Imbolc

 Awake awake

The earth still dreams Beneath the frost A candle gleams Awake awake The wheel has turned A fire lights Within the earth Strike the drum Let the fire burn bright Imbolc stirs From the heart of night Blessed Brigid You are the flame That guides us to The light of day Snowdrops rise The maiden's crown And green shoots spring from The frozen ground The lamb's soft cry The milk of life He breaks the still Of winter's night Strike the drum Let the fire burn bright Imbolc stirs From the heart of night Blessed Brigid You are the flame That guides us to The light of day Awake awake The wheel has turned The fire inside Gently burns Bless this land The sky and the sea Brigid's light will Set us free

Molly Anne Chinner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7-2TnPgQwg

​A Celtic Blessing of Light

 

May the blessing of light be on you – light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the earth be on you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.

May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly.

 

To A Snowdrop

By William Wordsworth

Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,
Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

January

 

"Winter; listen to the wind, feel the frost on the ground,

seek the warmth that resides within and around.

Hear, now, and see, in stillness, the wonder,

quiet, slow, oh so slow, silently whisper,

white mantle reflecting the holding mind

warmth, seeking, feeling kind.

Hear the slow pulse of Mother sleeping

breathe with her, in sweet surrendering

January trees, in the hazy, still morning light, 

in the pale misty windy night

branches twisting, bending, dancing

silhouettes painting the clear sky, reaching

Winter Nights in the Mountains

 Dreaming of Winter Nights in the Mountains...

One of my favourite paintings; so calming.

Winter Night in the Mountains (Norwegian: Vinternatt i fjellene),

 also known as Winter Night in Rondane (Norwegian: Vinternatt i Rondane),

 is the name of several versions of a composition created in several techniques by the Norwegian artist Harald Sohlberg (1869–1935).

The work depicts mountains covered by snow, under a deep blue-black cloudless evening sky. The foreground is framed by the silhouetted limbs of bare weathered trees, but the work is devoid of any sign of humans or animals. 

At the centre of the symmetrically balanced painting is a single bright star visible in a gap between two mountains. A cross is visible on the snow of a mountain peak to the right.

The painter made several studies in the period 1900–1902 in a variety of media, including charcoal, crayon, oil and watercolor. 

Searching downwards; the sacred art of pausing

 

Card from An Almanac of Birds: 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days.

Pausing,

inhale, exhale; pause

inhale light

exhale...

pause, pause, in that in between space of emptiness 

and feel embraced in the darkness

as you exhale feel the shift, the release and the peace, 

in that silent moment

linger

then inhale deep, out of the sleep

awake, inhale light, shake

all the negative out and away

rest, restore, renew

exhale, and welcome the slow winter slumber 

time to be lulled by the cold winds out in the night

time to be lulled

cocooned in soft fleece

content

sleep

Never forget

 

Art from An Almanac of Birds: Divinations for Uncertain Days. (Available as a print and as stationery cards, benefitting the Audubon Society.)