Imbolc photo list

Make a list of symbols, colors, myths and other such things for this season. Use existing lists and your own associations.

There's plenty of good lists about this online.

Some of my symbols are hearts, sheep, snowdrops, Brigid's cross and candles. I also associate wolves and angels to Imbolc.

My colors for Imbolc are white, red and pink, with purple and midnight blue.

Take a photo of all the symbols and colors you find in your home and make a collage; all the hearts, all the angels, all the red things...

What myths and mythological creatures do you associate with Imbolc?

For example, many people associate the tomtes (gnomes) and Santa and Santa's elves to Christmas. For Imbolc, many people think of Brigid. There's a LOT of Christmas things built around Santa and his elves (gnomes). Come up with your own family tradition for Imbolc.

My family tradition is the Mistress of the Copper Mountain or Malachite Goddess.

Do you plan on doing any spellwork for Imbolc? 

Take photos of things and events that remind you of Imbolc themes, like rebirth and birth, inspiration, fire, crafts and skills and knowledge etc.

Have a bonfire night or lantern walk - or both

"Santa" or "Easter Bunny" photo with the Deity or a Saint or the mythological spirit of the feast.

Another Christmas tradition I love is the creche. It is in reality just a vignette, 3D illustration of the Christmas myth. Create your own around the myths of your own tradition. 

A European Christmas tradition is the Advent. Four weeks before the Christmas, children are counting down the time different ways. There is the tradition of burning a candle on each Advent Sunday, there's Advent calendars, there are stories told in 24 parts, one every day of December leading to the Christmas day. 

Adopt this for each Sabbath, and take some photos of your traditions. 

Also, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, was the last day before Easter lent. Choose a period of time (I think 3-4 weeks is a good amount of time) and celebrate "the first Advent" with something special. Here in Sweden we usually have a Glögg party, people come together to drink mulled wine and something else, like "secret Santa" gift exchange, or to watch a movie together, or play games or do some Christmas related crafts, like ornaments or cards. Or just to be together. 

First Advent celebration

Now, find out about the different saints being celebrated at this time, and make something special of that day. In Sweden, Saint Lucia is being celebrated on 13.12. with very early breakfast in bed with special pastry, served by a fair maiden wearing a white gown and candle crown, with a red sash on her waist symbolizing her blood from her martyr death... that part isn't that nice, now, is it... :-D
But the tradition fits perfectly Imbolc. It also sits nicely about in the middle of the waiting period for the feast, about two weeks after first Advent, two weeks before Christmas.

Find out other feasts from different traditions you could appropriate and adjust to your needs. 

Invent your own.

Small parties during the waiting period

Then you should take a photo of your decorations, throughout the house

The Ornament or new decoration of the year

Wreath on the door

Your windows - take a photo from inside out, to frame the weather with your decorations, then take a photo from outside, to see how pretty your window is to everyone else. 

You could start a tradition of decorating your windows as if they were the display windows of a grand department store :-D

Nature walk, look for signs of spring

Neighborhood. How do they decorate for the season? Do they? How does your neighborhood look at this time of the year?

"Bucket list" activities and family traditions

- do you have traditions of things you do every year just because it's Imbolc? Like winter picnic? Ice skating and hot chocolate bar in the snow? 

You should. 

Take Katherine Marie and her 12 boxes of Christmas fun. You definitely should do something like that with your family. Don't have children? Never mind. Have special date boxes for you and your SO. Don't have a SO? Never mind, have special self pampering boxes. Or have "girls' night in" boxes.

Movie night

Write a movie list with some 10-20 season appropriate movies with Sabbath appropriate themes, and have a movie night. Take photos.

How to make the movie special? Take a cue from Polar Express Watch Party or a Grinch Movie Night.

Now, I find it hard to find suitable movies for Imbolc (of course, because Imbolc isn't "a thing", like Christmas), but some suggestions are:

Frozen and any other Snow Queen movie.

All Snegurochka movies

All movies about the polar areas, like The Pebble and the Penguin and White Seal. (Yes, and Happy Feet, even though I personally dislike it)

Jack Frost (I mean the 1998 movie, but also Rise of the Guardians could do.)

Sled dog movies

Brendan and the Secret of Kells

Basically any movies about bears and wolves and hibernating animals, or cows, especially those placed in winter.

Ice Age movies could do.

Imbolc carols

Again, there aren't really any. But, do your best. Remember, most Christmas carols were folk songs with new lyrics, or one just took a melody anywhere, like hymns, and put in appropriate words. A lot of "Christmas music" is something we associate with Christmas for some reason, like it was used in a movie we use to watch every Christmas. Every song is made up. Most songs are rather new. Just start making songs, and create your own traditions.

Imbolc cards

Make your own (it's not as if there was a lot to be bought, now, is there), take pictures of when you do, take pictures of the ready cards, cards in envelopes ready to be posted and cards you have received and displayed.

