Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky,
How beautiful it is?
All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness
There is a poem, there is a song.
Every leaf is gone and it is waiting for the spring.
When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with
The music of many leaves,
Which in due season fall and are blown away.
And this is the way of life.
~Krishnamurti
Photo by NancyL
Samhain Blessings to you and all those you love.
As we enter the dark half of the year, Mother Nature reminds us that death is a sacred part of her endless cycles of life, death and rebirth. We let go and honor what is dead and dying, knowing Spring will return.
May today bring you the blessings of the ancestors. Take time to honor them in some way.
#Samhain
#CelticHolyDay
#wisdomofthedark
#cycles
#seasons
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Get out there.
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Photos by
Nancy Lankston
“Bless the earth underfoot
the breeze on my neck
the still dawn the open sky
the feather fall
the beetle climb
the crow call
the swift fly
the cloud drift
the rising sun
the barley field
the river run
the grass seed
the ripe plum.
Bless the toad leap
the thunderclap
the kingfisher and dragonfly
the sunlight dancing on the water
the wildflowers growing in the summer
the meadowsweet
the honey bee
the blackberry moon
the gliding swan
the eyes to see
the ears to hear
are all part of the river’s song.
Bless the seed
on fertile ground
the skylark trill
the morning mist
the hazy heat
the twilight glow
the meteor shower
the midnight kiss
the fields and stones
the Lammas bread
the wheel that turns
that all are fed.
Bless Us,
Grain Mother
Harvest Queen
Demeter and Persephone
Sun God
and John Barleycorn
All that dies shall be reborn
Bless this body
this breath
this Good Earth
this new day
May our dreams of days
and years to come
be blessed by the
radiant golden sun.
May abundance be a constant friend
by our hearths ’til winter’s end.
A Blessed Lammas to all”
~Caroline Mellor
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#grateful
#harvest
#lammas
#lughnasadh
#cyclesandseasons
#wheeloftheyear
Image: Bern@t/Creative
Commons via flickr
“The edge of the solstice, the barren darkness, the wheel.
Nature knows
That every cycle must return
to stillness and silence.
That every inhale has an exhale.
That every ending births a beginning.
That the light always returns to a future
beyond imagination”
~Victoria Erickson
☀️
#light
#dark
#cycles
#seasons
It’s spring equinox!
The lands of the northern hemisphere are now warming and coming back to life after the long dark winter. Light and darkness are coming back into balance now.
The Germanic Goddess Ostara (aka Eostre) is associated with spring and the return of the light. She is said to withdraw to the Underworld throughout the cold, dark winter. The land slumbers quietly awaiting her return. Then at Spring Equinox, Ostara returns to the surface of the Earth and life begins to stir anew.
Take a few moments to pause and celebrate sunlight, new life, rebirth, and growth.
#springequinox
#goddess
#ostara #eostre
#awakening
#mamearth
#rebirth
#returnofthelight
#wheeloftheyear
#happyspring
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#longestNight
#WinterSolstice
#returnoftheLight
#grateful
#cycles
#seasons
#WheeloftheYear
“We are almost at autumnal equinox
where all will be cooler.
Darker.
Deeper.
Quieter.
More intimate.
I am drawn now more and more
toward the colder seasons.
The nights stretching longer.
The pace slower.”
~Victorla Erickson
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#balance
#equinox
#autumn
#cycles
#seasons
“Lammas, or “Loaf Mass,” is the Feast of the First Harvest, the Feast of Bread. This Holy Day honors the women who created agriculture and bred the crops we cultivate, especially the grains, or corn. In the British Isles, celebrants make corn dollies from the last of the newly-harvested wheat. The corn dolly holds the energy of the grain Goddess and, when placed above the door or the mantle, will bring good luck to the household all year.
When we think of corn, we think of succulent cobs of crisp, sweet, buttery yellow or white kernels: immature Zea mays, Indian corn. You know, corn. As in sweet corn, popcorn, blue corn, decorative corn, corn bread and corn chowder. Corn!
But, did you ever wonder why it’s corn? “Korn” is an old Greek word for “grain.” Wheat and oats, barley and even rice, are korn. This usage is preserved in the song “John Barleycorn must die.” When Europeans crossed the Atlantic and were introduced to the beautiful grain the Native Americans grew, they, of course, called it “corn.” And nowadays we think of corn as only that, but corn is Kore (pronounced “core-a”), the Great Mother of us all.
Her name, in its many forms — Ker, Car, Q’re, Kher, Kirn, Kern, Ceres, Core, Kore, Kaur, Kauri, Kali — is the oldest of all Goddess names. From it we derive the English words corn, kernel, carnal, core, and cardiac. “Kern” is Ancient Greek for “sacred womb-vase in which grain is reborn.”
The Goddess of Grain is the mother of civilization, of cultivation, of endless fertility and fecundity. To the Romans she was Ceres, whose name becomes “cereal.” To the Greeks, she was Kore, the daughter, and Demeter (de/dea/goddess/meter/mater/mother) as well. To the peoples of the Americas, she is Corn Mother, she-who-gave-herself-that-the-People-may-live. She is one of the three sister crops: corn, beans and squash. In the British Isles she was celebrated almost to the present day as “Cerealia, the source of all food.”
Honoring grain as the staff of our life dates at least as far back as Ancient Greece. Nearly four thousand years ago, the Eleusinian mysteries, which were regarded as ancient mysteries even then, centered on the sacred corn and the story of Demeter and her daughter Kore or Persephone. Initiates, after many days of ceremony, were at last shown the great mystery: an ear of Korn. Korn dies and is reborn, traditionally after being buried for three days. Corn and grain are magic. The one becomes many. That which dies is reborn.
Many Native American stories repeat this theme of death and rebirth, but with a special twist. In some origin of corn stories a woman is brutally murdered, in others she demands to be killed. No matter. Once she is dead, she is cut into pieces and planted. From her dismembered body, corn grows. Again and again, everywhere around the world, the story of grain is the story of humanity. The sacred symbolism of grain speaks loudly to the human psyche. To the Ancients, the light in our lights is the Kore, the core, the soul, the seed, of each being.
… The green blessings of the grains are special blessings indeed.”
~Susun Weed
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#Harvest
#Lammas
#Lughnasadh
#CyclesandSeasons
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