"Your days are numbered." ~Florence Campbell
~One of the ways in which a culture shapes its people is with its system of time keeping. As with all Calendars, the Western [Gregorian] Calendar literally and figuratively encompasses all our days. It guides our view of the past and our path into the future, both collectively and individually. It informs our thinking, not just via holidays and such, but how we see our world. “TGIF.” “Humpday.” “Sunday driver.” “I hate Mondays.” Those few are just off the top of my head and I'm sure many of you can provide your own examples. These are all Calendric perceptions.
Therefore if one wishes to change an established culture and/or create a new one, the Calendar is one of the essential components one must transform. And upon The Temple's seventh birthday, I finally put The Matriarchal Calendar down on paper. I say 'finally' as I had been poodling around with the concept for years so when I finally did commit to the thing, it flowed out upon the page rather quickly.
That day, in my on-line post “Today We Are Seven”, I related the following:
“There are a number of calender events that are important to The Temple.
May 27th, 1996, Memorial Day of that year, when I saw The Craft and was inspired to create the stories of the Vēkkan Sisterhood's Universe {see Addendum B}, the key element in leading me to the actual Craft itself and to calling myself Witch.
January 31st, 1997, the evening when the mad and lovely Sarah L held open the portal that E came through, a Being who informed me that She was now going to be my Spirit Guide and then began to tell me in no uncertain terms just how that was going to work.
Those few days in mid October of 2001 when E first dictated The Pentavalent to me, the Precepts that are shaping and guiding The Temple into becoming The New Matriarchy, that Global Amazon Republic I'm so fond of promoting. We shall date the Anna Sororitas [Year of Sisterhood] beginning from that time when the actual Path itself was first Revealed. AD 2001=1 AS.
September 16th, 2005, when Le-Le was Initiated as a Sister of The Temple, Sister One as I titled her, and the thing transformed from a 'singular vision' to become an actual 'organization', albeit a 'mom and pop' one. [humble beginnings are a Good Thing]
These are all important dates. But...
Today is The Most Important Date, The Temple's actual birthday, August 30th, 2004. On that day, late in the afternoon, I first set the words The Temple of The Pentavalent upon paper and then wrote a brief outline of what it could become. I still have that thin spiral notebook.
As I have said in The Explanation, the idea for a 'house of women' had been put forth to me back in the previous March by Kat K, my oldest friend and the Sister who began this Path with me when were teenagers.
Note that I do not include my own birthday here. I am merely a vehicle for this Work. Today shall become a Festival Day, the day that celebrates not the birth of the guide, but The Birth of this New Matriarchy.
Today marks The Birth of Our Future.
Note: In 2004, August 30th was the 243rd calendar day, as '04 was Leap Year. So while the present calendar is in use, we shall use 8/30, which is usually the 242nd calendar day, as The Temple's Birthday Festival.
But the calendar will change.
I do not see a Matriarchy using months named after Roman male gods and autocrats. Then, whatever day of that calendar is 243rd, that day shall be designated for The Temple's Birthday Festival.”
The Roman autocrats in question are Julius Caesar [July] and his nephew and heir Augustus [August]. We can happily dispense with those two months. January [Janus, Roman God of Doorways, e.g. 'the entrance of the year'] and March [Mars, Roman God of War, who was really Rome's number one deity; March was originally the first month of the Roman Calendar] can also be discarded without worry, as can February, which comes from a Roman purification holiday.
The Romans could be an odd lot. For centuries they considered Winter to be 'month-less' and only added January and February when the Republic became more legalistic, requiring proper dating year round.
The 'Spring months' are slightly more problematic, as they have Goddess connections, but those are somewhat tenuous and vague.
The origin of April is lost in the mists of time. Possible from the Latin 'aperire', “to open”, e.g the opening of flowers, etc. Possible from 'Aphrilis', from Aphrodite, the month being sacred to her Roman equivalent Venus.
May is from Maia and June from Juno. Maybe. Ovid said their origins were actually 'maiores' “elders” and 'iuniores' “young people”. But, in any case, these are in dispute.