Have a craft night - you can gather to make presents or cards or ornaments and decorations, or just something. Take photos.

Take photos of presents being wrapped, your wrapping station, presents all wrapped up and gathered on the present table (or where you plan on gathering them) and people reacting to their presents.

We don't have a tradition of gift-giving at Imbolc, but let's start it! It's always nice to receive presents and love tokens! 

Give something to eat, something to smell, something to touch, something to listen to and something to watch. Give a book. Give something to create with, like tools or paint. Give something to help learn a new skill or to improve what one already can.

Take a photo of someone sneaking around trying to act all mysterious and hiding things

Go on a shopping spree and take photos. It's not likely there will be an Imbolc market, but - do your best :-D You could do it in a style of a stag party and dress up appropriately and make it a fun thing that way.

Now, one of the favorite photo-ops for Christmas is fetching the Christmas tree. There is no tree for Imbolc, but perhaps you could create something similar. Going to a flower shop to buy some white bulbs, like snowdrops and hyacinths? Gathering willow pussies (here it's something done for Ostara, I don't know how it is where you live.) Fetching the holiday dinner from a local farmer? 

Plant snowdrops and take photos of them growing. 

(Just remember that the time to plant the bulbs for forcing is 2 months before the feast! If you want snowdrops blooming for Imbolc, you need to plant them in November.)

If you live in an area where it is possible to find wild flowers in bloom, take photos of them.

Take photos of all the preparations for the feast, like baking for the feast and roasting the turkey (or what ever it is you plan on eating.)

Take photos of the goodies served, the table set, people eating the dinner, and the food coma after :-D

Take photo of all dressed up to their finest for the party, but also take a photo of some "outfits of the day" before the day. 

Make it a thing to wear something Imbolc related during the weeks before.

Take photos of your pets and children and lover and yourself reacting to all this

Take photos of everything that happens on the feast day

Take a "day after" photo

Create a "12 days of..." traditions. Have a big party on the 13th day to "dance" Imbolc off. 

2.2 Imbolc - 1st day

3.2 2nd day - St Berlinda, a hermitess, protectress of trees and cattle

4.2 3rd day - St. Joan of Valois, the saint of women left because they were ugly, sick, crippled, deformed and bluestockings. Saint of women being educated as well as men.

5.2 4th day - St. Agatha - the rape victims, prostitutes and breast cancer victims

6.2 5th day - St Dorothy, who send back apples and roses from the Garden after her death.

7.2 6th day - St. Juliana of Bologna - the patron of single mothers

8.2 7th day - St. Josephine Bakhita, the patron of slaves and torture victims

9.2 8th day - NYD

10.2 9th day - St. Scholastica - patron of books, school, tests, reading and St. Austreberta - refused to be part of an arranged marriage, used a wolf as a donkey, because the wolf ate the donkey and promised to work for it. Brought up a healing spring.

11.2 10th day - feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, the healer

12.2 11th day - St Febronia, Juno Februata, Goddess of purification, purging, fever - staying steadfast with what one believes to be true even when tortured and St Humbeline, sisterly love and intelligent, charismatic women

13.2 12th day - St Catherine of Ricci - patroness of the sick, an expert on religion, management and administration, counceler and correspondant. Among others with three future popes. 

14.2. 13th day - St.Valentine's day

Candles

Celebrate Pancake day

Imbolc past

Imbolc present

Imbolc future

So you want to be vegetarian?

Great.

1) Dont worry so much about if you get enough nutrients.

2) Don't change your diet too much.
You don't need to get dramatic about this.
Firstly, a lot of the food we eat is already vegetarian. Like macaroni and cheese.
Secondly, most of the dishes we eat don't taste "meat". They taste spices and sauce and so on. Minced meat can easily be replaced with finely chopped vegetables, beans and mushroom, etc. I don't think most people notice much difference between a bolognese made of minced meat and a bolognese made of lentils.
Google "vegetarian [your favorite dish]". It highly likely it was someone else's favorite dish also, and this someone else became a vegetarian already 40 years ago and has created a vegetarian version that is just as satisfying and delicious as the meat version, if not better.

3) Don't buy any "meat substitutes", like fake bacon, fake hamburgers, fake sausages, fake chicken etc. There is NOTHING that "tastes just like" that isn't what it's supposed to taste like. If you make a vegetarian hamburger, the vegetarian patty in your hamburger will taste good and give you the experience of eating a hamburger, but if you expect "not to know" it's vegetarian, you will be disappointed. And why would you stop eating meat burgers, if it's that important to you? Some people prefer chicken burgers to beef burgers, some people like fish burgers, and some people actually prefer veggie burgers even without being vegetarians. The only thing vegetarian food just can't replace is steak. But most people eat A LOT of other things than steak, and most people who don't, won't ever even consider becoming vegetarians. :-D

4) Focus on what you CAN eat and not on what you can't. There are hundreds of different soups, stews, casseroles, pasta dishes, stir-fries, curry, sandwiches, pies and so on and so forth, steak is just one dish.

