This encore post, is part two, from a series I wrote back in February, 2006. Knowest thou What solemn shores of crocus-coloured light, Reared by the sunset in its realm of change, Will mock the dream-lost isles that sirens ward? –Clark Ashton Smith Many of us are seeing the first welcome signs of Spring and … Read more
Another encore post, this time, part one of two that I wrote back in February, 2006. Behold, this crocus is a withering flame… — Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Barren Spring, 1870 The signs of Spring are becoming increasingly insistent and unmistakable. In my garden, purple and yellow crocuses are opening in the noon sun, before slipping … Read more
These days, she says, I feel my life Just like a river running through The year of the cat.. — Al Stewart According to the Chinese Zodiac, today is the beginning of the Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Tiger. The Tiger is the third sign in the cycle of Chinese zodiac, … Read more
The Children of Nut – Part One © Dan Furst From the Universal Festival Calendar for January, 2010. It’s Jump Time, as Jean Houston entitled her new book on Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change. As you know if you’re a regular reader of the UFC [And I urge you to become … Read more
May the Graces Bless Us with a Joyful New Beginning! xx Take out, then take in: Bad luck will begin. Take in, then take out: Good luck comes about. Blessings of the Year of the Empress – the fertile, Great Mother energy of the Tarot. I’ll be writing much more about what this means in … Read more
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. ~Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1850 Many thanks to Waverly FitzGerald, who is the source for much of today’s lore. Blessings to you, Waverly, for your faithful, invaluable … Read more
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself. — Alan Watts We are now in the last week of the Year of Justice, poised before the first decade of the new millennium is gone forever and the next begins. And we are in a very magical time out of time. The … Read more
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising) And so the Shortest Day came and the year died And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned … Read more
Join together beneath the mistletoe. By the holy oak whereon it grows. Seven Druids dance in seven time. Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming. Ring out these bells. Ring out, ring Solstice bells. Ring Solstice bells. — Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull ©1977 The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year in … Read more
From base to summit, gay and bright, There’s only splendor for the sight. O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Thy candles shine so brightly! We are moving into the deepest darkness of the year, with Winter Solstice only a few days from now. Now we embrace the Halcyon Days and we step aside from our … Read more