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Episode 51: Pagan Wedding Traditions
583 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! We wanted to do a fun and lighthearted episode after covering such a heavy topic last week, so we're bringing you some fun wedding traditions this week! So get in losers, and lets talk about thos Pagan Wedding Traditions.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References
- Eugene. What is a Pagan Wedding?. Vogue Ballroom. https://vogueballroom.com.au/what-is-a-pagan-wedding/
- Pagan Wedding Guide: Traditions, Ceremonies, and Ideas. The Urban Wedding Company. https://urbanweddingcompany.co.uk/pagan-wedding/
- Handfasting Cords Guide: Knotting, Colors, and Step-by-Step DIY How To. The Urban Wedding Company. https://urbanweddingcompany.co.uk/handfasting-cords-guide/
- 8 Pagan Wedding Traditions and Rituals. Wedbuddy. https://wedbuddy.com/pagan-wedding-traditions/
- Nikel, David (2021). Viking Wedding Traditions: Then & Now. Life in Norway. https://www.lifeinnorway.net/viking-wedding-traditions/
- Levey, Jessica (2021). Viking Weddings: Magic, Swords, Runes, Ritual Sacrifice and More. American Weddings Blog. https://theamm.org/articles/941-viking-weddings-magic-swords-runes-ritual-sacrifice-and-more
- When Pagans Wed: Modern Paganism & The Wedding Ritual. American Weddings Blog. https://theamm.org/articles/664-when-pagans-wed-modern-paganism-the-wedding-ritual
- Elder, Gregory (2018). How many Christian Wedding customs are rooted in Pagan Roman Rites? Redlands Daily Facts. https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2018/02/28/how-many-christian-wedding-customs-are-rooted-in-pagan-roman-rites/
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Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft and Occult
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult, but feel lost in where to start? Then welcome to Get In, Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft. So get in, witches, and let's talk pagan wedding traditions.
Unexplained Noises and Supernatural Concerns
00:00:32
Speaker
So, before we start recording, I have to tell you what happened to me the other night. I forgot about this until just now, too. Oh, no. Yeah. Friday night, right, we were downstairs. Me, my husband, and our two kids, and we were watching Kiki's Delivery Service. And Mike and I were exhausted. We passed out right away. Like, literally, I don't even remember the movie starting. I was out. And I woke up at, like, 11.30.
00:01:02
Speaker
And I was like, Oh shit, I need to go to bed. And so downstairs, it was just me, my husband and our little one, our oldest one just bounced. She's just like, okay, I'm going to bed. Mom and dad are sleeping. So am I. Bye. She left us all downstairs. And so I wake up my husband and I'm like, Hey, can you bring our little one upstairs?
00:01:22
Speaker
I'm going to go upstairs and he was just like, yeah. And I'm like, do you want me to bring, I specifically asked this, this is important. I was like, do you want me to bring your cell phone upstairs and put on the charger for you? And he's just like, no, I'll, I'll go up there. I'll bring it up there whenever I go up there. And I'm like, okay, whatever.
00:01:37
Speaker
So I go upstairs and by the time I make it to my bedroom, I'm like, I'm tired, but I'm not like exhausted anymore. And so I was playing on my phone waiting for Mike to come upstairs and I kept hearing like noises in the hallway and I was like, okay, he's coming up the stairs, but then nothing. And then like a few minutes, when I came upstairs, I checked in on my oldest and she was asleep, like passed out asleep in her bed. So she wasn't awake or anything.
00:02:05
Speaker
Then a few minutes later, I hear like something clattering to the floor. Like we have like, it's like faux hardwood in our house. I don't know what it is. It's like, it kind of looks- Like vinyl planking? I think it's vinyl planking because you know, military housing, you know, it's not going to be like any sort of tile situation. Yeah. But yeah, so then I hear like something clatter to the floor in the hallway, like right outside my bedroom and my doors open.
