Months of the Year:  Quotes, Poems, Reading List, Links, Garden Chores, Holidays 

The Mysteries of Druidry: Celtic Mysticism, Theory and Practice.  By Brendan Cathbad Myers, Ph.D.  Foreword by Isaac Bonewits.  Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New Page Books, 2006.  Notes, Index, 236 pages.  ISBN: 1564148785.  VSCL. 

Nature Mysticism    

Nature Spirits:  Fairies, Elves, Alfs, Wights, Lars, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 

Neo-Druidism  

Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work.  By Isaac Bonewits.  Llewellyn Publications, 2007.  240 pages.  ISBN: 0738711993.  VSCL. 

Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner.  A Book of Prayer, Devotional Practice, and the Nine Worlds of the Spirit.  By Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera.  Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New Page Books, 2009.  Index, bibliography, appendices, 254 pages.  ISBN: 9781601630346.   VSCL. 

November:  Quotes, Poems, Celebrations, Lore, Garden Chores 

The Obscure Goddess Online Directory and the A-Muse-ing Grace Gallery and the Art of Thalia Took

October:  Quotes, Poems, Celebrations, Lore, Garden Chores 

One Old Druid's Final Journey - The Notebooks of the Librarian of Gushen Grove 

Order of Bards Ovates and Druids.   The largest Druid organization in the world.  A complete training program in print and audio versions, discussion groups, library, extensive resources.  I am a member of this Order as a Bardic Grade student.  The OBOD celebrates the Eight Holy Days of NeoPaganism.  I find their liturgical cycle and rituals to be spiritually uplifting, wholesome, life affirming, earth centered, ecologically positive, profound, polytheistic, and open minded.  OBOD is more orientated towards Celtic spirituality. 

Oriental Religions in the West.   By Sir James Frazer, 1922. 

Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions.  Joyce and River Higginbotham.  Woodbury, Minnesota, Llewellyn, 2004.  Bibliography, index, 272 pages.  ISBN: 0738702226. 

Pathways in the Green Valley Blog.   By Michael Garofalo. 

Preparing for the Autumnal Equinox Celebration, Mabon, Alban Elfed, September 21st 

Roman Pagan Holy Days, Seasonal Celebrations, Religious Customs, Roman Pagan Hearth  

Sabbats and Esbats:  Lady of the Earth

The Sabbats: A New Approach to Living the Old Ways.  By Edain McCoy.  St. Paul, Minnesota, Llewellyn Pubs., 1994.  Index, 255 pages.  ISBN: 1567186637.  Practical suggestions for celebrating the pagan holidays in the Wheel of the Year.  VSCL. 

Sacred Circles  Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Notes.  Photos of the Valley Spirit Center sacred circle construction project. 

Sacred Fire, Holy Well: A Druid's Grimoire.  By Ian Corrigan.  Tuscon, Arizona, ADF Publishing, Second Edition, 2009.  Gaeilge glossary, bibliography, 318 pages.  ISBN: 0976568128.  VSCL.  Excellent resources for liturgy. 

September:  Quotes, Poems, Celebrations, Lore, Garden Chores 

Sexual Magic: Bibliography, Links, Quotes

The Solitary Druid: A Practitioner's Guide.   By Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison.   New York, Kensington Pub. Co,., Citadel Press, 2005.   Index, bibliography, appendices, 262 pages.  ISBN:  0806526750.  VSCL.  Reverend Ellison has been the Archdruid of Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) and Dean of Divination and Beast Mastery - The Grey School of Wizardry.  A solitary ritual for the Autumnal Equinox is provided by Rev. Ellison on pp. 187-192 

Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation.  By Silver Ravenwolf.  St. Paul, Minnesota, 2005. Notes, bibliography, appendices, 590 pages.   ISBN: 0738703192.  VSCL. 

The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess.  Rituals, invocations, exercises, and magic.  By Starhawk.  10th Anniversary Edition, Revised and updated.  Bibliography, index, 288 pages.  VSCL.  ISBN: 0062508148.  A very influential work on Goddess worship and pagan religious practices. 

The Spirit of Gardening   3,400 quotes, poems, sayings, and ideas about gardening, gardens, and the Green Way.  Materials organized by 140 topics; and a fully indexed collection with a search engine.  Online since 1999.  Over 6MB of text.  Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo. 

Summer  -  Quotes, Poems, Sayings and Quips for Gardeners  

Valley Spirit Sacred Circle, Red Bluff, California 

Walkers Between the Worlds:  The Western Mysteries from Shaman to Magus.  By Caitlin and John Matthews.  Rochester, Vermont, Inner Traditios, 1985, 2003.  Bibliography, index, 441 pages.  ISBN: 0892810912.  VSCL. 

Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life.  By Pauline Campanelli.  Illustrated by Dan Campanelli.  St. Paul, Minnesota, Llewellyn Publications, 1989, 1993.  ISBN: 0875420915.  VSCL. 

