Who knew all this would happen afterwards! Winter Solstice being celebrated in a small apartment...thanks to YouTube video of a fire, and my own little grove of fake evergreens!
So the sun has returned, with promises of warmth to come - but it will be many more months before the spring blossoms start peeping out.
10. 16 by wildwoodblessing - Grandfather Mountain of the Blue Ridge Mountains
Seven Sister's mountains over Lake Tomahawk, Black Mountain, NC my photo probably 2024
Lake Tomahawk almost frozen over, January 17, 2025.
Dec 16, 2025, shallow Lake Tomahawk with some ice as it is being drained again. Sigh. Walking by gives the muddy marshy decaying odor. No more pretty reflection photos for a while. The senior citizens are still waiting for the Lakeview Center to be renovated so we can again hold programs and eat in the dining room together. The Town Council has been dragging it's feet with many promises (unfulfilled.) Politics! Bah! Humbug!
Oh, speaking of that which I just quoted, what is your favorite version of "A Christmas Carol" (movie?) by Charles Dickens? I kind of enjoyed Bill Murray in Scrooged (1988). But I first saw the TV show sometime in the 50s, just not sure which one, except it was pretty long. But I probably remember best the TV rendition in 1970 with Albert Finney and Alec Guinness.
The Arboretum in Asheville has a great Holiday light display, for night-time enjoyment. Here my friend Teresa shows her affinity to a butterfly (bundled for the weather) Taken 12.11.25.
A similar pose by a Santa at the Peri Social House.
Many are busy preparing for their Christmas celebrations. What rituals do you and your loved ones share for this holiday? Do you open one or all your presents on Christmas eve? Do you plan a big feast? What do you share? My friend Teresa (the butterfly above) has a pickle ornament which becomes part of different family fun each year.
My favorite pie, Dutch Apple Pie (just bake it from the freezer!)
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Thank you for being with me while I celebrated the Winter Solstice yesterday. I watched a lovely zoomed program. It was best for my health not to be in an intimate circle with friends this year...and I missed that camaraderie.
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Last evening (Dec 21) was the last night of Hanukkah.
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Today I changed the header to this...
Winter Solstice being celebrated in a small apartment...thanks to YouTube video of a fire, and my own little grove of fake evergreens!
Today the sun starts shining more hours each day in the northern hemisphere. It is considered the birth of new light.
"In this tradition since pre-Celtic times, and in many other cultural traditions, Winter Solstice has been celebrated as the birth of the God, and in Christian tradition as the birth of the Saviour. But there are deeper ways of understanding what is being born: that is, who or what the “saviour” is...
Birthing is not often an easy process – for the birthgiver nor for the birthed one: It is a shamanic act requiring strength of bodymind, attention and focus of the mother, and courage to be of the new young one.
Birthgiving is the original place of “heroics” … many cultures of the world have never forgotten that: Perhaps therefore better termed as “heraics”. Patriarchal adaptations of the story of this Seasonal Moment usually miss the Creative Act of birthgiving completely – pre-occupied as they often are with the “virgin” nature of the Mother being interpreted as an “intact hymen”, and the focus being the Child as “saviour”: Even the Mother gazes at the Child in Christian icons, while in more ancient images Her eyes are direct and expressive of Her integrity as Creator. In Earth-based religious practice, the ubiquitous icon of Mother and Child – Creator and Created – expresses something essential about the Universe itself … the “motherhood” we are all born within."
Any woman who has given vaginal birth (as opposed to Cesarian Sections) knows the incredible energies she had to find to push another human being into life.
When the nurse says you are 10 centimeters dilatated, that's how big your cervix must expand for you to give birth.
Every human being has experienced being born.
And every mother who gave birth has experienced the incredible forces of her womb to do this act. Us who had C-Sections (2 out of my 3 births) still had much similar feelings both emotionally and physically in the process and recovery from an abdominal surgical incision.
There are lots of photos on the internet of expectant mothers pushing, grimacing, breathing but no photos of actual birth. The babies are shown right after birth, being examined, or having the umbilical cord cut. The babies are shown with the moms holding them right after birth.