00:02:35
Speaker
And I'm like, what the hell? In our hallway, we have a motion sensor, like nightlight in the hallway, and it was on. And I'm like, oh, Mike's come up here with Avery. He's dropped his phone, which is like, and I'm just like, I bet that anything, that's what it is. I'll go out in the hallway expecting to like help. No one's in the hallway. There's nothing in the hallway that fell.
00:03:00
Speaker
There was nothing on the floor? There was nothing on the floor. And I checked, I went into Avery's room and I'm like, nothing, nothing fell. Went into my oldest daughter's room. Nothing, nothing fell. And again, it sounded like it was like right outside my door. You know, I checked their bathroom just to see, but I'm like, what the fuck? And it was nothing, nothing fell. Don't like that.
00:03:27
Speaker
I was just like, okay. And then I was, so I waited in the bed to see like, well, maybe Mike, like, I don't know. I don't, I was trying to rationalize it. I couldn't rationalize it. And he was still asleep downstairs. Like he didn't come to bed and didn't bring Avery upstairs until after I had finally fallen asleep. Yeah, that was not,
00:03:50
Speaker
Did you tell him? Did you see if he dropped anything and picked it up? Yeah, he was like, no. And I'm just like, it's just the air pressure, Samantha. Right. You probably just thought you heard something. No, I heard something. It sounded like a cell phone clattering to the floor. I don't like that at all. Yeah, I don't either. So gross. Yeah.
00:04:15
Speaker
If this ghost could stop dropping his cell phone in my hallway, right? I would love that. I have not found any more feathers, but the animals have been acting extremely weird lately. So yeah. Like I was telling Anthony, like last night I was like swapping laundry over from the washer into the dryer and our laundry room is like in the back of the house downstairs, like behind the kitchen.
00:04:45
Speaker
And so I was in there like swapping the stuff over and Nyx came into the kitchen, which she doesn't usually because we have a rule like dogs aren't allowed in the kitchen. She knows like there's a boundary. Like she doesn't cross a certain line. And she came all the way in and she stood in front of the door to the laundry room like facing the hallway. And Nike was like also staring and then Nike like
00:05:10
Speaker
fucking took off and zoomed upstairs and Nick's like, I was like, what are you doing? Like trying to get her attention and she would not turn around. She was just like staring super intent. And I was like, I don't like this. Yeah. What's over there? Right? Yeah. And then she just like after a minute, she was like, okay. And just like when about her business, like got back out of the kitchen.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't like that. Gizmo, he did that the other day when we were lying in bed. Mike and I were just talking, and Gizmo was in bed, and he just is staring intently at our bedroom door, which was open. And the kids were in bed by then, so I don't know what he was looking at, but he was just wide-eyed, staring. That's how she was last night, and I was like, trying to look too. Trying to look too. I'm just like, oh my god, Gizmo.
00:06:03
Speaker
like night when Nike took off running cuz normally like you know I've told you like shit that's happened like that little orb of light in the bedroom that one night like this little orb just like Nike was staring and then it popped up out of the floor and like shot into the roof and she just watched it and then went back about her business she literally booked it like
00:06:23
Speaker
like scooby-dooed across the floor with her tiny little chicken nugget legs and then ran up the stairs into our bedroom. And I was like, what's going on? Yeah, Nike's not afraid of anything. Like, I know, you know, she's a fierce, tiny little cat. Yeah, she definitely did not like something last night.
00:06:46
Speaker
So I, too, took my ass upstairs. Yeah. I was like, enjoy the kitchen. Right. And you have had it. I will be out there. Let me know when you're done. And if you have my mind opener, give it back. Yes. You're the one leaving feathers. What am I supposed to do with these? Right. Do you want me to make an art project with them? Why are there so many? Where are you getting them from?
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah.
Exploration of Pagan Wedding Rituals
00:07:18
Speaker
So what are we talking about today though? We're having a fun topic and this is a great palate cleanser from our last episode. We gave you guys a hard one and now we're going to give you a nice light one. Exactly. Yeah. We are going to talk about pagan wedding rituals and traditions.
