A Winter's Tale

Celebrate Imbolc and the goddess Brighid this week (Feb 1 & 2)

(Note to readers: I realized that my earlier post was too long with way too much information - so this is a shorter, edited version)

Imbolc - the mid-way point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox - is considered a time of purification: Cleaning house is a good way to acknowledge and honor this tradition. Imbolc is the precursor to Candlemas and Groundhog's Day.


Brighid - also known as Brigit, Bridget, Brigid, Brig, Bride ("breed") and "the exalted one" - is a Celtic triple goddess long revered for her abilities as a blacksmith, healer and poet. 

The Coming of Bride by John Duncan

How to honor Brighid and Imbolc: 

Place a food offering - milk and cake or bread - out on the doorstep tonight to be blessed by Brighid and her beloved white cow (with red ears!). Also, hang a white ribbon outside for Brighid to bless as she passes; it can later be used for healing purposes.

Light a candle for the goddess (any color will do, but I'm burning a red one and a white one) and say: Brigit, Brighid, Bride: Oh goddess, burning bright, We honor you this night. Please bless my creativity and help me serve humanity. Renew my body and inspire my heart. Throughout my life, your wholeness impart. So may it be. (loosely inspired by the book "365 Goddess" by Patricia Telesco) 

And there's this invocation from Susa E. Black's web page:

http://www.druidry.org

 

I kindle this candle in the name of Brighid,
Goddess of Smiths.
I sain this house in the name of Brighid,
Goddess of Healers.
I smoor this candle in the name of Brighid,
Goddess of Poets.
(kindle=light; sain=bless or protect; smoor=smother or smear)
 

A version of St. Brigid's cross (Wikipedia)

Making a "Brigid’s cross" will ensure bountiful blessings. This cross takes many forms, one of which resembles the ancient symbol for the sun. 

According to Mara Freeman's web site Chalice Centre for Celtic Spirituality and Western Inner Traditions:

  http://www.chalicecentre.net

A triskele made of straw brings good luck

"The crosses took shapes that are not traditionally Christian, but bear marked resemblance to symbols of the sun in cultures throughout the world. One kind was actually not a cross at all, but a figure with three legs, recalling the three-fold nature of the goddess-saint. It is, in fact, an ancient Celtic symbol known as the triskele."
 

(Some believe this three-legged "cross" could also refer to the triple deity aspect of Brighid.)

Triskele image from http://www.mcmahonsofmonaghan.org

Another interesting web site to visit is:  http://www.sacredfire.net

"Brighid is the goddess of all arts and crafts, and as such she is the feminine principle of the Ildanach, the counterpart of Lugh. She represents the potential of all women for she is the eternal flame that burns in the heart and hearth of every woman of the Gael, 'moon-crowned Brighid of the undying flame'.  

It is a common practise for the women of the Isles to hang rowan crosses over their cradles whilst reciting a charm or prayer to Brighid to invoke her protection."

A Rowan tree at Scorhill. The Rowan tree is linked to Brighid. (photo: TrekEarth)

I find it fascinating that so many of today's beliefs can be traced back to pagan traditions, or even further back, before recorded history. This ancient lore been told and retold in Greek and Roman mythology, and has survived down through the ages to be rewritten again and again until these tales now exist in many forms, including familiar Bible stories. I am always amazed at how far back these legends go!


I dedicate Feb. 2nd to Brighid and the ancient people who did good things in her name; I will honor Imbolc in my heart all month, especially on St. Valentine's Day! Happy February!

A Tree for All Seasons

In a December post, I mentioned that we bought a new artificial Christmas tree (Martha Stewart brand, actually, with berries and pine cones and fake snow, permanently stuck into a plastic pot). It came pre-lit (a single string of, oh, maybe fifty white lights) to which I added two strings of multi-colored lights and a few ornaments at Christmas.

Now here it is, mid-January, and the decorations and lights have come down... but I could not bear to make everything go away. Plus a magazine article I read had photos of a "sweetheart tree" someone made for a St. Valentine's Day party. So I decided to redecorate our tree for every damn holiday I can think of and, since the tree sits in front of a window, I can share it with our next-door neighbor and anyone who happens to drive by our house. (Awwww - how sweet!)

Back when we had two craft stores in town (Joann's Fabrics and Frank's, both long gone) I would stop in after Christmas and buy strings of lights - green, red, green and red, green and blue, amber, teal, pink, amber/teal/pink, etc. - at ridiculously low prices. I have a few left from those days that still work (some still in their boxes), so after I took off the multi-colored lights I put on a string of pink and added a few small ornaments to create... a pink & white St. Valentine's Day tree. And I plan to change it to white, green and orange (the colors of the Irish flag) for St. Patrick's Day; then something pastel for Easter and eventually red, white and blue (or pink, white and teal)... and on and on, ad nauseum! It's a little tree so it isn't a lot of work (not like it used to be, with the six-foot tree we used to have) and it will cheer me up to see the lights at night.

