Halloween in Australia

Its not Halloween in Australia 

 

 Its Beltane night in Australia as i am writing this, i am currently single and have no plans to connect with any other Pagans tonight.
 For the last few years the ignorant masses in Australia have stated to trick or treat on October 31st which is Halloween and Samhain in the northern hemisphere. These people don't seem to realise its not Autumn here, but i shouldn't be surprised these are probably the same people that celebrate the Winter Solstice or Yule at the height of Summer.

 I don't even know if we can blame them, the shops are still selling all the Samhain paraphernalia at the wrong time of year, and it seems respect for the religious holy day has been ignored in favor of cheap commercialism. 

  I have lamented this take over of Beltane before here Halloween 2015 and i have been saddened by the lack of interest in Samhain 2015.

 I don't know what to do about it. There are fewer trick or treaters at my door this Beltane, probably due to me politely informing the adults that they had the wrong night in previous years. However if we accept that those avoiding my house are the same people that know facts, then that would mean that these people are purposely being religiously bigoted, and that's pretty sad.

 If there were more Pagans in my small town then perhaps we could make a big show of trick or treating at the right time of year. But sadly there isn't and i feel that these people would just start double dipping so to speak. 

 Possibly the worst part is that i would love to share our most holy night with the non-Pagans, but no one comes to my door on Halloween/Samhain.

 If you know anything about Beltane, it isn't really an appropriate night for responsible guardians to send their children to strangers houses. It negatively effects our holy Beltane rites and it basically means we have had to delay any real celebrations until well after the streets are cleared of the seasonally deluded and their brood.

 I had mused in the past abut celebrating  Día de Muertos or the Day of the Dead on the 31st, perhaps doing the Day of the Dead thing early in the evening and then getting back to the Beltane celebrations later in the night. However i didn't know if The Day of the Dead was seasonal or an actual date (dates really), and i was also uncomfortable with the cultural appropriation aspects of doing this. But i have since discovered that The Day of the Dead was originally an Aztec festival, and was originally celebrated in Summer! So that set the time of year about right, and this year among the tatty "Halloween" merchandise i saw a number of Day of the Dead items, mostly calavera (candy skulls), so it appears the cultural appropriation cat is already out of the bag. Also i feel less guilty about this aspect due to my dealings with La Santa Muerte.

 So what to do? Tonight more than others i actually find myself annoyed that the ignorance, laziness, or religious insensitivity of others had made me concentrate on Samhain when i could be celebrating Beltane.

Door to door for Día de Muertos

 Obviously you should only go door to door for  Día de Muertos, if you are actually celebrating the festival as respectfully as you can. An appropriate costume would be colorful and have candy skull make up or a devil mask. a funny poem might facilitate the exchange for lollies.

  Going door to door for Beltane

 If people really must go Mummering on Beltane perhaps we can at least expect them to do so respectfully. A modified Hoodening could work. You should really only go door to door on Beltane if your family is needy, or perhaps you have at least given to a respectable charity.
 Dressing as fairys, goats and other horned animals, rabbits, bees, and the Obby Oss (Mari Lwyd) might all be appropriate.
 Singing the Obby Oss carol or a Beltane song, a Beltane blessing, or reciting a clever rhyme could easily replace the inappropriate "trick or treat?".

Going door to door on Halloween / Samhain

 Make sure you have the correct night, its April30th / May 1st in Australia. Only go to peoples houses that are participating, they will have "spooky" decorations and will have their front light on. Go in a costume, you have to put some effort in.

Book Reiew: The Way Of The Horned God, Dancing Rabbit.

 THE WAY OF THE HORNED GOD

A young Mans Guide to Modern Paganism

Author:                                Dancing Rabbit
Design:                                 Stuart Davies                          

Publisher:                            O Books        

Type:                                    TPB

Pages:                                   148

Genre:                                  Non-Fiction

Published:                           2009

ISBN:                                  9781846942679

Source:                                Independently purchased 

It can be difficult raising Pagan children in such a non-spiritual world. We sadly live in a world where anything outside the mundane is too often scoffed at or worse, seen as evil.  This book is aimed teenage boys or the parents thereof. It is an invaluable resource and every library and school should have a copy available. I wish I had access to this book growing up.

The book itself is well made and has nice black and white drawings within. The cover art is absolutely adorable. My only issue with this book is that it does not have an index in the back. I think this is an important part of any book, but especially here with it being aimed at younger readers, I can envision them often wanting to re-check or find something.

The beginning explores what Paganism is and has a look into the history of religion. The author describes himself as a eclectic Pagan, who draws from Wicca, and humanism. I think the book is written in such a way as to not alienate any one Pagan group, and any differences between a family’s practice and that shown in this book, can only be a good thing, providing opportunity’s to discuss the various paths to spirituality and the divine.