However, as we are creating a Universal Calendar, one that can be used in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and ultimately off world as well, the identification of these names with Spring makes then problematic as those months are Autumnal south of the Equator. So, we Bless them and let them go.
Which brings us to September, October, November and December. We shall keep them...after a fashion. Their origins are quite clear. They come from the Roman numbers Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten. They were all pushed up two months by those arrogant bastards July and August, making them Nine, Ten, Eleven and Twelve.
We shall restore them to their original positions and use them as a template for all our new months, albeit in a new form; as The Twelve Monthly Goddesses.
These are named after feminized versions of the Roman words for First, Second and Three through Twelve. They are ordered in twelve 30 day months, each with six 5 day weeks and a year end festival that falls upon The Year End Solstice [5 days long, except for Leap Years when it is 6 days].
Primaria [days 1-30] {Kalends [1st]Primaria = Dec 26th/Dec 27th on Leap Years}
Secondia [days 31-60]
Ternia [days 61-90]
Quadria [days 91-120
Quinqia [days 121-150]
Sestia [days 151-180]
Septemia [days 181-210]
Octobria [days 211-240]
Novembria [days 241-270]
Decembria [days 271-300]
Undenia [days 301-330]
Duodenia [days 331-360]
...and The Festival of The Turning [days 361-365/6] {Dec 21st through Dec 25th/Dec26th on Leap Years}
The Festival of The Turning, while numbered with the preceding year for 'accounting' purposes, is not actually part of that year nor of the forthcoming year. It is a purely inter-calendary period and all The Sisterhood's non-essential operations and activities are suspended for its duration.
These names are simple, straight forward and easily recognized by any speaker of a Romance or Germanic language [such as English], which goes a long way toward the idea of a Universal Calendar. This would apply to all of the Americas and Western Europe, large portions of Africa where English, French and Portuguese are spoken, and also to large portion of Asia. There are over 70 million English speakers in India and probably three times that number in China. In Oceania [the Pacific region] there are Australia and New Zealand, both English speaking nations and most of the small island nations in that region have English or French colonial histories.
In answer to the likely accusation of these names being Eurocentric; well yes, they are. The seed of The Temple has been planted in Southern California, a region dominated by English and Spanish. I fully expect that in the future the common tongue of The Sisterhood will an Anglo-Iberian patois, largely based upon English grammar and with numerous loan words from around the world. Both American English and Mexican Spanish have a long history of that type of linguistic adaptation and expropriation.
It should also be noted that the Chinese have been using a naming system very much like this one for the past twenty one centuries, their first month Zhēngyuè meaning literally Principal Month with Èryuè Second Month, Sānyuè Third Month, and so on. And the convention of turning a Goddess into a month has significant precedent throughout history, so we're on solid ground here in our adaptation and reinterpretation of these systems.
The concept behind making each month a Goddess in Her own right comes from something E says in Part Two “The Temple's Metaphysics”: "By focusing individual or collective Will upon a specific Aspect of The Creatrix, meaning a specifically Named Goddess – such as Astarte, Kali, or, Bride – a Tulpa may be invoked out of The Creatrix, a part of Her that can be understood and related to, and therefor directed."
The idea here being to Invoke each Monthly Goddess at the beginning of of Her Thirty Days, asking for Her Guidance and Protection during Her Time. To facilitate this, we are reintroducing another Roman convention, The Kalend, Latin for 'announcing' or 'calling' and the basis for the word Calendar, as the first day of each month. Upon the arrival of The Kalend we are reminded to make the above Invocation.
These are new Goddesses and as yet Un-Manifested. Therefore, now as I write these words upon this page, I Invoke them and call then into Being.
By reading their Names, you my Sisters, also Invoke them. And as Common Usage becomes Established Tradition, the Nature and Traits of each Goddess shall make themselves apparent and become fully Manifest. Through this process, we shall Serve them and they shall Serve us, which is ever the proper relationship between Humans and their Deities.
And now we come to the new days of the Five Day Week...