00:07:42
Speaker
And I love it. This was a fun episode to research. Yeah. About before we started recording. It was a little bit hard though, because I thought there was going to be a little bit more like documented stuff. Yeah. A lot of our our resources came from like wedding planning sites.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, which we talked about was nice that there was like inclusion now on these wedding planning sites for pagan weddings, but also I wish there was more documented sources that weren't a wedding planning site.
00:08:17
Speaker
because we did get some information from them, but a lot of it was like, here's how you could plan your wedding kind of thing, which we're not trying to give you wedding plans. We wanted to give you guys history and background and what these traditions are. But it was a visually beautiful topic to research. All of the images that I came across on this topic were just absolutely beautiful, and it made me want to do a wedding again.
00:08:46
Speaker
We didn't even do a fancy wedding. We were like, anyways, peace out. We're going to elope. Yeah, that's what we did too. Weddings are too expensive, but this made me almost want to plan one. I was like, oh, it's so pretty. It is. Yeah, it's pretty. I don't know. My thing with weddings is with just how
00:09:08
Speaker
most modern weddings are. It's like, it's not about the bride or the groom. It's about everybody else at the ceremony. Yeah. And I don't like that. No, it would have to be my day. Exactly. I'm spending the money. That's going to be exactly what I want. Yeah. So yeah.
00:09:25
Speaker
Getting into it, pagan weddings, rituals, and traditions tend to pool their practices from ancient Celts and Druidic ceremonies, or what has been pieced together from those histories, because as we've talked about many times before, much of this was either lost or just not well-documented.
00:09:45
Speaker
As most of you likely already know, paganism and its various practices tend to put a strong emphasis on equality, respect for the environment, and it offers a polytheistic view of spirituality. This bleeds over into their practices, traditions, and their rituals. In terms of a pagan wedding, the focus is one that is centered around the union of two people, making it more intimate.
00:10:11
Speaker
Pagan wedding rituals provide couples with the opportunity for distinctive commitments due to the depths of their own spiritual ties rooted in pagan beliefs and in their shared values. When at all possible, pagan weddings take place outdoors and in a natural setting. There's a delineation of a sacred space, and this space is often in the shape of a circle with the four elements within their rightful places.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, so I thought before we got into any of the pagan traditions and things that we're going to be covering in this episode, I thought it would be interesting to talk about how ancient pagan beliefs have influenced modern wedding traditions, because there is so much. And this list is not inclusive by any means. There's a lot more. But as many of us know, Christians have taken a lot of shit that was pagan.
00:11:08
Speaker
basically gave it a new meaning. And of course, this is the same when it comes to modern wedding traditions and how they were taken from ancient Roman pagan wedding rites and transformed and preserved by Christians and given a whole new meaning. And it's interesting to research this because there's so much that really came from another time.
00:11:35
Speaker
Well, I also find it really funny because we see this time and time again where somebody who is
00:11:42
Speaker
Christian will find out that one of us is pagan and it's like automatically like oh Like it's a bad thing and you know, like they they want to like be combative and argumentative about situations but it's really funny to see that they are practicing these practices just slapping the Christian brand on it or you know, whatever their whatever their background is whether they're Christian or not, but like all of these things have been taken from paganism and then it's like
00:12:11
Speaker
Oh, no, this is our thing now. But pagans, they're bad people. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It really is like that. So Roman marriages, this is like, you know, obviously ancient pagan Roman marriages were not recorded by the state, but they were recognized in law. And there were three forms of marriage. So the first one was the eusis marriage. And this is similar to what we see today as common law marriage.
00:12:36
Speaker
The couple needed to cohabitate for two years and not be separated for more than three nights. And there really wasn't any sort of ritual practice with this, but this is where common law marriage comes from. And then the next one is the compteo. And I'm probably saying this wrong, but it is what it is. And this was a standard wedding rite. So brides would wear a long white dress.
