The God "Pan"

PAN.

The word strikes images of music, mischief, cloven feet and panpipes and wild sexual romps with fauns, does it not?

Let's take a look at this Mischievous God of Music, Sexuality and Spontaneity!

Where did he come from?

It is generally thought that his mother was a Nymph. Paternal lineage is questionable. Some say Zeus, or Hermes or Dionysus.
Interesting to note (for my fans of Homer/The Illiad and The Odyssey) that it is also said that the Nymph was also conflicted with Penelope who was unfaithful to Odysseus in his 20 year absence (fancy that!) and he banished her. She then did sleep with ALL 108 SUITORS...and gave birth to Pan.

(I think I like that story best :) Go Penelope!

Yet it is also said that Pan is "older than the Olympians" (that's old!)

But no matter where he came from, literally or figuratively, his form and symbolism has been with us for ALWAYS.

He is one of my favorite Gods! Our band is called "Merry Mischief" and Pan's influence is definately upon us in Mischief and in the Music!

Pan is a "rustic God" and is worshiped in natural outdoorsy settings for the most part. When you are out in the woods or in fields, you can most definately feel the God Pan there with you.

I have to tell you to be careful too. For Pan is "The God of Mischief" and it's where the words, "PANic and PANdemonia come from.

Once in Midsummer, I did a sweet ritual in my garden and invoked Pan and gave the ground an offering of wine and left some cake for the fairies. After I closed the circle, I started working there in the garden, happy to be in my natural element. I turned over an old log to move it out of the garden, and lying there was a King Snake.

I magickally flew to the top of the picnic table in an instant, shaking violently.
I was chanting the age old mantra: "Red next to Black is a friend of Jack. Red next to Yellow will kill a fellow." (Looking at the rings while it slithered away into the bushes unharmed....I noted the bands and was RELIEVED.)

Now, I appreciate snakes.
I do.
Don't get me wrong.
But they just give me the god damn fucking WILLIES.
(I have SOOOO many weird snake stories from my youth, which is why....)

And if you've ever seen a King Snake, well, then you know that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with upon their imager.

YOU WILL BE AFFECTED BY THEIR BEAUTY and TERRIBLE WONDERFUL COLORS.

Pan was laughing his ass off, I know it.
I could almost HEAR HIM as I stood on the top of the picnic table, spade still in hand.

King Snakes eat other snakes as well as lots of frogs and mice and various varmits.
They are GOOD snakes.

Surely this fertility symbol of the snake was sent just to me, to remind me of my sexuality, spontaneity, transformation and fluid nature of life by Pan!!

 But holy fuck.

It scared the shite outta me!!

When you invoke Pan....

be prepared for some fun and frivolity.

Sometimes at YOUR expense!

Still you have to admire Pan's sexuality, freedom loving nature and gift of music.

Pan.

He is definately a God of  HOT, MISCHIEVOUS, SEXY FUN!

Info for this story was taken from years of reading lots of Mythology books and stories and studying Fairy Tales and Folklore, observing, having sex, being wild, standing on top of picnic tables and from surfing. Here's one link you may want to look at for more info:

Imbolc~ Of Brigid and Phil...

It's Imbolc. Time of reflection and time for hearth and home. We celebrate many things this time of year. For those of us who live in the cold and frozen North, this is the time when we dream of SPRING.

This is when seed catalogs come and folks start dreaming of better weather. It's cold. We want and NEED the sun!

It is the time of cleansing too.Time to cleanse our hearts, our lives, our bodies, our relationships, our homes...

Pagans of the past celebrated Imbolc with a blessing from the Goddess Bridgid. She is a Fire Goddess of Hearth and Home.

In Ireland, Brigid was the daughter of the one of the Tuatha De Danann.(in history, they are where faeries come from!) She is considered a classic Celtic, Triple Goddess.

She was a women of poetry and poets, a healer and the Goddess of all things related to high and lofty. High rising flames, high towers, highland hills and high and lofty ideas (high intelligence, wisdom, eloquence, poetic eloquence) but mostly she reigns supreme over house and home.

She was absorbed into the Catholic religion as St. Brigit, as were so many other Pagan ideas, ideals and traditions.

This is the season of Life and Death in an Agrarian culture. This is when herds are culled, when the weakest are eliminated, when the farm communities used to be 1/2 done with winter and 1/2 their hay was gone for their livestock. Farmers (as we who also live in the land of ice and snow) look forward to spring.

Brigid, bieng a fire Goddess, was honored with bonfires and light to celebrate the hope for better weather.  She is the Goddess of Transformation. As the world awakens from it's winter slumber and as the days grow longer and brighter, we await for better weather and for the world to burst into newness and joy and to shed the long, cold, hard days of winter and emotions.

How is she related to Pauxatawney Phil you ask?

The groundhog gets all tangled with this because of Celtic traditions celebrating St. Brigid's Day (Feb. 1) and Candlemas, the Catholic St. Brigit (Feb. 2)

Here's an old poem from Celtic tradition:

"As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop."

They share almost the same day for a rememberance day."

They used to use Hedgehogs as the prognosticators, to say when spring was on it's way, but when the Pilgrims and travelers came over here to the Americas, they could find no hedgehogs! Only the lowly, fat groundhogs. And so if he sees his shadow (likely) there will be 6 weeks more of winter. If he doesn't (hopeful) we will have an early spring.

Which of course is why seed catalogs are so prevalent in your mailbox on Groundhog's Day :) It is the wish for SPRING. That's why we WISH for the groundhog to NOT see his shadow :)

We WANT a sleepy groundhog!

We now clean out our houses, hearths and home and dedicate our hearts and minds to doing better, getting to where we need to be, adjusting who we are, who we associate with, what takes up our time and how we will get to where we want to be.

Maybe we will sleep in like the groundhog and let spring come to us.
Maybe we will sweep out our houses and purify our lives and makes some changes and get up early.

Maybe we should all just have a feast and celebrate Brigid and Phil and offer up our prayers to the Gods on the winds of a bonfire, burning slips of paper with what we want to release, and what we want to add.

Hey, it can't hurt....and after all...

It's TRADITION :)