First let us look at the structure of the week itself. The First, Second and Third Days are the 'official' Work Week for business, school, etc. On the Weekend, the Fourth Day is half and half; morning and early afternoon for finishing up the Work Week and the late afternoon and evening for playing and partying. The Fifth Day is not a religious holiday per se, but rather meant to be a day of relaxation and reflection.
As for the names of each day, of course they shall be named for Goddess. I have given this much thought over a long period of time and have done my best to balance the origins of said Goddesses. They are two Celtic, one Egyptian, one East Indian and one Afro-Brazilian.
Eponaday is The First Day. Epona is a very ancient Celtic Goddess of Horses. She is chosen because The Horse is central to Amazon Culture. She starts off the week with the symbolic 'getting back in the saddle'.
Oshunday is The Second Day. Oshun is a Yaruban Goddess of Love and Sweet Waters, worshiped as a River Goddess in Nigeria and as a Orisha in Brazilian Candomblé. She is chosen chosen because She gets the week to 'flow with Her Love and Beauty'.
Taraday is The Third Day. Tara is both a Hindu Goddess and Buddhist Saint. The Hindu Tara is an Aspect of Kali. The Buddhist Tara reincarnates only as a woman. She is chosen because She symbolizes 'the End that is not the End'.
Bastday is The Fourth Day. Bast is the ancient Egyptian Goddess of Cats and those creatures are much beloved by The Sisterhood. She is chosen because cats are very fastidious thereby symbolizing 'the finishing up of business' and also notoriously nocturnal and therefore will guide Sisters as they play with Substances and Sex though the night.
Bredsday is The Fifth Day. Bride is both an ancient Celtic Goddess and a Catholic Saint. She is a Triple Goddess and a Keeper of The Eternal Flame. Poetry is sacred to Her. Saint Brigid’s Day falls on Imbolc, also a 'fire festival'. She is chosen so that we may 'meditate upon The Light, upon The Flame'. She is also connected to Her Celtic Sister Goddess Epona, who comes the next day and Bride's Light can serve as Epona's guide.
Seperate from these are the Turningdays.
The Festival of The Turning is named such because, this being a Universal Calendar, it will be different 'turnings' for Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In the North it will be a Winter Festival, while in the South it will be a Summer Festival. Because of this the Northern Festival will be mostly indoors and the Southern Festival will be mostly outdoors. It is expected that Sisters will travel to attend Turnings in both Hemispheres during their lifetimes. Beyond the general framework listed below, the details and traditions of each set of Turnings will be locally determined.
First Turningday
This is a day of Deep Reflection and Assessment. We meditate upon The Year That Had Passed. We list goals achieved and goals not achieved. We examine what has worked, what hasn't work and what has failed, which are not the same.
Second Turningday
This a Day of Preparation for The Festival itself. We clean and cook and bake and stock our larders. We primp ourselves and lay out our Party Dress.
Third Turningday
This is a Day of Excessive Indulgence and Bad Behavior. For the Younglings, the day starts with the receiving of gifts and then they are allowed to eat as much cake and candy as they like. For the Adults, this is then followed by dancing, drinking, drugging, fucking without restraint or regret.
Certain members of The Sisterhood will be Festival Guardians. They will abstain and maintain Basic Services, watching the Younglings while doing their best to prevent overdoses and fatalities. Some will do this every year: our Sober Sisters, who will be the Elder Guardians. The others will volunteer one year and then join the festivities the next few years.
Fourth Turningday
This is a Day of Collapse. Those who have Celebrated will sleep off the festivities of previous day and the Festival Guardians with catch their breath.
However, on Leap Years, this will be a Second Day of Indulgence and the Day of Collapse will be pushed forward one day. Of course it is expected that some will collapse anyway and no shame will be attached...though some teasing will be allowed.
Fifth Turningday
This is a Day of Cleansing, light fasting, sweat loges, saunas, yoga and walking, etc. The Sisterhood Physically, Mentally and Spiritually clears itself out and prepares for The Kalends of Primaria.
