Hello Companions. It's a while - and some - since I posted anything but it's Midwinter Eve and I wanted to wish everyone a very happy solstice which I hope is indeed filled with the seed of light and potential that this time of year signifies.
I wonder if DF did celebrate any of the seasonal festivals. She was certainly very connected to the Green Ray so I would like to think that she at least acknowledged some of them. I think the solstices are the most well known points of the seasonal year. Midwinter Solstice is so soon followed by Christmas with such closely related meanings - rebirth of the sun or son/Divine Child (in druidry the Mabon Child) signifying the return of the light. So I will be lighting a candle for the seed of light within the dark and its promise of growth and potential. And I will first stand awhile in the dark and contemplate what has gone before and in that stillness think about what my own potential is for the coming year as the days slowly lengthen. And it's the stillness that is important too. Solstice means literally the standing still of the sun. For a few days the days stay pretty much the same; the sun's apparent spiral path has closed into a tightly wound spring like the winding of an old clock, poised, still and quiet and yet pregnant with all possibility... It's that stillness I feel it is important to connect to, for within lies the seed of hope and everything is possible. It's a good time to pause, turn the lights off, do honour to the moment, giving thanks and turning aside from the bustle and frantic rush of the pre Christmas preparations and allowing a few moments just to Be and then light the candle in the dark remembering and celebrating what that signifies.
Although the actual solstice is on the 21st December that stillness lasts for a few days before the spring begins to unwind and the light begins to fill our lengthening days. So it doesn't have to be on the dot tomorrow. The sun enters Capricorn at 16.27 GMT on the 21st which is the astrological point for the solstice but it doesn't always follow that it is the shortest day which is another harbinger for the Solstice. Check your diaries out or online to see the times of sunrise and sunset to see how the length of the days shifts and trembles a little in that no time between the worlds before the spiral really does begin to open.
Whatever you do I hope your solstice is beautiful. It would be good to hear from people as to how they honoured the Midwinter solstice if you did so. I was hoping to join some friends for a ritual on Friday but alas the day job got in the way.
Now it would be good to finish with a great Solstice quote from DF but I've never found one. So here is the Mabon song
I am the Mabon I am the child
I am he of the golden bough
I am the dart that the Yew lets fly
Three pure Rays the pillars of light
I am the wren the King of birds
I am bard and teller of lies
I am the song within the heart
I am the light that will never die
I am the stars within the void
I am the Eye of the Aeon..
--------
Lots of seeds of light and magic in there.
Blessings to all
I wonder if DF did celebrate any of the seasonal festivals. She was certainly very connected to the Green Ray so I would like to think that she at least acknowledged some of them. I think the solstices are the most well known points of the seasonal year. Midwinter Solstice is so soon followed by Christmas with such closely related meanings - rebirth of the sun or son/Divine Child (in druidry the Mabon Child) signifying the return of the light. So I will be lighting a candle for the seed of light within the dark and its promise of growth and potential. And I will first stand awhile in the dark and contemplate what has gone before and in that stillness think about what my own potential is for the coming year as the days slowly lengthen. And it's the stillness that is important too. Solstice means literally the standing still of the sun. For a few days the days stay pretty much the same; the sun's apparent spiral path has closed into a tightly wound spring like the winding of an old clock, poised, still and quiet and yet pregnant with all possibility... It's that stillness I feel it is important to connect to, for within lies the seed of hope and everything is possible. It's a good time to pause, turn the lights off, do honour to the moment, giving thanks and turning aside from the bustle and frantic rush of the pre Christmas preparations and allowing a few moments just to Be and then light the candle in the dark remembering and celebrating what that signifies.
Although the actual solstice is on the 21st December that stillness lasts for a few days before the spring begins to unwind and the light begins to fill our lengthening days. So it doesn't have to be on the dot tomorrow. The sun enters Capricorn at 16.27 GMT on the 21st which is the astrological point for the solstice but it doesn't always follow that it is the shortest day which is another harbinger for the Solstice. Check your diaries out or online to see the times of sunrise and sunset to see how the length of the days shifts and trembles a little in that no time between the worlds before the spiral really does begin to open.