But though thousands of doctors and nurses and many fathers have seen a baby's head crown, the actual birth isn't shown. Perhaps the prudish society says we can't see a woman's vagina giving birth, or her anus, or somehow these are taboo still. OK, I don't want my privates spread all over the internet...but really, millions of births take place all over the world every day! They are invisible to the mothers, however. Just saying...
The only photo of an actual birth that I found.
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We celebrate (almost everybody) birthdays each year, to mark how many years we've accomplished of life so far.
And nobody sings to the mothers!
Well, I'm just saying, it kind of is mixed up, isn't it? The mothers did all the work, risked their lives and spent many hungry hours during labor, practicing different kinds of breathing while birth was about to finally happen, after waddling around with this extra weight hanging from their very centers for so long.
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Today's goddess is any mother.
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Winter Solstice, the rebirth of light, is today at 10:03 am ET.
''god is a mother
and with that
sentence
the world stops
the world always stops
when woman and
divine
commingle
as if the
feminine
dilutes the
miraculous
when in reality
it embodies it
when jesus turns water
to wine
they clap
but when women turn breasts
to milk
they cringe
a broken man’s body
is celebrated each sunday
while a broken woman’s body
is just hidden away
and it’s no wonder
that mother is a word
used by men
to demonize those
who don’t claim the name
and weaponized to shame
those who step out of line
because
their ideal
woman
plays the role of nurturer
and silencer
in pews
built and led by them
but
when god
becomes mother
she is neither quiet
or compliant
she leads confidently
she questions authority
she commands respect
which might be the problem
for mother god
did not gather us up
carelessly
but took her time with it
she fed us milk
birthed our souls
and broke her body
and the permanence
can be uncomfortable
and to disentangle god
from motherhood
is impossible
but
to disentangle god
from womanhood
is sinful
because seeing god as mother
is one step closer
to seeing god in me
and it’s in that
i am truly
born again''
~ Kaitlin Hardy Shetler @kaitlinshetlerpoetry
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My personal wishes are that the returning light, the seasonal rebirth as the earth starts to have longer daylight hours (northern hemisphere), will bring you bright healing, abundance, love, comfort and joy! And for those of you beginning the shortening days in the southern hemisphere, you are also wished the exact same things!
Bright Healing
Abundance
Love
Comfort
Joy
As the light reaches its lowest point here in the northern hemisphere we tuck ourselves into our warm homes, and even amidst the holiday gatherings it is valuable to find a bit of time to slow down enough to feel ourselves germinating, or even incubating. This is the time to nurture what wants to be born in us and in our communities—to protect and nurture our seeds until the time comes to send out our first tentative roots. When we reach deeply into the dark and embrace it, we find that what we need to know is inside of us already.
Mary Porter Kerns
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The last of 8 nights of Hanukkah
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Four more days till Christmas.
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And of course a woman has to have a choice whether or not to give birth!
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* This statue of Tlazolteotl is now one of the best-known sculptures in the Robert Woods Bliss pre-Columbian Collection at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. Many scholars consider it to be a masterpiece of pre-Columbian art, highly sophisticated in design and execution (Kelemen 1943; Covarrubias 1957; Mason 1958; Coe 1993; Quilter 2002). Others question its stylistic and iconographic features, and are disturbed by its lack of provenience (Baudez 1998; Pasztory 2002). They believe it is a misattributed, more modern creation. What has been written in support of the sculpture’s authenticity since the early years of the 20th century is almost entirely subjective, interpretive and speculative, endlessly repeated, occasionally elaborated. It is axiomatic, unfortunately, that whatever is repeated often enough is eventually taken as fact.
Winter Solstice is tonight...the longest night of the year. We consider all our animal friends, those living wild in woods, water or wind and the beloveds in human homes or fields.
By lynnbywaters
We live in times when it can be difficult to live grounded and connected to the earth that sustains us. Taking time to mark the seasonal changes has given us a new sense of gratitude and taught us to appreciate the darkness as well as the light.
Yule: A winter festival that was incorporated into Christmas and the Christmas season during the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples. An ancient Germanic pagan holiday centering around Winter Solstice, when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial sphere and the Earth's equator. Since ancient times, people all over the world have recognised this important astronomical occurrence and celebrated the subsequent “return” of the Sun.
