Feast of Arts, Works & Healing

Yesterday began the nine-day Feast of Arts, Works & Healing. It's a feast closely associated with Brighid, a Celtic Fire Goddess.

Brighid's Fire is the fire of INSPIRATION...the inspiration that moves one to write music or poetry or sculpt in some medium or other or form some other work of art.

That fire is TRANSFORMATIVE; it is taking raw materials (some of them of the physical world, some not) and making something new, that didn't exist before. 

That fire is HEALING and PURIFYING; it burns away disease and impurity and makes way for something fresh and new. 

Daily life is immersed in this fire and I hope to post things here that sing of that fire. 

Ordinary Time

Back to ordinary time.

10 years ago today, I lost my father - and 103 years ago today, my grandfather was born. So for me, 29 January is a sort of an "alfhar" feast day, a feast of my fathers, at least on the paternal side of my family. My mother's father was born 26 March 1910 and died 23 March 1999.

Given that I'm American, I do have a Father's Day in June wherein I can remember all the male ancestors in my family line - and I have to admit, I know very few of them. Sad but true.

Sunday begins the nine-day Feast of Arts, Works & Healing! :)

Feast of the Arts: ODIN'S RUNESONG

A beautiful sculpture of the Allfather hanging on Yggdrasil

Feast of the Arts: Baryshnikov & Hines WHITE NIGHTS

No particular reason I chose this other than these two men are/were such great dancers. Of course, Gregory Hines is no longer with us, which is very sad, but we can celebrate the great dance he shared with us throughout his life, such as in movies like White Nights.

Feast of the Arts: VIVALDI'S WINTER

Another great composer with another great piece.

Feast of the Arts: BEETHOVEN'S 6th SYMPHONY

This is the movement that appeared in the movie "Fantasia" but I wanted to find something different to post here for the Feast of the Arts. Supposedly Beethoven himself was a tremendous nature lover, and it was nature itself that inspired this piece.

I'm hoping I'll be able to squeeze into these few days everything I'd like to post, to celebrate the arts, the creativity and inspiration that sometimes saves our lives and uplifts our souls. There's SO MUCH out there!!

Feast of the Arts: O FORTUNA

One of the great musical works of all time!

Feast of Arts & Technology

Hail Thor, hail Brighid, hail Athene, hail all Lords & Ladies of craftsmanship, the arts and technology! It is Your power, working through our minds and hands, that enable us to fight back the inimical powers of cold and death and destruction, and also that lift us up beyond mere animals as we create works of art that communicate something more than just "eat, excrete and make new people". Hail the transformative fire!




I'd like to add that for me, this is a great holy tide to yell UP THE WORKING CLASS! The people who do the sweaty work that enable us to have things like what is shown in the video, drive society. Without them, we'd all be lost.

Ordinary Time

Back to ordinary time.

Glad Yule!

Glad Yule! Blessed Yuletide! 'Tis the season of the longest period of darkness of the year, from which is born the light!

Ordinary Time

Back to Ordinary Time, until Yule.

All Hallows

Now begins the big feast of All Hallows, which seems to be a very good generic word for this holy tide. From today thru 5 November, this is the time to remember the ancestors and call to mind their gifts to us and what kind of stewards we are of those gifts.

Ordinary Time/Frithmaking

I, along with my partner Skallabjorn, have come up with a slighty smaller holy tide for this time of year. The harvest is mostly in by now, and come late Oct/early Nov, people would start slaughtering the animals that would not make it through the winter. This might be a good period for reaching out to one's neighbor and making frith/peace. It's sort of like Yom Kippur and Lent in the Jewish and Christian calendars. I think the holy tide color here should remain grey and possibly incorporate black. This will need some ironing out.

Second Harvest/Autumn Equinox

The harvest season continues with this festival of the second harvest...this is like a big pagan Thanksgiving-tide. This festival also marks the balance between light and dark, with a focus on coming darkness - from here on out, the daylight hours will be noticeably shorter, and the temperatures will start cooling down markedly. Happy Harvest Home!

Happy Loafmas!

Now begins the side of the year when we start offering thanks for the wonderful harvests of all varieties in our lives, and this is a very long season - in my calendar, I'm having it run at least through the autumn equinox, if not past it.

The most obvious manifestation of the gifts from the earth is the bread, from the grain that has been harvested from the fields. This is a good time to make offerings of bread and beer to Freyr. Happy Loafmas!

Ordinary Time

Today is the first day of ordinary time between Midsummer and Loafmas. This period will run until 30 July.

Midsummer

Hail Sunna, bright lady of the Sun! It's Midsummer! And damn, it's HOT OUT THERE in central Florida at this time of year! Sometimes I think the best way to celebrate Midsummer is by going to the beach and swimming, it's so dang hot. So maybe I should turn the liturgical color here to aqua and other oceanic colors! Relief from the HEAT! Haha! Happy Midsummer!

Ordinary Time

Now that we have welcomed May and the bright side of the year, we are back to Ordinary Time.

Ring in the May!

Happy May Eve! Tonight is May Eve, tomorrow is May Day, and this festival of welcoming the May (and saying bye-bye to winter) will run through 5 May. Dance round a Maypole! Break out the floral garlands! Kiss the one you love! Yay for May!

Back to Ordinary Time

Back to using normal grey text. Ordinary time runs from today - 29 April.