Autumnal Equinox is also known as Mabon, Second Harvest, Cornucopia, Wine Harvest, Harvest Home, Winter Finding.
On the Wuruma Wheel, this festival begins the short mild Autumn (Fall) season but as yet has no name of its own.
In Australia in 2010, Autumnal Equinox fell on the 21st of March, at 4.32AM Sydney time. In the Southern Hemisphere it falls when Vernal Equinox is falling in the Northern Hemisphere. (For information on the Southern Wheel and the Wuruma Wheel, click labels at end of post.)
The equinoxes
Around Autumn Equinox in Australia, the shops are filled with Easter bunnies and eggs and the Christians are preparing for Easter services. In other words, it is Vernal Equinox on the paper calendar and Autumnal Equinox on the natural calendar.
This doesn’t confuse me any more. When I became a Neo-pagan and began celebrating the Southern Wheel, it was very confusing to be bombarded by bunnies and eggs at Autumnal Equinox, by “Happy Halloween” messages from Americans at Beltane, by reindeer and Christmas carols at Summer Solstice and so on. Now I’m a bit more in tune with the natural seasons and I don’t find it confusing any more.
Balance
For me the equinoxes are very important because they symbolise the balance in the divine. I follow both the Goddess and the God, not one or the other, giving both equal weight and importance. They are the earth and the seed, without the earth the seed can’t grow, without the seed the earth is barren.
Equinox means “equal night”. At the equinoxes the night is equal to the day, the moon and the sun spend the same amount of time in the sky, the Goddess and the God are equally represented.
That balance is why I am a Neo-pagan so, in their own quiet way, the equinoxes are the most important festivals on my calendar.
Symbolising that balance is the main part of my equinox rituals. I always make sure my altar is carefully balanced with equal amounts and sizes of candles on both sides. This year I also hung a black-and-white disc over it: white on the left half for the Goddess in the waxing phase on the 21st and black on the right for the God as he is in the dark half at Autumnal Equinox.
Wuruma & Southern
On the Australian secular calendar, the official start of Autumn (Fall) is the 1st of March. On the Southern Wheel, Autumnal Equinox is a harvest festival. On the Wuruma Wheel it marks the beginning of Autumn, which is a 2-month period of pleasant and calm weather.
The local (NSW Central Coast) native species do not show many signs of Winter’s approach. It’s still warm during the day and there are plenty of native flowers blooming, including Sweet Wattle (Acacia suaveolens) and the Spotted Gum tree (Corymbia maculata). Long-nosed bandicoot babies are out of the pouch and Brush-tailed possums are having their first litter of the year.
I am still learning about the local native species and, as time goes on, I’m sure I will find the right native species to symbolise the Autumn Equinox. This year I dealt with the lack by deciding to deal with it next time around.
I focussed instead on the Southern Wheel lore as that is clear. I used the moon-and-sun disc and orange candles on my altar and meditated on the balance in the divine.
Ritual
My rituals are not very formal now but always start with making sacred space, acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and stating who I am (where I was born and who my ancestors were).
I don’t attempt to tap into the Aboriginal lore or bring the Aboriginal gods or spirits into my rituals. I tell them I know they exist, I don’t know very much about them and they are quite welcome in my circle. I tell them I follow the archetypal gods of my own ancestors, who are all European, and venerate my ancestors.
I have been asked, by several people, “Why not just use Aboriginal lore?”
My reasons are pretty simple: cultural differences can lead to confusion and irrelevance, a lot of the lore White Australia thinks is Aboriginal is misunderstood, misinterpreted, incomplete, stolen or just plain made up by white people for various reasons. Using what might be inaccurate or fake lore would make me feel foolish and my conscience won’t allow me to use what may be stolen lore.
Instead, I look for the seasonal changes observable by everyone, black and white, and for the universals of religion: the essentials of the deities that are found in most times and places. These include thunder/warrior gods, mother goddesses and other aspects of the divine.
I am still quite sick so my ritual this Autumn Equinox was very brief. I did the meditation beforehand and in the circle just did the opening (above) and called my own ancestors into the circle with me then said a few words about the balance in the divine and sang “We all come…” then opened the circle.
I let the candles go on burning until the wind put them out then brought them inside and went back to bed.
