I thought it might be fun if we all did little background posts. I think these are scattered through the subforum but I don't want to stalk all of you through the forum! I'd love to hear your responses to the following and feel free to skip any questions you'd rather not answer.
Name: atmos
Religion: Solitary panentheistic neo-druid considering more Celtic reconstructionist practice. I've dabbled a bit in the Ancient Egyptian pantheon as well. Honoring ancestors is an important part of my practice.
Birth religion: Christianity. United Methodist, switched to ELCA Lutheran, hung out with the Catholics a bit too (Catheran/Lutherlic!).
3FatChicks goals: Eat less and move more! I'm an Irish dancer who has a problem with binge eating and needs some more practice/cross training and better eating to take my dance to the next level.
General diet plan: With varying degrees of success, I calorie count (currently aiming for 1600/day) and try to rainbow eat - get in a vegetable/fruit of each color per day. I'm a competitive Irish dancer and non-professional performer, so I attend Irish dance classes 2-3 times per week and try to practice some at home. My cross-training goals for dance are heavy lifting for strength, C25K to improve endurance, and I'm planning to add in some sort of stretching/yoga for flexibility. I'm also hoping losing the weight I put on in the last few months will help with my endurance issues as well!
Favorite exercise and food: I like Irish dancing and mountain hiking. My favorite "healthy" food is probably skyr, and in general I'm a big pizza fan and I have issues with potato chips and ice cream (they all need to get in my belly RIGHT NOW).
Occupation: Science!
Hobbies/activities: Irish dance, hiking, beer snobbery, genealogy research to name only a very few
Last edited by atmos; 01-28-2015 at 01:29 PM.
Reason: formatting and typos
Happy Imbolc to atmos and anyone else who celebrates! Hope it was a good one. And congrats on doing so well at the dance competition, atmos!
I'm still working long hours, but I've made some time for some meditation and getting more sleep, which has helped. I got a bunch of bad news at work this week (1. my co-worker on maternity leave is not planning to take back a major project I'm covering for her and 2. two more co-workers are taking several weeks off for family/medical stuff this spring). I was pretty upset at first, but I'm trying to see the bright side and put down some boundaries about how much work I'm willing to take on in the spirit of helping out. I'm going to put all of the extra $$ I'm making towards a trip abroad in the fall, so there's that.
Ciao and Martina, how are you guys doing? Hope all is well!
Religion: Canaanite polytheist and Unitarian Universalist.
Birth religion: Christian, United Methodist.
3FatChicks goals: To eat well without going crazy about it and get a bit of exercise. Maintain a weight in the healthy BMI range.
General diet plan: Eyeballing calories. More fruits and veggies, fewer sweets and junk.
Favorite exercise and food: I love to walk and hike. Favorite food is any sort of sweet- I don't discriminate! Mashed potatoes comes in for a close second. I'm also a huge hot cocoa fan and have it almost daily (I use the 30 and 60 calorie packets mostly).
Occupation: Desk-type job.
Hobbies/activities: I like to read, travel, quilt, garden, and go for walks.
Ciao and Martina - Hope all is well too, I hope you'll get a chance to check in sometime as we'd love to hear from you!
LovesToTravel - Thank you for the congrats! I'm sorry to hear you're still having a rough time at work but I'm quite glad you are making extra money and have been able to make time to relax yourself. Do you have any thoughts on where you are planning to travel? I think Spring 2016 I would like to travel to Japan and Taiwan for a couple weeks. I'm not sure if I'll have time for a big trip before that but I'm hoping for a few smaller ones around the US and maybe Canada!
atmos, sounds like something to look forward to for next year! Have you been to those countries before? Where are you thinking about taking your smaller trips to? --> not interested in the topic of traveling AT ALL, nope nope.
I'm planning a two-week trip to Japan this fall with my dad and sister. Japan and I have unfinished business since my visit to Tokyo in 2011; I've been very anxious to return and see more of the country! I hope to tackle one of my big fears and try onsen this time!
LovesToTravel - You'll have to share your Japan adventures when you get back! It'll be great to hear from someone as I'm planning out the trip. I've only ever been in the Narita airport for Japan, but I've been to Taiwan twice (first time lived there 3 weeks for a field project, second time was a project followup workshop of one week and I stayed the weekend to explore around Taipei). Have you ever been to Taiwan? If not, I can't recommend enough. Some of the loveliest, kindest people I've ever met (with Scotland a close second).
