Nancy Lankston
Join me in a guided Earth Tending in honor of sacred sunlight and Solstice.
☀️☀️☀️
Solstice is the perfect time to tend to the elemental fire of the sacred Sun that warms us and makes life possible on Earth.
Take a guided shamanic journey to honor and tend to elemental fire and sunlight. This Shamanism Without Borders tending was recorded a few days ago on Summer Solstice.
Click Here to access the audio recording.
As our Earth grows dark tonight
and the north winds blow,
As the fire dwindles to ash
and ice blankets the land,
May the light of our Sun
find its way home.
~Nancy Lankston
✨
#solstice
#dark
#light
✨
Image: Celtic Tomb,
Ireland
This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath, the door
of a vanished house left ajar…
~Margaret Atwood
☀️
Imbolc is upon us. Celtic stories tell us that the Cailleach—the divine hag Goddess who rules over winter and death—gathers firewood for the rest of the winter on Imbolc. If the Goddess Cailleach wishes to make the winter last a lot longer, she will make sure that the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. But, if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.
The Cailleach was worshipped by the Celts as the sacred Earth Mother in her bare winter form. And she is not just a dark and evil hag who arbitrarily decides how long winter will be. The Cailleach is also the Bone Mother who collects the bones of the animals that die in the winter. The Bone Mother is said to sing or pray or sleep over the bones all winter long. She does this out of love, so that the animals will cross over and can return as new life in the spring.
There is a magic to Imbolc and the early days of February. It is there, running just beneath the surface. Can you feel it? Mama Earth holds the seeds of spring safe for us all winter. As the cold wind blows and the snow piles up, she holds them safe in her soil.
#Imbolc
#Bone Collector
#Hag Goddess
Today I am grateful for:
1. The dark half of the year. Time to slow down, dream, reflect, contemplate. #Darkness
2. Welsh Goddess Arianrhod. She lives in a wheel of stars at the center of the night sky. Arianrhod keeps the dead safe until it is time for them to be reborn. #RestingPlace
3. Celtic Goddess Elen of the Ways. She is a whisper, a gentle wind in the wilderness. Elen shows us our true path. #WayShower
4. The bone collector, a Celtic Crone Goddess who collects the bones of the dead animals all winter and sings them across the void to be reborn. #BoneSong
5. Hindu Goddess Kali. She dances a power dance and demands we embrace our shadow. #LookInTheDark
6. Babylonian Goddess Tiamat, the primordial power and chaos of the depths. She both creates and destroys. The early patriarchal kings claimed to have destroyed Tiamat, but we all know better. #Primordial
7. Ancient feminine energies / archetypes of darkness. These dark goddesses hold so much wisdom and power. #DarkWisdom
🌙
Originally posted on Facebook, 11/28/19
Image: Paris Catacombs by Nancy L
Full moon in watery Cancer lights up the longest night in the northern hemisphere. This is a traditional time of rest and reflection. Sit in the stillness of winter solstice and breathe with the slow flow of nature in winter. Slow down and enjoy the quiet gifts of the season.
#FullMoon
#SolsticeLight
“Life’s waters flow from the darkness.
Search the darkness, don’t run from it.”
~Rumi
❤️
Now is the season of tricks and treats
When the veils between the worlds grow thin
And the ancestors walk among us.
We descend into the dark season in the north
A time to reflect, take stock,
Clear the old, make space for the new.
What do you hope for and dream of?
What do you wish to leave behind?
What will you honor with your love and care?
As within, so without
To change your world
Start with you.
❤️
Tarot Card Guidance for Halloween and The Day of the Dead:
Two of Stones (pentacles) – Challenges face you. hold your ground, honor your own needs, guard your integrity.
❤️
Traditional Ritual / Celebration Days in early November include:
November 1: Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead – a holiday celebrated throughout Mexico that focuses on praying for and remembering friends and family members who have died. Rituals are also done to help support the spiritual journey of the departed beyond this reality.
Nov 6: Tiamat’s birth. Tiamat is the primordial creative force of the Cosmos, the ancient Mesopotamian mother of all the Gods. Tiamat is depicted as a Dragon Goddess who emerges from the Sea and gives birth to all the other deities. She is the Sacred Feminine itself – fierce, protective, loving and nurturing. Tiamat is “Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things”.
Nov 7: Celtic Samhain Cross-Quarter Day falls on the boundary between autumn and winter halfway between autumn equinox and winter solstice (November 7th this year). The light is slowly fading away as our Sun drops lower and lower in the sky and our nights grow longer. This is a potent in-between time. The veils between the worlds grow very thin during this sacred in-between time. Loved ones who have departed this Earth are believed to be nearby. Samhain is a time to acknowledge and celebrate the sacred cycles of birth – growth – death – rebirth that are an integral part of Nature.
The Goddess Hekate was also celebrated and honored in ancient Greece at this time of year. Hekate is the guardian of the gateways between the worlds. She is a wisewoman crone Goddess of the Moon and Magick who stands at the crossroads and assists with all kinds of transitions, including birth and death.
Hindu Diwali or Festival of the Lights is also celebrated at this time of year (November 5-9 this year). This popular festival celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil. In some traditions, the Diwali night’s lights and firecrackers represent a celebratory and symbolic farewell to the departed ancestral souls.