Are You Pagini or Urbani?

In Roman times the urbani were the urban folk, they lived in the cities.  The pagani on the other hand were rural and village people.  The urbani enjoyed the luxuries of Rome, the Roman night life, the spectacles at the Coliseum and the Roman bathhouses.  The pagani enjoyed night life as well, the movement of the star through the heavens, the cycles of nature, and getting their hands dirty.

Very few of us today live on farms or even in rural communities.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau 80.7 percent of the American population lived in urban areas in 2010.  That means that a majority of us are urbani, if you base the classification based on where we live.  However, I don’t think that definition is appropriate today.

One of the other factors that differentiated the urbani from the pagani in Roman times was the adoption of the new book religion.  You remember, Christianity (or maybe more appropriately Paulianity).  In fact the word “pagan” is now used most frequently to describe those who are outside or, who don’t ascribe to, a book religion.  Thus, even if you live in an urban area, if your spiritual path takes you towards nature you are probably a pagani.

The pagani lived and worked in nature.  They practiced nature-based, polytheistic religions, and celebrated the cycles of the year.  While spiritual practices today are probably the best witness of whether  we are urbani or pagani  it is still true that they lived close to nature.  Here is a little quiz to see how close you are to nature and if that closeness might be why you describe yourself as a pagani.

So, how close to the natural world are you . . .

1. Do you know when the sun rose this morning?
2. Do you know what time sunset will be tonight?
3. Have you gone outside before sunrise in the last week, or month, or year, to welcome the daily rebirth of the sun?
4. Is the sun higher or lower in the sky at noon than it was last week?
5. Do you know when the Spring and Fall Equinoxes occur and what they signify?
6. Do you know when the Summer and Winter Solstices occur and what they mean?
7. Are the days getting longer or shorter right now, where you live?
8. When was the last time that you went outside at night just to look at the stars?
9. Can you find the North star, or if you live in the Southern Hemisphere the Southern Cross?
10. How often to do you go for a walk, even if it is only in a local park, just to be in nature?
11. When was the last time that you looked up at night, even if just out of a window, to check on the moon?
12. When is the next full moon?  The next new moon?
13. What is the current moon phase?
14. Is the moon waxing or waning right now?
15. How often do you stand outside at dusk to watch the moon rise?
16. Was your temperature yesterday above, below or right at average?
17. When should you expect the first frost this fall/winter?
18. When should you expect the last frost next spring?
19. How much rainfall have you had this month?
20. Is your year-to-date rainfall above, below or at average?
21. When should you expect the trees to start budding in the spring?
22. When should the leaves start to fall?  September, October, November?
23. How many local trees can you identify?  What about plants?
24. Do you know which plants in your environment are safe to eat?

Here are a few resources that you might enjoy:

Sunrise/Sunset calendar 
Moon phase calendar 
Sky chart (Free and printable)

Here are a few more pagani things to look forward to in August (I’ll try to remember to post September at the end of the month, remind me if I forget):

August 2016

• 1: Lammas or Lughnasadh
• 1: Imbolc (Southern Hemisphere)
• 4: Celtic Tree Month of Holly ends
• 5: Celtic Tree Month of Hazel begins
• 13: Roman Festival of Pomona
• 18: Full Moon -- Corn Moon at 5:29 am
• 23: Roman Festival of Vulcanalia

 
So, are you pagani or urbani?  I suppose that it depends of your definition of the words.  I’m an urban pagani by both spiritual path and nature practices.  I happily follow the pagani path in a metropolitan area of about 250,000 people and I can’t imagine living any other way.  I go for a forest walk every day, I watch the stars and night and I get up before dawn so that I can greet Father Sky (Intitayta) and Mother Earth (pachamama) every day at sunrise, and I worship in a grove of trees on Friday nights.  But I also enjoy the symphony and opera. 

May the goddess and god smile upon you on your path. 

Dr. Dave

PS:  I decided that I would probably forget to post September so here is the rest of the year:

September 2016

• 1: Celtic Tree Month of Hazel ends
• 2: Celtic Tree Month of Vine begins
• 16: Full Moon -- Harvest Moon at 3:07 pm
• 21: International Day of Peace
• 22: Fall Equinox or Mabon
• 22: Ostara (Southern Hemisphere)
• 29: Celtic Tree Month of Vine ends
• 30: Celtic Tree Month of Ivy begins

October 2016

• 3: Roman Festival of Bacchus
• 16: Full moon -- Blood Moon at 12:25 am
• 27: Celtic Tree Month of Ivy ends
• 28: Celtic Tree Month of Reed begins
• 31: Samhain
• 31: Beltane (Southern Hemisphere)

November 2016

• 1: Mexico's Day of the Dead
• 14: Full moon -- Mourning Moon at 8:53 am
• 24: Celtic Tree Month of Reed ends
• 24: Thanksgiving day (United States)
• 25: Celtic Tree Month of Elder begins
• 30: Festival of Hecate Trivia

December 2016

• 5: Krampusnacht
• 13: Full moon -- Long Nights Moon at 7:06 pm
• 17: Beginning of Saturnalia
• 22: Winter Solstice or Yule
• 22: Litha (Southern Hemisphere)
• 22: Celtic Tree Month of Elder ends
• 23: Celtic Tree Month of Birch begins
• 25: Feast of Frau Holle, Germanic goddess
• 31: Festival of Hogmanay