I'll have at least one trip to Michigan this summer to go back and visit family. I want to show my boyfriend my grandpa's farm before we have to sell it. He died a couple years ago and we haven't been able to part with the place, but the upkeep money is getting to be too much for a property not many of us use.
Other trips I don't have planned, but some places I'm interested in seeing for the first time are Boston, NYC (apprehensive but I've never been), San Diego and Vancouver. I'd like to return to Chicago and Seattle as well. Some placed closer to home near Denver I'd like to see are the Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Glacier...I've never been to any! And maybe even just a few camping trips up in the Rockies here and there.
A trip to Peru is very high on my list as well but I think Japan will happen first. Also very high on my list are Ireland and Tanzania. I'd love to get into shape to climb Kilimanjaro without getting too tired to enjoy the journey up!
I've been ramping up my dance and exercise routine and now I'm tired and hungry all the time. Sigh. I think I need to start trying to eat more higher quality, nutrient dense foods. Because being tired and hungry is not helpful when one wants to lose weight!
Being tired and hungry all of the time is not helpful for much of anything! Sounds like it's time to start tweaking things to find something that works better for you, definitely. Please take good care of yourself.
I'm sorry to hear you're having to say goodbye to your grandfather's farm; places can leave such an imprint on us and saying goodbye to them can be like parting with a much loved person in our lives. How sad. Glad to hear about all of the potential trips though, that's something to look forward to! I've been up and down the east coast, but never further west than Kentucky. Yet. The Rockies sound amazing. Were you born and raised in Colorado?
We have a lot of overlap in our travels and places on our to-visit lists. I haven't been to Taiwan yet, but you make it sound like a great place to visit! Scotland is high on my list and we were making plans to go there next year, but ended up agreeing to an Alaskan cruise with my family next summer instead. Tanzania is a possibility for me next year, my dad has been dying to go on safari so we're looking into it. I'd love to climb Kilimanjaro too! My sister and I are planning to tackle the Inca Trail first (if Tanzania doesn't work out next year, we'll be going to Peru instead) and then we'll see how we feel about Kili.
LovesToTravel - Thank you for your caring thoughts. The farm is one of the places in my memory where it seems I was always happy. That side of my family gets along so wonderfully and I couldn't have asked for better grandparents. The families had been there since about the 1870s (a long time in the US!), so there are several generations buried in the nearby cemeteries as well. My dad, grandma, and grandpa are all together in a row.
The Rockies are amazing! I was actually born and raised in Michigan. I came out to Colorado for grad school and ended up getting a job here. It was quite an experience when I first moved out here, basically a culture shock.
Wow, we certainly do have a lot of overlap! That's fun, and I also think it's useful because we can discuss destinations/get advice from each other if desired. When I plan my next trip I'll check in with you to see if you have been there already! What countries have you been to already? I've been to Canada, Taiwan, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Scotland, England, and Iceland.
SNOW! After a slow start last night it's practically pouring snow here this afternoon. We've gotten a good 2-3" in the last 3 hours and the highway out of town is a parking lot with people struggling to get up the hill I assume. Fortunately on my way home from dance class everyone was driving responsibly and the snow had just started. It was slushy but not too bad. I imagine with the dropping temperature everyone is freezing now.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and warm if you're also in a snow event!
Where my paganchicks at? I had *almost* got a thread going!
Anyone out there do anything for the Spring Equinox/Ostara/Alban Eiler? I'll likely just have a little solitary ritual and be very, very thankful that this SNOW is on the way out.
I'm back! No other pagan chicks, huh? That's a shame, maybe we'll get some new folks around soon.
Work is busier and more stressful than ever so self-care has taken priority over my internets time lately, whew!
Atmos: Re: Countries I've visited...Italy, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Jamaica, China, and Japan. So many places to revisit and still to see, sigh. I've heard good things about Colorado, you're lucky to live there!
No plans for the equinox. Probably just some typical offerings on the new and full moon, nothing fancy. What's your typical equinox ritual look like, if I may ask?
LovesToTravel - Hopefully if we keep chatting, they will come! Work has been quite stressful on my end as well. I found out my boss is leaving soon and he dumped two proposals in my lap with tight deadlines, so it has been madness between the proposal deadlines and transitioning from him leaving with no replacement planned!
