These posts describe both personal seasonal rituals and community-wide Earth-based ceremonies that honor our relationship to nature and spirit throughout the wheel of the year. Perhaps you will gain ideas for creating or participating in some seasonal celebrations of your own, large or small.
Spirit-and-Nature seasonal celebrations are inspired by Celtic myth and legend. They share consciousness of the continuity of Earth and Spirit with worldwide indigenous/animist cultures. In them we aspire to bring to the community an opportunity to share our loving relationship with spirit and nature through live music, crafts, circle dances, song, story, ritual, and ceremony which honors both the ecology of this our sacred Place and the presence of Spirit at these potent times. Western culture is doing its best to split nature from people and nature from spirit. We, as elders, feel the responsibility to try to hold nature/human/spirit together in Love as an act of joyous resistance. Past events are included as an archive of posts dated on or near the day they were presented.
We learned the story of Brigid as the Celtic Divine Feminine and her Sacred Landscape. We honored our native Bears, for which we are so thankful, and the Spirit of Bear, which preceded the Groundhog, as symbols of hibernation and … Continued
Ritual weaves the felt strands of connection between earth, spirit, and us humans at sacred places. Perhaps my favorite rituals on this trip to Ireland involved pilgrimaging to four ancient stone circles (c. 2,500 BC) that are aligned to the … Continued
On the wheel of the year Lughnasa is the cross-quarter point between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. Lughnasa began at a time when pre-Celtic peoples were very aware of the cycles of the sun. They had to be because they … Continued
At Beltane we make contact with the Inspirited Earth through rituals that embody such archetypes as circle and center, world tree, the dance of masculine sun and feminine water, and the sacred marriage of the King with the Goddess who … Continued
Another theme of the evening was about the archetypal theme of hibernation and re-emergence as metaphor for the life-death-rebirth initiatory process as symbolized by Snake, Groundhog, and Bear. We saw this Black Bear at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. . … Continued
Ah, the night was perfect for our Samhain Celebration! Clear, cold, and still. It was new moon and the time had just fallen back, so it was very dark. There were a million stars, and the Milky Way, in some … Continued
A big cheer for the many celebrants who braved the light rain to come out to our Beltane Pilgrimage to the Sacred Spring, Maypole Dance, and Fire Ritual. . . Our theme was the Sacred Marriage, the fertility and creativity … Continued
The weather was a perfect combination of wintery enough for this celebration of welcoming the return of the sun, yet warm enough to make the pilgrimage to the pond, with torch fire and drumbeat. . .We made little magnolia leaf … Continued
Happy Halloween/Blessed Samhain and All Soul’s Day! Favorite moments: Burning of the Maypole prayer ribbons. When the still beautifully woven maypole ribbons were laid out encircling the firepit, they looked for all the world like the shed skin of a … Continued
Beltane 2012 Reflections: So many images stand out in my mind: the many different kinds of butterflies that fluttered by (two of the Irish pieces were The Swallowtail and The Butterfly!); the women off in the fields of tall grasses … Continued