winter

   
holidays past, looking for a semblance of normality as the sun shines across the landscape of snow. Freezing temps to give way to just above 32° so the precipitation we receive will be sleet or rain. and then it will go back down to below zero.
now yet another week later and we have had brutal arctic temperatures and more snow giving way overnight to 50+ degree weather, melting again the white landscape, creating floods, pools and powerful streams.

The lives of water constantly changing as the thermometer roller-coasts this season.
the hard winter I knew would come is here.

this mid-winter solstice started our 2 weeks of cocooning family time, going between the woodstove, the kitchen and the couch. Time outdoors shoveling and marveling at the clouds, the sky, the clear air, the wind, the snow, the squalls and the winter light. and more shoveling.
Time as family, time to clean, time to eat, time to sleep, new kitten time.

Solstice ritual was an energy shift,
the enduring lost fog of the misunderstood and forgotten, giving way to small bursts of energized clarity.
We are only here now, it is not about plans, it is just about doing.
It all starts with a tiny flame of light.

Candles circle the berme of snow around the fire pit,
dug out in the cold and melted to bare earth in the changing weather of this winter’s sun.           


The magic of transformation is nearly impossible
to capture in the moment,
even harder to remember the next day or weeks later.
But it is still felt and here, even if indescribable.

my notes from a ritual held the night of solstice eve at a fire nestled in a spiral of snow and built from small layered and stacked sticks lit in the blue dusk of just evening:

crystal ball on a bed of fir
I sit silently alone as the sky darkens and the flame shines.

first just us
then +1
then +2
then +1 more
putting additional wine glasses circle down in the snow.

 

      

calling directions with the wave of the pine branch
always the birds, even in the dead of winter, call to us
the owl as commentator, echoing our invocation.

the light melting energy
shift

 
prayers and bones and shout outs to those who have passed, to those struggling with illness or loss,
to the old year gone and the new year coming.

May we all find our sustainable peace, our heart and hearth
May we all be in good health
May we all be happy and productive
May we all be together on this journey as the sun sets and rises anew.

The way the fire speaks to each of us, flaming different for Mananan or Bridget, each of the Kindred or me.
And at the end, calling to let go of excess energy,
the mostly consumed yet full of spirit fire suddenly flared  sending sparks into the night sky to mingle with stars.


      



















Our omens
from our Ancestors:Kenaz the torch, our ability to light up, fire up, illuminate, shape & see & craft 
from the Spirits of Nature and Place: Raido or communication and the journey or the quest 
from the Gods & Goddesses: Manaz the self
for the Season:Laguz the lake, that which we draw up from