The night before Yultide and time of winter solstice 2024

 

Winter Solstice 2024 happens on Dec. 21 at 4:20 am EST (This corresponds to Saturday, December 21, 2024 at 09:20 UTC)

2 pm shadows cast northerly on 12/19/14

Then there's the spiritual part of it.

Our whole planet changes it's orientation to the sun, with the furthest point reached at Solstice.

I ask you to observe that moment as a stopping time place for yourself as well.
You could stand at attention...lie down, sit in meditation...just something different.  Salutations of some kind are due.

See what happens.  What is your experience?

I have often marked on a wall or floor where I live, the point that is the furthest the sun reaches on that day, at that time...as it's at its furthest declination to the earth.  It returns yearly to that same point on the floor...if I calculate the time right.

Just think of Newgrange and Stonehenge...yep.  Those astronomers knew how to calculate the time just fine.  Salutations to our wise ancestors. 

Celtic symbols.

Newgrange, Ireland

Inside Newgrange, from We Love Ireland on Facebook

Stonehenge, UK, by Stonehenge Dronscapes Facebook, Nov. 2024

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TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE YULETIDE

Twas the night before Yuletide and all through the glen

Not a creature was stirring, not a fox, not a hen.

A mantle of snow shone brightly that night

As it lay on the ground, reflecting moonlight.

The faeries were nestled all snug in their trees,

Unmindful of flurries and a chilly north breeze.

The elves and the gnomes were down in their burrows,

Sleeping like babes in their soft earthen furrows.

When low! The earth moved with a thunderous quake,

Causing chairs to fall over and dishes to break.

The Little Folk scrambled to get on their feet

Then raced to the river where they usually meet.

“What happened?” they wondered, they questioned, they probed,

As they shivered in night clothes, some bare-armed, some robed.

“What caused the earth’s shudder? What caused her to shiver?”

They all spoke at once as they stood by the river.

Then what to their wondering eyes should appear

But a shining gold light in the shape of a sphere.

It blinked and it twinkled, it winked like an eye,

Then it flew straight up and was lost in the sky.

Before they could murmur, before they could bustle,

There emerged from the crowd, with a swish and a rustle,

A stately old crone with her hand on a cane,

Resplendent in green with a flowing white mane.

As she passed by them the old crone’s perfume,

Smelling of meadows and flowers abloom,

Made each of the fey folk think of the spring

When the earth wakes from slumber and the birds start to sing.

“My name is Gaia,” the old crone proclaimed

in a voice that at once was both wild and tamed,

“I’ve come to remind you, for you seem to forget,

that Yule is the time of re-birth, and yet…”

“I see no hearth fires, hear no music, no bells,

The air isn’t filled with rich fragrant smells

Of baking and roasting, and simmering stews,

Of cider that’s mulled or other hot brews.”

“There aren’t any children at play in the snow,

Or houses lit up by candles’ glow.

Have you forgotten, my children, the fun

Of celebrating the rebirth of the sun?”

She looked at the fey folk, her eyes going round,

As they shuffled their feet and stared at the ground.

Then she smiled the smile that brings light to the day,

“Come, my children,” she said, “Let’s play.”

They gathered the mistletoe, gathered the holly,

Threw off the drab and drew on the jolly.

They lit a big bonfire, and they danced and they sang.

They brought out the bells and clapped when they rang.

They strung lights on the trees, and bows, oh so merry,

In colors of cranberry, bayberry, cherry.

They built giant snowmen and adorned them with hats,

Then surrounded them with snow birds, and snow cats and bats.

Then just before dawn, at the end of their fest,

Before they went homeward to seek out their rest,

The fey folk they gathered ‘round their favorite oak tree

And welcomed the sun ‘neath the tree’s finery.

They were just reaching home when it suddenly came,

The gold light returned like an arrow-shot flame.

It lit on the tree top where they could see from afar

The golden-like sphere turned into a star.

The old crone just smiled at the beautiful sight,

“Happy Yuletide, my children,” she whispered. “Good night.”

