By Fire Well and Tree

  Photo by Garon Joseph: https://www.pexels.com/photo/band-plays-wind-instrument-at-the-street-during-the-parade-3521559/ February is shaping up to be way better than January. I'm almost all packed to head to Convocation , a really good indoor festival, even if it is in The State Up North. We have our midwinter thaw, even getting up to the 60s today. I was greeted by birds singing and geese honking when I stepped out my door this morning. AND I have Winter Olympics on, although I have not been able to watch as much as I would like. I will end up missing the curling and hockey gold medal games due to my travels. Fat Tuesday morning found me doing a big ol' Internet search on the origins of Carnival, and Lent.  I have this informal armchair-anthropological theory that many of our religious taboos and customs surrounding food have to do with survival, and we dress them up with religion to convince people to not violate them. So, if oxen are more valuable alive than dead, eating c...

I enter this season a bit bitter-sweet.  A lot of things that I 'typically' have done are just not on the table right now. Feeling detached from a couple of spiritual communities is hard. But I have other spiritual communities that I'm really glad to be a part of (scooby-dooby-doo) so it is all in balance, but that doesn't mean I don't miss what has passed.   I know some seem Imbolc as the beginning of Spring, and maybe in some ecosystems it is.  Here, though it really is still winter, even if we get the thaw.  This year, I am not sure we're going to get one, as we have perhaps a record-setting streak of super cold. There is a warm up coming, but that warm up is in the 20-30 degree range...not exactly spring like.   Still, the signs of the wheel turning are still apparent. The sun rises earlier and sets later. I did hear some geese coming back a week or so ago. So... Celebrate Spring we shall.    For omens, I drew Mugwort (Druid Plant Oracle)...