beauty

Mother’s Day

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To my dear children: Give praise for the beautySay the names of birds, of trees, sons and daughters, with highest honor. Extol the lands and the seas between. Give praise with your exhaled breath, Honor and magnify the sweetness of the next.It is our honor to live in this time.We know grace in the possibilities … Read more

Risk Blossoming

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Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and equinox! …. We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the … Read more

Flowering

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There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.– Anais Nin As we continue to honor the Goddess Flora, I would offer the tantalizing idea that we, too, are a part of Her garden. Each one of you reading these words … Read more

The Importance of Flowers

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Hail Mother, who art the earth, Hallowed be thy soil, rock and flora that nourish and support all life. Blessed be thy wind that gives us breath and thy watersthat quench, bathe and refresh all living things. Holy Earth – as one – we praiseyour majesty, grace and wonder.— Bill Faherty If the Romans could … Read more

Honoring Flora

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©Flora – Genevieve AmyI am the handmaid of the EarthI broider fair Her glorious gownAnd deck Her on Her days of mirthWith many a garland of renown. And while earth’s little ones are fainAnd play about the Mother’s hemI scatter every gift I gainFrom sun and wind to gladden them.– William MorrisThe Floralia was the … Read more

The Floralia (slightly late)

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When in the springtime of the yearWhen the trees are crowned with leavesWhen the ash and oak, and the birch and yewAre dressed in ribbons fair…–Loreena McKinnett In all the Beltane excitement, we mustn’t forget the other gifts of this most magical time, including the ancient Roman rites of the Floralia. Usually celebrated from April … Read more

Dancing in the footsteps of the Ancestors

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Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,Or he would call it a sin;But we have been out in the woods all night,A-conjuring Summer in!– – Rudyard Kipling Many of the visitors to my website will be celebrating Beltane this weekend with their circles, covens and communities (in addition to their solitary or family rites … Read more

Wishing you a Most Merry Beltane!

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Hail to the Summer!Hail to the Summer!The season that drives the cold Winter away! Hail to the Summer!Hail to the Summer!Light your bonfires –Today is Beltane!— ©Spiral Dance – Magick Known as Beltane, Beltaine, Cedsoman or Ceadamh (Irish for the “first of Summer”), May Day, Rood Day, Rudemas, or Galan Haf, today is the celebration … Read more

Parvati

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Banded with a tinkling girdleHeavy with breasts like the frontal lobes of young elephants.Slender of waist,with face like the full moon of autumn…— Hymn of Praise to ParvatiAs we approach the Great Sabbat of Beltane, we not only celebrate the dancing of the phallic Maypole, but also the rejoicing of the glorious bride, like Parvati. … Read more

The Beauty Path

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©2006 Oephebia TarotWhen you have only two pennies left in the world,buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.— Chinese proverb Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty embodies many of the qualities of the Maiden aspect of the Great Goddess. Not only does She teach us to revere our sacred … Read more