Winter | The heART of Ritual

The heART of Ritual

musings

Welcome to the MUSINGS room in our digital nest! Here you will find an extensive selection of articles, poetry, prose, videos, recipes, and tutorials that journey the natural cycles, seasons, elements, and archetypes in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, as well as our Irish indigenous festivals, folklore, and customs.

This is lovingly provided as a free community resource, however it is copyrighted content. As such, we respectfully ask that if you share this content outside of this dedicated space, either in whole, in part, or paraphrased, that you credit the author and source. Thank you.

Samhain and the Cailleach

Samhain, the astronomical moment of liminality, is drawing closer. Although Halloween will be celebrated on the 31st of October, the...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Learning from Trees', by Grace Butcher

If we could, like the trees, practice dying, do it every year just as something we do— like going on vacation or celebrating birthdays,...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'On Pain', by Kahlil Gibran

And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain. And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Mistletoe', by Walter De La Mare

Sitting under the mistletoe (Pale-green, fairy mistletoe), One last candle burning low, All the sleepy dancers gone, Just one candle...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Hoar Frost', by Moira Cameron

In icy cover of the dark- too cold, the Arctic air can’t muster up the will or care to gust- strange magic thrives in stillness stark:...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Lamplighter', by Robert Louis Stevenson

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky; It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by; For every night at teatime and...

Wintering, and how Trees illuminate the Art of Self-Renewal in difficult times

“Wintering… is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and to commit to healing them the best we can. Wintering is a...

The Complex Root Systems of Plants

Winter is the season of the earth element and earth, and it's hard to speak about earth without speaking about physical roots, our...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'A Wintry Sonnet', by Christina Rossetti

A Robin said: The Spring will never come, And I shall never care to build again. A Rosebush said: These frosts are wearisome, My sap will...

The Goddesses of January

As we approach Women's Little Christmas on January 6th, or 'Nollaig na mBan' as it is known here in Ireland, it is worth noting that...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Spellbound', by Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go. The giant trees...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Legend of the Winter Rose', by Kenn Allan

The path beyond the garden gate Weaves 'round the olive trees And leads to where the flowers sway Upon a gentle breeze. Behind the heads...

What can we learn from how Nature spends Winter?

Life's adaptations to the cold and dark part of the year demonstrate how time and patience, in the end, teach us how to survive....

Hibernation

It’s that time of year when the call of winter invites us to retreat here in the northern hemisphere. To rest deeply into the boundless...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Old Christmas', by Mary Howitt

Now he who knows old Christmas, He knows a carle of worth; For he is as good a fellow As any upon earth. He comes warm cloaked and...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: The Legend of the Christmas Robin

"Legend tells how a Robin, On the night of the first noel, Braved the frosty winter night, So the baby might sleep well. Throughout the...

The Shortening Winter's Day is near a Close', by Joseph Farquharson

Joseph Farquharson (1846 -1935) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and died at Finzean, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He is most famous for his...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Holly', by Andrew Blakemore

At the edge of the field in a hedgerow so tangled, So thick and so dense where the holly does grow, Berries of scarlet are caught in the...

The Cycle of Form and Formless

We are taken into winter, when the leaves are fallen from the trees and the branches are bare. Winter is this barrenness that belongs to...

Snow crystals and the work of Wilson A. Bentley

"The snow crystals come to us not only to reveal the wondrous beauty of the minute in nature, but to teach us that all earthly beauty is...

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