Pagan Parenting with Astrology

Another piece done years ago:

Little adults? Not so much...

Many parenting techniques seem to focus on getting children to behave the way that adults want them to behave. This does not often take into account the child's development or the child's personality. Child development works with the biological development of the brain, and emphasizes how the brain can and cannot perform at a certain age. Developmental psychology and attachment parenting are good places to start in learning about this aspect.

Today, however, I am focusing on the aspects of the child's personality, which can be broken into two segments: astrological/elemental and past life carry-over.

By taking into account your child's astrological and elemental aspects, you take into account the foundations of your child's personality. By understanding what motivates your child's behavior, you can encourage positive behavior and discourage negative behavior. (I will be talking in the more general elemental aspects regarding astrology; that is, fire = ares, leo & sagitarius, earth = taurus, virgo & capricorn, air = gemini, libra & aquarius, and water = cancer, scorpio & pisces.)

I am Scorpio... FEAR ME!!

For example, air children will want more explanations, appealing to their logic, while water signs have more emotional motivations. So you would tell an air sign that they should pick up their toys so they can find things more easily, but water signs will pick up their toys to make mom and dad happy. Any basic astrology book or website will give you insight into your child's sun sign motivations, but I recommend finding out the rising/ascendent sign and reading up on that as well. The sun and rising signs will be the most important ones in understanding how your child "works." The moon sign, meanwhile, will help you understand the emotional reactions of your child. Needless to say, the more in depth you go with your child's natal chart, the better you will understand your unique little pagan.

The second aspect of personality that I am addressing today is the past life carry-over. This is the emotional memories that every person brings with them into their new lives. Anything you learn about your child's past lives will help unravel the mystery of his or her mind. By doing this, you can help your child get through the obsticles of past-life "baggage" and support them in discovering their purpose in this life. This will help make the child's life more complete and fulfilling.

A Question of Sustainability

Are we on an unsustainable path?

The short answer is, “Yes.” We cannot continue to do what we are doing throughout the world. Sadly, this seems to be most extreme where I live: the United States.

There are so many things that people do, particularly in the States, that contribute to this wrong path. This includes the extreme resistance people have here towards anything that smacks of socialism. Unfortunately, socialism is often about combined effort for greater good. The U.S. has acted poorly on the Monsanto issue, the Gulf oil spill and all that goes with it, the Keystone XL pipeline, and so much more.

Additionally, the U.S. missed the opportunity some 25 years ago to push forward the relatively new technologies for solar energy collection (I’m mostly referring to President Carter’s installation of solar panels on the White House, which I believe could have set the stage for a different governmental attitude towards energy, had Reagan not been elected).

The U.S. cemented it’s stance of denial with the Kyoto Protocol. This constant elevation of capitalism (making money) over the future of humanity on this planet has turned the U.S. into something that I believe will lead to the U.S. becoming irrelevant to the world stage as anything other than a military force (if we aren’t already). We are seeing the start of this irrelevance as other countries take steps that the U.S. should have taken a long time ago. As Germany takes a lead in environmental policy, as Amsterdam initiates a public bike sharing program in the 1960s, as India takes a stand against Monsanto's lies.

This leads me to the long answer, which is “Yes, but that isn’t something that we can’t change.” As the Turkish proverb goes “No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back.”

It is never too late. The point of no return is the destruction of the planet (in regards to human life). Anything else can be fixed, or at least mitigated. We can change, and we can change now. The only thing we need to decide is, how much worse will we make it before we make it better? And when will you (the individual) begin to participate?

Each one of us can do even a small part, because those small parts, those tiny changes are magnified by the sheer numbers of the human population. If the populations of industrialized nations alone work towards sustainable living, participating in creating and supporting renewable energy resources, recycling programs, and personal resource conservation, we would see a huge change worldwide. Each of us has the power. The power to choose:

• to use cloth bags for shopping
• to use non-chemical cleaners
• to foster native plant systems on our properties
• to grow a garden
• to bike when possible
• to protest and educate people on chemicals and GMO foods
• to support those politicians and activists who take up these causes
• to raise our children with this knowledge and the mindset that we can make the difference

Magickal Tools: If you use them, they will work...

The high chair tray is
being put to good use!

There is a half-finished staff by my front door. There is a mostly-done wand on the entertainment center. There are several skull-bead and bone pendant necklaces scattered about the house.

And this is just the stuff we make for sale, never mind the staffs, swords, wands, Tarot, and ritual jewelry and statuary on and around our altars.

Our side-by-side altars (pic taken in
the wee-small hours of the night).

The funny thing about this stuff being all over is that the kids ask about it.

"What is it for?" "Why do we have it?" "How does it work?"

Having the extra kids around, we also get the disbelief questions, also: "You can't REALLY cast spells with a staff... Can you?" To which (witch, haha) I gleefully respond, "Um, yeah, I can."

Or turn your brother into
a pink bunny...

I guess we could be like some people and keep all the precious and/or possibly harmful objects (hey, a wand is dangerous... you could shoot your eye out!) away from the kids until it is determined that they are old enough. But we would miss out on the everyday conversations about our religious beliefs.


I have to admit, one of my favorites is the periodically recurring "witches are evil" discussion. First of all, claiming that you are a witch to small children who are convinced that all witches are of the green-skinned, Wizard of Oz, gonna-getcha variety never fails to evoke a facial expression of epic hilarity.

Not a comfortable fit...
Just sayin'

Personal humor aside, most religions have some way of periodically exposing their children to the expression of their beliefs and practices. Why should we be in the broom closet to our own kids?