Happy Solstice 2018

***These are copies of postings to our ADF folks, of a home devotional system one can do on the Twelve Days of Yule.  There are ideas for both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. I'll try to keep up with this throughout, but as it is a busy season for everyone, I may have to double up!***
t’s ALMOST that time again, for the 3CG Solstice-A-Long!  As with last year, we have devotionals for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. 

The solstice itself is days away, but I wanted to at least put this out there so folks can prepare and get their ideas going for the wave of druidic energy circumnavigating the world continuously for 12 days!  The entire devotional can be seen as a ritual, with movement into sacred space and honoring an “otherworldly guide” at the start and then also at the end. 

As with year’s past this is a guide and a guide only. Feel free to adjust to suit your own ecosystem, climate, and especially pantheon preferences.  This was originally developed with a Norse pantheon, HOWEVER, it can be easily Celtified, Hellenized, Romanized, Vedicized, etc.  As always, I ask that if you do that, please send it along so I can include it for next time.   

For those new to this, I have based it somewhat on Matthews’ book “The Winter Solstice” (wherein they develop a 12 Days of Christmas devotional framework), bits of relevant mythology, and my own UPG, but that UPG has been useful for several years now, and maybe can achieve the goal of being UGG (Unverifiable Group Gnosis).  

All that is REALLY needed to participate is you. But having a candle to light each night or day (or twelve different candles) is nice, and if you have children, maybe they can help you light it.  A horn or chalice for a drink to toast the spirit of each night, and a bowl for any offerings is helpful as well.  It is also kind of nice to add a different symbol to the altar every night, and while I will give suggestions for that (and for some offerings), it’s not necessary. Follow your own heart and intuition.  

What follows is a rough list, and please do ask questions.  I will post the longer description of each “theme,” but there’s no reason we can’t discuss here.  As I said, the winter solstice schedule has worked well for a while now, but again, feel free to adjust as needed.  I did the Summer solstice schedule this June, and it went pretty well, so we’ll keep doing it! 

This year’s schedule: 

Night 
Winter Solstice 
Summer Solstice 
1 12/20 
Disablot (Night vigil) 
Disablot 
2 12/21 
Sunna (Stick break 5:23 pm, EST) 
Sunna (Day vigil) 
3 12/22 
Winter wanderer  
Green man 
4 12/23 
Nature spirits 
Nature spirits 
5 12/24 
Alfablot, housewights 
Alfablot, housewights 
6 12/25 
Child of light  
champion/hero  
7 12/26 
Feast of Fools 
Games of Skill/Luck; purification 
8 12/27 
Winter and snow  
Rain and storm  
9 12/28 
Evergreen 
Herbs and healing  
10 12/29 
Hearth  
Grain/harvest  
11 12/30 
Boar (abundance) otherworld 
Stag (integrity) otherworld 
12 12/31 
Twelfth Night 
Twelfth Day 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"I don't believe in Mercury Retrograde"

Image
Photo by ZCH: https://www.pexels.com/photo/planet-mercury-in-full-shot-photography-12498795/ I know, people say that a lot...so... Okay firstly, retrograde is a real thing, astronomically.  You can find a more technical, but still accessible, explanation  here .  If you think about cars going around in several lanes of traffic, going the same speed and starting out parallel, eventually the the car in the shortest lane (usually the inside track) will get ahead of the car in the longer lane. It can  appear  then that as the first car passes the second, the second is actually going backwards.  If we think about planets in our solar system, they are all doing the same thing, and sometimes they pass each other. When Earth "passes" a planet during its orbit, that other planet is said to be retrograde.  Looking at them in the sky, the planet appears to move backward.    How often a planet becomes retrograde relative to Earth depends on not only its proximity to the Earth, but also
Read more

Imbolc is my favorite

  Okay, you're right. they're all my favorite.  But Imbolc is different! No, I really mean it.  Imbolc holds many memories of awesomeness on my path, as does my relationship with Brigid (or Bridhe or whichever other spelling you want.) When I first embarked on this path, it was because I wanted to be more familiar with the spirituality of my ancestors. my immediate ancestors were varieties of Christian (Evangelical, Catholic, or Methodist) but i wanted to go back further. One branch was Irish and since that was the cool white ethnicity i explored it. The others were varieties of German and English, which in my mind had historical baggage i didn't then want to engage with. So from the beginning, Bridhe was it.  even when I meandered into heathenry later (having made some peace with that ancestry) and even Vodoun for a bit, she was a constant.  I became a  flame keeper  (next shift February 11).  I made sure I had a fire pit at my new home, I have three shrines (two indoors a
Read more

June Solstice-a-Long Day 6: Child of Light (South)/Divine Champion (North)

Image
Good day! And welcome to Day 6 of the Three Cranes Grove Solstice-a-Long! There’s little doubt that the solstices are associated with spirits of great power, whether at their birth or their strength. We take this time to honor both of those. Northern hemisphere :   Honor of the divine hero or champion, defeater of dangerous wild powers of nature (Giants, Titans, for example), or brings about the much-needed skills and items to the folk. Southern hemisphere :   Child of light in many cultures (Angus mac Og, Mabon ap Modron), bringer of hope and light in the darkness. Light the previous candles and then light the sixth, placing the appropriate symbol and offering.
Read more