However, on a Leap Year, today is a the Day of Collapse that usually falls upon Fourth Turning Day.
Sixth Turningday
During Leap Years, this is the Day of Cleansing that usually falls upon Fifth Turning Day.
To some of you these names will at first sound odd or even absurd. But time and usage will change that, trust me. To the Spanish speaker learning English, Martes becoming Tuesday will likely sound strange, as did the reverse for me when I started learning Spanish. And I suspect that if one lived in India's Andhra Pradesh long enough, where Telugu is the principal tongue, you would even get used to calling the second day of the week Mangalavaaram. Perhaps the most common theme in Human history is that what is first thought of as ridiculous almost always become ubiquitous, a Lesson which we shall in due course Teach The World about our New Matriarchy.
Given that all the major world calendars operate with a seven day week, our New Matriarchal Calendar will function largely as an internal system. To begin with much of what we undertake will have to conform to those dominant time keeping systems and we shall ever do so without complaint. But as we grow, so shall our time keeping system.
This will call for some mix and match adaptations on our part. The Lesson here relates to the nature of Our Mission Statement, “The central strategy here is The Viral Meme, the Idea that is so compelling and dynamic that that is spreads like wildfire. That Idea exists; a entirely new and modern form of Matriarchy. Our task is to create that Idea as a Practical Reality, a Practical Reality that becomes the microcosm of this new society, a Practical Reality that is vital, replicable, adaptable, and then plant it in the societies that presently exist.”
The Matriarchal Calendar is a central part of that Viral Meme. Let me repeat the first sentence of this section; “One of the ways in which a culture shapes its people is with its system of time keeping.” This Calendar will come to 'encompass all our days'. And that will commence with it beginning to slowly encompass all the other calendars.
We start that with 'pacing' the dominant calendars, a fairly simply process once one gets the hang of it. You will find at the end of this section a page with a printable blank format for The Matriarchal Calendar, six five day weeks laid out, with the days named at the top and each day numbered. Remember, every month in this calendar is the same.
Let us take a 'problematic' date, The Temple's Birthday, which first fell upon a Leap Year. “In 2004, August 30th was the 243rd calendar day, as '04 was Leap Year. So while the present calendar is in use, we shall use 8/30, which is usually the 242nd calendar day, as The Temple's Birthday Festival.”
First, we remember that our year usually starts six days before the Gregorian Calendar Year. Kalends aka 1st Primaria being Dec 27th. That would be Dec 28th on a Leap Year, but because the date we're looking at comes after February 29th, the calendars will have resynchronized by then.
Therefore we add 6 days to the 242 to get 248, which would be 8th Novembria, a Taraday. But as there is some 'give' here due to the Gregorian Leap Year issue, we are going to make it a two day festival, taking place on both day 248 and 249 [9th Novembria, a Bastday]. That means it goes on into the Weekend and will be a serious shindig, as it should be.
But to be very specific, this year The Temple's Birthday was on 8th Novembria, 11AS.
I recommend making a couple of copies of the blank, taking a standard calendar that numbers the days e.g 'August 30th is the 243rd calendar day' and using the methodology outlined above, fill in the various days of each on the blank. Make sure to add each new month's day numbers next to the Name of the month, such as Sestia [days 151-180] and so on.
That is how one begins to make the shift. I'd start with just a few months to begin with as not to overwhelm yourself with too many details.
This may seem silly and trivial, but the exercise has deeper implications. Some of you may have heard that if one repeats a behavior for thirty days it becomes a habit. The exact same principle is at work here. If you internalize our Matriarchal Calendar, you have internalized part of the Matriarchy as well.
Remember, “The central strategy here is The Viral Meme, the Idea that is so compelling and dynamic that that is spreads like wildfire. That Idea exists; a entirely new and modern form of Matriarchy. Our task is to create that Idea as a Practical Reality, a Practical Reality that becomes the microcosm of this new society, a Practical Reality that is vital, replicable, adaptable, and then plant it in the societies that presently exist.”