Poem author C.C. Williford

Today on Open Yesterday's Pages: Pan Am and the flying machines

and The Louisiana Purchase

Celtic Symbols

Do any of the roots on your family tree reach back to Ireland and the land of the Celts?  The day of Winter Solstice is upon us.

In the dawn of civilization, way before Christianity came to the Emerald Isle, Newgrange Mound was built, which on Winter Solstice, has an avenue for the sun to shine, and only on that date will it happen.  Another site with this alignment might be better known, namely Stonehenge, which was built much later than Newgrange.

But Newgrange has more than the light streaming down a passageway to a particular wall only on Solstice.  Remember well the skills of a culture before the working of metals, and the dedication of man-hours to erect this structure.

Wikipedia tells us: "The complex of Newgrange was originally built between c. 3200 and 3100 BC, meaning that it is approximately 5,000 years old. According to carbon-14 dates, it is about five hundred years older than the current form of Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, as well as predating the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece."

Newgrange has triple spirals.  Inside...(as above)

And most famously outside.

Patricia Monaghan wrote in her book Red Haired Girl from the Blog, and other books like The Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, about women's spirituality in early Celtic Ireland.

And another woman, Marija Gimbutus, wrote of The Language of the Goddess, giving an archeologist's view on symbols like the spirals at Newgrange.

Just thought I'd mention how women and goddesses were probably part of early cultures that remembered the Solstices.

Bridget, the fiery one

 The fiery one...keeper of the fire, but much more than that.  She is the goddess of healing, poetry, and smithcraft, (metal working, and jewelry.)

Bridget lantern

This was one of my earliest lantern shapes.  Since Bridget's Day (Imbolc) is coming up, February first, I thought I'd share her again.

I'll try to find some of the information that talks about her, quite an interesting goddess turned saint for the Christians.

At this time, nuns in Ireland now keep Bridget's eternal flame alight again.  Wikipedia says the Celtic goddess Brigid, was the goddess of agriculture and healing and also of poetry and fire.

She is known to have started the tradition of keening when someone you love dies.  And she taught people how to whistle, as a way of communicating through the woods at night.

Author Elizabeth Cunningham speaks of Bridget and compares her to Patricia Monaghan here.

A few miracles have been handed down from the stories, such as the one about her cloak and the king.  Wikipedia says it this way:

One of the more commonly told stories of St. Brigid was when she went to the King of Leinster to ask for land to build a convent. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect place for a convent. It was beside a forest where they could collect firewood and berries. There was also a lake nearby that would provide water and the land was fertile. The king laughed at her and refused to give her any land. Brigid prayed to God and asked him to soften the king’s heart. Then she smiled at the king and said “will you give me as much land as my cloak will cover?” The king thought that she was joking and because Brigid’s cloak was so small he knew that it would only cover a very small piece of land. The king agreed and Brigid spread her cloak on the ground. She asked her four friends to hold a corner of the cloak and walk in opposite directions. The four friends walked north, south, east and west. The cloak grew immediately and began to cover many acres of land. The king was astonished and he realized that she had been blessed by God. The king fell to the ground and knelt before Brigid and promised her and her friends money, food and supplies. Soon afterwards, the king became a Christian and also started to help the poor and commissioned the construction of the convent. Legend has it, the convent was known for making jam from the local blueberries which was sought for all over Ireland. There is a new tradition beginning among followers of St. Brigit to eat jam on the 1st of February in honour of this miracle.  

But the eternal flame which used to be tended by the nuns at her convent, has been through several politically driven times, when it was allowed to go out, and now it is under the care of some of Bridget's followers.  When it was originally started, only 19 women were allowed to tend the flame, (with dire threats to any men who came nearby) for 19 days and nights, but on the 20th night, nobody watched the fire, because the goddess herself was tending it.

Imbolc is the Irish and pagan holy day which fits the agricultural year, the time of the ewes having milk returning as they get ready to give birth to lambs.

 I've already posted this same blog on Alchemy of Clay, because there is the lantern which I built.  But it is more appropriate to share this information here, I think.  So it's being given space today on each of my blogs!