confluence

Here in Louisiana, Imbolc signals a sort of pre-Spring, Spring. (What 'til you hear about our Second Winter and Summer IV!)

All around me I'm seeing brand new buds, from the Samhain-swept branches of the shrub in my back yard, to the welcoming domains of fresh flowers on the weeds behind the fence.

True to its name, Imbolc ("in the belly") brought me the same message I got almost exactly a year ago from my brother-in-law: "The ewe dropped her lamb!"

Celtic folk associate Imbolc with the Goddess (or Saint, or Loa, if you prefer) Bridget. I admittedly know very little about her so far, but I do know she is often seen as a forger of metal tools.

Whatever archetypal art lives through her images, it is now the time her name is spoken most—a time of year for my area that makes me feel like I'm watching the forging of new life from past death... live.

We don't have snow concealing the Earth's secrets. In Louisiana we're privileged with a peek behind the curtain, to watch as the breath of life enters many a seed and sleepy plant, from the soil to the trees.

The darkest days are behind us, the Sun is rising again, and we're reminded once more of the creative payoff of rest... for a tree, and perhaps for we.

Happy Tomb-to-Womb Weekend 🌱

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Image Credit: Unknown

#imbolc2024 #imbolc #inthebelly #atheopaganism #naturalism #pagan #naturelover #nature #privilege #gratitude #wonder #cosmos

Something from Nothing

How is it a wide broom

One end fixed, the other free

Could sweep a circle

And another of the same

One end fixed, the other free

Could sweep another

Could clean less together

by working alone

or by squarish fix

No more straw

Nor force besides

Together, working side-by-side

Greater than the sum of their parts

It's Winter Solstice, the ancient time to celebrate the "birth" of the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere.

During the darkening of the Northern skies (beginning with the Summer Solstice), we retreat with Nature into the dark. Buds are withdrawn into thread-bare trees. Small mammals burrow. Some even hibernate. After shedding an organic layer to rot under the snow, Nature descends into slumber, darkness, and cold.

For millennia, humans have found meaning in connecting with this seasonal pattern. Indeed, for longer than history, humans have celebrated the waxing and waning of the Sun's altitude throughout the year, and found much analogy to their own experience.

In keeping with this tradition (and as a pathological minister), I want to reflect on this a bit.

Our own lives are also waxing and waning in light, though with far less predictability. The regular orbital path of the Earth (and a fairly regular axial tilt) provides a sense of structure, promise, and hope—Spring is coming.

Now, at the Winter Solstice, we celebrate the birth of this promise. Our coldest days are yet ahead, but each day is now getting longer, and each night shorter. In the womb of darkness, the flames of Yule are lit. The Sun will spend three months (days, in some esoteric traditions) in the tomb, and Resurrect at the Spring Equinox.

This time of year can be especially difficult for the Crowned Ones. Ice is slippery, and bones are brittle. Life is dark and cold enough, and the elements can amplify this. We should as a community make sure our elderly family members are safe, warm, fed, and as accompanied as each prefers.

Because this time of year comes with gathering together for warmth and light, it's also especially difficult for the grieving and the lonely. The weight of an empty room is amplified by the silence. As a community, let's be sure to occupy the empty spaces that have been opened to us, and make space for the displaced. Keep company with the lonely. Share the burden of grief where you can spare some heart. Make a sweater and some hot cocoa for the widow. Ten minutes of phone scrolling can be rewarding, but a ten minute phone call can be warmer than a Yule log burning at the hearth.

Though death and decay are an inevitable part of living, and though we can find (and share) rest and warmth even in the depths of Winter, the buds and blossoms come around too, and we're now heading that direction 🌄

Whether you celebrate Yule, Christmas, Chanukah, Mawlid al Nabbawi, Kwanzaa, or any other celebration of the Light's Birth, I wish you and yours the most wonderful Holy-Days.

#yule2023 #yule #christmas #chanukah #mawlidalnabbawi #kwanzaa #light #life #grief #sleep #warmth #community #celebrate #winter #wintersolstice #paganism #atheopaganism

Image Credit: gdizerega on Pixabay

Image Description: A black-and-white ink drawing of the sun rising in the valley between two snow-covered mountains. A forest of snow-covered pine trees stretches from the mountains towards you until it disappears beneath the horizon of the hill you're standing on. To your right are two small birds sitting on a snow covered branch, sticking out of the snow. The sun's rays fill the entire sky with alternating straight and sine lines

It's 2048. The Islamic world has overtaken not only the Middle East, but Africa, Russia, China, Central and South America. The Islamic and Communist Worlds have united into a single, global superpower. They're united by one vision of the future: to take the Palestinians, the largest victim of WWIII, and give them all of America, since they had sided with the Atheists and Christians in the war, and the Muslims have the most money.

The Caliphate is too powerful. American citizens are forcibly removed from their homes, and made to live far from any high ground (too risky, with "rebels" afoot).

Thankfully Canada, Europe, and Australia stand up for America. They form a united front and declare NO RECOGNITION. NO PEACE. NO PALESTINE. Their entire coalition even declares open season on the Muslim settlers, and cheers when they fall (wouldn't you, if you were a red-white-and-blue-blooded American??). Some good, Christian, Canadian kin even cross the border to fight for their older Brother!

With all of the Caliphate's enemies united against it, the new Palestine launches a "pre-emptive" strike, from their brand new borders, at Canada.

In response, Canada, Europe, Australia, and the American "rebels" defend themselves by "declaring war" on a "nation" that has no legal right to exist.

The Caliphate wins by sheer force, though. America gets a few licks in now and again, but... If America were ever to take things too far in the eyes of the Caliphate (and let's be honest, even some American Christians), they wouldn't hesitate to crush our children beneath the rubble if it meant they could finally get rid of the American "rebels."

Only it's not 2048, WWIII was WWII, the religions and countries are rearranged, and this isn't hypothetical.

If you felt even a tiny bit of what it might be like as a hypothetical American in 2048, you felt a tiny bit of what it might be like as a real Palestinian in 2023.

#FreePalestine #CriticalThinking #TheyreKids

I love how this joke migrated from Reddit to Lemmy, and you can see it bouncing around, getting all federated

Why is Death so wonderful, so worthy of celebration?

For one, your nutrition doesn't come directly from the living.

Every newborn baby shouts their first cry from atop a mountain of ancestral bones.

Every drop of water, every clump of oxygen is deconstructed, its contents stolen by cells greedy for motion—the Winter Death of the leaves is motion for the soil, and the soil for cells again.

A person's end is the reminder of their present. If we were to prevent death altogether, we would prevent life as well.

Death is the Author of Life.

Death is Change, Itself.

So why not celebrate it?

Celebrating Death does not negate our Grief when its selections cut through our hearts and memories. Neither does it grant us the time we so wish to regain from Death's ever-premature visits.

We must not forget, though it took that one from us, it was Death that gave that one to us in the first place.

When we see Death for what it is—the Change in which all Living has its being—we can celebrate its contributions to us, even as we love and lose them.

To those who celebrate, a very Blessed Samhain, and Happy Halloween

💀🎃💀🎃💀🎃💀🎃💀🎃💀🎃💀

#samhain2023 #samhain #halloween #death #life #grief #change #acceptance #celebrate

Image Credit: Bones and Botany by 

Whenever I click a YouTube link in Boost, I get the following message. Clicking one of the options does switch to the YouTube app, but I can't view it inside the app.

Device: Motorola One 5G, Android 11

This sounds a lot like my own journey. Almost identical!