SECTION IV - ASK AUNTIE AHN
Ask Auntie Ahn
By Ahneke Greystone
I hope this holiday of Imbolc finds you focused on that bright spark within that is both
your unique Self and your connection to the Divine. I often think of this holiday with
a subtitle of "Celebrate Diversity!" as we each begin to individuate and evolve into the
special being that will become our singular Self.
The first question below represents the quandary faced by those of us living in the
Southern Hemisphere, where the holidays are opposite those being celebrated (quite
noisily!) by those in the Northern Hemisphere. A diversity of seasons!
The second introduces a little "project" I am working on. The question, and several I
received that were similar to it, asked me to specifically address my personal view of
the Divine. In gathering my thoughts for this, I realized just how much it means to me
to celebrate the variety of views amongst my pagan friends on this topic. Perhaps you
would like to help with this project. If so, I look forward to your thoughts on the
subject. A diversity of belief!
My Imbolc wishes to you all ... may the returning warmth of the Sun provide fertile
ground in your gardens and in your spirit. And, to our friends Down Under, may you reap
the benefits from what you sowed last Spring, as you enter the season of agricultural
and soulful harvest.
Ahneke Greystone, who is Auntie Ahn
I can always be reached at AuntieAhn@aol.com and look forward to hearing from you.
Q. I am currently based in Western Australia and have been a practicing solitary
eclectic Wiccan for 8 years. The only problem I encounter when searching for
information is that , as a general rule, the Southern Hemisphere tends to be largely
ignored. I celebrate the sabbats and esbats in accordance with our own seasons, but
I am constantly having to modify all craftwork to suit things Down Under. I was just
curious as to whether you have come across this problem with other Witches in this part
of the world?
A. It does indeed seem that our very Southern friends are left out of current
discussions on e-mail lists and throughout the web. Most of my Australian acquaintances
struggle as you do. They want to remain connected to the seasons of their world, and
yet online discussions are often focusing on opposite seasons. It can be challenging to
the focus we try to maintain in connection with our personal celebrations.
There is a power inherent in this shift in seasons, though. While we celebrate Winter
in the Northern Hemisphere you are deep within the Summer. The strength, to me, is that
as Wicca is a religion of balance, this is as powerful an example as you can get of that
very balance. As the God is born and comes to his strength in the Northern Hemisphere,
he is contemplating his death in the Southern. When dealing with information coming in
from the North, a Southerner can benefit by focusing on the balance. As can a
Northerner when conversing with a Southern practitioner.
Several years ago I made online friends with a woman in Australia. And our friendship
grew out of this very same discussion. I was celebrating the first greenery peeking up
through my garden, while she was harvesting her second gathering of herbs from hers. We
discovered just how more meaningful, sometimes in a very poignant way, it could be if we
shared our holidays and meditated on the balance between them. There cannot be birth
without death, flowering without going to seed, youthful vigor without the graceful
decline of old age. This is the lesson The Wheel teaches us. Experiencing the seasons
globally, rather than only locally, reinforces this age-old lesson.
I also think it is very important for Southerners to bring this up on their lists and in
their correspondences. Be a proud, militant member of the Southern Hemisphere! There
is so much to be learned if you share your seasons with those who are only connecting to
their own environment. We need to understand the vibrancy of this Earth, where at any
given moment we are experiencing the entire spectrum of the Divine.
Q. What do you mean by the word God? Do you mean a conscious creator, anything
(whatever its level of consciousness or non-consciousness) that created the universe, or
something else?
The above, and variations on it, is often asked of me in questions to Auntie Ahn. And
those who write are asking me, directly and personally, my view of the Divine. I have
this fantastic two-step I tend to do around this question ... it is a difficult one to
answer because it is quite intimate, one's relationship to Deity. We pagans "feel" the
Divine presence in everything in our world. Most of us also sense the Divine as an
existence on its own ... a creator/creatrix Deity ... a life force.
I thought it would be interesting to assemble a collection of feelings that we have in
relationship to our Gods. Something that we could share here in a future issue of our
e-zine. So, Auntie Ahn is sending out a call for a gathering of feeling. A sharing of
inspiration. This could be something you have written which explains your connection to
your God/dess, it could be a poem that inspires you, or it could be a quote from a
favorite book (please provide copyright information if that is the case so that we can
be sure the author is credited). I look forward to hearing from you on this subject,
and I am sure the resulting collection will be of interest to us all.
The following is as close as I can get, in words, to my feeling regarding the Divine.
So, I shall begin our collection with the following:
There is a being, wonderful, perfect;
It existed before heaven and earth.
How quiet it is!
How spiritual it is!
It stands alone and it does not change.
It moves around and around, but does not on this account suffer.
All life comes from it.
It wraps everything with its love as in a garment,
and yet it claims no honor, for it does not demand to be Lord.
I do not know its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way,
and rejoice in its power.
Lao-tzu