And really, what could be more 'practical' than a calendar?
~One of the ways in which a culture shapes its people is with its system of time keeping. As with all Calendars, the Western [Gregorian] Calendar literally and figuratively encompasses all our days. It guides our view of the past and our path into the future, both collectively and individually. It informs our thinking, not just via holidays and such, but how we see our world. “TGIF.” “Humpday.” “Sunday driver.” “I hate Mondays.” Those few are just off the top of my head and I'm sure many of you can provide your own examples. These are all Calendric perceptions.
Therefore if one wishes to change an established culture and/or create a new one, the Calendar is one of the essential components one must transform. And upon The Temple's seventh birthday, I finally put The Matriarchal Calendar down on paper. I say 'finally' as I had been poodling around with the concept for years so when I finally did commit to the thing, it flowed out upon the page rather quickly.
That day, in my on-line post “Today We Are Seven”, I related the following:
“There are a number of calender events that are important to The Temple.
May 27th, 1996, Memorial Day of that year, when I saw The Craft and was inspired to create the stories of the Vēkkan Sisterhood's Universe {see Addendum B}, the key element in leading me to the actual Craft itself and to calling myself Witch.
January 31st, 1997, the evening when the mad and lovely Sarah L held open the portal that E came through, a Being who informed me that She was now going to be my Spirit Guide and then began to tell me in no uncertain terms just how that was going to work.
Those few days in mid October of 2001 when E first dictated The Pentavalent to me, the Precepts that are shaping and guiding The Temple into becoming The New Matriarchy, that Global Amazon Republic I'm so fond of promoting. We shall date the Anna Sororitas [Year of Sisterhood] beginning from that time when the actual Path itself was first Revealed. AD 2001=1 AS.
September 16th, 2005, when Le-Le was Initiated as a Sister of The Temple, Sister One as I titled her, and the thing transformed from a 'singular vision' to become an actual 'organization', albeit a 'mom and pop' one. [humble beginnings are a Good Thing]
These are all important dates. But...
Today is The Most Important Date, The Temple's actual birthday, August 30th, 2004. On that day, late in the afternoon, I first set the words The Temple of The Pentavalent upon paper and then wrote a brief outline of what it could become. I still have that thin spiral notebook.
As I have said in The Explanation, the idea for a 'house of women' had been put forth to me back in the previous March by Kat K, my oldest friend and the Sister who began this Path with me when were teenagers.
Note that I do not include my own birthday here. I am merely a vehicle for this Work. Today shall become a Festival Day, the day that celebrates not the birth of the guide, but The Birth of this New Matriarchy.
Today marks The Birth of Our Future.
Note: In 2004, August 30th was the 243rd calendar day, as '04 was Leap Year. So while the present calendar is in use, we shall use 8/30, which is usually the 242nd calendar day, as The Temple's Birthday Festival.
But the calendar will change.
I do not see a Matriarchy using months named after Roman male gods and autocrats. Then, whatever day of that calendar is 243rd, that day shall be designated for The Temple's Birthday Festival.”
The Roman autocrats in question are Julius Caesar [July] and his nephew and heir Augustus [August]. We can happily dispense with those two months. January [Janus, Roman God of Doorways, e.g. 'the entrance of the year'] and March [Mars, Roman God of War, who was really Rome's number one deity; March was originally the first month of the Roman Calendar] can also be discarded without worry, as can February, which comes from a Roman purification holiday.
The Romans could be an odd lot. For centuries they considered Winter to be 'month-less' and only added January and February when the Republic became more legalistic, requiring proper dating year round.
The 'Spring months' are slightly more problematic, as they have Goddess connections, but those are somewhat tenuous and vague.
The origin of April is lost in the mists of time. Possible from the Latin 'aperire', “to open”, e.g the opening of flowers, etc. Possible from 'Aphrilis', from Aphrodite, the month being sacred to her Roman equivalent Venus.
May is from Maia and June from Juno. Maybe. Ovid said their origins were actually 'maiores' “elders” and 'iuniores' “young people”. But, in any case, these are in dispute.
