If we are to recognise the Sabbats in their seasonal attunement, then down here in Australia we mark the day of Mabon whilst those brothers and sisters in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the times of Ostara.

Mabon

Mabon is a time of primary havest and for sorting what we will need for winter.  It is a time of balance between light and dark, but the cycle looks toward the god’s retreat into the underworld.  As the goddess sees the harvest being drawn in, rituals can involve charging the seed for next year’s harvest.  All the sabbats have strong emphasis on balance - between light and dark, the feminine and the masculine, and between life and death.

Ostara

The first day of Sping is a time of a great sense of energy and promise.  This is the time when the goddess is feeling and exploring her strength and beauty.  However, she is not yet set on her path as mother of the god.  This festival is equated with Easter in the Christian calendar.  The same symbols for Easter, such as painted eggs, can be used in Ostara rituals.

While Christians prepare to celebrate the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter, a lesser known religion is preparing for a major celebration of its own.[…]Paganism is a general category, just as in Christianity there are a number of traditions.

Within Paganism there is Druidism, a form of worship more focused and organized than Wicca, and within Wicca there are several traditions people follow. Dorman said the religion holds a lot in common with Native American traditions and has similarities to Celtic and Egyptian, Greek, Scandinavian and other ancient faiths dating back thousands of years.

Full Article: ‘Close To The Divine’: Wiccans aren’t so different from other faiths

I liked the flow of this article; it showed that if we look at the basic tenets of each religion that deep down there are similiarities; it’s generally the people within the religion that pick at the differences that cause intolerance and misunderstandings.

The Solitary Witches Wiki defines a Witch as:

Practitioners of Witchcraft, the meaning of which varies from culture to culture. Generally, witches are skilled in sorcery and the magical arts.

A witch can be either male or female, but in Western culture over the centuries, the term has come to apply almost exclusively to women.

But what does it mean to be a Witch?

Is it:

• The sense of spirituality
• Communing with nature
• Taking on a deeper understanding of life

Here at Solitary Witches we’re looking for your opinion in What it means to be a Witch.  What attracts you to your spiritual path in life, why do you call yourself a Witch and what does being a witch mean to you.

Discuss what it means to be a witch on the solitary witches forum.

Janice Crouse, a senior fellow with Concerned Women for America, says it’s disturbing that many young people in evangelical churches are experimenting with the Wiccan religion. Church leaders and Christian parents, she warns, must be ready to counter that growing interest among their youth.

Crouse cites an article inReligion Journal which said youth pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention were worried about large numbers of evangelicals taking part in Wicca, a religion that involves nature worship, stresses moral autonomy, and includes remedies and spells — beliefs that Crouse points out are distinctly different from orthodox Christianity, not to mention incompatible with the Bible.

“… Wiccans believe in moral autonomy — [that] ‘nobody can tell me what to do.’ And I think particularly with young people … that’s a very desirable thing; they don’t want the church telling them that there are boundaries, [that] there are things that they can’t do,” she explains. “Another one is that they don’t believe in having authorities beyond human constructs; that we as individuals have the responsibility to shape our own beliefs and there’s no evil beyond that.”

Full Article: ‘Earth worship’ on the rise among evangelical youth

If there is a rise among evangelical youth towards “Earth based worship” it certainly would be coming from the ‘Y Generation’ who appear to have the characteristics of questioning everything in life and challenging authority.  It’s no wonder with these characterisitics that there is a move away from the evangelical church amongst others.

If the church took the time to truly understand the drive to Earth based worship they would understand why they are losing membership.  This article relates back to a previous blog entry [ Kids need spirituality: study ] where the article relates that children need a sense of spirituality in life to be happy, not the role of structured religion that the church offers.

Is there anything wrong with questioning and exploring your beliefs; if anything it can only make the individual stronger and confirmed in their path in life.

Lena Sin of the Canwest News Service published an article on Children and Spirituality which I found interesting, I would certainly be interested to read more into the study.

Four years ago, two American psychologists put forth a simple question: What do you want for your children?

…

Turns out, the hippies were right: Spirituality is a major contributor to children’s overall happiness.

Spirituality - defined as an inner belief system - accounted for eight to 17 per cent of the average child’s sense of happiness, the study showed.

Full Article: Kids need spirituality: study

What I noted interesting in the article was …

Spirituality is not the same thing as religion, Holder and Wallace were clear to point out.

While religion is usually affiliated with an institution, spirituality is related to an inner set of beliefs that guides you in life.

… this sense of spirituality would certainly help to a degree in grounding the younger generation in the turmoil that has inflicted our societies.  I wonder how a spiritually raised generation would be as an adult in a world that has come to lack that sense of being.