#firekeeping

[sealwomyn]

Come over the hills, O Brigid bright and fair,

Come over the hills to Your daughter,

Kindle the flame that illuminates Your name

And I'll keep that flame bright forever.

For strong grows the oak in Brigid's ancient grove,

And fair glide Her swans on the river,

Clear runs the water within Her blessed wells,

And bright burn Her fires forever.

-- sung to the tune of Red is the Rose/The Bonny Banks o' Loch Lomond (Tending Brigid's Flame, p. 133)

[sealwomyn]

Brigid of the spark,

Brigid of the flame,

Brigid of the embers,

I call you in.

Brigid of inspiration,

Brigid of shielding,

Brigid of comfort,

I call you in.

Be in my flame, O Brigid of courage,

Be in my flame, O Brigid of grace,

Be in my flame, O Brigid of beauty.

This night and every night, this day and every day.

- Firekeeper's invocation from Lunaea Weatherstone's Tending Brigid's Flame

[talithaepona-blog]

Is it more comfortable if I remain a mystery and understanding alludes your view of me? What's better? Transparency? Child like changling? Sexual magnet with a smile for tired eyes and hearts left aching? Women don't change their stripes as often as you need us to, and that's a disservice to our entire community. You don't have to be everything to everyone, nor can you personally be, but be fluid and know your aspects and who allows you to be you without requirement to their defense mechanisms, what many call ego. Call out the LIE from their mouth that reverberates as the opposite to the truth in their energy. This is your permission should you feel you need it to get creepy in your unique and exhilarating way. You hold a piece to our currently fucked up puzzle that we've all missed Show the bleeding corpse of your heart and be comfortable in the fact that you may trigger regret by doing it. So fucking what. No dogma or limitations could possibly hold you. You're every aspect sitting in this skin sack getting to experience an individual slice of it, a position in our collective true prosperity. Permission granted to just plain BE YOU I fuckin love you #fullmoonfeels #beyou #authenticity #generalizedapathy #andsure #empathy #sharedperspective #firekeeping #waningmoon #icequeen #knowmebyknowingyou #bluevesseledchanglings

[talithaepona-blog]

It has begun.....

[approximate-ritual]

Solstice Tradition - (How I celebrate 'Yule')

I'm not Wiccan. I am not particularly tied to the "Wheel of the Year" when it comes to holiday traditions. And I'll be honest, I'm pretty sure I first got the idea for my Winter Solstice tradition from the Circle of Magic books by Tamora Pierce.

That doesn't mean it's not an awesome tradition, and meaningful to me.

See, the fertility cycles celebrated by Wiccans don't resonate with me, but I've always been fascinated by their cause. As a graphic I saw in the tag recently stated, "axial tilt is the reason for the season". The solstices and equinoxes have an astronomical meaning, and have since the earth was formed. The equinoxes are when day and night are equal. The solstices are the longest and shortest night of the year.

But what does this mean, to the casual observer?

It means that the Winter Solstice is the peak of the darkest time of year, where the sun seems distant and night lasts forever. Well, almost forever. It feels like forever. And what if the sun didn't come back at all? That would be the end of the world as we know it.

So...I keep fire, on the night of the Solstice, in hopes that the sun will return and days will grow longer again. I light a candle shortly before sundown, and keep it lit up until sunrise, staying awake to watch the night pass. It's a different sort of festival of lights from Hanukkah, from Christmas, but there's a core message that threads through a lot of the winter seasonal holidays--"even in the darkest of times, the light comes back. Keep what hope you can, because the brightness of better days is coming."

There is no specific deity I connect this observation with--though I do thank Prometheus for the gift of flame on lighting the candle.

Anyway, that's how I do 'yule'. As an aside, I have a habit of always celebrating it on December 21st, despite exact astronomical solstice times occasionally landing on the 22nd. The reason for this is kinda a purely selfish one. Inquire if curious.