5) Remember eggs and dairy.
If you are concerned about the welfare of farm animals, it's more likely you have an impact if you choose small-farm free-range organic locally produced eggs over egg factory eggs, than if you don't. People care about money. It is a fact They don't care about your opinion, and, frankly, you don't care about theirs. Educate yourself about the farm animals and how they are being treated from birth to death, and make educated choices. Spend a little more money on produce produced in a way you can accept, travel extra miles to support your local farmers, pay with your comfort and money to  make farmers more interested in producing ethical eggs and dairy.

6) Try new things. Increase the ingredients you eat, increase your ability to cook, increase your knowledge about cooking all over the world. Try a new recipe and new ingredient every week.
- look for inspiration from poor countries and poor people - meat is expensive
- look for inspiration from religions, like Jainism. In many religions vegetarianism is considered a better way of eating, and there's plenty of recipes and diet plans for that purpose.
- look for inspiration in countries where a lot of cuisine is plant based; India; South-East Asia (Indonesia and Singapore); Latin America (a lot of diet is based on beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, and fruit); South-West Asia (Middle East); Caribbean, especially Jamaica (vegetarianism is considered ideal in Rastafarianism); Africa (especially Ethiopia). One great source of vegetarian recipes for a Westerner is Italy. It's like the carnetarian cuisine, uses the same spices and so on, so it's easy and familiar way of eating, familiar flavors and textures. It might be hard to try to eat something from a strange food culture

January 31st

* National Hot Chocolate Day

 

- Invent a new hot chocolate recipe with secret ingredient

How to make the best hot chocolate:

1) Use the best chocolate you can find. Don't go too high with the percentage - for hot chocolate it should be somewhere between 65 and 75%. Taste the chocolate before making the drink, because if you don't like the chocolate as it is, you won't like it as hot chocolate either. The taste will come through.
2) Don't use sugar to sweeten the chocolate, use milk chocolate or white chocolate. Just switch a couple of square of dark to milk. I think there's enough sugar in chocolate and milk, so I don't sweeten my hot chocolate at all. I also want it chocolate-y.
3) The same thing with milk - taste the milk. Some milk is better than others. Also, test the milk fat percentage. Some like rich hot chocolate, some don't. If you do, use fattier milk, or even cream, if you don't, use lighter milk. It's usually 1-2 percentage milk that is used, because of cocoa butter.
4) It is OK to add some corn starch to make the chocolate thicker. Some people love the thick texture, and you get that by thickening it with corn starch. It has to be corn starch, though, no other starch has the same softness and velvetiness.
5) Use 20% or more chocolate to milk.

To make the chocolate: shred the chocolate. Pour hot (not boiling) milk over the chocolate and mix until it's melted.

How to make hot chocolate with cocoa powder.

Mix the cocoa powder with sugar or butter. Cocoa butter is great, but real butter is also good. You can also use hot milk. Add it a little at a time. The thing with cocoa is that it doesn't melt, so what you are doing is separating the cocoa powder particles with sugar or fat from butter or milk. This is also why you would need fattier milk when you make hot chocolate with cocoa powder than with chocolate. You can easily use cream or half-and-half when making hot chocolate with cocoa powder.

Use unsweetened, alkalized cocoa powder, as dark as you can find. Taste it before you make it, because there are differences with cocoa powder as well. Find your favorite. You can use the cocoa powder that doesn't taste as good as spice in cooking, or in baking. 

Use 1 tbls (or more) for each cup of milk

It gets better if you "burn" the sugar before making the hot chocolate. There is a recipe of "butterbeer" that starts with you making caramel first by "burning" the sugar and then pouring milk over it. Then you whisk in a nob of butter and that's it. If you use this as liquid for your hot chocolate; put a spoonful of good quality cocoa in a cup, and pour in about a spoonful of hot "butterbeer", mix, until there are no lumps left, and then pour in the rest of the "butterbeer", you get really delicious hot chocolate.

I like to add a dash of vanilla, cinnamon, coffee and salt to my chocolate. I also add some golden syrup, brown sugar, maple syrup or molasses in it, for taste. Yummy.

But for the special Ketutar hot chocolate, I'll melt in a couple of Turkish peber candies. Hot salted liquorice... Aaaaah!

* National Gorilla Suit Day

* Inspire your heart with art day

* yaD drawkcaB
Do things backward, upside-down, inside-out...
- pineapple upside-down cake
- tarte tatin
- try Leonardo daVinci's mirror writing
- eat the dessert first - hey, why not eat the dessert for breakfast and breakfast for dinner?
- walk backward
- say "bye" when you arrive and "hi" when you leave
- watch a series from last episode to the first
- wear your underwear over your clothes like any superhero

January 19th

 Popcorn Day

How to celebrate an Independence day?

