Dancing in the Moon Garden: St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick is known as being one of the great symbols of Ireland. Every March there is a day of celebration in his honour for the great service that he performed in driving the snakes out of Ireland. This was seen as a miracle.

The common misconception about St. Patrick was that he drove actual, physical snakes from Ireland. It is a fact that snakes are hard to find in Ireland but when you look at that fact it really is not all that surprising seeing as Ireland is an island and snakes don’t swim across large bodies of water to inhabit foreign lands.

The interesting fact that most people are not aware of is that “Snakes” were derogatory term for the early pagans of Ireland. As well snakes were significant symbols of the Druids as well where St. Patrick noted in his confession were at some conflict with him. St. Patrick was the man who was touted as bringing Christianity to Ireland and in doing so almost eradicating paganism from the “Emerald Isle.”

Many historians believe that St. Patrick was born around 370 c.e. in either Scotland or

Wales

(though this date is somewhat disputed by historians.) His birth name was Maewyn and that he was the son of Calpurnius who was a Roman Briton. When he was in his teens Maewyn was sold into slavery to and Irish landowner. It was during this time, as he worked as a shepherd that he was said to have started having visions and dreams. He even had a dream that showed him how to escape from her current enslavement.

When he finally escaped from slavery in Ireland he studied at a monastery in France where he studied under St. Germain, the bishop of Auxerre. About 12 years later when he had finished his studies and felt his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity. He returned to Ireland and changed his name to Patrick which means “father of the people.” (His Romanized name may already have been Patricus.) He was determined to care for the people and strive to bring them to salvation. He said that he baptized thousands of people, ordained priests to lead the new Christians and even was able to convert wealthy women (who became nuns) and even the sons of kings. In his confessions St. Patrick refers to some conflict with the Druids and pagans but that was not the sole conflict for St. Patrick. He was also accused of some sort of financial impropriety in which he eventually end up returning all gifts and monies from wealthy women and also did not take money for baptisms and ordinations.

St. Patrick died on March 17 461 c.e and was said to have been buried at Down Cathedral and Downpatrick, County Down alongside St. Brighid and St. Columbia though this has never been proven conclusively. He was considered an important spiritual leader for the early Christian Church in Ireland. However it does not appear that he was a good friend to the pagans of the time.

Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated with lots of festivities but for obvious reasons it is not a celebration that many pagans celebrate. But there are ways that we can make this day significant for us as well. Many pagans will wear a pin or badge with a snake on it instead of the typical “kiss me I’m Irish” badges. Some other suggestions would be doing spell work for good luck, or helping the pagan community, and making crafts or doing activities that involve snakes. I have included a spell submitted by Mordag and two crafts below that help us to remember the symbol of the snakes and how important it was to the Pagans. Not only as a symbol of the Druids and the pagan people but also as a symbol of the Mother Goddess herself.

Patti Wigington from about.com has this craft to honour the symbolism of the snake on St. Patrick’s Day.

Snake Wreath

You'll need the following supplies:

A grapevine hoop or other wreath form (available at craft stores)
Spring greenery, such as ivy
A bag of rubber snakes
A hot glue gun
Florist's wire
Some ribbon

Start by decorating the grapevine wreath with your greenery. Don't use too much, because you'll want to leave room for the snakes.

Next, arrange the snakes around the wreath, and hot glue them so they don't fall off. Depending on the size of your wreath -- and your snakes -- anywhere from six to a dozen should be fine. Just a word of caution here - don't touch the tip of your hot glue gun to the rubber snakes. Trust me, they don't like this.

As a finishing touch, tie a length of ribbon into a bow and fix it in place with the florist's wire. Use an additional loop of wire at the top to hang the wreath up.

A Draught Snake (or a Draft Snake)

Get started

To make your snake you will need a piece of funky material for the body, a snake tongue (ribbon works well), some old clothes to stuff the snake with (about as much as 5-7 adult t-shirts), 2 buttons for the eyes, a needle and thread, a pen and a pair of scissors.

Carefully cut out the body of your snake making it about 100 cm long and 30cm wide

Fold the material in half lengthways so that what will become the outside of the snake is on the inside. Stitch together the length of the snake and one end of the body. You need one end to be open so you can stuff the snake.

Turn the snake's body the right way out. It should look like your snake is taking shape!

Cut up your stuffing material into pieces.

Begin to push the snake stuffing into the end of the body of the snake. Make sure it is as firm as possible as this will stop the draughts better. Don't fill the snake right to the end until you've sewn on the eyes and tongue.

With a pen, mark where you want the eyes to be on the snake's head.

Carefully sew on the buttons for the eyes.

Sew the tongue into the middle of the snakes head at the open end of the body

Fill the snake's body up with some more stuffing and then sew up the open end of the body with short, neat stitches.

Now that you've completed your snake give it a name!

Now you can have fun decorating your snake with ribbon / felt / sparkles / bits of material / unwanted jewellery

St. Patrick's Day for Pagans

Since St. Patrick's Day is a day of luck, I thought it would be a good time to make a luck satchel.

Materials:

§ tumbled tourmaline

§ rosemary

§ thyme

§ spearmint

§ green satchel (purchase or make your own)

On St. Patrick's Day, cast a Circle.

Concentrate on the good luck feeling of the day. Meditate upon it and see the green hills full of clovers in your mind's eye. Charge the tourmaline by meditating on any experience you may have had that you had described as "lucky". Tourmaline is good for double luck in any circumstance. Then, pour rosemary, thyme, and spearmint into your satchel. They may or may not be ground - whatever you wish. Place the tourmaline in the satchel as well and after which, state the purpose as you're closing the satchel and tying it shut. Charge the satchel in the Circle, and close when you're ready. Now you can carry it on your belt, in your pocket, or wear it as a necklace. Your luck will continue until you untie the satchel and break the charm.

~ shared with me by Mordag ~

Resources

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/st-patricks-day/st-patrick-drove-out-the-pagans--not-the-snakes-1318905.html

http://wilstar.com/holidays/patrick.htm

http://www.history.com/content/stpatricksday/who-was-st.-patrick

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ostaracrafts/ss/SnakeWreath.htm

http://www.theholidayspot.com/patrick/historyofpatrick.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick#cite_note-13