However, as we are creating a Universal Calendar, one that can be used in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and ultimately off world as well, the identification of these names with Spring makes then problematic as those months are Autumnal south of the Equator. So, we Bless them and let them go.
Which brings us to September, October, November and December. We shall keep them...after a fashion. Their origins are quite clear. They come from the Roman numbers Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten. They were all pushed up two months by those arrogant bastards July and August, making them Nine, Ten, Eleven and Twelve.
We shall restore them to their original positions and use them as a template for all our new months, albeit in a new form; as The Twelve Monthly Goddesses.
These are named after feminized versions of the Roman words for First, Second and Three through Twelve. They are ordered in twelve 30 day months, each with six 5 day weeks and a year end festival that falls upon The Year End Solstice [5 days long, except for Leap Years when it is 6 days].
Primaria [days 1-30] {Kalends [1st]Primaria = Dec 26th/Dec 27th on Leap Years}
Secondia [days 31-60]
Ternia [days 61-90]
Quadria [days 91-120
Quinqia [days 121-150]
Sestia [days 151-180]
Septemia [days 181-210]
Octobria [days 211-240]
Novembria [days 241-270]
Decembria [days 271-300]
Undenia [days 301-330]
Duodenia [days 331-360]
...and The Festival of The Turning [days 361-365/6] {Dec 21st through Dec 25th/Dec26th on Leap Years}
The Festival of The Turning, while numbered with the preceding year for 'accounting' purposes, is not actually part of that year nor of the forthcoming year. It is a purely inter-calendary period and all The Sisterhood's non-essential operations and activities are suspended for its duration.
These names are simple, straight forward and easily recognized by any speaker of a Romance or Germanic language [such as English], which goes a long way toward the idea of a Universal Calendar. This would apply to all of the Americas and Western Europe, large portions of Africa where English, French and Portuguese are spoken, and also to large portion of Asia. There are over 70 million English speakers in India and probably three times that number in China. In Oceania [the Pacific region] there are Australia and New Zealand, both English speaking nations and most of the small island nations in that region have English or French colonial histories.
In answer to the likely accusation of these names being Eurocentric; well yes, they are. The seed of The Temple has been planted in Southern California, a region dominated by English and Spanish. I fully expect that in the future the common tongue of The Sisterhood will an Anglo-Iberian patois, largely based upon English grammar and with numerous loan words from around the world. Both American English and Mexican Spanish have a long history of that type of linguistic adaptation and expropriation.
It should also be noted that the Chinese have been using a naming system very much like this one for the past twenty one centuries, their first month Zhēngyuè meaning literally Principal Month with Èryuè Second Month, Sānyuè Third Month, and so on. And the convention of turning a Goddess into a month has significant precedent throughout history, so we're on solid ground here in our adaptation and reinterpretation of these systems.
The concept behind making each month a Goddess in Her own right comes from something E says in Part Two “The Temple's Metaphysics”: "By focusing individual or collective Will upon a specific Aspect of The Creatrix, meaning a specifically Named Goddess – such as Astarte, Kali, or, Bride – a Tulpa may be invoked out of The Creatrix, a part of Her that can be understood and related to, and therefor directed."
The idea here being to Invoke each Monthly Goddess at the beginning of of Her Thirty Days, asking for Her Guidance and Protection during Her Time. To facilitate this, we are reintroducing another Roman convention, The Kalend, Latin for 'announcing' or 'calling' and the basis for the word Calendar, as the first day of each month. Upon the arrival of The Kalend we are reminded to make the above Invocation.
These are new Goddesses and as yet Un-Manifested. Therefore, now as I write these words upon this page, I Invoke them and call then into Being.
By reading their Names, you my Sisters, also Invoke them. And as Common Usage becomes Established Tradition, the Nature and Traits of each Goddess shall make themselves apparent and become fully Manifest. Through this process, we shall Serve them and they shall Serve us, which is ever the proper relationship between Humans and their Deities.
And now we come to the new days of the Five Day Week...