00:12:59
Speaker
and give away all of her childhood toys. A sash would be tied around her waist that only her groom could remove. And I read that some of this was kind of hilarious. Girls would tie it in an Achilles knot, which is a notoriously hard knot to untie, to frustrate the groom on his wedding night because he couldn't get in that shot. What a bunch of teases. I thought that was hilarious. That is hilarious. Yes.
00:13:27
Speaker
And then flower girls would throw petals to purify the bride's path down the aisle. And when the bride saw her groom, she would say, where are you, Gaius? I am your Gaius. And he would respond, where are you, Gaius? I am your Gaius. These were the vows that they would recite, and then they would be married. And that would be it. Yeah. You're married. Yeah, you're married.
00:13:53
Speaker
Where are you? I'm here, where are you?
00:14:00
Speaker
Oh, and then a special torch was carried before the bride, and when it was put out, the bride would throw it to the unmarried girls. And I'm glad this kind of morphed into flowers being thrown inside. Could you imagine? Like a just-put-out torch. Yeah, just to match you. You can catch it by that hot end. Yeah. Yeah. No, thank you. That's terrible.
00:14:29
Speaker
And then the last one, I really should have looked at these words, but we'll try here. The last one was called the confiratio, possibly. And this was the most best.
00:14:45
Speaker
Exactly. This was the most sacred and most resembles modern marriages today. And it included all of the other things I mentioned, so wearing white, the torch situation, the flower petals, tying the sash, giving away the toys, all that stuff. In addition, an iron ring would be given from the groom to his new bride.
00:15:09
Speaker
And there was a wedding cake that the couple shared and it was usually a sweet bread. And part of this sweet bread would be offered to Jupiter. With that in mind too, I wanted to briefly cover Norse pagan and Viking wedding traditions.
Norse Wedding Traditions
00:15:25
Speaker
Virtually all we know about these type of wedding traditions has been gathered from Icelandic sagas. But what we do know involves the following. Obviously there was celebratory feasts and mead played a central role and that is just something that you can expect with any Norse pagan anything. But also mead is delightful so it should be in everything. Right. I am going to just say from now on everything should have mead included.
00:15:54
Speaker
There was also priests involved. Norse weddings were traditionally officiated by a pagan priest or priestess known as Gothi or an elder that was ordained for the occasion. And they would call the guests to the ceremonial site with a hunting horn. There was also an exchange of swords. And along with me... There is my sword, Anthony Michael. I know, right? I want a sword.
00:16:22
Speaker
Along with the rings and Norse pagan and Viking traditions, the groom would present an ancestral sword to his bride with the intention that it be passed on to future sons, which is lovely. And then the wife would also gift an ancestral sword to her husband as a symbol of the protection of the bride being passed from her father to her now husband.
00:16:43
Speaker
This is one of the coolest things I have heard for a wedding. How cool. My dad used to be my protector, but now you're my protector. Here's your sword, but also where's my sword? Give me my sword. Exactly. We see this today with just gifts
00:17:03
Speaker
that the bride will give to her husband, the husband will give to her bride on the wedding day. There's also involvement of Norse gods, of course, especially Thor during Norse pagan wedding rites. There was most often a blood sacrifice
00:17:18
Speaker
to thank the gods for letting the couple find each other. And Thor would be asked to bless the marriage and often a goat would be sacrificed and blood would be kept at the temple for use in the ceremony. And I remember we have discussed this a little bit on this podcast, but at the ceremony, fur twigs were dipped into the goat blood and sprinkled over the couple with the blessings from the gods.
00:17:40
Speaker
I don't remember what episode, but I do remember talking about this before. Exactly. Yeah, I remember you specifically talking about it, and I don't remember which episode it was that we referenced it. I don't remember. But we have talked about this. And then also, of course, and this is something I think we have mentioned on the podcast too, but they always scheduled a wedding on a Friday. Fridays were known as Frig's Day or Freya's Day, and this was to honor the Norse goddess of fertility and love. And if weddings were not held on a Friday, it was considered a bad omen.
