Happy winter solstice, merry yuletide, full cold moon, etc. I’m about a week too late, but so it goes. Our Christmas tree this year was perhaps the most luxurious, perfect tree (a nordmann fir) to date. But now it’s already time to take it down and I’m feeling pretty mournful about it.
The coven gathered two weekends ago to feast on starchy, hearty foods, make spell jar ornaments, and burn the yule log down. I’ve been ruminating on the significance of feast and ritual and female spaces and female conversations.
It’s a weird time of year, filled with ghosts and nostalgia. Longing and comfort, sadness and delight. A natural time for reflection and anticipation. This past year has been, as all years, both good and bad.
Rather unexpectedly, I’ve become obsessed this past week with filling out my family tree online. It’s like a puzzle I feel compelled to complete, though it’s taken way more time out of my day than I’d like it to.
In literary news, my essay, published in October by Cartridge Lit, made it onto Entropy’s Best Online Essays of 2018 list, which is very exciting.
What else have I been up to?
>Raving about the miracle skincare product that is Sonoran Rosie’s Primrose Oil
>Watching Hilda on Netflix
>Reading Salt is for Curing by Sonya Vatomsky
>Making elderberry syrup and drinking elderberry cocoa
>Complaining about how cold my feet are
So what’s becoming? What's creeping through this winter season? Tell me what needs hearing. I crack an egg for my Yaga self. I throw the bones to see.
During this season you may find yourself stuck in your head. An arm across your throat. A block between intellectual self and emotional/physical/spiritual. Overthinking can restrict you and feel like a weight--trying to think through and around, trying to outsmart. Always alert, always clever. This can be its own sort of burden.
Out of your head, there is so much energy and movement brewing. All energies are pointing towards and leading into your heart center. The path is clear and smooth surrounding this space. You will endure the winter as the moose does. Strong and steadfast. Enduring. Calm & quiet, but resolute and willful. This is time to be kind and generous. A time for balance. Be deliberate, grounded. Keep your energy flowing through the winter and hold the image of the moose at your core.
As you go into the winter, you may feel a constriction, a trap, a force dragging you back by your hind leg. But your deepest, primal instincts will keep you afloat and guide you forward. This feeling of intense fight or flight can lead to thoughtless reactions, but it can also be your strength. Follow your gut, pull up your armor, and move forward with purpose.
As you get further into winter, things will fall into almost perfect place in terms of security and support. You domestic, home life will be a huge factor in this support system. It is what holds you up and elevates the work that you do. It is a place of stability and can shield you from injuries.
During this season, if you let your spiritual-self come through and if you can be at peace with who you are at the present time, it will be an especially fluid time for expression and communication. This may also be a good time to use travel to inspire your creative endeavors. Or, a good time to explore your ancestry and dig through the graveyard of your family, so to speak--this can be its own sort of journey.
When encountering the emotional turbulence or when you feel pressed to scramble, remember sometimes it’s okay to curl up and retreat into yourself to recover. You might be feeling overly sensitive but you can put this positive use, driving curiosity and enjoyment.
There will be a tight point in this winter that might feel like being stuck between rock and hard place. Remember at this point that you are not in real danger and that you can navigate through it. This is not the season to engage in conflict. It’s best if you just allow things to flow--gentle, calm energy will help you glide by any issues. Be the hedgehog. Be the moose.