At the entrance to Newgrange, Ireland. There's an opening above the lintel of the doorway.
The sun shines through the window above the lintel along the passage at Newgrange on Winter Solstice.
A link to experience tomorrow's dawn live at Newgrange may be found with The Office of Public Works, Livestream Now.
Sharing with Saturday's Critters
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.Winter Solstice Deer by Rion Wang
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The Twelve Nights of Yule & The Mother Goddess (as shared on The Raven and the Mystic FB page in 2022, but I can't find it again)
The first night of Yule, or "Mother Night' ('Módraniht') is December 21st, as Solstice breaks, and ends on January 1st. - 'Twelfth Night'. Many mystery pre-Christian traditions observed the Mother Goddess as the giver and nurturer of life, and celebrated feminine ancestors on Yule Eve.
The Mother Goddess gifts the world with the newly risen Solstice Sun, on the longest night of the year. Our Celtic/Norse/Pagan ancestors created feasts and fires in gratitude for the Spring to come and renewed life in the fields and flocks.
The Lunar Calendar which many earth-centered societies followed left 12 days outside the Roman* calendar. These twelve days were considered outside of the old year and new year, a liminal space where they could connect easily with ancestors, the realm of the Fey, or when the gods walked the earth; unseen yet accessible.
The thirteenth day after the Twelve Days of Yule, began the new cycle, or New Year.
* In Roman tradition, these are known as intercalary days (days inserted into the calendar to line up with the Lunar Calendar) December 26th to January 6th. January 6 is also known as Old Christmas, the date it was observed on before Pope Gregory XIII chopped 11 days from the calendar and moved Christmas Day to December 25th.
Whichever you choose to follow or observe, these are also known as the Omen Days, where one can look to signs from the Natural World each twelve days to predict what the next twelve months may hold for us personally.
There is a wonderful, mystical feeling to these Yule days out of time. I have always felt their mystery, even as a child. Everything seemed somehow suspended, until the thirteenth day, when I could palpably feel the transition to the new cycle.
Blessed Yule days Wise Ones! How will you live them?
I first heard this tune while watching a great video about goddesses, "Goddess Remembered," produced by Donna Read in Canada, in three sections.
This documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. The film features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Starhawk, Luisah Teish and Jean Bolen, all of whom link the loss of goddess-centric societies with today's environmental crisis. This is the first part of a 3-part series that includes The Burning Times and Full Circle.
I think the other two segments are also on YouTube
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Happy Hanukkah! The sixth candle on menorahs is being lit tonight at sunset.
Two more days until sun return at 10:03 am eastern time US.
Today's goddess:
Moving closer towards the winter solstice I’m thinking about light. [from Jenny Mendes on FB]
Theia is the child of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, as were all eleven of her siblings. Theia, whose name literally translates to goddess or divine, is the Greek goddess of light and vision.
Theia is also referred to as Euryphaessa in ancient texts, which means “wide-shining.” Scholars believe Theia is referred to as Eurphaessa in reference to the shimmering expanse of the upper atmosphere for which Theia was responsible.
Theia married her brother, the Titan Hyperion. Hyperion is the god of the sun and wisdom. Together Theia and Hyperion had three children who were all celestial deities that could manipulate light.
Theia is the mother of Selene (the moon), Helios (the sun), and Eos (the dawn). Because of her children, Theia is referred to as the goddess from which all light proceeded.
Children love Christmas!
Cover for The Saturday Evening Post (December 17, 1923) by J.C. Leyendecker
Sharing with Sepia Saturday the last post of 2025 for that meme. Looking forward to the next year!
From the Unitarian Universalists and I forgot to post this on the first night of Hanukkah, Dec. 14. Sorry.
By Veronika Veirag - I wish I knew how big she is...maybe 1/4 human, or ??
Happy/Merry Whatever!
One of the myths that's grown up around Winter Solstice is about men, Kings. I don't follow that tradition, but in fairness to all, here's a bit of that story.
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For phone viewers of my blog, here's the current header.
The tallest lit tree in Black Mountain is at the Peri Social house.
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