00:18:10
Speaker
You see this though today. I can't remember the actual verbiage for it, but I know that there's an old wives' tale for when you should get married, and this ties into that as well. And then as far as pre-wedding preparations, the couple would spend the days leading up to the wedding apart. So women would be with women, men with men, and you see this today with the bachelor-bachelorette party and then bad luck.
00:18:37
Speaker
to see the groom before you get married, those things, or see the bride before you get married. And female family members would cleanse the bride to wash away her maidenhood. This was known as bathing rights, and they're sometimes still followed today in like pagan wedding rites.
00:18:54
Speaker
So the bathing rights would consist of the bride being soaked and scrubbed while being offered tips on success in the bedroom and how to have a lasting marriage, avoiding conflict, those sort of things. And after being cleansed, they would be placed in a pool of cold water with aromatic herbs and oils. And when I was reading this, I was like, oh, bathing rights, that sounds awesome. Until I got to this part and I would be like, yeah, that's going to be a no for me.
00:19:18
Speaker
holding or I'm not getting in it. The idea of cold water is that it shrinks everything so it makes your skin tight. You're supposed to do that before fitting into a tight dress or whatever because it shrinks everything essentially. Yes. I know what shrinks your pores. My dad used to always tell me whenever I would wash my face, he's like, wash your face. When you first start washing your face and getting it wet, use warm water to open your pores and then when you're done, use cold water to drink your pores.
00:19:47
Speaker
I hate cold water. Me too. It has people that do the ice baths, or they talk about successful people take cold showers. I'm like, first of all, no. My shower needs to be so hot that two little habits run into the bathroom and toss a ring into it. That water needs to be scolding. It needs to be Mordor. Yes, and Mike's like, oh, he takes cold showers. No, absolutely not, Michael.
00:20:15
Speaker
I can't, I can't do it. So I would not have a grand time at the bathing rights is all I'm saying. Neither would I. Also, first of all, like I'm trying to think about my female family members.
00:20:28
Speaker
Could you imagine like you're just sitting there naked and they're like scrubbing you and telling you how to have, first of all, how to have a successful marriage? Yes. Who are you? How many of you have successful marriages? Are you telling me what you did so that I know? And then at this point too, I would imagine and assume that
00:20:52
Speaker
these brides would be maidens. Could you imagine how awkward that conversation would be? You would have no clue how babies are made. You have no clue what's happening. And then all your family is telling you how to please a man. That would be so uncomfortable. Lorna. Very, very uncomfortable. I'm all about making these topics like normalizing them, but I don't want to have those conversations even now as a grown ass adult with my mother.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah. It would be so hard. For my grandmother. This is why I have 20 kids. My grandma one time made a risque joke at a family dinner in front of me and my brothers and it was mortifying. All of us were like, disgusting grandma.
00:21:43
Speaker
don't say that again. Yeah, yeah. And it was like, so tame. But coming from my grandmother, we were like, oh, gross. If it was anybody else's grandmother, you probably would have been like, huh, this is hilarious. But coming from your own flesh and blood. Super Catholic, like really like reserved grandmother. Yeah, that would be difficult. Yes.
00:22:08
Speaker
Along with the preparations, they would also strip the bride of any clothing and symbols that would show her unmarried status.
00:22:16
Speaker
One of the things that they would strip away from the bride would be their cranson. And this was a bracelet worn by Norse pagan girls as a sign of virginity. And this bracelet was then passed on to their daughters if they had any. So I thought that was kind of cool. Yeah. And then also the gilt circlet. This was worn by Scandinavian girls. And I guess it was just like some sort of headpiece.
00:22:41
Speaker
Um, I don't know exactly, but they would remove that as well. And they weren't allowed to wear that anymore. But this is where that whole like, virginity like ring comes from. A purity ring? Yeah. That Christians use to guilt little girls into staying pure.
