Sun Path

The Sun is associated with Religious Paganism - festivals celebrating the earth, encouraging the harvest and welcoming the sun's return. Many of the key Powers are Greater Powers - which are revered and worshipped and celebrated - or gods in the classic sense, but Fencrafters will also discover local trees and barrows and alleys guarded by nameless spirits, who they can work with more directly.

Keeping the Wheel of the Year, going on a lot of nature walks, and embracing the sensory qualities of living in the world, are important personal practices. It's good to have hobbies on the Sun-path: keeping a garden, learning to cook, fishing, hiking, weaving, things which help you appreciate and encounter the land to its full. These hobbies often come under the guidance of a Guardian Spirit, such as the Weaver, the Hunter, and so on, who have attached themselves to humanity and take an interest in anyone learning their ways. Hearing the voice of the Greater Powers can be tough, and activites which get you into your body, and aware of your surroundings, and working with the land provides the psychic “space” and immersion to understand their nudging - and encounter the raw power of the Landweird.

Sun-path magic tends to be intuitive, unstructured and very ancient; it's usually worked for the good of the land, or the people on it, in a collective way. Spells for harvest and weather are archetypal. Sun festivals usually rely on direct observation: the Powers are present on solstice day only if you can see the sun, the queen of the storm only when the wind is fierce. A key tool will be almanacs - of times and tides, and weather forecasts - and a key practice, going out yourself to see when and where the moon is rising. Alongside enjoyment of the world, you are called to enjoyment of beauty: reading the Wizard of Earthsea, watching the Owl Service, reading Tolkien (or a marine biology textbook), are all Sun-practices. They immerse you in the simple pleasures of the world.

Pagan practice is often hindered because it is "religion with homework" - for the Sun path, you never need anything but to step outside your front door. You can write rituals, amass tools, and read books about local folklore and botany; but baking a fresh loaf and going abroad with your hiking stick is enough. The Sun is simple, straightforward, unfussy. Aesthetically, the Sun-path often resembles anglo-saxon, viking or celtic reconstructionist traditions; or kitchen-witchery, green or granny magic. It can be practiced as pure animism - or as an atheist passion for nature.

The Sun Path is especially suitable for those with a disability or low income. Most Pagan and Occult traditions demand the ability to forward-plan rites without knowing your energy or pain level, access rare and complex texts, have space to cast circles and store ritual-specific equipment, bathe before magic, etc. Sitting by the window on solstice morning with a cup of tea is archetypal Sun Path magic: it responds to your body and the natural world in the moment, and focuses on simple pleasures. The New Age is often inherently capitalist too: be-better, learn more, undergo struggle, work harder, be goal-oriented. The Sun Path is not competitive or ambitious. Come as you are, for you are already enough. This is Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay magic, patient and enduring. Enlightenment is unhurried.

Still, the Sun-path also encompasses the weird of the wild - especially at dawn and dusk and overnight, times where the land has not always been a friend to man, and must be appeased. Anyone who has ever been cast adrift in an open boat and lost sight of land will know that the Sun Path is, in no sense, a fluffy option. The raw power of nature is not to be taken lightly, and she who can gain the favour of nature's power is mighty indeed.

The Sun Path is especially suitable for nature-lovers, for those who wish to practice immanence and presence. The best thing about the Sun Path is it can be practiced at different “levels” of commitment. Celebrating each Sabbat with a nice meal is enough. So is undertaking intense devotional work to listen and discover the nature of the Landweird.

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