Living

The Wild Hunt 2016 Winter Solstice Gift Guide

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Looking for the perfect Solstice gift for your favorite Pagan, Heathen, or Polytheist? The Wild Hunt’s annual 2016 Winter Solstice Gift Guide with expert advice, reviews, and recommendations can help as you plan your shopping list over this coming season.*
For the Bookworm
Pagans may not be People of the Book, but we are people who own books – lots and lots of books. Yet what book to buy? Here is some help from a few industry experts. Taylor Ellwood is co-owner of Immanion Press. He’s also a holistic business coach, magician, and author.

Paganism

Column: Ritual as Action, Action as Ritual

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[Today we welcome Liz Cruse, a poet , passionate environmentalist and Druid in the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. Cruse has worked as a nurse, health educator and trainer and has a profound interest in plants for healing, magic and food. She has Degrees in History and English and a Masters in Art History. Cruse facilitates workshops in the areas of Druidry and protection of the land. Recently she participated in the Generation Hex: Paganism and Politics at Cambridge University Department of Anthropology.]

I am standing in a field holding the northern gateway in a ceremony.

Living

A Blessed Winter Solstice

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This weekend, many Pagans, Heathens and Polytheists in the Northern Hemisphere are marking the Winter Solstice with celebrations, feasts, and rituals. The solstice will occur on Tuesday, Dec 22 at at 04:49 UTC. It is a day traditionally thought to be the longest night and shortest day of the year. This time of year is held sacred within many different modern Pagan and Heathen traditions, and has a rich history in ancient Pagan religions. The solstice time was important to pre-historic peoples in both Ireland and England. While there is scant evidence of specific celebrations, it is generally thought that the pagan Celts did, in some way, honor the time around the solstice.

Culture

Confronting the Darkness with Kari Tauring

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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA –The time around the winter solstice is, in the far northern parts of the northern hemisphere, a period of deep darkness. Many northern-based spiritual traditions, including forms of modern Heathenry and similar paths, have rich traditions, which involve dealing with this darkness in the physical world, as well as on emotional and spiritual levels. Artist Kari Tauring, who has been exploring these concepts for some time, created a show called Winter Solstice in the Northlands, which she had been staging annually from 1999 to 2006. This December, after an eight year hiatus, she brought the show back to life. We were able to catch up with Tauring in between her performances to ask her about the production and her background.

Paganism

A Blessed Solstice

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Today marks the Winter Solstice, unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case its the Summer Solstice. The day is traditionally thought to be the longest night and shortest day of the year. This time of year is held sacred by many modern Pagan and Heathen traditions, and has a rich history in ancient Pagan religions. The solstice time was important to pre-historic peoples in both Ireland and England. While there is scant evidence of specific celebrations, it is generally thought that the pagan Celts did, in some way, honor the time around the solstice.