* find the country's flag and decorate using those colors. Use the common, ordinary, normal, usual decorations you would for any party, just in the flag colors. Make the food of this color. Decorate with buntings of these colors. Decorate with country's flags.

* find out if the country has a national animal, bird, tree, flower, and so on - what other national symbols the country has?

* find out about the country's food culture and plan the celebratory dinner around that.

* find out about the country's music and create a playlist. Use a mix of both traditional and popular music. Use songs sang in the country's official or majority language, even if there was a version sang in an international language. Create a song booklet with easy to sing songs with easy lyrics. Include the national anthem, and other such national songs, if there are any.

* learn to say a couple of sentences in a language spoken in the country

* use the nature of the country as one of the party themes. For example, Finland celebrates its independence December 6th. Finland is in the boreal forest zone, so it's Nordic forests with snow. "Winter Wonderland" is a great theme.

* wear a traditional folk costume, but be respectful about it. Avoid stereotypes and caricatures. Don't get a huge sombrero and fake mustache for Mexico's independence day (which is not 5th of May). Don't go all harem girl on the national days of countries on Arabian peninsula and Middle East. I don't think there EVER was anything like the Western harem girl fantasy anywhere but in Hollywood movies. Just like the wild and free gypsy woman. All fantasy. Remember that folk costumes are (usually) festive clothes for real people. They aren't costumes in the masquerade costume sense. So behave as if you were in your normal festive clothes. The purpose here is to learn about the culture of the country.

* make photobooth props with the country's famous people or typical headwear etc.

* Find movies, tv-series, documentaries, especially travel shows, about the country or made in the country, and watch some of those.

* play trivia games with questions about the country's history, nature, flora and fauna, traditions, culture etc. etc. Use Wikipedia to find the trivia.

* find out if there are some traditional games commonly played in the country, especially party games.

* learn a traditional dance from the country

* is there some traditional activity or ceremony you could replicate at home? In Japan there's the tea ceremony, in Eritrea there's a coffee ceremony. In some countries they paint skin with henna.

* invite an expatriate to celebrate their national day with you

* Are there some typical saying associated with the country? Quotes about the country? Does the country have a motto? Lyrics of the national anthem or other nationalist songs? You can write these in banners, blocks, or calligraphy to decorate for the day

* Is there some activity associated with the celebration like fireworks? Use that as decoration or activities

* Do something specific through the whole day; have an independence day breakfast; either a typical breakfast from the country, or a normal breakfast dressed up with nationalist themes, like colors, symbols and so on. For example, if there is a star(s) on the flag, you can cut the breakfast food into star shapes.

* Textiles are an easy way to bring in some "patriotism" to your home. A couple of cushions and a throw; kitchen towels and potholders, towels in the bathroom. it's enough to have them in right colors, but naturally you can go really way out with this.

* It is nice to decorate some spots in the home for all holidays. Like the mantelpiece, door, any place you have decorated anyway, just exchange the decoration to theme appropriate. It's nice to have some items for these, like
- the personification of the country, like Uncle Sam, Marianne or Mother Svea. Every country has one, even if they aren't as famous. If you don't know and can't find out, take a female, dress her in old-fashioned garb in flag colors and give her the flag and country's coat of arms.

* Decorate the table in flag colors. It is of course appropriate to use the country's national flowers or flowers that originate from the country or are native or common in the country. For example, to celebrate Netherlands, the flower arrangement is of course tulips.

* Use a map of the country as decoration

* use the country's year of independence as decoration; use the numbers as letters

* If there are parades make the kids "parade bags" to keep them happy

* create a scavenger hunt - look out for things typical for the country and Independence Day celebration

January 1st

January 1st is the New Year's Day.
There's all kinds of traditions for 1st of January associated with that it's the first day of the year.

For example, some foods are considered lucky.
- USA Southern states: "peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and cornbread for gold"

- St. Basil's cake - Greek New Year's cake - there's a coin put in the cake (after it's baked, not baked into the cake), so be careful as you bite :-D The one who finds the coin gets good luck for the year. They also serve kollyva, "memorial wheat", to commemorate St. Basil and all the other passed beloveds. It's sort of a Day of the Dead.

St. Basil is a bit like St. Nicholas. He is expected to visit the home between the sundown of 31st of December and sundown of 1st of January. People leave food out for him, like milk and cookies to Santa, and he leaves gifts in the children's shoes. You could awaken all those St. Nicholas' day traditions. :-D

In Greek tradition it's St. Basil who is the gift bringer and protector of poor children. You could take a basket of goodies to some poor family this day, to give their new year a good start.

