Letting our spirits shine

Jupiter, transiting through bright shining Leo, has been opposing my natal Sun, and then my natal Jupiter. So my spiritual practice, and the things that give my self and my life meaning, have been illuminated, and, I hope, expanding. I have Sun conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius in the first house, ruled by Uranus in the ninth house, so finding my own path to meaning and a philosophy of life are central to who I am. I see meaning in everything, which is likely why I an astrologer and tarot reader. And a pagan - realising how my Sun / Jupiter/ Uranus placement translated into "unusual spiritual beliefs central to my identity" was a big lightbulb moment for me in my early days studying astrology.

So. We had a fabulous day at the Pagan Federation London conference a couple of Saturdays ago, crafting up a storm under a beautiful birch tree. Birch is the tree of new beginnings, very appropriate for re-launching my pagan family events. We caught up with old friends and made some new ones, and, with a little help from big old Jupiter, I found myself trying to get a handle on how my paganism influences my family, and the way my partner and I bring up our children.

We don't do ritual as a family, we don't always even explicitly celebrate the pagan festivals. My children are still young (two and five), and my partner is not pagan, so when we do celebrate, we keep it simple. A special meal, lighting a new candle in the relevant colour, some seasonal crafts, a walk in the woods looking for signs of the changing season.

For me, paganism doesn't just happen at festivals, it's not just for high days and holidays. It's a way of life, and my spirituality informs everything that I do. When  it comes to my children, that means minimising screen time and maximising the time we spend out of doors. It means that even my two year old is aware of the moon and her changing cycles, the shifts in the seasons. It means that with my five year old, I'm beginning to discuss the underlying symbolism - summer as the time when we let ourselves shine and our creative projects reach their fullness, winter as a time when we withdraw and reflect. If my daughter sees me pulling a tarot card, she always asks to pull one too. So far she mostly sees it as a game, but the seeds are being sowed. When she struggles to sleep, I do basic relaxation and meditation exercises with her, asking her to watch her breath,to visualise warm golden energy surrounding her. One of my favourite things at the recent PFL Conference was taking her to the Goddess Temple, beautifully set up by Goddess in London. It was her first taste of temple space, and she loved making a wish and looking at all the fairies. Once again, sowing seeds.

Sometimes I think that my religion is just this - sunlight on water

All these seemingly random things add up, very simply, to me bringing up my children by my own values, just as every parent does. I don't want to impose my beliefs on my children, but I want them to have a language for the numinous, a sense of a world beyond the material, of the unseen as well as the seen. Precisely because mainstream society dismisses such things, I want them to believe in magic, whatever that ends up meaning to them.