Dedication.

I come here at this festival of Beltane,

to dedicate myself to this Path.

I dedicate myself to the honour of my ancestors,

both those I know and those I don't.

May their heritage never be lost,

so long as I am alive.

I dedicate myself to the honour of Earth

and all who call her home.

May I learn to leave a light footprint

on our Mother, and may I never take her beauty

and blessings for granted.

I dedicate myself to the honour of the ancestors

of the land, wherever on Earth I may be.

I dedicate myself to the honour of the Divine,

may I always be open to its mystery.

I dedicate myself to the honour of the

Wheel of the Year. May I keep its festivals holy,

wherever on Earth I am.

I dedicate myself to the honour of all

who walk this Path with me,

whether or not they call themselves Pagan.

May I walk my Path with

truth, beauty, passion, kindness, and honour.

Blessed be.


{Wishing you a blessed season, whether you are celebrating Beltane, Samhain, Hallowe'en or All Saints Day.}

The Great Mystery.

'"I don’t pretend to understand this great mystery in which we participate.  Whether we call it life, cosmos, creation, Allah, God, or some other grand name, no label is large enough. I merely try to learn as much about it as I can, during my brief time under the sun. So I study what the most perceptive of our ancestors have discovered - artists and scientists as well as spiritual seekers.  I turn outward to nature and to human artifacts, and inward to the images and voices that arise in silence.  The louder the world becomes, with its relentless demands and messages, the more precious silence becomes. I can’t prove that what emerges within me arises from a source beyond the boundaries of my own skin, but I believe this is so. Simone Weil wrote that 'Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer'. What I pay attention to might be my breath, a sentence in a book, a butterfly on a zinnia blossom, my granddaughter’s face, a skein of music or a skein of geese. I may do my seeking outdoors or indoors, alone or in company, but always the goal is the same: to deepen my awareness of this encompassing mystery."

-Scott Russell Sanders, in "The Spirituality of Nature," Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2013