberty; any of these transformations may

be easier to discuss while changing cream into butter. The

change can be a metaphor for the many transformations we

experience throughout life.

Not that you need any special issues to address! Butter is

just plain fun to make, and surprisingly easy. Even if you do

not have any children in your inhíred or coven or kindred,

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making butter at Imbolc will engage the child within you.

Making butter is a rewarding experience for people of all

ages.

To make your Imbolc butter you will need a pint of heavy

whipping cream, a quart jar with a lid, a mixing bowl and a

spatula or large spoon. I use an empty, clean mayonnaise jar,

but a leftover canning jar with its lid and rim will work just

as well.

Pour the heavy cream into the jar. You can add a pinch or

two of salt, but this is not really necessary. I never add salt.

Put the lid on the jar and make sure it is screwed on tight. If you are doing this alone, go wherever you keep your television and put in a DVD that you enjoy. Making butter is easy,

but it can be sort of boring if you do not have friends or fam-

ily to interact with.

Now shake the jar. Use a steady up and down motion,

but do not worry whether or not you are doing it “correct-

ly”. There is no easy way to do this wrong. Shake the jar, and

then shake it some more, and then keep shaking it. A steady,

rhythmic movement will be less tiring for you than frantically

shaking it like a lioness trying to kill her prey.

You might think this is a modern innovation compared to

the wooden plunge churn used in the Middle Ages, however

the method I describe here is actually the older technique for

making butter. The earliest butter churns were devised 1500

years ago, but people had been making butter for twenty five

centuries before that! Early butter making was often accom-

plished by placing sheep’s milk or goat’s milk in a skin bag

and then shaking it. I suppose to be completely authentic you

could try to make a skin bag, but I recommend the quart jar.

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In addition to keeping a steady motion, shake the jar with

only one hand, because this hand is sure to become exhaust-

ed and you will need your other hand ready to take over the

task.

Keep shaking. I said this was easy; I did not say it was

quick.

After a while solid bits will begin to form in the cream.

These are a good sign, but keep on shaking. Do not stop to

examine the creamy bits.

When you think nothing is ever going to happen (and

possibly even a little while after this thought has crossed your mind) the cream will suddenly and almost miraculously separate into a solid lump of butter sitting in the remaining liq-

uid.

Pour off the liquid and put the lump of butter in the mix-

ing bowl. Using your spatula or large spoon, bring the lump

up the side of the bowl and press out any liquid that is still in it. After pressing out the liquid your fresh butter is ready to eat. This can be used as part of an Imbolc feast, or a portion

can be offered to your gods and ancestors.

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In the last chapter we looked at expressing Pagan spirituali-

ty through food-related crafts. The activities discussed in this next chapter are, at best, only indirectly related to food. Most of these home activities are seasonal and fit very well into

the contemporary Pagan “wheel of the year”.

CANDLE MAKING

Candles have become an integral part of contemporary

Pagan rites. We Pagans routinely use candles to illuminate

our altars. Wiccans place candles at the four cardinal points

around the perimeter of their ritual areas. ADF Druids will

light a candle as a symbolic representation of the celestial

realm. Pagan sorcerers of all traditions—whether drýmenn

or mágoi or streghe—very often use candles as they work

their magic.

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pagan crafts

You can purchase candles for whatever purpose you

intend, of course, but ritual and magical tools are so much

more potent when we put a little of our own energy into

their creation. Candle making is something you can do alone,

or as a coven or inhíred activity. Older children often enjoy

making ritual candles with adult supervision. This activity is

a great tradition to bring into your life, and there is no better time for making candles than at Candlemas.

There is a practical side to making candles at Candle-

mas, since this is usually the coldest time of the year for

those of us who live in temperate climates. (Of course if you

are using a Catholic calendar and live in the southern hemi-

sphere, Candlemas will be the warmest time of the year, but

this book is intended for Pagans who will presumably invert

their holidays when living or visiting south of the equator.)

Candle making involves a hot stove and hot wax, and can

continue for hours on end if you have the supplies and enthu-

siasm to keep going. If you do not mind paying an exorbitant

electric bill for air conditioning you can make candles on the

hottest day of summer, but it just makes more sense to melt

wax and pour candles when the heat this generates will help

warm your home, lower your furnace bill and have a mini-

mal negative impact on the environment.

If you practice candle magic, whatever your spiritual

path may be, there is a very good reason for making your