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TWV Presents... Popular Pagan Holidays [Show all] Views: 6,386,172 Holiday: ... Autumn: The Croning Time Daily Goddess Awareness It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Chri... Yuletide! Well, You Don’t Celebrate Christmas... Samhain: A Time for Introspection---and Activism For A Religion So Opposed to Paganism, You Sure Stole a Lot of Our Stuff! The Dark Half of the Year The Halloween Witch: Sense of Humor or Sense of Ire Ah...To Be A Witch... La Befana Winter Solstice By Any Other Name The Beltaine Storm Spiritual Aspects of Yule Winter Holiday Intentions and Food Magik Ostara...It's Not Just For Kiddies Anymore! Autumn Equinox: A Point of Balance on the Wheel of the Year Alicia Meets Grandmother Autumn: A Children’s Story Lughnasadh: The Deeper Meaning A Meditation on Samhain: How Lucky You Are. The Solstice Flame: A Yule Story Imbolc: Traditional Celebrations for a Modern Time Supermoms’ and Superdads’ Defense Against “Holiday Kryptonite” A Story For Autumn Traditional Yule: Make your Own Homebrewed Mead Ostara: Enter the Light! Samhain: Learning to Release An Egyptian Wheel of the Year Samhain A Celtic View of Samhain Winter: A Joyous Holiday Season The Oak King and the Holly King Revisited The Babylonian Ghost Festival The Best Thing About Death A Summer Solstice Primer Imbolc...or As The Wheel Turns The Celtic Origins of Samhain The Theme of Mabon Witches Lost in Halloween Dealing with the Darkness, Post-Samhain Don’t Waste That Pumpkin! The Samhain Experience First Thanksgiving... in China Love Lives On: A Samhain Reflection on Death, Rebirth, and the Afterlife A White Christmas in Fuyang Solstice Swim at Beach 69, Puako, Hawaii Solstice of the Soul Midsummer A Samhain Dance Lughnasa: Festival of the Harvest (A Druid's Perspective) The Tale of the Holly King and the Oak King Imbolg - A Lesson of Positive Change Ancestor Stew Beltane Beyond Sex The Story of Ostara Planning A Good Death: A Samhain Process The First Yule Season of the Blues Yule...and Saturnalia Smurf Hats Unity During Samhain A Yule Story for Children ~ The Tiniest Fairy ~ Samhain Mabon..Balance and Reflection Yule and the New Year The Blood is in the Land Bealtine: Blessing the Summer In Yuletide Thoughts, Life and Death Ghosts, Omens, and Fact-Finding: Wandering In Today's Eco-Interface Easter is Pagan Groundhog's Day is American for Imbolc Preparing for Summerland During Samhain Lughnasadh Sandy Was The Name Of the Dark Goddess This Samhain When The Crone Pays A Visit, You'd Better Pay Attention Yules Lessons from Days of Yore: Perfect Love, Perfect Trust A Midsummer Labyrinth Walk…Winding the Way Back Home The Promise of the Harvest Brighid's Healing Sword: Imbolc And the Last Spoke is Mabon "The Horn of Plenty": A Pathworking for Lammas The Call of the Crone NOTE: For a complete list of articles related to this chapter... Visit the Main Index FOR this section.

Solstice... Season of light and dark Author: Christina Aubin [a WitchVox Sponsor] Posted: December 16th. 2001 Times Viewed: 7,946 Solstice is the time when the sun appears to stand still in His yearly migration across the heavens. Be it in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere, the journey of the sun pauses, deliberately and when his journey resumes the tide of the year has once again begun to ebb and flow. Together we journey into separate halves of the year, very much two sides to the same coin, each coupled to the other, as Light is coupled to Dark, without Light there would be no Dark as without Dark there would be no Light -- much like we find without a path there would be no journey. Solstice is as much about the light as it is about the dark. Irregardless of where we stand, Solstice marks the time of great change, as we in the Northern Hemisphere begin our yearly accent into the light half of the year, our counterparts in the Southern Hemisphere begin their decent into the dark half of the year. Be it accent or decent, the holiday is about hope, which remains the constant from wherever we journey the Wheel and our lives, independent yet connected with hope being the beacon for all. As we begin our journey into the promise of Summer, we know that there are winter storms and gales that lie ahead, but the promise of summer lends its warmth through the coldest of days and the stormiest of nights. It is that promise, that certainty, that even in the darkest of nights, there is the promise of dawn. That in the frozen earth, there is the warmth of life. That even in the dimmest of times there is the glimmer of hope. It is that which we celebrate. The joy of hope eternal which wells from deep within the Earth Herself and Heavens above -- we are forever cradled in the endless promise of hope. The South begins Her decent into the dark, with the sweetness of summer still dancing about, we know the tide of the year has changed. Summer will fade into fall, and fall into winter. We know the dark times are coming and change abounds, the Earth will slow her rhythm and beat, and seeming stillness will set. Even in the assurance of the decent, is the promise of the accent, from light to dark to light again. Assent and descent, light and dark, ebb and flow - are imperative in the journey of life, two sides to the same coin, like North and South, East and West, light and dark, summer and winter. Times, they change and then change again, in the promise of change, is the hope of change and in the hope of change is the joy of change. The Sun makes His deliberate pause in the year, urging us to pause as well in our lives, to mark the season of change... again. Change is the constant, constant is the change, from light to dark and dark to light -- the hope is not stopping in the events from which we draw joy -- but hope is in the promise of change -- and in the ever changing change we discover the joy of life and ourselves. It is in this circular symmetry that surrounds all that is, we turn the Wheel once again -- North and South; Light and Dark; Summer and Winter, Male and Female. The seasons change and so do we. May the Blessings of the Solstice be yours, in times of light, times of dark, and all those changing times between. For wherever you pause, may you always remember that you carry with you the seeds of hope, the seeds of joy, the seeds of change to plant in the changing light of the year. Blessed Be to you and yours! We judge of man's wisdom by his hope -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Blessed Solstice! Christina Aubin 12/22/2001 Email: Christina Article Specs Article ID: 3768 VoxAcct: 5 Section: holidays Age Group: Adult Days Up: 4,178 Times Read: 7,946 ABOUT... Christina Aubin Location: North Shore, Massachusetts Other Articles: Christina Aubin has posted 26 additional articles- View them? Other Listings: To view ALL of my listings: Click HERE Email Christina Aubin... (No, I have NOT opted to receive Pagan Invites! Please do NOT send me anonymous invites to groups, sales and events.) To send a private message to Christina Aubin ... 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