In Greece, St.Basil's day is celebrated by people visiting friends and relatives during the day, singing New Year's Carols (and the children go caroling and they get treat as reward). In the evening there's a big dinner, and usually a setting is left empty for St.Basil. 

Calennig means New Year celebration/gift. The giving of gifts on New Year's Day is an ancient custom.  In Wales children would call from door to door collection Calennig (New Year’s Gift). They would go from house to house, bearing good wishes for the health and prosperity during the year to come.  This was symbolized by the skewered apples, stuck with corn and sprigs of evergreen, which they carried in their hands. Children would sing and receive small gifts of food or money for their trouble

January 1st is the Apple Gifting Day.

January 1st is the Z day - the alphabetical order is reversed, and people with name that starts with Z gets to go first :-D

Visiting friends and family on 1st of January is an old tradition in many places. As such, there's naturally superstitions related. The first visitor of the year should be a man, dark-haired, not have flat feet and be bringing gifts; enough for everyone in the household. (These gifts are food. Traditionally "cakes, bread and cheese".)

- Black Bun recipe 

-  Shortbread recipe 

-  as the coal represents warmth, it's not proper to bring fake coal or coal candy that can be put in Christmas stockings; it's better to take with one a bag of grill coal :-D (Or a burned matchstick - for symbolic reasons ;-)) 

- Scottish cheeses you must try!

Chamber's Book of Days about New Year's Day

January 1st is traditionally a Polar Bear Swim Day :-D

It's the National Bloody Mary day in USA
Probably, because Bloody Mary is commonly used as a pick-me-up, and people tend to party hard in New Year's Eve

In Philadelphia, they will be having a Mummers' Parade.

In Wien they have a New Year's Day Strauss concert. The broadcast is illustrated with the Austrian royal ballet performing ball room dances.

How to have a Victorian Ball
Having a Viennese Ball

You should learn to dance Waltz, Mazurka, Polka and March. It brings so much more enjoyment to Strausses' music and gives you a good workout to begin the year with :-D If you do it in proper Victorian ballgown (as above), it's even better.

In Japan they celebrate their New Year, Gantan-Sai.  It was celebrated at the same time as the Lunar New Year in Asia, but when Japan started following the Gregorian calendar, they moved the New Year to 1st of January.

 

The Japanese have a "daruma doll" - It is a wooden doll with empty eyes. When you make a promise or commitment, you paint on one eye. When you have fulfilled the promise, you paint in the other eye. Maybe you could choose to wear an eye-patch until you have fulfilled your New Year's Promise? Not to indulge in some pleasure of yours until you have reached your goal? As a reward, you get to have the first cup of coffee of the year, or eat candy or pizza, or wear your favorite shirt.

It's the Commitment Day. Of course.
So - most people don't keep their New Year's promises. They are like electoral promises, never meant to be kept either. But what if you took yourself seriously for a while? What if you seriously considered what to promise and made a real effort to keep your promise to yourself, and if you failed, take that seriously as well, and apologize, explain and make it up to yourself. After all, YOU are the most important person in your life who will be there come shine come rain, and who can't ever leave how ever rotten you are to them.

"The practice of making resolutions for the new year is thought to have come from the ancient Babylonians. They made promises to earn the favor of the gods, and start the year off right. They would reportedly vow to pay off debts, and return borrowed farm equipment."
- The Origins and Practices of Holidays; New Year's Day

Brunei, Cameroon, Haiti and Sudan will celebrate their independence day.

Why you shouldn't stop offering your menstrual blood to the earth

As response to the Golden Scarab

This is what we get when we combine several different cultural spheres without understanding these spheres...

Blood sacrifice

"So now it's on women to stop all violence and war, one cup full of our own blood at a time? How many gallons of women's blood is shed every day IN violence and war? But somehow our menstrual blood, which is not really much of a "sacrifice" to pour out (since it happens naturally without our will or intention) is magically the answer?"

Women shedding blood in wars and violence is not the same thing as women sacrificing their blood as a voluntary offer.

"We all know that blood is our life force (well, one of them) and that it carries the imprint of of DNA and who we are on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level. WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THAT AWAY?"

Your answer to what to do about this "natural happening" is "Just. Flush. It. Down. The. Toilet. Septic systems are already in place to hold human waste. Menstrual blood qualifies and human waste so just utilize the systems already in place. No, that septic system was probably not put into place with the Earth or the land's permission. You can make an offering (of anything but your bodily fluids) in gratitude for the septic system and to apologize for the human-centric way it was probably installed."

Blood is our life force that carries the imprint of who we are on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level, FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET AS THE HUMAN WASTE IT IS!

Excuse me, what? 

