Death, life and death again: Introducing the eternal return...

So, 10 beautiful, if not restful days in Virginia, in the middle of nowhere, at the edge of the Shenandoah national park. Once I had got over my aspirations to hike for 4 hours everyday, and realized that the kids could handle exactly 1.4 miles without melting down, we had an easy, calm and blissfully quiet time.

And between watching dancing firefliesand examining the many species of bugs, I became acutely aware of the fact that when in nature, death is a constant fact of life. Almost everyday S would ask me about animals insects of plant life he would find in varying states of decay. Now, explanations of death to a 3 year old are cause for pause... I was keenly aware that the way in which I handled this could give too little or too much prominence to the emotional aspect of death and dying. Not wanting to lie or to mythologize this significant aspect of life (and for me one of the most profound teachings of paganism in all its colours) I chose not to describe it, but simply to explain, death is when we 'return to the earth'. It is not illness, it is not darkness, and neither is it moving on (I figured he is still too young for this concept) but instead it is when our breath returns to the earth - like a really really loooong sleep....and then we wake up as something new - maybe another cricket/bee/baby chick, or maybe as something new. No descriptions of the Summerland, or the Isle of Apples, or Asgard, but in a pinch I think it got through,I think its a place to start. It is this element of cyclical eternal return that drew me to pagan philosophy in the first place, and in its simplicity strikes me again and again as profoundly moving, and it is from this place I feel we as parents can start to show, as much as tell our faith practices and philosophies to our little'uns

And something must be working, as back in Boston, we found a chick dead on the ground fallen from an egg. S bent down - to blow it kisses " dont worry little chicky, you are just going back to the earth..."

Welcome!

Having been a bloggaphobe, I am determined to embrace this ' new' networking, as I have decided I need to reach out and connect with other pagan parents, to see how we can share stories and resources. Rather than lurking about on other people's blogs and sites, scavenging bits of wisdom where they are found, I figures that I should add my own two-penneth worth to the bloggosphere.

I have two boys, 3 (S) and 16 months (B), and live in Boston with my long-suffering, hard-working gentle husband. We moved to the US from the UK a few years back, and within a few months of moving here, I was pregnant. Must be something in the water here! I have been a pagan since my teens, since I had a numinous experience, and haven't looked back. I trained in Alexandrian Wicca, and I am Priestess Hierophant in the Fellowship Of Isis, dedicated to Brigid, and I have been a teacher of paganism, magic and the tarot for many years. I am also lucky enough to say that my family also found paganism, and my sis and mum are practitioners of the Craft.

What I have found in raising my own family has lead to some fundemental questions about the nature of pagan spirituality, practice and ethics. In framing the world for my boys at this point, I want them to have a strong, firm foundation in paganism (so that they can rebel against it in their teens if nothing else) and yet I constantly come up against my own limitations.

"Where do the gods live mum?" asks my 3 year old, and I am taken aback by this simple question which requires so much of me in return. Simplicity of explanation being the first. You can fudge things, muddle thought with an adult - a toddler is much less forgiving or understanding of nuance and evasion. "They live everywhere lovie", I reply, "in the sky, the water, the earth, they are all around and within us" I watch S pause, "I dont want to let go of my balloon then, in case the gods get it".

Such moments of challenge and victory are contingent upon my own clear sense of paganism's philosophy, and at times I feel like I am right back at the beginning of my own spiritual journey, or trying to separating the wheat from the chaff of my own practice and outlook. And thats not to mention trying to find time for my own practice!

So I hope this blog will be a circle of clan and kin, far and wide, connected through our journey of pagan parenting...