00:22:57
Speaker
even though virginity is just a social construct. It really doesn't even matter. My mother made me go to a church that made us wear purity rings and my grandma told me I didn't have to wear mine and he took it from me and told my mom I lost it. Good. Yeah, we love you Grandpa. I remember being a little girl like they made me sign a contract at church
00:23:23
Speaker
saying that I would be married to God, which first of all, that's disgusting. Why? But that was something that I remember. That's one of my few religious trauma memories, signing this contract, not even really understanding why I was doing it, but being forced to do it and then wearing the stupid ring that they gave me, that
00:23:45
Speaker
pastor at the church put on me. Ew, I hate that. Whereas you hear that and you're like, ew, but then you read these and it's meant to be like, it's symbolic and it's not meant to put you down. It's more like, this is a beautiful tradition versus you must state a fear mongering type thing. Exactly. And it's like, these women aren't being married to Thor.
00:24:11
Speaker
You know what I mean? It's all done symbolically, whereas Christianity tainted it essentially to make it to keep you in line or whatever. Yes, to fit their agenda is all it was.
00:24:29
Speaker
So men would also go through a ceremony to mark the tradition between childhood and adulthood. And this would usually consist of breaking into a grave to steal a family sword. And so essentially, this would symbolize that they would enter into death as a boy and emerge reborn as a man.
00:24:51
Speaker
And that's kind of cool, also kind of gross, depending on when the ancestral grave that you're digging up. Yeah. Like how like, because if it was still like, decaying, that would be so disgusting. Like, you open it up and it's just like putrid soup. Yeah, no, thank you. No, thanks.
00:25:15
Speaker
And then lastly, something that was super important in Norse pagan traditions, and I mean, you see this in any sort of Viking show that you watch, the hair, the hair is so important. Like when I was reading stuff about Norse pagan wedding traditions, they basically were talking about how when it came to like clothing and stuff, you could wear whatever you want. Like, you know, pick whatever colors fit with like your theme or whatever you wanted to wear, but your hair was the most important part.
00:25:41
Speaker
women would have a bridal crown and it would be made of silver, often a family heirloom. They would replace the cranson and they would have very elaborate braids and stuff in their hair to symbolize that they were now married. I thought that was beautiful. That is beautiful. Viking hairstyles are so cool. They really are. All the intricate braids and the ways that they style them,
00:26:08
Speaker
It's beautiful. It really is beautiful. Moving into some traditions, hand fasting is probably the biggest one and the one that I found the most information on. I don't know if that was the same for you. Yes. I feel like there was a lot of other traditions and I'm going to talk about some of them because there were a ton.
00:26:29
Speaker
Handfasting was the one that was the most heavily documented anywhere on the internet, which is cool because this is what I was talking about earlier, just visually beautiful research. The handfasting chords that you can find online are so pretty. They really are.
00:26:47
Speaker
So hand fasting is derived from Old English, and it means tying hands or binding promises.
Handfasting and Pagan Wedding Vows
00:26:55
Speaker
Like I said, this is probably one of the more heard-of and more popular pagan wedding practices, and it comes from ancient Celtic wedding traditions.
00:27:04
Speaker
This practice was used as a way to formalize a wedding union. Essentially, this is a ritual where two people are bound together as one by tying their hands together with a cord in a sign of unity. This practice usually takes place before the wedding vows, and it's a way for the bride and the groom to show their love for each other in front of everyone, while also solidifying their commitment to one another. But in some cases, it could also have been performed after the ceremony. This I got a lot of like
00:27:33
Speaker
mixed information on, so I wasn't 100% sure. I don't think there is a standard practice for it. I think it's just wherever you want to place it in your ceremony, it seemed from what I was gathering. Some hand fasting requests that the guests say affirmations as a way to participate in the hand fasting and strengthen the unity of the couple as well. A hand fasting cord, which is also known as a hand fasting rope, a hand binding cord, or a hand fasting ribbon,
00:28:03
Speaker
is just simply a long piece of rope, ribbon, or cord that is used to perform the act of handfasting that I just described. There's no solid set of rules that give guidance on the cord, so it can be personalized completely in that sense. So any color, any material or texture, and any length as long as you can wrap it around both of your hands to join you together. So not like a little baby one, but it's gotta be long enough to be able to wrap.
