The Day of Werde

This summer has been a long, slow one. I had fully intended to be posting quite regularly ever since that first one in May, but I suddenly found I did not have the confidence. For some reason, I had convinced myself that to run a blog like this was to set myself up as an authority on the religion - and that rather says something of my ego, doesn't it? I was terrified to post anything for fear that I would get it all wrong and misrepresent the faith, and some angry priestesses would come zapping out of the ether to declare me a fool.

Oh dear.

So now that I've gotten myself a little more sensible, I'm allowing myself to come back to this blog and post in all honesty and allow myself to be open to correction when it should come, and be positive and enjoy this space in the meantime. And not worry myself about it so much!

Now, this post comes just two days away from a Minor (or Low) Festival: the Day of Werde. Everyone who knows me knows that I love  to make resolutions at the New Year. I get started some time in November of the secular year and work on a list that I turn into manageable steps and tasks to achieve over the coming year, and I often get started on that list before the actual start date! Usually, I'll get about 90% of my resolutions accomplished (which probably means I'm setting really easy resolutions more than anything).

But this year I wasn't feeling it. I kept making plans to sit down and plan resolutions. I'd get an idea and think that would make a great resolution - then get to planning and completely lose interest, or forget my idea, or else have my attention diverted elsewhere: it just really wasn't working.

So when I saw this day marked out on the Filianic calendar this summer, and really looked at it, I wondered: maybe this is the day I should make resolutions on?

I've never really fully experienced the Filianic calendar. I did observe Moura and Eastre to the best of my ability this past Spring, and I was simply amazed at how well I connected to it. So I want to try my best to observe at least some of the other holidays of the year and see how they work out as well!

Since this year the festival falls as the moon begins to wane, I'm thinking that it would be a good time to focus a little more on letting go of things, old habits, things that no longer serve you. As the school year has just started back up for me, there has been a lot of new schedule planning over the past week, and so one could say I've already begun!

But the Day of Werde is also about a little more than sitting down and making a game plan for getting a DIY project finished or getting through a book list. As the Mother God website writes:

Up to a point werde...is interchangeable with karma in the sense that the things that happen to us are the result of past werde, and the things we do create our future werde, thus our whole life-experience is a result of the interweaving of werde, old and new, and the people around us are shaped by and interacting with their werde, while we are interacting with them.

It is for this reason that werde is often described as a "web of tapestry": countless threads of different colors interweaving to make a whole picture. Each thread with its own destiny, its own choices, its own reason for being, and yet each an integral part of a much greater whole.

It is...a day for thinking over our own werde – the direction of our lives, the choices we are making and will make. For as choice-making beings, we have a special relation to werde.

So I'll also be taking the time to read and reflect on the Crystal Tablet, the second chapter of the Holy Mythos in the Scriptures, as it deals with this web of tapestry, on the paths that the soul takes and the importance of the decisions we make. This portion of the Scriptures also contains some of my favourite lines on the nature of the Universe!

What resolutions will you be making? How do you intend to mark the day? Let me know in the comments below!