Whatever you do I hope your solstice is beautiful. It would be good to hear from people as to how they honoured the Midwinter solstice if you did so. I was hoping to join some friends for a ritual on Friday but alas the day job got in the way.
Now it would be good to finish with a great Solstice quote from DF but I've never found one. So here is the Mabon song
I am the Mabon I am the child
I am he of the golden bough
I am the dart that the Yew lets fly
Three pure Rays the pillars of light
I am the wren the King of birds
I am bard and teller of lies
I am the song within the heart
I am the light that will never die
I am the stars within the void
I am the Eye of the Aeon..
--------
Lots of seeds of light and magic in there.
Blessings to all
Elin, a happy solstice to you and everyone on this forum! As a Druid -- that is, a participant in one of the old-fashioned Druid Revival traditions (think white robes, gilt sickles, and rites at Stonehenge back before it became too crowded) -- I welcomed in the reborn sun with a ritual working; my wife and I exchanged presents -- we figure that one of the benefits of Druidry is that you get your presents four days early 
-- and we fixed a very pleasant meal. That's been our habit for some years now, as we've too often found the group events available to us more of a hassle than a blessing.
It's an interesting question, whether DF did anything with the seasons. I'd assume that in her Golden Dawn years she took part regularly in the Equinox workings, but I don't recall anything about seasonal rites in her writings about her own work. It's possible, I suppose, that the Christian liturgical calendar met that need for her.
-- and we fixed a very pleasant meal. That's been our habit for some years now, as we've too often found the group events available to us more of a hassle than a blessing. It's an interesting question, whether DF did anything with the seasons. I'd assume that in her Golden Dawn years she took part regularly in the Equinox workings, but I don't recall anything about seasonal rites in her writings about her own work. It's possible, I suppose, that the Christian liturgical calendar met that need for her.
Good Morning Everyone
Happy Solstice to all.
for me the days itself was of quiet reflection.
Yesterday some friends came for a devotional Solstice ritual, one which i had also celebrated last weekend with someone I've known for a very long time (you know who you are
).
I also like to get outside to connect with the light at this time. There is magic in the air!
Psyche.
Happy Solstice to all.
for me the days itself was of quiet reflection.
Yesterday some friends came for a devotional Solstice ritual, one which i had also celebrated last weekend with someone I've known for a very long time (you know who you are
).I also like to get outside to connect with the light at this time. There is magic in the air!
Psyche.
It is not for me to teach the Psychologists their business, however great the need.
Greetings All
I too have searched in vain for comments made by DF on the seasonal dates and festivals. I feel sure she must have celebrated them in a private capacity as well as more formally within her magical fraternity, but she seems to have made no public mention of it. Or, if she did, her comments are now lost to us along with other details of her personal life. Which in the end is probably no bad thing.
Thank you Elin for your wise observation that the Solstice stillness lasts for several days! I've been watching the sunrise/sunset times on my Weather app and yes, as you say, there has been no apparent change for a week. Only since yesterday has the sunset time moved on by a minute.
My own Winter Solstice practice always takes me out of doors and to a local wood which hides a little known sacred well where I like to sit and ponder. There is a very special type of dark, damp silence in woodland at midwinter, and if the weather is similarly dark, cold and inhospitable, so much the better!
But now it's time to kindle a new flame. My very best wishes to all our Companions for the New Year. I hope 2018 brings you blessings and fulfillment.
Peter Nascien
I too have searched in vain for comments made by DF on the seasonal dates and festivals. I feel sure she must have celebrated them in a private capacity as well as more formally within her magical fraternity, but she seems to have made no public mention of it. Or, if she did, her comments are now lost to us along with other details of her personal life. Which in the end is probably no bad thing.
Thank you Elin for your wise observation that the Solstice stillness lasts for several days! I've been watching the sunrise/sunset times on my Weather app and yes, as you say, there has been no apparent change for a week. Only since yesterday has the sunset time moved on by a minute.
My own Winter Solstice practice always takes me out of doors and to a local wood which hides a little known sacred well where I like to sit and ponder. There is a very special type of dark, damp silence in woodland at midwinter, and if the weather is similarly dark, cold and inhospitable, so much the better!
But now it's time to kindle a new flame. My very best wishes to all our Companions for the New Year. I hope 2018 brings you blessings and fulfillment.
Peter Nascien
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