The gifts of Winter may be difficult to embrace since this season can also include illness, severe cold, hardship and a descent into darkness, not only with longer nights and shorter daylight, but also with a descent into the hidden shadowy places of the psyche. The superficial glitz of the holidays that drives people into […]
Deep Autumn
Deep Autumn and Samhain. The Celtic year ends; a sharp night chill sets in and ancestral spirits arise as the green world retreats into underground roots to rest. Life moves inward at this time of year in the northern hemisphere, so let’s follow Nature’s lead and go within for some rest and self-reflection, allowing any […]
INDIAN SUMMER – The Fifth Season
We enter the final harvest time which we call Indian Summer around August 23rd when the back-to-school frenzy begins, declaring Summer is over and Autumn is here. Yet it doesn’t seem like Fall, and Summer is still lingering. Indian Summer has qualities of both, warm in the day with bursts of heavy heat and then […]
MIDSUMMER MAGIC & SACRED FIRE CEREMONY
When we join our personal transformation to the potent times in Nature’s cycle, we can more easily expand our own evolutionary growth. Just as the Earth supports an acorn becoming an oak, we are supported in our individual human development when we connect to the energies of Nature, especially during seasonal points of power like […]
CELTIC BELTANE AND THE LUSTY MONTH OF MAY
“We have come so far, that the old stories whisper once more.” Robert Duncan On May 1st, our ancient Celtic ancestors celebrated the peak of spring in the festival of Beltane—Gaelic for ‘bright fire.’ Beltane honors the fertile and flowery abundance of the Earth goddess, the sun god Bel and the fiery force of sexual […]
WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS—HONORING THE DARKNESS
Our ancestral forbears have honored the Winter Solstice as the most pivotal point of the year. Not only is it the longest night, it is also the time of opening to receive a spiritual infusion of new light, energy and vision for the coming year with the sun’s rebirth out of darkness. Knowing the origins […]
SEASONAL FESTIVALS OF THE SOUL
Create your Own Special Holiday Celebrations to Reconnect with Nature One of the most ancient ways of honoring and celebrating the human-nature connection are seasonal festivals. For Millennia our human ancestors have recognized peak times in nature when seasons begin to shift. Since they were utterly dependent on the Earth’s bounty to survive they needed […]