Just for right now, let the swirling soften.Exhale into the day,wherever you are,whatever is happening.Allow a cloak of comfortto settle across your shouldersand enfold youwith peace and restoration.Draw up strength from the earthbeneath your feet.Settle one hand on your bellyand… Read More ›
Seasons
Equinox amongst the Stones
A Modern Pilgrimage to the Isle of Lewis & Harris, Part 2 In the previous post of October 14th, I introduced my recent pilgrimage to meet the Goddess, honour the physical and psychological changes that have happened inside me recently. I described… Read More ›
Rites of Fall, by Molly Remer
“Sometimes there is small magic
and scraps of enchantment.
Sometimes we push for more
and sometimes we yield,
joining hands
to welcome the sweet what is
as we witness the wheel’s turn…”
Taking it to the Cauldron, by Molly Remer
If I squint,I can almost see steam liftingfrom a cauldron in the forestand smell changedrifting through the air.I am looking at the shardsof the year,some new-broken,some re-collected,some shining with possibility,and I feel the call,the urge,the promise,to tip them all into… Read More ›
Rites of May, by Molly Remer
It is important that we share these rituals of celebration and affirmation with our sons as well as our daughters. Men, too, should know the power of joined hands in a circle, voices lifted in song, and sweet words of connection surrounding one another on a bright spring day…
The Wheel of the Year in Portugal
In an earlier blog, I introduced Luiza Frazão, Glastonbury-trained Priestess of Avalon, co-founder of the Portuguese Goddess Conference, and author of the books A Deusa do Jardim das Hespérides and A Deusa Celta de Portugal, which explore Portugal’s Celtic Goddess… Read More ›
Sweet Dark Mystery of Winter by Mary Sharratt
For many years, I suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder. As soon as the clocks went back in autumn and the nights grew dark, I’d fall into a contracted space. The days seemed too impossibly short to get things done. Even… Read More ›
Summer Magic, by Molly M. Remer
We take a slice of honey cakeand a pottery cup of grape juiceand leave it by the rose bushas an offering,arrayed on a bed of petalsand topped with a single daisyand a ring of wild raspberries.We make some wishesin the… Read More ›
Deluge by Sara Wright
It’s time to submit another post to FAR, the only blog site I follow, and a place where I have found genuine support and even a sense of community, which for me is a great gift. Mostly, I experience myself… Read More ›
The Little Mother by Sara Wright
This morning I met her by the barn sitting on a cedar fence regarding me with one shimmering marbled eye, a little spiked crown on her head. A moment later two tiny balls of feathers exploded out of a tangled… Read More ›
Natural Ceremony, by Molly Remer
This morning,I walked around the fieldand discoveredthree soft white breast feathersof an unknown bird,two earthstar mushrooms,sinking quietly back into the soil,one tiny snail shell,curled in spiral perfection,and the fire of my own spiritburning in my belly,rekindled by elemental magicof the… Read More ›
Rescuing Purity from Patriarchy — With Candlemas Vagina Candles by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
I was invited to give a Dharma Talk at a Buddhist temple service in Hawai’i recently. Last time these folks invited me to speak, I explained my Christian feminist theory of Christ the Cosmic Vagina, so I was glad they… Read More ›
Clean Tent Ceremony for Imbolc by Deanne Quarrie
The Clean Tent ritual[1] is done among the Samoyed peoples of northern Siberia. It is a group ritual invoking blessing and protection for each of the participants, traditionally all the inhabitants of a camp or village. You may choose for… Read More ›
Navajo Night Chant – Part 1 by Sara Wright
With the Winter Moon waxing on nights when stars are falling from the sky and the winter solstice passage, I am much aware of the healing and dwelling place that I inhabit that also characterizes these dark months of the… Read More ›
Winter Solstice: Can We Celebrate the Restful, Welcoming Darkness?
The days are slowly winding down toward Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere, the longest night of the year. Today the sun rose at 7:20 and will set at 5:08 in Crete. In Sweden, the sun will rise at 9:25… Read More ›
Restoration by Molly Remer
In 2014, I sat on a low wooden bench nursing my 6 week old baby boy while wet plaster strips were laid across my face to create a mask. The final activity of the Rise Up and Call Her Name… Read More ›
October Magic, by Molly Remer
In was in October that my last grandmother died, my last living grandparent. As the leaves turn to red and gold once more, I wake thinking of her each morning. I wake thinking of my maternal grandmother too, who died… Read More ›
Bare Bones by Sara Wright
In the pure white sun dream I wore a necklace – bearstone and bone. For months meaning eluded me, but feeling erupted from within- a volcano was burning somewhere beyond me – destructive fires, my body knew. And beyond that… Read More ›
To Light a Flaming Pumpkin: The Inexact Art of Family Ritual, by Molly Remer
Our bounty is in creativity friendship community the myriad small adventures of everyday. We tell of magic and moonrise and listening to the pulse of the earth beneath our feet. Ah, October. Fall has settled into the trees and air…. Read More ›
Equinox Reflection by Sara Wright
I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees… Read More ›
Birds, Their Song Stills My Heart by Deanne Quarrie
Bluejay I see you perched on the tree checking the perimeter for cats lurking. The feeder below, inviting you down but you, ever cautious, make sure that none are about. Suddenly the sparrows swarm in, eagerly eating the seed offered…. Read More ›
Stopping to Smell the Flowers by Marie Cartier
There is a saying, “Take time to smell the flowers.” Attributed to many different sources, it means among other things– take time and be grateful. Take time and relax. Take time. In that spirit I am sending along pictures… Read More ›
What’s Your Choice? by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Choices. Many times choices are difficult. Some of the time choices are easy. I have had a rough year. Probably one of the most difficult yet in my adult life. I began this year with an offer of a job,… Read More ›
Honoring the Completion of the Year, by Molly Remer
“Beginnings and endings are so very sacred, to give honor to all that has transpired, every experience, every joy, every pain, is a doorway to the magical. Hold your entire year between your hands, every day, every thought, every breath…. Read More ›
Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Barbara Ardinger
Even though Jesus was born during the reign of Augustus, first Roman emperor, the empire didn’t celebrate that birth until three centuries later when his birth date was moved to mid-winter to match the birth date of the sun god… Read More ›
Letting Go by Joyce Zonana
How many objects have I clung to, how many pasts have I tried to preserve–beginning, of course, with the first loss, of Egypt where I’d been born and where my family had flourished? How many habits, feelings, fears, and beliefs continue to constrain me? The new year approaches, and my resolution today is simple: to let go. Again and again and again. As often as it takes.
Putting “Winter Solstice” in your “Happy Holidays!” Greeting by Marie Cartier
When you read this dear FAR family, it will be December 22, the day after the winter Solstice. Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, and marks the beginning of winter. I am Catholic, a board member of… Read More ›
Another Season of Reflection and Review by Elise M. Edwards
I turn inward and become reflective at this time of year. It’s the Advent season in the Christian liturgical year, which encourages practices of piety focused on preparation, examination, and hopeful longing. It’s the end of a semester and a… Read More ›
A Winter Woman by Molly Remer
“When winter comes to a woman’s soul, she withdraws into her inner self, her deepest spaces. She refuses all connection, refutes all arguments that she should engage in the world. She may say she is resting, but she is more… Read More ›
Thanksgiving, Pies and Remaking Tradition by Marie Cartier
Dear FAR readers—you will be reading this blog the day after Thanksgiving, which is one of my favorite holidays. It didn’t used to be—but it is now. Over twenty years ago, I remade this holiday for myself. At that time… Read More ›