Practical Wisdom for Extraordinary Living
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I am offering an encore of this post of mine from last year. I hope it will inspire you, whatever your beliefs may be, for it is a powerful spell of transformation and abundance. It has been my own tradition on Christmas Eve for many years. Enjoy! – Beth
We cannot do great things on this [...]
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Winter Solstice
by Jody Aliesan
Grief Sweat, Broken Moon Press 1990
Thinking only makes the heart sore. – I Ching
when you startle awake in the dark morning
heart pounding breathing fast
sitting bolt upright staring into
dark whirlpool black hole
feeling its suction
get out of bed
knock at the door of your nearest friend
ask to lie down beside ask to be held
listen while [...]
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The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising)
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year [...]
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Join together beneath the mistletoe.
By the holy oak whereon it grows.
Seven Druids dance in seven time.
Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming.
Ring out these bells.
Ring out, ring Solstice bells.
Ring Solstice bells.
– Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull ©1977
The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The precise moment of the [...]
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This is the Eve of the Winter Solstice.
This is the great celebration of Mother Night.
As far as we know, our ancestors did not have atomic clocks or satellites to help them dissect Time to the nanosecond. Instead, they had to figure by their keen observation, by dead reckoning, by the plants and animals, by [...]
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From base to summit, gay and bright,
There’s only splendor for the sight.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
We are moving into the deepest darkness of the year, with Winter Solstice only a few days from now. Now we embrace the Halcyon Days and we step aside from our workaday cares to find [...]
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The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see – and to see we have only to look.
– Fra Giovanni Giocondo, 1433-1515 C.E.
We are now in the deepest darkness of the year, with Winter Solstice [...]
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I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you which shall be the darkness of God.
– T.S. Elliot
We here in the Northern Hemisphere are in the deepest darkness of the year, with the arrival of yesterday’s New Moon and then the Winter Solstice less than a week away. At [...]
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There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.
- Freya Stark, The Journey’s Echo
How did you do on the workaholism quiz from Friday? Frankly, I am busted on almost every question. Having done this work before, you would think I would have been much [...]
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Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.
– Kahlil Gibran
Now as we in the Northern Hemisphere stand upon the threshold of Winter, embraced by the darkest of nights, we are visited this week by the Five of Cups. This [...]
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 | Sun in Pisces 29 degrees |
 | Moon in Capricorn 20 degrees |