Next turn of the Wheels
The next festival is Samhain (Southern Wheel) on the April/May dark moon, then Wuruma Samhain (Wuruma Wheel) around the 21st of May.
Southern Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Ancestor Veneration
Friday, March 26, 2010
Native Animals of the NSW Central Coast
(The NSW Central Coast is the area between Sydney and Newcastle in Australia.)
Red-bellied Black Snake Pseudechis porphyriacus
Range extends from south-eastern Victoria, through eastern NSW and north into Queensland.
Distinctive appearance. Small head, black body, pink or red belly.
Belly colour is visible on side of snake. Snake grows to 2.5 metres.
Shy, hunts by day on land and in water.
Eats young brown snakes, lizards, rodents, frogs, yabbies and eels.
Mates in spring, with rival males lunging at each other and twining together with flattened necks. Young are born live from January to March. Hibernation begins in June.
Red-bellies ward off the more dangerous brown snakes.
Images & map of range
Images
(This post may be updated occasionally and thus will be delivered more than once on RSS feeds and inbox pings.)
Red-bellied Black Snake Pseudechis porphyriacus
Range extends from south-eastern Victoria, through eastern NSW and north into Queensland.
Distinctive appearance. Small head, black body, pink or red belly.
Belly colour is visible on side of snake. Snake grows to 2.5 metres.
Shy, hunts by day on land and in water.
Eats young brown snakes, lizards, rodents, frogs, yabbies and eels.
Mates in spring, with rival males lunging at each other and twining together with flattened necks. Young are born live from January to March. Hibernation begins in June.
Red-bellies ward off the more dangerous brown snakes.
Images & map of range
Images
(This post may be updated occasionally and thus will be delivered more than once on RSS feeds and inbox pings.)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wuruma Lughnasadh 2010
(I am pronouncing Wuruma as WUH-ruh-muh.)
Wuruma Lughnasadh falls around the 21st of February. It is a festival of the Wuruma Wheel of the Year. The Wuruma Wheel applies to the seasons occurring on the NSW Central Coast (just above Sydney). It is not the same as the Southern Wheel. (For the Wuruma & Southern Wheels click label at end of article.)
I have named some of the Wuruma Wheel festivals after their British/European counterparts. This merely for convenience.
In 2010, I celebrated my second Wuruma Lughnasadh.
When I began to celebrate the Wuruma Wheel in 2008, I had very little knowledge of what exactly I was celebrating. I was using the familiar festivals of the European-based Southern Wheel of the Year, similar to the Wiccan Wheel, as my jumping off place. Essentially, I just jumped off into the unknown and went where the wind took me.
I am no expert now but have have gained some idea of the markers of the local natural seasons.
There are two very obvious signs of the Wuruma Lughnasadh in my area: the rainbow lorikeets and the storms.
The rainbow lorikeets feed on the gum trees that are flowering at this time of year. They are very noisy. They come in flocks at dawn and chatter and squabble over the little pale yellow flowers. During the day there are always a few in every tree, still squabbling and chattering to each other. At dusk they all come back again for more feasting.
The flowering gums are the Wuruma Lughnasadh harvest for the lorikeets. I don't yet know what local bush tucker (wild foods) harvest for humans comes at Wuruma Lughnasadh.
The electrical storms last roughly from Lughnasadh on the Southern Wheel (end of January/start of February) to Wuruma Lughnasadh. I don't yet know the local lore on storms and storm gods. The storm god I know is the archetypal European warrior/striker/inseminator god who comes at Lughnasadh to strike the ground and ensure it is fertile for the next planting season and who returns at Beltane to inseminate the Goddess.
There are no grain fields to strike in my area. It is all hills and houses. He strikes at Wuruma Lughnasadh as he does at Lughnasadh on the Southern Wheel. I sit at night with the lights off and the curtains open and watch and listen.
Since I started on the Wuruma Wheel, I have come to see him both as the European thunder god and as the local thunder god or spirit. I don't have a human image of the local thunder god. I see the lightning as his sign and he seems strongly connected to the rainbow lorikeets at Lughnasadh.
(There is a workshop on in Sydney next weekend which would help me a lot. It's on "looking at the Australian wheel of the year". But I'm too sick to make it and will just have to be satisfied with asking everyone what happened.)