00:28:30
Speaker
and then later tie because we're going to talk about that too. Since there's not a set rule you can use the cord as a way to add some various correspondences to your wedding ceremony through color or material and you can add like other little elements to the cord as well if you wanted to to like decorate it. So like something like shells or flowers or feathers that
00:28:52
Speaker
correspond to whatever you're trying to portray with your hand fasting cord. Traditionally, hand fast will last for a year and a day, and it's said to be a standard practice within a committed partnership to reaffirm their vowels annually.
00:29:07
Speaker
Though I read this, it was only listed in one of the articles that I came across, so I'm not sure how quote unquote standard of a practice the yearly handfastings are. I also read that those that hold beliefs in reincarnation will make handfasting vows that extend into their afterlife, which I thought was so precious. That is beautiful. Right? Next we have jumping the broom, or in some cases, fire, which I feel like
00:29:35
Speaker
I'm too clumsy to be jumping over a fire my ass would fall in. So practice safety if you do decide to use the fire. This is an old pagan practice that was thought to bring good luck to those who were just married, and it's a practice that has some profound roots to it. Brooms are considered a symbolic part of the old world, and they are synonymous with cleaning out clutter and negativity while offering a fresh start.
00:30:00
Speaker
So by jumping over the broom, it was believed that you were sweeping away any negativity from your past before starting a new life with a spouse.
00:30:10
Speaker
When done over a fire, the belief was that the fire burned away that negativity. But again, my ass is too clumsy to be doing that. So you're not going to see me jumping over any fires. And just to really like paint the picture and not confuse anyone, the broom is held horizontally and low to the ground. So there's no like forced athleticism there. You're not having the like hurdle. Okay.
00:30:35
Speaker
That's good to know. I thought it was really funny because like, when I initially read like one article that was talking about it, I was like, I pictured it exactly like that, right? Like holding the broom down or whatever. And then I read another one and it was like, just so everyone like it really like pointed that out. And I was like, do other people think that the broom is like you having to like jump over the whole broom, like standing on it. So I was like, you know what, we're just gonna include it because I don't want to confuse anyone. Exactly. Yeah.
00:31:02
Speaker
Next we have tying the knot. So oftentimes this practice is performed during a hand fasting. So in practice while the vowels were being exchanged, the two ends of the cord that was used for hand fasting would be knotted together.
00:31:17
Speaker
This is also when the rings would be exchanged. The knot was representative of a combined strength and a commitment to each other. The belief is that tying the knot is a symbolism for two souls becoming one, and while the tradition of tying the knot is typically just
00:31:34
Speaker
tying the two ends of the cord together. You could also add several different knots throughout the length of the cord before you do the hand fasting and then add the knot at the end like tying the two together with your hands in them just to really like fortify the strength and commitment.
00:31:51
Speaker
And this is where tying the knot comes from. Weird. Weird. Weird that it would have roots in pagan practices, right? Yeah. Vows. This is one that's pretty much, I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where they didn't recite vows, right?
00:32:08
Speaker
So pagan wedding vows tend to focus on equality within a marriage and will generally include promises to be a partner for life and will sometimes even thank the God and Goddess for providing such a partner love and the capacity to share a life together, which Sam talked about when she was talking about Thor. There are not a single set of vows that are said, like it's not like you have to say this one thing.
00:32:35
Speaker
Though you can find many examples with a simple Google search, the vows are meant to be personal and they're geared toward a life of partnership and equality, essentially. And then, of course, as with any pagan celebration, there's celebrations and feasts. So pretty much every tradition, like pagan tradition, practice or ritual, a feast and celebration is held afterwards with all the guests in attendance.
00:33:00
Speaker
Pagan practices pretty much always involve food and spending time with friends, family, and other loved ones. Which is beautiful. Yes. So what can you expect at a pagan wedding? Usually you can expect something to do with a sacred circle. So usually a pagan wedding, as Tiffany has mentioned, it's facilitated outside because there's that reverence for nature. Guests are often asked to gather in a circle around the couple and the officiant.