Darling little girl... it surprises me that your culture doesn't associate any power to menstrual blood. It doesn't mean that there isn't any in it. Menstrual blood is considered blood magically. Except that it's better, because no-one needs to be cut to get it. It happens naturally, whether we want it or not. (Unless we are really malnourished, but if there are children, there's menstruation.)
Every bit of a human is magical equivalent of the whole human. Blood is life.  Sacrificing blood - how ever it is collected - is sacrificing oneself.
I'd rather sacrifice it to Earth than the Holy Septic System and Wisdom and Technical Evolution of Man.

Human blood is one of the most magically charged ingredients there is in the world, and the fact that no violence or force was used to obtain it, makes it even more magical.

Moon Blood Offering
Moon Blood Ritual

"The Earth doesn't need anything from us to be nourished."

Raising my eyebrows here...
Basically that's true, we are just one sort of life crawling on this huge ball of materia, it doesn't NEED anything from us, it will survive all of us, and it will take what it needs. And to it, it doesn't matter if it's a ball of poison inhabitable for humans or not.
But WE need to nourish the Earth for OUR sake. Yes, it is a very human centered point of view. Last time I checked I was a human. And so are you. And all the other women who menstruate. It's kind of OK to be human centered.
But immature? Aren't you projecting something here, now? You need to understand that SHE is the Goddess, SHE is the Creator, She is the Mother - we are the creation, we are the product, we are the children, we are the needy ones here. We depend 100% of Her. She doesn't NEED us or our blood, she gets it anyway. The point here is that WE ARE SACRIFICING IT WITH THE INTENTION OF NOURISHING HER, not pouring it down the toilet letting the sanitation works take care of it the way it feels is best, which usually isn't very good for the Earth, and their intention is to earn as much money as they can, and they see earth as dirt they build their works on.

So, the Earth "needs" nourishment from us, more than She "needs" what most humans are giving Her right now, the exploitation and "human waste".

You are just being sanctimonious here, and you don't have the slightest understanding about how Old World Paganism works. You don't know anything about sacrifices and offerings to God. Your people might not have done anything of the kind. You most certainly haven't. This isn't any different from offering your tears to your ancestral spirits. Your tears are also "human waste", you know. This mineral infused water is also infused with pain. There are no tears not infused with pain, even "tears of joy and happiness" are infused with pain, of the fear of the future where this moment doesn't exist any more.

If you even bothered looking into the Menstrual Blood Sacrifices you would KNOW THEY INDEED ARE ASKING HER. But, you don't bother. You are just riding your high horses believing to be oh so smart and spiritual and caring about Earth more than we do, looking down on us. Sanctimonious.

"Menstrual blood is chaotic and not energetically nourishing."

Yours might be. Mine is not.

My menstrual blood is infused with me, who I am, what I am, "on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level", as you said. That is not chaotic nor is it something I "discard". The PHYSICAL function is discarding cellular material that is not needed. The SPIRITUAL function is what we give it. You think it's chaotic waste. I think it's my blood, my life force, part of me. It's part of the Red Earth I was made of, and I am returning it to the Mother without wasting pure water to flush it down.

Another thing you said was "The Earth is actually death-centered. That's what she does best-- she recycles death to give life and once that life is born (whether human, animal, plant, etc.) it starts to die." (Actually, I disagree with you there a lot, but to me death is just part of the natural cycle of life, things must die to give room for new things to be born, but it's all the same. I am a star is a flower is a wolf is water is stone is... Life. Energy.) But what this means is that the Earth doesn't care about the energies there are in the things she turns into new life. To Earth it is blood and tissue and other things. Organic matter. "Human waste", as you so eloquently put it. Shit is food I have taken everything that nourishes me, and it's literally things I don't want, need or care for, something discarded, something rejected, pure crap to me. Literally :-D But if you say that doesn't nourish the earth, the soil, the plants and microbes and all the other non-animal forms of life... Yeah... Believe you that, girl, if you choose to. :-D

Let me tell you a story. There once was a farmer who left a saucer of milk on a stone wall every evening. A visitor came to the farm, saw this and asked the farmer why he did this. The farmer said "That is to God, I thank Him for all the good things He has given me. He drinks it every night, in the morning the saucer is empty!" The visitor laughed at the simple man, and asked if they could see this with their own eyes. They hid in the bushes where they could see the saucer of milk, and - as one could guess - a fox kit leaped on the wall and drank the milk. The visitor laughed at the disappointed farmer, and the farmer swore to never leave another plate of milk to God. But when he was sleeping, God spoke to him. "I thought you gave the milk to me, and I could do what ever I pleased with it. I am God, I don't drink milk. But I have many children who do. That fox kit was left orphan and with your milk I could save its life."

"Does the Ancestral Guardian of the land want your blood?"

