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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in New year

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Wheel Turns, Minoan Style

It's autumn in the northern hemisphere. For many of us, this is the end of the growing season and the beginning of the turn toward winter. But in the Mediterranean, it's the end of the hot, dry, rainless (and lately, wildfire-laden) summer. In the Mediterranean climate, the summer, not the winter, is the "dead season" when nothing grows.

But when the rainy season begins in the autumn, it's like the world is born anew.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Turn of the Year: Autumn Equinox

In the Ariadne's Tribe sacred calendar, we've just made our way through the Mysteries and are awaiting the arrival of the Autumn Equinox this Saturday, 23 September.

What does this date signify in our sacred calendar?

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. There is an undercurrent of cynicism about them that implies that giving one's word, even to oneself, is really not a big deal. I don't want to follow that way of thinking. Promises to myself or to the universe can never be a joke to me, because as a heathen my word and my honor are real things that affect real life. Nonetheless, I find myself making new starts in several areas of my life anyway.

It's only a few days into 2022 and I've found myself making a change in what I (and my housemate) give to the landwight, after discussing it with the gnome. I also am going to do some garden tasks to arrange things properly. For example, recently there was a killing frost so the morning glories are dead for the season, and I will be able to clear out the planting bed where Margaret temporarily buried her pet snake Narcissa, because her family had not yet gotten a house at that time, and I made plans to clear the planting bed tomorrow and have her family come move Narcissa this weekend.That was always part of the plan since it was supposed to be temporary in the first place, but I am now motivated to actually get the clearing work done while I do the other garden things I need to do tomorrow.

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_14884681_1809846729227541_4275433016924022846_o.jpgMay there be peace before us.
May there be peace beneath us.
May there be peace around us.
May there be peace within us.

I write each winter about how I feel pulled in two energetic directions at this time of year and those directions feel in opposition to one another: the inward call to descend, hibernate, reflect, renew, incubate, stew and brew up new magic, listen, wait, watch and feel, and the outer call to produce, perform, keep up, do, be, move, give, create.

This week, I saw that my own Past Self from about eight years ago had shared this quote and I’m taking it to heart:

“Focus is often a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.” – John Carmack

At this time of year I recognize that I often feel a type of defeat, like I’m having to “give up” on the year, on the things I thought I was going to do, etc. and each and every year I have trouble with that point of surrender—with acknowledging what didn’t come to pass, what could not be, what has to wait, and what can be laid aside. After I struggle and wrestle and freak out and whirl and sometimes even weep over the things undone, the surrender moment comes and I realize: “Yep. Not happening,” and there is a relief or release to that moment of letting go. After that, I usually remember that the end of the year is in many ways an arbitrary and imaginary or self-imposed deadline and rather than rushing and scrambling to keep up, I can instead lay some things down and look forward to the bright sense of possibility that dawns with January.

How might you soften and surrender?

How might you lay some things aside?b2ap3_thumbnail_15039635_1818762091669338_4901288478015916309_o.jpg

How might you honor the undone and unfinished and let them rest?

How might you mindfully embrace the twin pulls of this season and let effort and ease join hands?

May you honor wise secrets
and silent mysteries.
May you trust the touch
of the sacred
in all things.

Some resources for Winter Magic are available to you here.

 

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Posted by on in Studies Blogs
Hogmanay

Tonight Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh will end with an impressive fireworks display. Thousands will be gathered there to see in the New Year -- many more will be at home watching it on the telly because we're introverts and that's the way we like it.

Historic Environment Scotland has done some research into when fireworks were first displayed in Scotland. Few will be surprised to find that 'Renaissance King' James IV (r 1488-1513) was responsible. He sponsored poets and alchemists and other scholars, but he liked a party as well as the next royal. The occasion was not New Years, however:

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
Take Your Time, Please

 

          All over the world, New Year's Eve is celebrated in a variety of ways. In the US many of us watch our TV screens as the ball drops in Times' Square. My grandmother used to go to the movies. She told me that before midnight they gave out horns and other noisemakers. As midnight struck everyone blew and rattled vigorously. Making a loud noise is one way to drive out any lingering old negativity and start the new one clean and fresh. We have a bell collection and I go around the house ringing each one at midnight.

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What’s Your Life Purpose Symbol for 2019?

Life purpose is a choice rather than an experience. It’s something we decide about life.” – Dr. Eric Maisel

Just coming off the Christmas/Yule holiday, many have watched the perennial favorite It’s a Wonderful Life. (Were you among them? I admit I’ve never watched it all the way through. I need to remedy that!).

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