God gave you the Bible, and He also gave you your heart and your mind and I believe He’d like you to use all three.

The second photo in this post is maybe the best thing I’ve seen on the internet in a long time. (Firefly fans especially have to check it out.)

Sometimes a post comes along that is exactly what I need to read at the time and I love it when that happens. Virtue a a craft to be practiced.

A great post on hat etiquette for women. I love hats, and really do need to start collecting more.

None of that panned out due to time. I also had a vague plan to put  a scarf out my window as Bride’s mantle, to be blessed for healing, but that idea got scrapped after my neighbors stopped by to let me know there’s been a increase in crime in the area (a break-in/theft, a mugging, and a shooting or stabbing) and I decided a more prudent course of action as to make sure my windows were shut tight and locked.

I did, however, manage to arrange my seasonal altar space.

This time of year the space looks a bit sparse. White candles for the holiday, a larger white candle for Brigid, a cauldron for her power of hearth and healing, a bit of the very first wool I ever spun and a little sheep.

I talked a bit about Candlemas yesterday, but of course this is also Imbolc. Brigid the Goddess and St. Brigid have so many tied together customs it’s difficult for me to tease the two apart. Brigid is a goddess of fire, of the hearth and the forge. She rules over healing, poetry and inspiration.

I also managed a bit of feasting. I tried to keep it seasonal, even if I was relying on easy to prepare foods. Lamb sausage with basil and garlic, some red cabbage with apples, and herbed potato and cauliflower mash. The potato and cauliflower dish came from the Whole Foods hot bar and the cabbage is really more German than Irish but it’s still festive. (Especially if by festive one means it’s probably the first well-balanced meal I’ve had in an alarmingly long time.)

Imbolc is also a celebration of the dawning of spring; it means ewe’s milk as it was when the sheep would begin to lactate and dairy would be part of the diet once again. This gets tricky for me observance-wise, as I can’t have cow’s milk and dairy foods tend to be heavily emphasized. But I wanted to do something to leave as an offering as well as a libation, so I picked up some goat’s milk and made a honey-spiced warm milk, leaving some on the altar and drinking a mug myself while curled up on the couch listening to Alison Kraus and Gillian Welch.

I’m usually the anxious sort when it comes to candles — if I’m not around, they go out. But on the night of Imbolc I leave Brigid’s candle burning with my offering to her. Brigid of healing, hearth, flame and forge. Bless me with your inspiration, courage, and strength. With your fire forge me into the woman I am meant to be and with your spirit heal and soothe my soul.

Photo by ndrwfdgg

I admit, this year I have (once again) fallen down on my observances. The best intentions — to make bread to set out, to have a corn dolly to dress, to make candles — have not been squeezed into my exhaustingly busy schedule.

This year, because I’m exploring Christianity more deeply, and how festivals and feast days there fit with the turning year, I am thinking more about Candlemas.

In the church, Candlemas marks three things: 1) the purification of Mary after childbirth, 2) the presentation of Jesus at the temple as part of the redemption of the first-born, and 3) the prophecy of Holy Simeon.

The end of Christmastide

Photo by Editor B

So what is Candlemas? First off, if it’s the very tail-end of the Christmas season. The absolute, no-seriously we’re done end. If you haven’t taken down your Christmas decorations, this is the absolute last day to do so. It’s also traditional to burn Christmas greenery this day — provided, of course, that your greens are real and not (like mine) the kind that get packed back up in their box, and it’s not a no-burn day where you are.

Weather Lore

Photo by slgckgc

It’s also a day for weather lore. In addition to the most-familiar Groundhogs day (Punxutawney Phil has apparently already predicted six more weeks of winter for us this year), there’s other weather lore associated:

If Candlemass day be dry and fair,
The half o’ winter to come and mair
If Candlemass day be wet and foul.
The half o’ winter gane at Yule.

It’s dawning dry and fair where I am, so it looks like we’re in for a bit more winter. Fair enough, we could use the rain.

Feast of Candlemas

Photo by ultrakml

Want to feast on Candlemas? Crepes are a traditional food, which makes a lot of sense. This time of year, spring has not yet come and spring fruits and veggies have yet to appear, but the stores of winter are growing thin. Foods that can be made with things that store well over the winter are key; making a feast out of what is left lurking in the dark corners of the pantry.

Blessing and procession of candles

Candlemas is also a time when the candles for the year would be blessed and processed. Why candles? As best I can tell, it ties back to Simeon’s words of prophecy as Jesus is presented at the Temple:

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
(Luke 2:29-32)

This, for me, is where it all ties together. Candlemas is a feast that still comes in a time of darkness. The days are lightening, things are getting better — but we don’t see it yet. The changes are imperceptible, working deep in our hearts and souls.

Photo by Beige Alert

We light candles in the dark to hold it off, and to remind ourselves of the light sure to return. We make feasts of the the scraps we are left with, sweeping around for the stores of winter and pulling together something nourishing and delicious.

Simeon refers to Christ as a light of revelation. It must have been hard to see that in a small baby who had yet to become who he was. But Simeon did. I think it’s hard to see now, too. Look around at a world with so much suffering and conflict, where faith has become a battleground and used to hurt as much as to heal.