Rainbow Lorikeet
Flowering gum tree (similar to mine)
The next festival on the Wuruma Wheel of the Year is Autumnal Equinox, falling on the 21st of March in 2010.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Autumnal Equinox, falling on the 21st of March in 2010.
Autumnal Equinox falls on both the Wuruma Wheel and the Southern Wheel.
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Lughnasadh falls around the 21st of February. It is a festival of the Wuruma Wheel of the Year. The Wuruma Wheel applies to the seasons occurring on the NSW Central Coast (just above Sydney). It is not the same as the Southern Wheel. (For the Wuruma & Southern Wheels click label at end of article.)
I have named some of the Wuruma Wheel festivals after their British/European counterparts. This merely for convenience.
In 2010, I celebrated my second Wuruma Lughnasadh.
When I began to celebrate the Wuruma Wheel in 2008, I had very little knowledge of what exactly I was celebrating. I was using the familiar festivals of the European-based Southern Wheel of the Year, similar to the Wiccan Wheel, as my jumping off place. Essentially, I just jumped off into the unknown and went where the wind took me.
I am no expert now but have have gained some idea of the markers of the local natural seasons.
There are two very obvious signs of the Wuruma Lughnasadh in my area: the rainbow lorikeets and the storms.
The rainbow lorikeets feed on the gum trees that are flowering at this time of year. They are very noisy. They come in flocks at dawn and chatter and squabble over the little pale yellow flowers. During the day there are always a few in every tree, still squabbling and chattering to each other. At dusk they all come back again for more feasting.
The flowering gums are the Wuruma Lughnasadh harvest for the lorikeets. I don't yet know what local bush tucker (wild foods) harvest for humans comes at Wuruma Lughnasadh.
The electrical storms last roughly from Lughnasadh on the Southern Wheel (end of January/start of February) to Wuruma Lughnasadh. I don't yet know the local lore on storms and storm gods. The storm god I know is the archetypal European warrior/striker/inseminator god who comes at Lughnasadh to strike the ground and ensure it is fertile for the next planting season and who returns at Beltane to inseminate the Goddess.
There are no grain fields to strike in my area. It is all hills and houses. He strikes at Wuruma Lughnasadh as he does at Lughnasadh on the Southern Wheel. I sit at night with the lights off and the curtains open and watch and listen.
Since I started on the Wuruma Wheel, I have come to see him both as the European thunder god and as the local thunder god or spirit. I don't have a human image of the local thunder god. I see the lightning as his sign and he seems strongly connected to the rainbow lorikeets at Lughnasadh.
(There is a workshop on in Sydney next weekend which would help me a lot. It's on "looking at the Australian wheel of the year". But I'm too sick to make it and will just have to be satisfied with asking everyone what happened.)
Rainbow Lorikeet
Flowering gum tree (similar to mine)
The next festival on the Wuruma Wheel of the Year is Autumnal Equinox, falling on the 21st of March in 2010.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Autumnal Equinox, falling on the 21st of March in 2010.
Autumnal Equinox falls on both the Wuruma Wheel and the Southern Wheel.
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel of the Year
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Lughnasadh 2010
In 2010, Lughnasadh fell at the beginning of February in the Southern Hemisphere. (To see the Southern Wheel of the Year, click label at end of post.)
Other names for this festival are First Fruits, Lammas or Loaf Mass. It is the first of the three harvest festivals of the Southern Wheel.
Lughnasadh is about the grain harvest. I grew up in Western Australia and the word Lughnasadh brings up a strong image for me of the endless flat lands of the wheatfields there and the ripening heads of wheat rippling in the wind.
In the place I live now, the NSW Central Coast, which is on the other side of Australia, there is a lot of storm activity at Lughnasadh.
The wheatfields are the golden grain harvest of the European-based Southern Wheel and the storm season is the god of thunder and lightning, the warrior/striker/inseminator god.
These images combine in my mind to form a picture of the thunder god coming at the harvest to make the paddocks (fields) fertile again ready for the spring planting.
(The other strong image I have of Lughnasadh is that of the very first circle I ever went to and my introduction to Neo-paganism. It was four years ago now and Lughnasadh is the anniversary of my becoming a Neo-pagan.)