Colorado is quite nice, though I do miss my Michigan home! It's so hard to decide between visiting somewhere new and revisiting somewhere you love. I've been thinking wistfully about Scotland the last couple days. That may be a product of work stress...when I'm tired of my job I dream about moving to Scotland and being a sheep farmer near Oban or working at a coffee shop in Stirling!
I celebrate the cross quarter days (Celtic) and the equinoxes/solstices. I think the equinoxes/solstices are a Wiccan thing brought into Druidry, and while I'm leaning more and more towards Celtic reconstructionalism (I don't think that's a real word, ha) I'm very in tune with space in addition to Earth so those important solar days also appeal to me.
I have a book by John Michael Greer that is a bit of an introduction to Druidry. He has a ceremony for opening and closing a Druid grove as well as a meditation theme and offering ceremony for each of the eight wheel of the year days. So I'll typically set up my altar with the four elements (again a Wiccan thing incorporated into Druidry but really appeals to me) and an offering and perform the ceremonies he has written solitarily. Although he has specific deities to invoke for each different day I've mostly been invoking Cernunnos, who is the main deity I honor. Sometimes I can really feel is presence (if he feels like showing up!) which is a rush I never had as a Christian. I think given the coming of spring that an earth mother type goddess would be more appropriate for this equinox, though. And one of these days I am planning to adapt his words into something more suited for me though I haven't gotten around to it!
If I may ask...what types of offerings do you give? Is it every new and full moon? Is it specific to Canaanite practice and do you have any other holidays in your practice? Hopefully not too many questions, but I just love learning about all the different pagan practices. It is all very interesting.
Took a break from the forum... so coming to this late.
Name: Martina.
Religion: Solitary. I consider myself still learning, even after several years.
Birth religion: Honestly I don't consider myself as having one. My Mom was baptist and Dad was raised a very specifiv form of Catholic-- a Mexican-American kind of Native American kind whose name I cannot remember at the moment. My older sister is very, very religiously Christian. My parents encouraged my to find my own.
3FatChicks goals: See my signature!!
General diet plan: My best friend/roommate/ex (all one person) and I buy our food together and we are currently working on this.
Favorite exercise and food: I have a hard time with movement of any sort so it has to be easy, and as far as food believe it or not I love salad.
Occupation: I stay at home. And when I don't do that I am a burlesque performer. My stage name is Lady Arachne!! (after Arachne from Greek mythology) I also help to run a non-profit organization that helps veterans and military.
Hobbies/activities: reading, costuming, learning to sew, daggers, netflix, knitting, pinterest (I even got Dexter addicted!!), pinup, performing
atmos, sorry to hear about the stressful work situation. It definitely sucks to have projects dumped on you last minute and I know all about the fun that is people coming and going with no plans. Not exactly a boost for the office morale, is it? :/ Ugh. I also tend to dream up alternate jobs/locations/lives for myself when things get crazy. Usually it involves a little cottage somewhere near the ocean and I'm very much ALONE.
Sounds like you've worked hard studying to come up with practices and observances that you connect with. How long have you been practicing? What type of offerings do you typically give?
Observing new and full moons is pretty standard Canaanite practice, we use a luni-solar calendar so we follow the Jewish year. Holidays are a little more complicated because of reasons mostly having to do with limited availability of surviving texts that were found. And, y'know, the civil war in Syria has put a bit of a damper on archaeological digs for a while, I suspect.
A couple of people have invested some pretty significant amounts of time and energy taking stabs at creating a coherent ritual calendar though. They tend to look pretty similar to your standard equinox/solstice/crossquarter wheel of the year. It didn't work for me so I haven't been formally celebrating any holidays the past couple of years. I'm a bit lost right now, to be honest! I get the sense that the tide of my spiritual life is shifting, but I don't know what that means yet.
Typical offerings I give include incense, olive oil, flowers, and food. Nothin' fancy.
Martina, good to see you back! I took a break for a bit too (and gained back a few pounds, whoops). Burlesque sounds fun! What got you into that and how long have you been doing it?
I'd love to hear your responses to the following and feel free to skip any questions you'd rather not answer.
He died a couple years ago and we haven't been able to part with the place, but the upkeep money is getting to be too much for a property not many of us use.
