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."  

Stonehenge Moon

(Monoprint)

I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces all day through;
In that small cafe, the park across the way
The children's carousel, the chestnut trees, the wishing well.

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

Autumnal Equinox

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

  

... Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,

And yellow the wet wild strawberry leaves.

The hour of the waning of love has beset us...

Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,

With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

Falling of the Leaves

WBY

Summer Solstice - Midsummer

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

“The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. I have heard them all, and of the three elemental voices, that of ocean is the most awesome, beautiful and varied.” 

 Henry Beston

  

“The sweet secret of a summer place…”

monoprint

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.)

Alders are tasseled.

Flag iris is already out on the canal.

... I can see the ... crocuses stammering

in pools of rain, plum blossom on the branches...

False Spring, Boland

Sailors, take warning!

IMBOLC

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

  

May the blessing of light be on you — light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart ‘til it glows like a great peat fire.

Celtic blessing

Light Within/Light Without
(monoprint)

The Winter Solstice

The shortest day of the year, when it was believed that the Sun stood still in the sky... 

…then the next day continued on his way, and the days began to lengthen!

 

… I knew
winter was in store for every leaf
on every tree on that road.
Was inescapable for each one we passed.
And for me.
It is winter
and the stars are hidden.

"The Pomegranate" ~ Eavan Boland

Winter Lake
(Acrylic)

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

            “Anthem”~Leonard Cohen

 


Stonehenge Solstice

(Plate)

 

 

“Let the sun shine in.
Open up your heart and let it shine on in.”

            “Hair” ~ James Rado

UAB M105 pg.9

 

Samhain

Also called All Hallow's Eve, Ancestor Night.  It is the most important of the four "greater Sabbats".  The third and last of the three pagan autumn harvest festivals. Observance begins at sundown on October 31.

We are no more than magical shadow‑shapes that dance, limned by the Sun‑filled lantern held at midnight by the Mistress Moon...

LXVIII Rubaiyat

Khayyam

 

Shadow Shapes

  

O sister of sorrowful gaze! ...

You move in another dominion

And hang o'er the historied stone:

Unpruned in your beautiful pinion

Who wander and whisper alone.

Fairy Pendant

W. B. Yeats



Saying Good-bye