Happy New Year...Again?

 Fun times...

So many times during this pandemic I've said "I  will take this time to blog" and, as you can see, I have not.

The pandemic really shattered my plans, as it has done for everyone.  Instead of my "Lent"ish goals I posted about previously, I instead tried hold it together as best as I could. Some days I succeeded, but most days I did not, until a call to the doctor and some "better brain through chemistry" could be achieved.

I did work with my land spirits, but when it came to officially marking the turns of the Wheel, I opted for the group rites (now via Zoom) and none of my normal home-based work.  Just wasn't feeling it.  And as you and I well know, that is EXACTLY the time that work needs to be done!

The corn dolly was placed in the garden, and given flowers and herbs, but with little more than a "Thanks for being here."  I don't know if that's exactly WHY my garden was not so dandy this year...but I have taken note.

How would you look if you stayed out in the rain and sun for six months!

To that end....Friday was the new moon, and it starts the "moonth" that contains Samhain.  So, in a lot of ways, Friday was the beginning of my new year.  I reflected a bit on that odd concept, and how basically from Fall Equinox, with Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur, all the way through to Chinese New Year, sometime in January, we really just have a season of Happy New Years.  The good news, is if you break a resolution, you can already re-do it in a few weeks, rather than months (for a bit, anyway).

We also had the first frost Friday night.  If anyone reads this ever, they know that I consider my first frost to be my HOME Samhain, figuring that before calendars were invented, the land would let you know when summer ends.  

So... with the moon in the right phase and the land signaling the frost.... I again stepped to the liminal time, the end of this year, and beginning of the next.  I turned the compost. I took down this year's corn dolly, my avatar of my land's spirit. I decked her with the last of the flowers from my garden and introduced her to the young dolly for the next year.  Right now, she is whispering her wisdom and secrets to her, as they lay on my earth altar in the temple room.  Soon, her spirit will flow into the new dolly, who will slumber until awakening at Imbolc.  

So... I guess this is mostly just me getting back on track.  And trying to stay on some track even if the ground is shaky and uncertain.  The wheel keeps turning; the geese are migrating;  everything is as it was and as it shall be.