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

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 

Winter Solstice -  Yule

December 21, 2014 at 6:03 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!

                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]

Wake!

For the Sun, 

who scattered into flight the Stars before him 

from the Field of Night,

Drives Night along with them from Heaven,

and strikes the Sultan’s Turret with a Shaft of Light.

I Rubaiyat

Omar Khayyam

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."   

All to myself, I think of you.

Think of the things we used to do,

think of the things we used to say,

think of each happy yesterday.

Sometimes I sigh, and sometimes I smile;

but I keep each olden, golden while

All to my self.

 Wilbur Dick Nesbit ~

American.  1871-1927

 

Temple
(watercolor)

Autumnal Equinox

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

The hills are bare now...

And autumn leaves lie thick and still...

"Flower of Scotland"

Roy Williamson

Yarrow

(watercolor)

Summer Solstice - Midsummer

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

Dawn
(watercolor)

 “I wake slowly. Already

my body is a twilight: Solid. Gold.
At the edge of a larger darkness. But outside
my window
a summer day is beginning. Apple trees
appear, one by one. Light is pouring
into the promise of fruit.”

Ceres Looks at the Morning

Eavan Boland