28/01/2021
Greetings to LGBTQ Pagans, Wiccans, followers of Celtic traditions and Druids, as a festival important to all these spiritual paths falls on Monday, 1st February. It is Imbolc. Our friends at the Glastonbury based pagan shop Goddess and the Green Man note that for Ancient Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, this would be the start of the lambing season and thus an important harbinger of the spring to come. The original word Imbolg means 'in the belly' in Prythonic – the ancestor to the modern Irish Gaelic tongue. All is pregnant and expectant, as the year comes to life. Paganism of course is not a unified religion, any more than Christianity is, but is a descriptor, deriving from the Latin term for “from the fields”. Pagans are followers of a wide variety of earth centred religions native to Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Important branches of pagan belief that have especial resonance for LGBTQ people include Goddess Worship, which is popular with some lesbians, and the Cult of Antinous and similar homoerotic paths which resonate with many gay and bi men. We cannot hope to do justice to the complexity of pagan belief, but for now will highlight just one path, with a link on our website to a gay couple from the Cotswolds, who are followers of the Alexandrian Wiccan faith. http://www.thewellhead.org.uk/