This year the Full Moon fell on the 30th of January and I decided to have my private Lughnasadh on that night.
I lit a candle for the Goddess as the Full Moon and a candle for the God in the dark half of the year. I talked to the local gods, as I always do, telling them who I am (where my ancestors come from and where I grew up) and what I was doing, I talked to my ancestral gods, the European and British gods, and to my own ancestors.
I ate some multi-grain bread and put out some seeds for the birds then sang 'We all come...'. I have been rather unwell lately and went back to bed after that.
It's hard to say whether my rituals and festival observances are becoming so informal and low-key because that's what I want or because of all the illness and family issues in my life lately. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I am happy with the way they are going.
The next festival on the Wuruma Wheel of the Year is Wuruma Lughnasadh, falling around the 21st Feb in 2010.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Autumnal Equinox, falling on the 21st of March in 2010.
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel of the Year
Other names for this festival are First Fruits, Lammas or Loaf Mass. It is the first of the three harvest festivals of the Southern Wheel.
Lughnasadh is about the grain harvest. I grew up in Western Australia and the word Lughnasadh brings up a strong image for me of the endless flat lands of the wheatfields there and the ripening heads of wheat rippling in the wind.
In the place I live now, the NSW Central Coast, which is on the other side of Australia, there is a lot of storm activity at Lughnasadh.
The wheatfields are the golden grain harvest of the European-based Southern Wheel and the storm season is the god of thunder and lightning, the warrior/striker/inseminator god.
These images combine in my mind to form a picture of the thunder god coming at the harvest to make the paddocks (fields) fertile again ready for the spring planting.
(The other strong image I have of Lughnasadh is that of the very first circle I ever went to and my introduction to Neo-paganism. It was four years ago now and Lughnasadh is the anniversary of my becoming a Neo-pagan.)
This year the Full Moon fell on the 30th of January and I decided to have my private Lughnasadh on that night.
I lit a candle for the Goddess as the Full Moon and a candle for the God in the dark half of the year. I talked to the local gods, as I always do, telling them who I am (where my ancestors come from and where I grew up) and what I was doing, I talked to my ancestral gods, the European and British gods, and to my own ancestors.
I ate some multi-grain bread and put out some seeds for the birds then sang 'We all come...'. I have been rather unwell lately and went back to bed after that.
It's hard to say whether my rituals and festival observances are becoming so informal and low-key because that's what I want or because of all the illness and family issues in my life lately. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I am happy with the way they are going.
The next festival on the Wuruma Wheel of the Year is Wuruma Lughnasadh, falling around the 21st Feb in 2010.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Autumnal Equinox, falling on the 21st of March in 2010.
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel versus Wuruma Wheel
This article is about why and how I look for the common ground between the Wheel lore of my European and British ancestors and the observable seasons of the NSW Central Coast (just above Sydney).
Southern Wheel - European/British-based Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Wheel - natural seasons of the NSW Central Coast
Why
For myself and some other white Australian Neo-pagans, the European-based Wheel of the Year is not enough. It sits above the Australian landscape not in it, relevant in many ways but, for some of us, not really connecting. There are similarities of course but a lot of the symbols just don't fit in this time and place.
We humans are all the same species. We have the same psychology, the same basic needs and wants, and we all live on the same planet and are all affected by the fertility of the land and sea and the seasons of the earth's turning.
It’s easy to see the differences white and black Australians and between the European-based Wheel and the Wheel of the local natural seasons.
I am more interested in the similarities.
How
I looked again at the very basics of the Southern Wheel and the Wuruma Wheel, at the festivals as marking the change of seasons only, stripped of both European and Aboriginal lore, and so far I have found plenty of similarities.
Some of those similarities are:
(Some festivals fit more than one category.)