"it happens naturally without our will or intention"
The Ancestral Guardian of the land I live on gets my blood whether the Ancestral Guardian wants it or not.
The Ancestral Guardian wants to know I know it exists, the Ancestral Guardian wants my respect and love, the Ancestral Guardian wants me to not hurt the land. "Human waste" doesn't hurt land. A sacrifice, an offering, is a sign of respect and love and appreciation. The intention is to heal, to nourish, to not hurt. The Ancestral Guardian doesn't mind.

Also... "they are often very snippity and impatient/cold". Oh... I can understand how YOU have that experience of them.

"You could accidentally be making a blood oath with dangerous Earth Beings"

No, you couldn't. There's more in "making a blood oath" with beings than giving them an access to your blood. If there weren't, what kind of spirits have you made "blood oaths" with while you have been flushing down your blood in the toilet? How many used band-aids have you discarded without any care of who gets their hands on them? And all the other parts of you... how do you discard your nail clippings, or hair from your hairbrush, or urine, sweat, tears? How much of you have you dumped in the sewage without a care of what kind of dangerous swamp creatures you have made a DNA oath with? Get real, girl.

"It's not up to women to stop violent bloodshed with menstrual bloodshed"

I don't know about you, but I see myself as primarily a human, and it is up to me - as a human being - to do what I can to stop violent bloodshed. That I am a woman means that I can sacrifice blood without violence. Men can't do that. Unless one counts impromptu nosebleed as such.

"There's a story going around the internet that goes something like this: When enough women give their menstrual blood to the Earth, the Earth will stop taking men's blood in war."
Something like this. You mean “It is prophesied that when all women are giving their blood back to the Earth in a sacred way, men will come home from war and earth shall find peace.”

Firstly, as Abraham Lincoln said, don't believe everything you read in the internet. There is no references to any "Hopi prophecies" like this, and I haven't found any reference to that prophecy before 2015

Secondly, there is this: Feeding the Tree Ritual
there is this: Reclaiming Our Wise Blood
There's this: Blood Mysteries

So... perhaps the "women should sacrifice their menstrual blood to feed the bloodthirsty earth to stop violence" myth IS part of the patriarchaic society, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE SHOULD STOP SACRIFICING OUR MENSTRUAL BLOOD. What if it was designed to influence women who would stop ANYTHING if they thought it would support the patriarchaic society?
And here you go telling people the best place for their menstrual blood is the sewage and the best thing to do with it is "Just. Flush. It. Down. The. Toilet."

You know nothing, Darla Antoine. You know nothing.

"Donate blood from your veins to a blood bank. Get over your fear of death and spirits and learn how to help spirits move on who are hanging around because of violent and sudden deaths (love and light isn't enough. You need to learn to work with Death and make Death a spiritual ally). Moving these spirits over helps clean up the Earth's energetic field and lessens the human chaos and emotions that are informing everything from the weather to the collective consciousness. Donate money. Raise children with consciousness. Adopt a child. Hold prayer circles. March in protest. Vote with your money."

We do. How dare you to just assume the women who offer their menstrual blood to earth don't do anything else? HOW DARE YOU!!! Sanctimonious.

"These small, everyday actions will actually do something to help create equality and world peace. Pouring your menstrual blood out will not."



And how would you know.

"Go through the steps listed above: ask the Earth. Ask the Ancestral Guardian of the land. Ask the spirit of the plant or tree you want to leave you offering with. If you get yes's from all of these beings, and if you're certain there are no other beings living at that spot, that could take your blood, go ahead and offer your blood to the Earth! I totally understand why you would want to honor your body and the Earth in that way. I just also want you to think critically and realize that it's a two-way street and you should ask for permission from the other parties involved first."

So you're backstepping. It would have been nice if you had just shared your concern about the practice and that people involved in it might not be thinking certain important things, but, no, you write a whole blog entry about YOU SHOULDN'T!!! BECAUSE MENSTRUAL BLOOD IS DISGUSTING AND SHOULD BE FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET AND YOU ARE DISRESPECTING THE EARTH AND ANCESTRAL SPIRITS AND I KNOW BETTER AND [more sanctimonious crap].

I don't give a crap about you "totally understanding". Your understanding is not required, asked for, wanted or needed. What about asking US if we want your "understanding" before you offer it? :-D
Especially when you don't understand the activity you are condemning and criticizing and getting your knickers in twist about.

What about The Red Tent Movement?

"While I admire The Red Tent Movement"
Who cares?

"I question their story of origin"

Red Tent is (probably) the invention of Anita Diamant, based on the information in the Bible and the theory of menstrual synchrony. Women thought the idea was amazing (which it is) and created a tradition around it. It doesn't matter that it's a modern tradition, it is a tradition, and totally valid and authentic.

This is part of what Anita Diamant based her book on.