To quote Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" : "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." 

Bah, humbug indeed!

Singing Scientists on YouTube

When talking to my brother on the phone tonight, I was reminded (by him!) about a YouTube clip I had raved about a while back that he had always wanted to see. Then, last night, he told me he finally thought he caught it on TV. Although I'm not sure he saw the one I liked (there are, after all, nine of them), he probably did see one of the fabulous Symphony of Science music videos (it featured the late great Carl Sagan - I think he must be in every single one). If you have not seen these fun, innovative videos, check out the web site below. I highly recommend "Ode to the Brain" - it's so wonderful, you'll want to watch them all. The music is lovely, the topic is thought-provoking (pun intended) and you'll get to hear Carl Sagan and other well-known scientists "sing" !

http://symphonyofscience.com/

This Georgia O'Keeffe painting looks like many things, including a brain!

Walk In The Woods - A Pictorial

Miniature rapids stubbornly rushing beneath tiny ice floes, impeded only by rough rocks and barren branches...

Frozen bubbles (refugees from the lips of sleeping turtles?) blooming underneath the icy surface of a lake, hollow reeds notwithstanding...

Traces of mysterious forces at work: a ceremonial ring and a cairn, primal reminders that humans passed this way...

 A small island: safe haven for any creature who can reach it...

 Peaceful and serene: unusually silent seagulls mingling with mouthy mallards and sanguine swans...

 
"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."  ~Andrew Wyeth

No, it sure doesn't, Mr. Wyeth...

A mossy log provides the only color on the ground besides brown and gray - one must look up to see the white rows of lichen, the breathless blue of sky...

"Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses."
~Charles Kingsley 

How romantic, Mr. Kingsley!

Once Upon A Winter's Day

This year, Christmas Day dawned bright and clear. 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
~George Gordon, Lord Byron, 

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Coffee was made, waffles were eaten, gifts were given. 
 You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.  ~Hal Borland, Sundial of the Seasons, 1964

As the day wore on, the weather was still fine, so we decided to go for a walk down by the ocean.  

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.  ~Galileo Galilei

It was a bit windy and cool, but as the sun went lower into the west, the colors grew deeper and more intense, a glorious end to a special day.  

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.  ~Rachel Carson 

And I will be eternally grateful for that day, those moments, these images. 

Photos: TJBGoogins/2011/iPhone using HipstaPrint app

2011 : A Good Year for Blogging

I had decided not to blog today - and then I noticed the number of blogs I've posted since I started blogging here a few years ago. The first year (which started late, October, I think) I posted six times; the following year I didn't blog much - only a few more posts than the previous year - because I was too busy and not in the writing groove (I got married in Florida and moved back up north soon afterward); the next year I posted 22 times, which doesn't even average out to twice a month. Last year (drum roll, please) I blogged sixty (60!) times and I just want to say this about that: Either I had more to say... or more time to write... or more photos to post that needed words... *

Me and Jen a few years back...

(Have you ever noticed that, in photos with your friends, very often you are almost always in the same places, as we are here and again below? I'm usually on the left and she's on the right. Note to Self: Find out why! Or not...)  

*...but mostly I think I was inspired to blog a lot more by my prolific friend Jen, who has a wonderfully written, thought-provoking and insightful blog and who posts at least two or three times a week. I don't pretend to have a large readership here at BlogSpot, but if you happen to read this, here's a link to Jen's WordPress blog, Random Acts of Writing, where you can see her fabulous photographs & artwork and read her lovely thoughts & quotes: 

https://randomactsofwriting.wordpress.com/ 

Me and Jen at a Renaissance Faire - Huzzah!

Welcoming A Brand New Year

Leonids meteor shower Nov. 2002 NASA (photo: Sam Cook)

Last night I decided to sleep downstairs in the living room, hoping that would make it easier for me to bundle up and go outside to see the first meteor shower of 2012... but, even though I did wake up twice (the first time at 3:30 and the second time at around 5 am) and although I did get up and peek through the windows before slipping back underneath my warm blankets (it got down to, oh, 14 or 15 degrees, I suppose) I did not stay up long enough to see any of nature's fireworks.

I wish I had gone outside, though - even if only for a few minutes - so this morning (feeling a bit guilty) I checked online (at the EarthSky web site) and found out when we can expect to see more meteorites during the coming year: 

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

Children's book illustration ~ playing among the stars

May the days exceed your best expectations and your nights be full of shooting stars... HAPPY NEW YEAR