Re-birth festivals
Winter Solstice/Yule (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Spring (Wuruma Wheel)
Fertility festivals
Bride’s Day/Imbolc (Southern Wheel)
Vernal Equinox/Ostara (Southern Wheel)
Beltane (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Spring (Wuruma Wheel)
Wuruma Beltane (Wuruma Wheel)
Harvest festivals
Summer Solstice/Litha (Southern Wheel)
Lughnasadh (Southern Wheel)
Autumnal Equinox/Mabon (Southern Wheel)
Samhain (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Lughnasadh (Wuruma Wheel)
Autumnal Equinox (Wuruma Wheel)
Wuruma Samhain (Wuruma Wheel)
Death festivals
Summer Solstice/Litha (Southern Wheel)
Samhain (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Samhain (Wuruma Wheel)
With those similarities in mind, I am looking for local native (indigenous) species of plants and animals that fit the lore of both Wheels.
In the Northern Hemisphere the seasons are much clearer. In winter there are many bare trees, in spring those trees put out new leaves and in autumn those leaves fall again. This is a very noticeable cycle. You do not have to be a Pagan or Neo-pagan or a keen observer of the natural seasons to notice it.
The same does not apply to Australia. The majority of our native trees are evergreen. They lose and replace leaves all year round. They are not bare in winter. The cycle of life, death and re-birth is not as obvious.
Aboriginal lore uses natural changes in the behaviour of native plants and animals as seasonal markers. The festival dates are not fixed to a calendar the way, say, Halloween (Samhain) and May Day (Beltane) often are.
I have some accurate lore on local seasonal markers now and I am always looking for more.
So far the picture is pretty confusing. But that’s a product of my own ignorance and will pass. I will find native species that represent the changes in the natural seasons and the festivals of the Southern and Wuruma Wheels.
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel - European/British-based Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Wheel - natural seasons of the NSW Central Coast
Why
For myself and some other white Australian Neo-pagans, the European-based Wheel of the Year is not enough. It sits above the Australian landscape not in it, relevant in many ways but, for some of us, not really connecting. There are similarities of course but a lot of the symbols just don't fit in this time and place.
We humans are all the same species. We have the same psychology, the same basic needs and wants, and we all live on the same planet and are all affected by the fertility of the land and sea and the seasons of the earth's turning.
It’s easy to see the differences white and black Australians and between the European-based Wheel and the Wheel of the local natural seasons.
I am more interested in the similarities.
How
I looked again at the very basics of the Southern Wheel and the Wuruma Wheel, at the festivals as marking the change of seasons only, stripped of both European and Aboriginal lore, and so far I have found plenty of similarities.
Some of those similarities are:
(Some festivals fit more than one category.)
Re-birth festivals
Winter Solstice/Yule (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Spring (Wuruma Wheel)
Fertility festivals
Bride’s Day/Imbolc (Southern Wheel)
Vernal Equinox/Ostara (Southern Wheel)
Beltane (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Spring (Wuruma Wheel)
Wuruma Beltane (Wuruma Wheel)
Harvest festivals
Summer Solstice/Litha (Southern Wheel)
Lughnasadh (Southern Wheel)
Autumnal Equinox/Mabon (Southern Wheel)
Samhain (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Lughnasadh (Wuruma Wheel)
Autumnal Equinox (Wuruma Wheel)
Wuruma Samhain (Wuruma Wheel)
Death festivals
Summer Solstice/Litha (Southern Wheel)
Samhain (Southern Wheel)
Wuruma Samhain (Wuruma Wheel)
With those similarities in mind, I am looking for local native (indigenous) species of plants and animals that fit the lore of both Wheels.
In the Northern Hemisphere the seasons are much clearer. In winter there are many bare trees, in spring those trees put out new leaves and in autumn those leaves fall again. This is a very noticeable cycle. You do not have to be a Pagan or Neo-pagan or a keen observer of the natural seasons to notice it.
The same does not apply to Australia. The majority of our native trees are evergreen. They lose and replace leaves all year round. They are not bare in winter. The cycle of life, death and re-birth is not as obvious.
Aboriginal lore uses natural changes in the behaviour of native plants and animals as seasonal markers. The festival dates are not fixed to a calendar the way, say, Halloween (Samhain) and May Day (Beltane) often are.
I have some accurate lore on local seasonal markers now and I am always looking for more.
So far the picture is pretty confusing. But that’s a product of my own ignorance and will pass. I will find native species that represent the changes in the natural seasons and the festivals of the Southern and Wuruma Wheels.
Wuruma Wheel of the Year
Southern Wheel of the Year
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