Fall Equinox: Celebrate the Cycle of Life

Sep 05 2025

The Fall Equinox is the second of the three major harvest festivals. The Celtic name for it is Mabon: the season of storing food and preserving nature’s bounty for the coming winter months. This year it will be on September 22nd, just as the sun enters Libra, the sign of the balancing scales. The term Equinox refers to this balance of day and night and the cycle of life is evidenced by Nature: Spring (birth) Fall: seeds falling and going underground (death) only to grow again in spring: (rebirth). This cycle has been revered for at least 30,000 years; probably for as long as humans have gathered herbs and plants in familiar places during certain seasons.

A deeper mystery at the Fall Equinox was celebrated for many centuries at Eleusis, a small village in Greece.

Jul 17 2025

Celebrate Lammas With Abundance Gratitude and Sharing

August 2nd is the day to celebrate Lammas, the first of three festivals celebrating Mother Earth’s bounty. Baking loaves from the first grains and offering them at a communal meal has always been central to these gatherings, going back to thousands of years before the Common Era.

The Celts called this time Lughnasadh (loo-na-sa), Native Americans called it the Green Corn Festival and in Slavic Regions it is called the feast of the Big Glad Woman. Ireland celebrates Lammas as Big Sunday and farming communities gather at hundreds of traditional hilltop sites to set up craft fairs, feast, play games, and dance. A part of every one of these gatherings is a ceremonial meal where the first fruits of the harvest were shared in gratitude to Mother Earth.

Jun 16 2025

Celebrate the Summer Solstice

On June 20th when the Sun moves into Cancer in the Northern Latitudes, we celebrate the Summer Solstice. it is one of the eight great spokes on the Celtic Wheel of the Seasons. The Solstice (meaning sun stands still) is universally recognized in all cultures as an important turning point—it is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere the Summer Solstice will be celebrated at the Winter Solstice in the North.

I have often written about the Fae (people of Fairie) and their role as protectors of the natural world. Since Summer Solstice was the time when encounters with the Fae were most possible, I felt called to write about such encounters.

Apr 10 2025

2025 Beltane Newsletter

Celebrate Life Force Energy on May Day,

May Day is the time when nature has truly come alive. Our ancestors joyfully embraced the fertility of Mother Earth; flowers bloom, offering their pollen to the bees. The Celtic name for this period is Beltane, which means bright or sacred fire. During the festival, great bonfires were lit and animals and fields were blessed in hopes for an abundant year.

Traditionally May Day began on the eve of May 1st and was celebrated with feasting, dancing, and merriment for two weeks. Beltane was a time when lovers ran off to the fields and woods together to honor the Great Goddess with ecstatic lovemaking. These Lovers knew that sexual energy was the most powerful connection to Spirit.

Mar 21 2025

Mercury and Venus Retrograde Now–Wow!!

HEY NOW,

as Al Manning would say, illigitimi non carborundum, which was his pet phony Latin Phrase for “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” As I write this, VENUS is Retrograde… and the good news is we are plodding through it (Venus is retrograde from March 1 to April 12, 2025). We are making our way through these challenging times! Venus Retro only happens every year and a half, and since the goddess of LOVE affects all life, for her to go on vacation for six weeks is challenging. The tendency is for folks to be dissatisfied, emotional and want a change. The admonition is to “stay the course” and not make major changes.

Feb 27 2025

Celebrate the Spring Equinox, the time of green fire,

This year in the Northern Hemisphere, March 20th is the Spring Equinox when day and night will be equal in length at the equator. Also known as Ostara or Eostre (the origin of the name Easter) light and dark will be perfectly balanced. It is also the New Year for Persians as well as the Earth Honoring spiritual traditions that follow the ancient ways.

In these ancient traditions the Vernal Equinox is considered the time of Green Fire. It refers not only to sap rising, but also to the electrical energy pulsing through the growing plants. This is not a metaphor. My electrician husband told me that green fire is literally electrical, just like our nervous systems.

Jan 24 2025

Embrace Hope my friends,

Imbolc is the time of hope for new life and the return of the light.

In the US, most people think of February 2nd as Groundhog Day, the portent of how many more weeks of winter are in store. However, for thousands of years, Imbolc, meaning “in the belly” was a sign of hope that the ewes were pregnant and there would be lambs born in the spring. People also noticed that the days were gradually lengthening.

Hope is one of the most important emotions that allow us to feel alive and attract the possibilities that lead to feeling that we do have agency. When hope is purposely destroyed, we lose the will to live.

may the light of the sun shine on your family this yule season

Dec 02 2024

Yuletide Blessings to all my wonderful friends,

This newsletter brings my heartfelt wishes for a truly meaningful holiday season and an abundant New Year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21st is the time of the longest night.

The Winter Solstice is universally honored with lights the world over.

People have burned Yule logs and oil lamps, candles and bonfires. Currently

electric lights are strung around our homes. My mother told me as a child that

these traditions reassured us that days of longer sunlight would be returning.

Yet there is much to appreciate about darkness. Indigenous wisdom holds that darkness is simply the other side of light and there is great creative power in the dark void.

Dec 02 2024

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Oct 05 2024

Samhain Greetings my friends,

The time period between Oct 31st and November 2nd is on the most widely celebrated ancient traditions that honors our ongoing connection with our ancestors. This includes those we knew in this lifetime, beloved great or great- great ancestors we’ve heard about, as well as ancestors from millennia ago. Samhain, meaning ‘summer’s end’ heralds the thinning of the veil between the seen and unseen worlds. Most of us have heard about or participated in the tradition of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in the US, Mexico, and South and Central America for a long time. It is a deeply significant celebration because folks can more easily connect to their loved ones who have passed. Samhain is about ancestors’ love and support of us rather than the fear-based portrayal of goblins and ghouls who are out to get us.

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Category - Thru the Seasons

Fall Equinox: Celebrate the Cycle of Life