Monday


Winter Solstice -  Yule
 
Monday, December 21, 2015 at  11:49 p.m., E.T.
 
 
The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year.  It was believed the Sun stood still in the sky...
…then, the next day, he continued on his way, and  the days began to lengthen!
 
 

Abstract #15
(watercolor)
 
 
"Here comes the sun!
"Here comes the sun!
And I say, it's all right.”
 
George Harrison
 
The word Solstice evolved to Middle English, from Old French from Latin solstitium, from Latin (combination of sol, the sun, and stitium, to stand still.)  
The word Yule - [Old English geōla, originally a name of a pagan feast lasting 12 days; related to Old Norse jōl, Swedish jul, Gothic jiuleis]
 

 
 

Saturday

Samhain
            Called All Hallow's Eve or Ancestor Night, it is when the veil between the two worlds is most pervious. 
            Observance begins at sundown on October 31. 

            This third and last of the three pagan Autumn harvest festivals acknowledges a time of cleansing and preparation for the darkness of Winter.  It is the most important of the four "greater Sabbats."  

(watercolor)
  Callanish, Lewis, Scotland
 
“Then I turned and saw in the spaces
of the night sky constellations appear,
one by one, over roof‑tops and houses,
and Cassiopeia trapped: stabbed where
her thigh met her groin and her hand
her glittering wrist, with the pinpoint of a star.”
Language
Eavan Boland

Cassiopeia  - seen at her clearest in early November

Monday

Autumnal Equinox
One of the four solar holidays; the second of the three pagan autumn harvest festivals


"Come” said the wind to 
the leaves one day, 
“Come o're the meadows 
and we will play. 
Put on your dresses 
scarlet and gold, 
For summer is gone 
and the days grow cold." 

-  A Children's Song of the 1880's

Autumn Series 15-011
(watercolor)


Saturday

Summer Solstice - Midsummer

One of the four solar holidays; 
the turning point at which summer reaches its height and the sun shines longest.


"EB Series IV" (Monoprint) 


"My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea,

and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
VERNAL EQUINOX
One of the four solar holidays marking the beginning of spring.  The rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death; or the Goddess returning to her Maiden aspect (e.g., Persephone returning from the Underworld.)



March in the garden -
my hostess shows me brown sticks
and speaks of flowers.
-  Edith Stein

(watercolor)
Landscape 14

Sunday

IMBOLC
Brigid's Day, one of four "fire festivals" of the Wheel of the Year. and is strongly associated with the goddess Brighid.

a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. Lighting of candles and fires represents the return of warmth and the increasing power of the Sun

  
"Cottage"
(watercolor)

 “Give me the splendid silent sun
  with all his beams full-dazzling.”
Walt Whitman 

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