When the Catholics Invented Christmas  

Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.  By Scott Cunningham.  Llewellyn's Practical Magick Series.  St. Paul, Minnesota, Llewellyn Publications, 1994.  Index, bibliography, glossary, 218 pages.  VSCL.  ISBN: 0875421180.  A very good introduction to the Craft by an open-minded person.  

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Imbolc, Candlemas, Brigid's Day, February 1st  

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General Preparations
Imbolc, Candlemas, Brigid's Day, February 1st  

11.  Working and meditating in the garden is an important facet of my spiritual path.  I need to regularly reconnect with the earth and the autumn season outdoors. I live in Red Bluff, California, USDA Zone 9, Northern Hemisphere.  My late September gardening chores might be quite different from yours, depending upon where you live.  Tend your garden daily.  Water your garden each day.  Weed your vegetable garden.  Harvest squash, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables from your garden each day.  Review your own lists of chores for August and September, and act accordingly.      

12.  Read about Mabon, Alban Elfed, the Autumnal Equinox Celebration, and late-summer harvest celebrations around the world.  Add notes and links to books, magazines, and webpages on the subject.  See my bibliography and links above.  Visit your local public library or college library to obtain access to books, media and magazines on the subject.  Study about ancient Indo-European religions.  I update my Months webpages on August and September. 

13.  Add some appropriate Mabon, Alban Elfed, Autumnal Equinox, or September songs, chants, prayers, reflections, invocations, or poems to your Neo-Pagan Craft Journal, Book of Shadows, blog, website, or Ritual Handbook.  Write in your personal journal.  Most spiritual seekers keep a notebook, journal or log as part of their experimental, creative, magical and experiential work. 

14.  Stay at home.  Improve your home, backyard, or garden.  Eliminate long driving trips.  Do you really need to "Go" anywhere?  Do you really need to fly by airplane to another country?  Explore your backyard, neighborhood, local community, nearby city, county wide area, regional area within 100 miles.  Visit a local "sacred site."  For us, for example, this could be Mt. Shasta, the headwaters spring of the Sacramento River in Mt. Shasta City, the Sacramento River at Woodson Bridge Park, a long walk in the forest below nearby Mt. Lassen, sitting on the shore of Whiskeytown Lake, sitting in my backyard in the moonlight, or visiting a beautiful church or college or park that is nearby.  Watch a DVD on a spiritual subject, sacred place, or inspirational topic.  Learn more about your local environment. 

15.  Read solitary or group rites for Mabon available in books and webpages (see above).  Create your own ritual for Mabon.  Practice the ritual.  Conduct the ritual at a convenient time for you, or your family and/or friends, as close to the day of the autumnal equinox as possible.  Attend a public Mabon ritual of a local NeoPagan group. 

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Quotations, Information, Facts, Lore
Imbolc, Candlemas, Brigid's Day, February 1st  

"J. G. Frazer in The Golden Bough notes the pagan origin of Christmas: “It was a custom of the heathen to celebrate on the 25th December the birthday of the sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day … Augustine exhorts his Christian brethren not to celebrate that solemn day like the heathen on account of the sun, but on account of him who made the sun.” (p. 472). Frazer argues (pp. 833 & 842) “If the heathen of ancient Europe celebrated, as we have good reason to believe, the season of Midsummer with a great festival of fire, of which the traces have survived in many places, it is natural to suppose that they should also have observed with similar rites the corresponding season of Midwinter; for Midsummer and Midwinter, the summer solstice and the winter solstice, are the two great turning points in the sun’s apparent course through the sky, and from the standpoint of primitive man nothing might seem more appropriate than to kindle fires on earth at the two moments when the fire and heat of the great luminary in heaven begin to wane or to wax … Indeed with respect to Midwinter celebration of Christmas we are left to conjecture; we know from the express testimony of the ancients that it was instituted by the church to supersede an old heathen festival of the birth of the sun, which was apparently conceived to be born again on the shortest day of the year, after which his light and heat were seen to grow till they attained their full maturity at Midsummer … In modern Christendom the ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice appears to survive, or to have survived down to recent years, in the old custom of the Yule log.”"The definition of a Harvest Moon is: the full moon closest to the fall equinox.  The Harvest Moon was thus named because it rises within a half-hour of when the sun sets.  In early days, when farmers had no tractors, it was essential that they work by the light of the moon to bring in the harvest.  This moon is the fullest moon of the year.  When you gaze at it, it looks very large and gives a lot of light throughout the entire night.  No other lunar spectacle is as awesome as the Harvest Moon."
-   The Midwinter Festival of Yule

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Poems, Prayers, Rites, Liturgy, Invocations
Imbolc, Candlemas, Brigid's Day, February 1st  

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."
-  Autumn Equinox Ritual  

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Mike Garofalo's Notes

My notes, observations, listing of local activities, and studies on the celebrations for Imbolc, Candlemas, Brigid's Day, February 1st:  

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