00:33:29
Speaker
There's also the expectation of blessing the space. Usually a pagan priest or priestess or elder will cleanse the space and bless it with incense, sage, or bundles of cedar, rosemary, lavender, et cetera. And there will be a call to the gods and goddesses or maybe spirits or ancestors to create a circle around the physical circle that everyone is inhabiting.
00:33:50
Speaker
And because there is the call to the gods, goddesses, spirits or ancestors or whatever deities that the couple work with or ancestral spirits, whatever, they will be called to join the event by the officiant.
00:34:02
Speaker
And with that, there will be offerings and usually an altar at a pagan wedding. And this can consist of candles, incense, ceremonial wine, offerings to any deities and spirits and any meaningful items by the couple that they want to bring. There will also be herbs, flowers, crystals. If it's a Wiccan wedding rite, the altar will also contain symbols for the four elements. So if you are invited to a pagan wedding, those are some of the things that you can expect at them.
00:34:31
Speaker
outside of just the actual traditions and rituals associated with them. And honestly, they sound like so much more fun. They do! I always, I hate saying this because I absolutely love when my friends find their people, you know, like their person. I dread going to weddings.
00:34:49
Speaker
Everyone loves going to a wedding. I hate going to weddings. I am not a fan of them either. That's why whenever we got married, I'm just like, let's go to the courthouse. We had just some close family and a couple of friends. And then afterwards, we just went back to my sister's house and we had food and a good time and celebration. I mean, I hate going and like,
00:35:16
Speaker
okay I have to find something to wear and then I have to like sit there through all the ceremony aspects and it's so boring. One of the last weddings we went to and I mean it's
00:35:30
Speaker
it's fine because it's their thing but like our friends that got married his dad was a pastor and so we had to sit through a church sermon before the wedding and then like sang hymns like from a hymn book and i'm like this is not i don't do this no yeah so we had to like actually attend church then sing hymns and then
00:35:55
Speaker
they had their wedding. And I was like, could you have just told us to come after? Exactly. Like, we just kept looking at each other like, when is this gonna end? Yeah, it was and that was the other thing. It was so fucking long, because we literally sat through an entire church service with singing. That was like probably an hour. And then we sat through the wedding ceremony and then had to go to like the, you know, like the reception afterwards and
00:36:25
Speaker
It was like a full day event, but I was also forced to go to church. Yeah. I hated it. No, thank you. Please don't ever invite me to anything like that. No. We do not want to go to that. And again, if that's your thing, that's fine. Yes, please do that. But please don't force me to do it. I don't want to. Yeah, I don't want to do it. I will come to your reception. Yeah. I will watch you say your vowels or whatever, but I don't want to go to a church that was before. Thank you. No, absolutely not. Please and thank you.
00:36:54
Speaker
If you're having a pagan wedding, I mean, this sounds great. I know, right? This sounds amazing. Very inclusive. Yeah. And everybody's involved. I like that. I read an article that also had like a what to expect at a pagan wedding. And I read that like, they had included the fact that often
00:37:14
Speaker
pagans understand that other people don't fully understand paganism or their practices. So a lot of times when people have a pagan wedding or they're practicing pagan rituals or ceremonies or whatever, they go to people and say this is what they tell them exactly like this is what you could expect at the wedding like this is what you might want to bring or want to do like they give them a heads up whereas like
00:37:40
Speaker
that whole scenario that I just told you about, we weren't told that we were going to church. There's just the assumption there. You're a Christian. You're like the whole world's Christian, right? No, we're not. But yeah, they talked about just like pagans are, they tend to be more like, Hey, I know that you don't really know what this is all about. So this is what you can expect to happen. Yeah, that's beautiful. I love it. Yeah.
00:38:10
Speaker
But now after having a heavy week last week, hopefully this episode made you a little happier. I hope so too. Yeah.
Conclusion and Next Topic
00:38:31
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like in this video.
00:38:57
Speaker
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