Fall Equinox Blessings Luxuriating in ripeness, rotund like a woman in a Renoir painting, late summer, here in the northern hemisphere, has matured into autumn. The grain at its height falls beneath the pendulum swing of the scythe or the rotating roar of a John Deere harvester. After the cutting, the gleaners come to gather […]
Welcome Bountiful August “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” wrote Shakespeare in Sonnet 18. To me summer seems to surge forth at a gallop when Lammas or Lughnasa (loo-nuss-uh) arrives. We are half way to autumn. When winter reaches its mid-point, I moan, six weeks more, but at this point in summer I […]
Celebrate Summer Fully unfurled, the green growing world is in motion now that the long days of summer are here. Traditionally celebrated with bonfires and outdoor festivities, the summer solstice, or Midsummer, as it is known in northern Europe, is an ancient holiday honoring the power of the sun. In the United States, bonfires are […]
Welcome Merry May! Beltane Blessings! At this midpoint of spring in the northern hemisphere, known traditionally as Beltane in the British Isles and Walpurgis Night in Germany and Scandinavia, the land explodes into new life with boldness and courage. Beltane fills us with a delicious frisson of anticipatory delight. Named for a Celtic sun god, […]
Welcome Spring! Robins and chickadees trill the news—the sun is back! For one breath-holding moment both hemispheres are equally graced with its abundant light. Welcome Equinox! For those of us shuddering in the frigid, dark north, our hearts leap to behold the first signs of spring. Persephone shakes off the shades of death renewing a […]
Bright Winter Blessings During the last week of January, while braving frigid temperatures for a late evening walk, I looked up at the full Wolf Moon at the zenith of the night sky. “Aha,” I thought, “the moon is a place holder for the summer sun which has been abducted into the Southern hemisphere.” Yet, […]
Now ‘tis Yuletide and people in northern latitudes shore up the weak December sun with merriment and communal good cheer and those in southern climes bask in the sun’s warmth. Winter solstice, or Midwinter to the ancient Celts, stays the march of darkness. At the solstices, the midpoints of the darkest and brightest times of […]
Happy Halloween! For ancient Celts, this day of Samhain (sow -en) marked a pause between the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It was a crack in time that allowed spirits of the departed and fairy folk to walk abroad freely. Ordinary humans huddled inside for safety. Such behavior has a […]
Welcome autumn! We gather in a harvest of pain; we gather in a harvest of hope; we bow to the winds of change. On the last Saturday of summer, two other crones and I gathered outdoors, masked, and socially distanced, for a fall equinox celebration in one woman’s community garden plot. Surrounded by pollinators nosing […]
Welcome First Fruits of the Harvest This is no ordinary August. As the Green Corn moon ripens in the sky and crops plump up in the fields, we vacation in quarantine, mask up, and socially distance in fear of covid virus spread. This season of abundance in the northern hemisphere is menaced with loss and […]