First let us look at the structure of the week itself. The First, Second and Third Days are the 'official' Work Week for business, school, etc. On the Weekend, the Fourth Day is half and half; morning and early afternoon for finishing up the Work Week and the late afternoon and evening for playing and partying. The Fifth Day is not a religious holiday per se, but rather meant to be a day of relaxation and reflection.
As for the names of each day, of course they shall be named for Goddess. I have given this much thought over a long period of time and have done my best to balance the origins of said Goddesses. They are two Celtic, one Egyptian, one East Indian and one Afro-Brazilian.
Eponaday is The First Day. Epona is a very ancient Celtic Goddess of Horses. She is chosen because The Horse is central to Amazon Culture. She starts off the week with the symbolic 'getting back in the saddle'.
Oshunday is The Second Day. Oshun is a Yaruban Goddess of Love and Sweet Waters, worshiped as a River Goddess in Nigeria and as a Orisha in Brazilian Candomblé. She is chosen chosen because She gets the week to 'flow with Her Love and Beauty'.
Taraday is The Third Day. Tara is both a Hindu Goddess and Buddhist Saint. The Hindu Tara is an Aspect of Kali. The Buddhist Tara reincarnates only as a woman. She is chosen because She symbolizes 'the End that is not the End'.
Bastday is The Fourth Day. Bast is the ancient Egyptian Goddess of Cats and those creatures are much beloved by The Sisterhood. She is chosen because cats are very fastidious thereby symbolizing 'the finishing up of business' and also notoriously nocturnal and therefore will guide Sisters as they play with Substances and Sex though the night.
Bredsday is The Fifth Day. Bride is both an ancient Celtic Goddess and a Catholic Saint. She is a Triple Goddess and a Keeper of The Eternal Flame. Poetry is sacred to Her. Saint Brigid’s Day falls on Imbolc, also a 'fire festival'. She is chosen so that we may 'meditate upon The Light, upon The Flame'. She is also connected to Her Celtic Sister Goddess Epona, who comes the next day and Bride's Light can serve as Epona's guide.
Seperate from these are the Turningdays.
The Festival of The Turning is named such because, this being a Universal Calendar, it will be different 'turnings' for Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In the North it will be a Winter Festival, while in the South it will be a Summer Festival. Because of this the Northern Festival will be mostly indoors and the Southern Festival will be mostly outdoors. It is expected that Sisters will travel to attend Turnings in both Hemispheres during their lifetimes. Beyond the general framework listed below, the details and traditions of each set of Turnings will be locally determined.
First Turningday
This is a day of Deep Reflection and Assessment. We meditate upon The Year That Had Passed. We list goals achieved and goals not achieved. We examine what has worked, what hasn't work and what has failed, which are not the same.
Second Turningday
This a Day of Preparation for The Festival itself. We clean and cook and bake and stock our larders. We primp ourselves and lay out our Party Dress.
Third Turningday
This is a Day of Excessive Indulgence and Bad Behavior. For the Younglings, the day starts with the receiving of gifts and then they are allowed to eat as much cake and candy as they like. For the Adults, this is then followed by dancing, drinking, drugging, fucking without restraint or regret.
Certain members of The Sisterhood will be Festival Guardians. They will abstain and maintain Basic Services, watching the Younglings while doing their best to prevent overdoses and fatalities. Some will do this every year: our Sober Sisters, who will be the Elder Guardians. The others will volunteer one year and then join the festivities the next few years.
Fourth Turningday
This is a Day of Collapse. Those who have Celebrated will sleep off the festivities of previous day and the Festival Guardians with catch their breath.
However, on Leap Years, this will be a Second Day of Indulgence and the Day of Collapse will be pushed forward one day. Of course it is expected that some will collapse anyway and no shame will be attached...though some teasing will be allowed.
Fifth Turningday
This is a Day of Cleansing, light fasting, sweat loges, saunas, yoga and walking, etc. The Sisterhood Physically, Mentally and Spiritually clears itself out and prepares for The Kalends of Primaria.
