New Beginnings Abound
This week is the beginning of a new month, a new year and a new lunar cycle. A trifecta of newness!
"The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all." -Josiyah Martin
As the new moon cycle begins, I feel ready to put my full energy into paying close attention. How will the lunar cycle affect my creativity? Each year there are 366 dawns and dusks and 13 moon cycles. The lunar cycles today are very similar to ones that ancient civilizations viewed in the sky; how powerful it is to recognize we are connected to all of the cultures who have come before us.
As I pay more attention each day to being present, I'm equally aware of my connection to my ancestral lineage. Part of my 13 Moons practice will be to strengthen my appreciation and stewardship to all the living, sentient and other-than human beings I share this world with; we are all interconnected.
Winter Solstice Celebration
As I considered how to celebrate the Winter Solstice, I thought about what it meant to pre-industrial civilizations who faced the cold and dark of winter and the very real prospects of starvation, illness or death. For several days around the longest night, communities banded together to feast and share food and drink. Often they stayed awake all through the Solstice night, keeping the fires lit to ward off evil and gathering to tell stories against the darkness, a time when fears were strongest and the fires and the presence of others offered comfort.
I decided to take bits and pieces from what I had read about Winter Solstice practices, to take time to honor my ancestors, the land and beings I share it with and to celebrate the shift from the longest night to the promise of the light returning.
Among other things, I brought in live evergreen boughs, which symbolize eternal life, since evergreens never turn brown or lose their foliage. We decorated a live tree. We kept the bird feeders filled with seeds and I strung garlands of cranberries, apple and orange chunks in the spruces for them. I filled the kitchen with fragrant spices as I baked gingerbread to honor my German heritage. We gathered together as a family and feasted, laughed and forged stronger bonds.
As Winter Solstice neared, a new friend sent me a link to the live stream Winter Solstice ceremony that is held at Newgrange in Ireland. Newgrange is a massive passage-grave about 26 miles outside of Dublin, Ireland. It was built as a burial crypt about 3,200 BC, which makes it at least 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.
I woke up around 3:30 AM and started watching the event unfold online, listening to the narrators talk about the site's history while waiting for the sun to rise. Shortly before the sunrise was anticipated, a group of people selected by a lottery were quietly led through the narrow corridor to the chambers that once held the cremated remains of important people (possibly the tribe’s leaders), who lived in those lands.
The opening to the burial site directly aligns with the Winter Solstice sunrise and at that particular time sends a ray of sunlight through an opening above the doorway. The light, over a period about 17 minutes, reaches down the long, narrow corridor into the burial chambers. It was a masterpiece of construction accomplished by a stone-age civilization, using only stones and stone age tools to build with.
I loved the experience of projecting myself into another time, another part of the world and a place where artifacts of ancient civilizations still coexist with the new.
I finally went back to bed around 5 AM. When I woke, I felt a deeper connection to the ancestors.
Year End Ceremony of Honoring, Releasing and Beckoning
I attended a powerful session led by poet Holly Wren Spaulding and ceremonialist Georgia Wall where we wrote about what we wished to release at the year's ending, to honor what we might imagine into being, and desire to beckon into our lives and creative practices in the New Year. The writing exercises and quiet contemplation filled me with gratitude as I recognized how much has shifted in my life and art practice this past year, and I now look forward to 2025 without fear or hesitation.
Here are a few of the questions we wrote about:
What will you honor as the year end? What have you imagined into being?
What will you release as the year ends? What no longer has a place in your life?
What would you like to beckon as you approach another year? What do you yearn for?
The Prospect of a New Day, A Fresh Try, One More Start
Comentários