It even has a section on dealing with problem parents, those who may have bigoted religious beliefs or may simply be close-minded when it comes to spirituality. The book takes a gentle and family affirming approach to such issues.

The first chapter wraps up with a discussion of ethics and keeping a Book of Shadows.

Chapter two describes what the sacred is, centering, grounding, sacred places, altars, tools, clothing, jewelry, names, chanting, plants, animals, as well as the importance of having a circle of friends and advice on ‘coming out of the broom closet’.

We have a chapter devoted to the Goddess or receptive divine energy, the moon, and moon rituals.

The next chapter is possibly the most important for a young pagan boy, the Horned God is introduced as are his rituals and examples of how to commune with him. So many ‘Pagan 101’ (pagan beginner books) only mention the god, or projective divine in passing it is great to see equality here.

We have a chapter of the relationship between the gods, the wheel of the year, a sample Samhain ritual, an in-depth examination of that Samhain ritual, advice on writing your own rituals, The Great Rite, and finally gardening.  The only note I would make here is that some extra advice might be needed on polarity’s that male/god can be substituted for projective and female/goddess for receptive, and that we are all truly made up f both. This discussion may be particularly important for LGBTI pagan youth.

The final chapter deal with the passage into manhood; many important topics are covered including, sex, masturbation, sexuality, independence, responsibility, ancestors, puberty, exercise, diet, in addition to puberty and manhood rituals.

There is a great suggested reading section in the back.

This book is a fantastic resource for young adults, and parents of boys. I would definitely read this first as a parent so I was ready to take on the role needed, and had fair warning of any questions or conflicts that may arise. Having said that, the book is an easy read, it explains things simply and accurately.It should be read by everyone, it is an area of Paganism that is sorely lacking in support and i am very glad this book exists to fill that space.

Dancing Rabbit is co founder of the Elder Grove and his Facebook Page is Here.

Book Review; How to survive a sharknado

How to survive a sharknado 

and other unnatural disasters

Fight back when monsters and mother nature attack

Authors:                                Andrew Shaffer with contributions  
                                               by Fin Shepard & April Wexler 
Illustrations:                         Michael Lee

Design:                                  Book- Chad Tomlinson
                                               Cover- Richard Yoo

Publisher:                             Three Rivers Press          

Type:                                     TPB

Pages:                                    225

Genre:                                   ???

Published:                            2014

ISBN:                                    9978-0-553-41813-2

Source:                                 Independently purchased 

*

 The book is much smaller than the one shown in Sharknado 2. The book is lavishly illustrated with each entry having at least one large picture and a few small pictures scattered about. It is a visual delight and I am sure all the art is original.

 It is made in the style of a survival guide. Each entry has ratings on threat, frequency and wow factor. The entry opens with a full page illustration and a short description, there the guide is divided into study, avoid, and survive entry.  A short description of an encounter with the subject is often given, and it makes for an interesting read. There are often extra boxes with various bits of information in them.The humor is very tongue in cheek, and brought a smile thought.

For the creepy crawly ‘fans’ out there we have entry’s on; Antdemic (zombie virus spreading giant flying fire ants), Arachnoquake (Giant fire spitting, venomous spiders), Beeclipse (Gigantic honey bees warm that is equally aggressive and deadly) and the Mongolian Death Worm (subterranean, electricity breathing, venomous giant grubs).

For the shark ‘lovers’ we have; Sharknado, Dinoshark, Ghost shark, Sharktopus, and the Swamp shark.

Those interested in cryptozoology may find the entries on Saber tooth tiger, Bigfoot, Mega Python, Mongolian Death Worm, Mothman and the Cave Bear interesting to see a fictionalised take on real life monsters.

My favorite entrys are the Electrokraken and the Sharktopus, but there are many more to choose from, thirty five to be exact.

The appendices include; a survival test, how to make an unnatural disaster survival kit, emergency supply list for your car, two very short storys a filmography. 

The filmography is very useful as most of the subjects in the book just happen to coincide with titles of movies. A fan of modern B-Grade monster movies will find this a delightful reference.

 About the Author:

Andrew Shaffer has written Literary rogues, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey and Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love. 

Fin Shepard and April Wexler are both Sharknado survivors. 

*This book was difficult to give a score to, but i think it sets out to do what it aims to do quite well. A larger format with some colour pictures would be excellent, perhaps a delux expanded edition. 
The book does incorrectly label the Chupacabra as a mythological monster, when it is a cryptid, but to its credit the book does point out that the Chupacabra looks nothing like a coyote.

If you are the artist of the middle Chupacabra please let me know.