Winter Solstice -  Yule

Monday, December 21, 2020; 5:02a.m. 

The Winter Solstice
is the shortest day of the year.
It was believed the Sun stood still
in the sky and then,
the next day continued on … and so
the days began, once again, to lengthen!

  

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.)  

  

(watercolor by CDI)
Winter Solstice Dawn

 Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.

             Leonard Cohen

“Anthem”

 

 

October 31, 2020

5:38 p.m.

 

            Observance begins at  sundown

 

Samhain

            …when the veil between the two worlds is most pervious.

            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."  

 

 

Monoprint by CDI

 

 

I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places …

I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day,

In everything that's light and gay;

I'll always think of you that way.

 

I'll find you in the morning sun;

And when the night is new

I'll be looking at the moon,

But I'll be seeing you.

          Irving Kahal

Mabon - the Autumnal Equinox

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

   9:30 a.m.  Tuesday, September 22, 2020 

“Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that's turning running rings around the moon….

As the images unwind, like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind!”

~The Windmills of Your Mind~

Nana Mouskouri

Yoyos

Covid-19 Fabric Art Project

  

Summer Solstice – Midsummer

Saturday, June 20 2020

Sunrise: 5:07 a.m.

Sunset: 8:25 p.m.

    

One of the four solar holidays;

the turning point at which summer reaches its height

and the sun shines longest.

“Summer Solstice Sunset”

(Photography by CDI)

"It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is
cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail
permanently, seriously
without thought."

         William Carlos Williams

VERNAL EQUINOX

  

Thursday, March 19, 2020, 11:49 pm EDT

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.)

  

Untitled

(Monoprint by CDI)

  

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here.

Emily Dickinson