Pagan Parenting: Passing down Lore.

Me with my eldest as an infant.

Family stories are important. You find quite a few people happily sharing stories of their childhoods with their children as they grow. In some cases, stories going back three generations are getting told. In the really lucky cases, stories go back farther. The family stories help children understand the culture of the family and their place in it.

Equally important is the stories that go with the family's religious inclinations. They help foster a sense of ethics in children and give them tools to better understand how the world works. In some families, this comes from the family bible and the church they are a part of. In other families, this comes from the tales of the gods and the temple they attend. All of this is informed by the faith community they are a part of. This can be a profoundly educational and enlightening experience.

It gets harder when you move into smaller religious practices. Suddenly, the population of people who are going to help you explain how the world works gets markedly smaller. What is a pagan parent to do when their six year old is asking them "Who takes care of the Sun at night?" as you are putting them to bed? You have a few different options. One is to fob the conversation off to another time (which is usually the best option when it is time for the wee one to be going to bed). A second is to give a "You don't worry about that, the Sun is just fine on the other side of the Earth." or something similar. An answer that is a non-answer. A third answer is to introduce them to the old tales of the gods or modern ones that speak of how they attend to the world.

[As an aside, when my boys became afraid of the solar eclipse, I told them that Sunna was letting Mani visit her. Something a lot more reassuring than the Sun being eaten by a wolf or a dragon. Also much closer to what their science teachers are going to be telling them. Makes for less arguments about what is true, because my eldest has hit that age of questioning.]

The biggest thing in answering such questions and sharing the wisdom of our ancestors with the younger generations is to remain consistent and clear. Equally important is to keep in mind what your children can understand. A six year old will have an easier time handling the idea that Sunna minds the Sun than the complicated matter of astrophysics and stellar dynamics. As children get older, the questions get more complicated. Somewhere, you're going to hit a wall. You're going to reach the question that you can't answer.

That's ok. This is where you encourage them to think about and explore the world. If they are asking questions about morality and you're not sure how to explain something, explore the topic together and work together to find the answers you need. The internet is a glorious tool for research and education. It is just as helpful and educational to go to the local library and seek out the aid of a librarian to find books on the topic in question. There are many holes in the knowledge we inherited. It is our job to fill them as best we can. In some cases, this may mean building new stories (Mani visiting Sunna for the eclipse) and in some cases, it may mean learning about difficult topics and working to find your own conclusions. And that's just fine because it is a living faith tradition that adapts and changes to the needs of the practitioners.

The Season of Moura

Right now, this is the beginning of the second week of the Filianic fifth season in the calendar and thirteenth month of the same name, Moura. It's a lot like Lent. With less mortification of the flesh and more focus upon spiritual alignment and cleansing.  This is the time for spring cleaning and getting your home ready for the celebration of Eastre.

It is also the time for establishing new habits. Moura is strongly associated with the janya Sai Rhavë. This is the janya that is associated with discipline, restriction, and limitation. The rune most closely associated with her is Nyd/Nauthiz (need). In a contradictory way, the rune of Isa (ice) is associated as is Thorn in their aspects of limitation and restriction. The tarot cards that could be associated with her is the eight of Swords, which depicts a bound person; the five of Coins, which depicts a pair of people in desperate poverty; or the nine of Rods, which depicts a person whose movement is limited by a wall of staves (in the case of the Barbara Walker Tarot, this wall of staves blocks the entrance of a cave wherein a figure sits).

This year, during Moura, I'm working on healing up from a fractured rib and my cleaning has been limited by this. It is, however, forcing me to rest and reengage in my spiritual practices, thereby building my personal discipline. I am also using the time to foster healthier eating habits and build a better way to manage my time in the light of my disability regularly making it hard for me to do so with out some form of a tool. My day planner had been working somewhat well but it is not quite right. So, I am trying to fix that.

The gods have made clear there is a reason why I fell and injured myself. And why I keep catching the same cold or have some other minor ailment that is just enough to force me to slow down and take care of myself. And what is that reason you ask, dear Reader. Well, to make me take better care of myself. Learning from experience seems to be part of the theme here as well as if I continue to be stubborn and insist I can force my way forward by pure will power, there will be consequences.

Déa is not subtle. Nor is Loki or Freyr. I've been having learning experiences and times of forced rest. It has been quite frustrating. I work on what I can as I can. Hence my post this evening. I am attempting to be as good of a student in this lesson as I can be. It is a hard lesson for me to learn, to be honest. This, however, is also part of Moura.

Random life update.

Gentle Reader,

Thank you for your patience with me. I'm adjusting to a medication change and it is making writing very hard. I get about two paragraphs, maybe a little more, and then I find myself on the verge of sobbing. I am still trying to figure out what is going on with that. I think this is a combination of my disability being in 'active' mode and medication side effects, but I'm not sure. It's been very hard to do much of anything, to be honest. My devotions are bare bones offerings and mumbled prayers as I struggle with feeling like everything I do is never going to be good enough. The beast of depression is riding me pretty hard right now. Hopefully, as I adjust to the medication change, things will stabilize soon and my mood will start to improve.

Until then, I will do my best to post when I have the energy for it. Thank you for your patience with me and for reading. (Oh, by the way, I misread the pattern for that fascinator and I'm remaking it correctly. I'll be posting some pictures and notes on the pattern when I get it done.)

Thank you.

♥