saturday morning me//
white tee/black yoga pants/black houseshoes/do-rag/
white tangerine tea/warm brie on rye toast/
forecast: decor8 for 'hood holiday extravaganza tonight/
listening: silence by delerium/
got them solstice/yuletide/xmas/hanakkah-
kwanza/saturnalia boomshakalacka blues/
can i open my present yet?/
so what about you?/


Today's Quote:
"As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free." -- Eugene Debs

Winter Solstice Celebrations

It's not too soon to think about Winter Solstice celebrations, which are increasingly becoming more popular. (If you really want to go old school, see Saturnalia.) Some people do this in addition to their usual Christmas traditions. Some have the celebration of Jesus birth assimilated into the Winter Solstice. And some are just tired of the whole cheesy commercialism of Christmas that concentrates more on enriching the retailers and stressing us all that they wish to try something different.

It depends on what you want to get back from this season. Love? Peace? Presents? Do you want to honor it with a religious experience? And which one? Should you feed your spirituality in a more earth-based way, leave out the whole biblical aspect, or celebrate your usual family traditions? And what about the children?

How does a Buddhist couple with Protestant parents and Pagan kids celebrate the holidays? We manage to do our own thing and also honor our family's way of celebrating by finding something we all can relate to. One thing is we all celebrate the Winter Solstice and continue through New Year's Eve: 12th Night. We build a bonfire, (my husband's favorite part) and a Yule log is taken from that to the indoors where it (and more firewood) burns until the 12th Night. Then you spread the ashes on the field or garden on the first day of the year (which get into Compitalia). In those 12 days there's also a procession, gift-giving, (a little gift each day) bells, singing, paying it forward, feasting, prayers and much more but this is getting a little long.

Winter Solstice for 2006 will occur in North America on December 21, Thursday. The precise time depends on your time zone. In PST, it will be 4:22 pm; in EST, 7:22 pm.
* * * * *
Related Resources
* Solstice Planning Guide for the home and outdoors.
* Winter Solstice Religious Celebrations
* Sew seeds for Winter Solstice.
* Saturnalia


In the midst of winter I found there was within me an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

Global Orgasm

If you've got a few minutes to spare on 22 December, and fancy a quick shag for the advancement of World peace and harmony, then get yourself down to Global Orgasm - a mass coming-together of.. well, no, a mass coming together sums it up quite nicely.

Fair enough, although those us who are working on the Winter Solstice will presumably have to nip to the loos at lunchtime and crack one off with a quick "I'll be back in ten minutes - I'm just off to inject some positive input into the Earth's energy field."

The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.

A good cause to get behind. Or under or on top of or...

link

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

Sept. 23, 2006, 12:03 A.M. EDT

Mabon, or Autumnal Equinox is being celebrated soon. The Wiccan calendar contains 13 full moons (Esbats) and 8 Sabbats, or days of power, making 21 Wiccan ritual occasions. The Esbats are for celebrating the Goddess. The Sabbats mark the sun's yearly cycle and tell the story of The Wheel of the Year. On this day, the length of night time is equal to the length of daytime.

The full moon associated with the fall equinox is known as the Wine Moon.

THE RITUALS
This is the second harvest Sabbat. The Goddess is entering into cronehood, and the dark of the year is beginning, so this is a time often associated with mysterious lore and wisdom. The altar and circle should be decorated with autumn leaves, gourds, berries, pine and cypress cones, acorns, oak sprigs and other fruits of the season. [More...]

Blessed be this season of Mabon, time of the second harvest, the harvest of fruit and wine.
Tonight all things are in balance: Goddess and God, Life and Death, Light and Dark.
Tonight the darkness will conquer the light, leading us deeper into the waning year. [More...]

** World Unity Celebrations and Global Sunrise Meditations - Wake up and tune in as We Unify the World as One with Our Love this Equinox! link

Either through your religious affiliation or just as a member of the human race, I'd like to hear what you do to celebrate this event.

Blessed Mabon

World Unity Sunrise Meditation - Equinox Sept 23rd. Unifying the World as One in Peace with Our Love!

The Global Sunrise Meditations are intended to create flowing moments of silent prayer for peace in the world. Every equinox and solstice all participants focus their minds, 10 minutes before the sunrise and 10 minutes after, on a world unified through unconditional love, to heal oursleves and the planet. Believe in our power!

Find an event or someone in your area through our network links. There are many events paralleling this one and you may have one locally that you can attend. For example, San Francisco's having a LoveFest. Build up to the Year of World Awakening 2012...

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality... to change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller

link

Cosmic Reboot

Although Sacrament of Transition uses ibogaine for spiritual initiation ceremonies; we recognize that the vast majority of individuals who are seeking access to Tabernanthe iboga, do so for the plethora of beneficial effects this sacred plant can offer seekers who are physically dependent upon addictive drugs such as heroin, crack cocaine, alcohol, and a variety of other prescription or illicit molecules.

If you are presently drug-dependent, and do not have access to ibogaine treatment, or cannot afford it; Sacrament of Transition will begin offering remote initiations at no cost.

One remote initiation will be given on each of the religion's official holidays: Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox, and Winter Solstice.

Sounds good until you see it can't be shipped to any country where it's illegal, which is the United States, Belgium, Switzerland, and Denmark. The rest of planet earth is a go. But I'm optimistic about Ibogaine. Once upon a time methadone clinics were few and far between, but every metropolis now has one or three. For more info, see ibogaine.mindvox.com

Link

* TEST POST - With my post on Stonehenge below, I'm trying out the new tool for Firefox called Performancing which I found on Bloglines popular links.  It's a full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox. Just hit F8,  right-click, or click the little pencil icon at the bottom right to bring up the blog editor and easily post to your Wordpress, MovableType or Blogger blogs.

Currently my feed won't publish, but this extension has possibilities.

* Tom Goskar of Past Thinking was at Stonehenge for the solstice and has posted an album of photos on his Flickr account.

Winter Solstice at Stonehenge - a photoset on Flickr

Web Trail
The Full Moon will arrive next week, and I'm curious to find out if you have any rituals you perform for the Full Moon or the Solstice. I know there are a lot of spiritual people and sweet spirits who visit here and I'd love to get some feedback from you.

Summer Solstice
Celebrate the Summer Solstice on June 22, 2005, 12:13:48 AM EDT. Some Solstice revelers will gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise. Wouldn't it be nice to be there for that outstanding vision?

A Capricorn Full Moon Gathering is being planned locally for the Solstice and June Full Moon in Capricorn.

Asheville Naked Bike Riders had a small, but fierce group of cyclists this year. If as many riders as cops show up each year, it'd be a roaring success.

I've been listening to the experimental and uncompromising Brian Eno online. His first release in 25 years, Another Day On Earth goes wide Wednesday, June 15.

Quote For Today
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art. ~Kahlil Gibran

Enjoy Winter Solstice!

» The Heather Nevay Gallery with 18 eerie no smiling paintings. via the lovely Gilda @ Neurastenia

» The Dirty Martini has been around for sometime, but I see where the Dirty Sue martini is launching a huge ad campaign. It's the cleanest dirtiest martini around.

» A bold advertising campaign (Australia) that aims to wipe out marijuana's reputation as a "soft" drug will hit NSW cinemas this week. One includes the ad-line: "Pot. It mightn't kill you. But it could turn you into a dickhead." I kid you not. Link

» Celebrate the Summer Solstice today at 8:56 pm EST, June 20. Solstice revelers will gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise.

» Happy Father's Day to all you Daddios out there.

» 'Best of San Francisco' award-winner, Tish is celebrating a birthday today! Stop in and wish her well.