Yule

Samhain

 

Autumn Equinox

Image source: walkerscelticjewelry.com

August Eve

 

Image source: nationaltoday.com

Midsummer

Midsummer Eve, Edward Robert Hughes (1908)

 

Beltane

 

Vernal Equinox

 

Let it blossom, let it grow. 

Little Synchronicities

I've always been a proponent and practitioner of synchromysticism, even before I had a word to affix to it; it ties in with my perception of magick as the art of probability enhancement and coincidence management. My ability in these arenas varies, largely dependent on my energy levels and where my attentions are focused, but sometimes it snaps back to the forefront of my consciousness in obvious and unsubtle ways. When it does, I know to attend to it, because that's when things happen.

Last month I started watching the new MCU series WandaVision on Disney+, and is often the way for me, it quickly shifted from diversion to a deep-dive into a minor obsession. Things like this invariably open channels of inquiry and imagination for me, and I've learned over a lifetime of Being Like This to just go wholeheartedly into it and see where it takes me. Along the way, connections are formed and, to quote Tolkien (I think), way leads on to way. And along the way, there are signposts. Synchronicities. That's how you know you're on the right path.

A week or so ago, already fully enwrapped in Wanda Maximoff's journey of owning and controlling her power, I was doing my weekly(ish) reading with my combo oracle deck, The Well-Worn Path/Hidden Path. The card that flipped up that morning was this one, the Fire card: 

A red-haired woman, dressed in red, with a spiral of fire-red energy emanating from the palms of her hands. Huh. That reminds me of something...

(Yes, I realize her jacket reads more purple than red in this photo, but work with me here)

A little synchronicity, enough to make me sit back and go "Huh. That's interesting." Around that same time, something happened that came as a sad surprise, the sort of thing that makes you contemplate concepts like Life and Death and Meaning and so forth. Because those themes were present in my current fandom focus, they wove easily into my observations of what happened (it was the sudden death of an older work colleague, if you're wondering). Then something else happened, and then something else happened, and at the end of that chain came a thing that made me understand that I was coming in to my own power, both magickal and mundane (assuming there's even a divide), on a new level. My card reading this morning amplified it, and today's passage from my favorite daily meditation book further clarified and sealed it.

Synchronicities. Coincidences combining, probabilities turning to actualities. This is why I do what I do, this is because I am who and what I am. The takeaway? Pay attention. There are always signposts along the way. What moves you, motivates you, inspires and inflames you, right now? No matter what it is, no matter how mundane or "silly" it seems, look at it, let it lead you down into the depths of your imagination and then see where you end up. 

Imbolc

photo http://www.thegypsythread.org

 February Eve has come, bringing with it just enough warmth and rain to wash away the last of January's snow. Now begins the up and down dance of February, cold this day, warm the next, snow here, rain there, the tug of war between winter and spring. Beyond my window the sky is a soft grey-blue, and what was white yesterday is now a soggy greenish brown. If the rains promised for today were to stop long enough to allow me a walk in nature, I might see signs of life just beginning, the tenderest soft shoots of green just barely breaking the surface; those little hints of life are sustenance enough for me, at this time of year.

For years we've joked about how Imbolc is the sabbat that everyone always skips, because the weather is always wretched. It's true enough that my coven isn't meeting for the sabbat this year, but it's less because of the weather (which is, admittedly, fairly wretched per usual) than because of the ongoing pandemic. The virus that has reshaped our world over the past year has also reshaped itself, appearing in some new and more easily transmissible variants; and while vaccines do now exist, not everyone is able to get one yet, as they are being rolled out in phases with the more vulnerable being first to receive them. It could be well into the spring or even summer before I'm eligible, with the same being true of most of my coveners. And so we wait, as the earth waits, for the return of light and life and hope and all those things that are promised by the spring's awakening.