These ponderings originally appeared one per day via MailChimp. This weekly version keeps them in one place for people who missed the daily postings. If you would like to sign up to get them daily, you can do so by filling out the Mailing List Form HERE. Polarities Light and darkness are not enemies; …
These ponderings originally appeared one per day via MailChimp. This weekly version keeps them in one place for people who missed the daily postings. If you would like to sign up to get them daily, contact me HERE. What if…? “What if…?” is one of the most transformative questions we ever ask ourselves. What …
This morning, I woke to the smell of the ocean and the gentle shhuuush of waves lapping against rocks. In the soft grey pre-dawn, I am enfolded in the fog and mist of the coast of Maine. We are spending a few days with my in-laws, drinking in the last bit of seashore for awhile. …
Beltane, the summer quarter, is about fire and sunlight and warmth, about sweat and bare arms and hats that shade our eyes from the intense light. Except when it isn’t. Because whatever we may want, not every day of every Beltane is bright. Not every sky is blue. Not every day is warm enough to …
Beltane can come as a somewhat discomforting quarter in our staid, puritanical 2ist century northern hemisphere cultures. It is the season of fertility in every area of life; all the rituals and traditions associated with it are intended to honor the fertility of the earth and to insure the fertility of crops and herds through …
In early 1986, as I tried to make sense of the shattered remains of an almost 10-year marriage, my father said to me, “You know, my dear, not everything in life can be neatly wrapped with a well-tied bow. Sometimes it just gets put on the shelf in pieces.” I was 34. In the intervening …
Beltane is the season in which the Christian feast of Pentecost falls — a feast filled with tempestuous wind and sparkling fire. The Christian church inherited Pentecost (which simply means “the 50th day” ) from Judaism, where the 50th day after Passover is now more commonly called Shavu’ot (or the Feast of Weeks). In Judaism, …
Beltane begins with fire – specifically with the bonfires lit from the nine sacred woods (birch, oak, hazel, rowan (mountain ash), hawthorne, willow, fir, apple, and ivy). From that bonfire, the hearth fire in each home is renewed and rekindled. These woods symbolize the female and male energies, wisdom, birth and rebirth, life and death, …