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Witchvox Chapter: Pagan Books
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Solstice Moon Solstice Sun -- A Perfect Yule Gift for children & adults!
Solstice Moon Solstice Sun
Author: Maire Durkan [a Witchvox Sponsor]
Publisher: Brigid's Hearth Press
Category: Yule, Solstice, Children Level: Beginner
“Changeless, yet changing, from mountain to shore,
a circle of wonders for us to explore!”
Solstice Moon Solstice Sun
The first of the Wheel of the Year books, Solstice Moon Solstice Sun tells the story of one of nature’s great turning points--when the hemisphere experiencing the winter solstice turns from the darkness of the longest night towards longer days and the promise of spring.
The winter months are a time of rest, when the Earth’s energy is stored in roots and within the slowed metabolisms of hibernating animals. All life must adapt or perish. Just like little Owlet, winter can weigh us down and we need reassurance that balance will be restored as earth circles the sun.
Like Owlet and his mother, our ancestors, were keenly aware of the natural world. They told stories to explain the transition and observed the winter solstice with festivals such as Yule and Saturnalia.
Along with humorous touches (Mama Owl’s fluffy pink slippers and a mouse infested house) Solstice Moon Solstice Sun features traditional symbols and powerfully symbolic characters.
The Characters—touching past traditions while relating to the present
Solstice Moon Solstice Sun’s animal characters and woodland setting were inspired by the gently rolling countryside of the Brandywine River Valley and characters from European folkways that are part of our heritage.
Owlet: Like any little one, Owlet misses his friends (who are hibernating) , is tired of cold, gloomy days, and longs for a change in his routine. He reaches to his mother for a reassurance that the seasonal cycle will continue and that he will be reunited with his friends.
Mama: A wise owl mommy, she knows that words alone aren’t enough for a little person and takes him into and through the heart of nature-- a sacred space--to experience the change. Owlet follows with perfect trust.
The Mice and Owlet’s friends: Children will adore finding the mice hiding in every illustration and will giggle at the illustrations of the Bear and Woodchuck families.
Ellen Durkan's magnificent illustrations of the Oak King, the Holly King, and the Lady reflect the strong spiritual and cultural traditions this time still holds for many.
The Holly King: Lord of the Winterwood, The Holly King represents withdrawal and rest—the dark half of the year when the sun’s light is waning (mid-summer solstice to winter solstice) . He also represents the old year and the sage. Traditions like displaying holly sprigs come from the Holly King legend. The Holly King is also depicted as Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) , driving a sleigh pulled by eight stags/reindeer, dressed in long robes with a crown of holly on his hair. His plant is the holly.
The Oak King: Lord of the Greenwood, the oak king represents growth and expansion-- the light half of the year when the sun is waxing in strength (from the winter solstice to the mid-summer solstice) . In this story he also represents the newly-born New Year. His plants are the oak and mistletoe (another symbol of this season) .
The Lady: Lady of the Greenwood/Lady of the Winterwood, Mother Nature, Mother Earth. However your tradition chooses to interpret her, she gives birth to the child of promise and hope.
Solstice Moon Solstice Sun nurtures a conscious connection to nature
As Earth revolves around the sun, each object and living thing tells endless and varied stories that help us understand the wonders of our planet and our connections to what exists upon it and beyond it.
If we’re patient and attentive, we often discover the greatest lessons and wonders in the smallest things—a snowflake—a butterfly sipping nectar from a flower growing in a window box, and sometimes a huge event is as quietly glorious as the sun rising a minute earlier in a pale winter sky.
Solstice Moon Solstice Sun fulfills a need within the community
Solstice Moon Solstice Sun fulfills a need for well written, beautifully illustrated stories that help children dream, wonder, explore, and love the natural beauty all around them—even in the midst of a city. For what they love, they will fight to preserve and protect.
The purpose of our stories and illustrations is to recapture, in some small way, a toddler’s wonder and joy as he plucks a dandelion, blows, and watches the fluff soar away on the breeze.
As followers of nature-based spirituality, it is our duty to nurture this wonder and, in the process, to refresh and strengthen our own awareness and connection to the Earth.
Spend time talking with your child about Solstice Moon Solstice Sun’s pictures and words, about the characters and how they feel, how the events reflect the passage of the seasons, and how this story relates to their own life and experience. Like Mama Owl, take your child into nature.
Author's Notes: About the Author
Maire Durkan created Solstice Moon Solstice
Sun as the first in a series on The Wheel of
the Year. She hopes that parents and children
will use these stories as springboards for
their own adventures in nature. She has been
a teacher, writer, editor, and journalist for
over twenty-five years. Much of her writing is
inspired by the beautiful woods and farmland
of the Brandywine River Valley where she
lives with her husband Patrick and five of their children.
About the Illustrator
Ellen Durkan is an award-winning sculptor and visual artist whose work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in many galleries and museums. She grew up in Wilmington, Delaware - the oldest of nine children. She teaches at Delaware College of Art and Design. Her body of work includes large-scale drawings, micro-sculptures, forged steel dresses, and blacksmithed objects as well as illustrations. She has her own blacksmithing forge and all of her steel creations are pounded on an anvil and bent and cut while red ho.t
Where To Buy: Purchase books, posters, & Yule cards at: www.brigidshearthpress.com
PS: SMSS Giveway! LIKE our Facebook page, and leave a comment that you found us on Witchvox, and we'll enter you in a giveaway of a signed first edition of Solstice Moon Solstice Sun--Drawing will be on (what else) December 21st
https://www.facebook.com/#!/SolsticeMoonSolsticeSun?fref=ts
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