However, on a Leap Year, today is a the Day of Collapse that usually falls upon Fourth Turning Day.
Sixth Turningday
During Leap Years, this is the Day of Cleansing that usually falls upon Fifth Turning Day.
To some of you these names will at first sound odd or even absurd. But time and usage will change that, trust me. To the Spanish speaker learning English, Martes becoming Tuesday will likely sound strange, as did the reverse for me when I started learning Spanish. And I suspect that if one lived in India's Andhra Pradesh long enough, where Telugu is the principal tongue, you would even get used to calling the second day of the week Mangalavaaram. Perhaps the most common theme in Human history is that what is first thought of as ridiculous almost always become ubiquitous, a Lesson which we shall in due course Teach The World about our New Matriarchy.
Given that all the major world calendars operate with a seven day week, our New Matriarchal Calendar will function largely as an internal system. To begin with much of what we undertake will have to conform to those dominant time keeping systems and we shall ever do so without complaint. But as we grow, so shall our time keeping system.
This will call for some mix and match adaptations on our part. The Lesson here relates to the nature of Our Mission Statement, “The central strategy here is The Viral Meme, the Idea that is so compelling and dynamic that that is spreads like wildfire. That Idea exists; a entirely new and modern form of Matriarchy. Our task is to create that Idea as a Practical Reality, a Practical Reality that becomes the microcosm of this new society, a Practical Reality that is vital, replicable, adaptable, and then plant it in the societies that presently exist.”
The Matriarchal Calendar is a central part of that Viral Meme. Let me repeat the first sentence of this section; “One of the ways in which a culture shapes its people is with its system of time keeping.” This Calendar will come to 'encompass all our days'. And that will commence with it beginning to slowly encompass all the other calendars.
We start that with 'pacing' the dominant calendars, a fairly simply process once one gets the hang of it. You will find at the end of this section a page with a printable blank format for The Matriarchal Calendar, six five day weeks laid out, with the days named at the top and each day numbered. Remember, every month in this calendar is the same.
Let us take a 'problematic' date, The Temple's Birthday, which first fell upon a Leap Year. “In 2004, August 30th was the 243rd calendar day, as '04 was Leap Year. So while the present calendar is in use, we shall use 8/30, which is usually the 242nd calendar day, as The Temple's Birthday Festival.”
First, we remember that our year usually starts six days before the Gregorian Calendar Year. Kalends aka 1st Primaria being Dec 27th. That would be Dec 28th on a Leap Year, but because the date we're looking at comes after February 29th, the calendars will have resynchronized by then.
Therefore we add 6 days to the 242 to get 248, which would be 8th Novembria, a Taraday. But as there is some 'give' here due to the Gregorian Leap Year issue, we are going to make it a two day festival, taking place on both day 248 and 249 [9th Novembria, a Bastday]. That means it goes on into the Weekend and will be a serious shindig, as it should be.
But to be very specific, this year The Temple's Birthday was on 8th Novembria, 11AS.
I recommend making a couple of copies of the blank, taking a standard calendar that numbers the days e.g 'August 30th is the 243rd calendar day' and using the methodology outlined above, fill in the various days of each on the blank. Make sure to add each new month's day numbers next to the Name of the month, such as Sestia [days 151-180] and so on.
That is how one begins to make the shift. I'd start with just a few months to begin with as not to overwhelm yourself with too many details.
This may seem silly and trivial, but the exercise has deeper implications. Some of you may have heard that if one repeats a behavior for thirty days it becomes a habit. The exact same principle is at work here. If you internalize our Matriarchal Calendar, you have internalized part of the Matriarchy as well.
Remember, “The central strategy here is The Viral Meme, the Idea that is so compelling and dynamic that that is spreads like wildfire. That Idea exists; a entirely new and modern form of Matriarchy. Our task is to create that Idea as a Practical Reality, a Practical Reality that becomes the microcosm of this new society, a Practical Reality that is vital, replicable, adaptable, and then plant it in the societies that presently exist.”
And really, what could be more 'practical' than a calendar?