19 “Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening.
20 Anything on which the woman lies or sits during the time of her period will be unclean.
21 If any of you touch her bed, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
22 If you touch any object she has sat on, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
23 This includes her bed or any other object she has sat on; you will be unclean until evening if you touch it.
24 If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her blood touches him, her menstrual impurity will be transmitted to him. He will remain unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will be unclean.
Leviticus 15:19-33

Everything that touches her is "ceremonially unclean", everything she touches is "ceremonially unclean". And it doesn't matter if she is a free woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a slave. She is "ceremonially unclean" and it is highly contagious. In the Jewish life of the time when the Book of Moses were written, doing ceremonies while ceremonially unclean was catastrophic; it might cause your death, even the misery of the whole tribe! So you didn't risk it.

In modern studies they haven't been able to find any evidence supporting the theory of menstrual synchrony, but it is part of the feminine myths among several peoples, among others the Aborigins of Australia.

"The typical length of time between the first day of one period and the first day of the next is 21 to 45 days in young women, and 21 to 31 days in adults (an average of 28 days). Bleeding usually lasts around 2 to 7 days." 
But it's called "menstruation", isn't it? And why do so many women associate it with moon and moon phases, if there really isn't anything to support that theory? The moon is sort of constant. It takes some 28-29 days to go around this planet (a month) and has phases and every phase lasts for about a week - which is where we got the week from.
Modern women live secluded from the moon. We usually don't even notice it, unless it's especially noticeable. Not so in the history. We have all this moonlore.

Maybe it's all hogwash and wishful thinking. Maybe they knew something we don't. Maybe their life situation was different from ours resulting in certain phenomena we aren't aware of today with out modern lifestyle. What do I know?

"I cannot find any evidence that our ancestors ever gathered together to bleed under the New Moon and to share stories."
As you then continue with "first of all, second, thirdly..." I assume you give those reasons as why you think the idea isn't very probable.

Ok, then.

"ancient women didn't bleed as often as we modern women do"
How would you know? We know NOTHING about how much and often the ancient women bled. In fact, Leviticus (written some 500-600 years b.c.) say women bled about 7 days. with 28 days between the first days of bleeding. Sounds like what happens today.

"We are better nourished"
Again, how would you know? A lot of modern women either starve themselves or eat nutritional crap, like a lot of fat, starches and sugar. A lot of fat people are malnourished.

"we have less children"
Hmm... you know... you have to menstruate to get pregnant. If they had a lot of children, they also menstruated pretty regularly.

"giving us more time and energy to bleed"

A lot of modern women also have means to reduce this bleeding time, because no-one has "time and energy to bleed". Besides, it's natural, as you say. Women bleed, today and in the history and they will bleed in the future as well.

"as most camp/house labor was the realm of women"

Hmm...

"and most ancient women supposedly bled simultaneously, that would have left the majority of the women's work to be done by children, women who were pregnant or recently gave birth, women too malnourished to menstruate, older women who had gone through menopause, or, most likely, by slaves -- slaves that were probably denied a red tent experience of their own. That doesn't sound right or kind"

So... it couldn't happen, because it doesn't sound right or kind? ROTFLMAO

For your information, men are fully capable of taking care of "women's work" if they have to. Men have been to hunting trips and whatnot, there's priesthood where women were considered a taboo so much so that ANY female, from a baby to a 100 years old crone, weren't allowed in the premises. Someone did the "women's work", and this someone wasn't a female. Most likely an apprentice. You might want to look into the history of butlers, valets, pages and acolytes.

" we need to be asking ourselves the following questions: How did they energetically prepare the space for bleeding? How did they energetically clear the space after each bleed? How did they ask for permission from the land? What did they give the land in return (besides their blood). How did they close this space when it was time to pack their tents or teepees and move on?"

Why? If this was a historical fact, no-one recorded it, so there's no way of knowing the answers to these questions. Secondly, "gathering together to bleed under the New Moon and to share stories" doesn't require any of that. You are confusing two separate things. Red Tent tradition isn't associated with the sacrifice of menstrual blood tradition. The Jewish women of the Patriarch time would probably have "Flushed. It. Down. The. Toilet.", that is disposed it the same way they disposed their pee and poo. Maybe they burned the wool or rags or plant matter or what ever they used to gather the stuff in. Maybe they just bled into their clothes and washed the clothes. One doesn't bleed that much, really... it just feels like a lot. An average blood amount during a period is about 20-60ml. (1-3 tbls).

"Ok, but I still want to connect to the Earth as a woman."

No OK. No-one needs your permission or advice to keep sacrificing their blood to Earth, and after all that, I don't much care about your "advice". Ever heard that thing about unsolicited advice? Google it.

Frankly, the only thing you may do is to tell people why YOU don't sacrifice your menstrual blood.

"You can lay down on the Earth, your belly pressed against Hers, and just breathe. Whether you're bleeding or not."
OH NO, I CAN'T DO THAT, WHAT IF I ACCIDENTALLY BLEED ON HER!!!!!!