But even in the darkness there is change and germination, working it’s way deep inside, preparing to grow. Even when we can’t see the potential yet.

I think somebody else made that slip too, so it’s not just me.

Of course, the problem is that we still haven’t had enough winter to really count. I think it’s rained maybe twice this winter? I really can’t remember but it’s been very dry. Last year, it rained very late but this year…not much.

Growing up somewhere that never hurt for water, I never thought I’d pay this much attention to the rain. But I’m worried that there will be more drought.

Even with a short, mild winter (which concerns me for the planet, even as I appreciate it) I am filled with longing for spring. Everything I can see, every sign or omen, every glimpse past the curtain to the future, says that 2012 is not going to be an easy year. Not for me, not for anyone.

It’s not going to be a bad year, necessarily, but it’s not going to be smooth sailing either. Maybe we’re all just ready to get through it?

The thing about court card is that, to me, they’re always very hard to read. Some people read them as people, but that doesn’t always work. The imagery is also much trickier to read; it might have been more archetypal when the tarot first came about, but pages, knights, kings and queens don’t really reflect our reality today. They’re tricky little devils, and every time they come up in a reading, I groan a little.

But as Nancy and I worked out our plans, some things began to clear a bit. The Page of Blades, where we begin, is a seeker. Pages are, of course, they’re younger and setting out. This particular page is a seeker of knowledge. The Blades are a lot about conflict and strife, but the Page to me is about seeking knowledge.

Then again, maybe that isn’t so different. After all, knowledge can cause a lot of conflict. Not necessarily external, but internal. When we seek, what if we find things that do not prop up our beliefs and structures. What if instead of adding bricks to our fortress, the whole thing comes tumbling down around our feet? That may be how you get to wisdom, but it’s certainly not a lot of fun while it’s happening.

So the Page seeks knowledge and insight –embracing, perhaps, the conflict that may arise, and carrying the sharpness to cut through and learn what is wise.

As always, full Flickr set is available. Thanks to Lady Rowan Nightshade for lending her sword. Photos were, for the curious, taken in front of my wall o’ books.  Braids were done at Dickens Fair and held up through the photoshoot the next day.

My last year in my twenties.

I didn’t think this would hit me that hard, but it kind of is.

It means, among other things, that I’m in the thick of my Saturn return.Taking stock, looking at my life, where I am. Where I’m not.

There are things I’d thought I’d have by now, but don’t.

There are things I thought I’d want that change. Shift. Things I thought would make me happy but aren’t enough. Priorities shifting, moving. Leaving me wondering what I really want.

I have a tendency to look at where I’m lacking. Where I’ve failed.

But it’s also time to celebrate what’s good. The blessings in my life, most  especially those of wonderful friends and communities. Those I’ve known for a while and those that I’m still getting to know. The people who, whether I’ve known them for two decades or two months, never fail to bring a smile to my face when I see them.

All things considered, my 28th year was a whirlwind. It might not have gone quite how I wished, but I’m standing here on the leading edge of 29 with a far different landscape than I had 365 days ago.

So who knows what the future holds?

You know that theory about how wealth may have been increased MORE for the rich but everyone was better off because of the prosperity? Not actually true: turns out that the rich got richer by making the poor worse off. Shocking.

Slavery to the fear of death and the tragedy of human existence.

Unbreakable is a really moving photography project documenting sexual assault survivors covering their faces with quotes from their attackers. (WARNING: May be triggering.)

Beware of false prophets.

The deregulated global free-for-all that we have lived through over the past three decades is not a path to a better world.

Apple Cinnamon doughnuts. Made of so much want.

My first challenge here was finding something to do. I had a lot of ideas for things I’d like to work on — volunteering with hospice was one or prison literacy programs or programs that feed the hungry. I looked into becoming a medic with the Berkeley free clinic.

But I quickly ran into a problem and that was this — it’s very difficult to balance volunteering with a demanding job. I looked at an awful lot of volunteer programs that had requirements I just could not meet. They want people to be there from 3-5. Or arrive exactly at 5. Others could work (the medic program being my favorite of those) but the training just wasn’t realistic for me right now.

So I was stumped. It frustrated me on a few levels; one because I think it’s problematic that volunteer programs that need help aren’t necessarily keeping up with the realities of modern working life (long hours, long commutes, less options for flexibility in this economy) and second because I really do want to be able to do these things.

Finally, though, in a conversation with the Lady Yeshe Rabbit it dawned on both of us that, hey, there are a lot of charities that look for knitting donations and what do you know, I’m a knitter.

Yes. I probably should have come up with that one sooner.

I’ll be perfectly honest here and say that it’s not my ideal form of service. I want to be able to do things that put me more directly in touch with people, not so safely ensconced in my world. But with the realities of a demanding job and a more erratic schedule due to it being an election year, it’s a much more sustainable and realistic option.

As I move forward in this, I hope to share my projects and talk a bit about the different organizations. I’m hoping to knit for a mix of more established organizations as well as smaller efforts; I’ve joined a group on Ravelry and have seem calls for things for smaller, grass-roots efforts as well as organizations. So here’s to putting my love of yarn to good use!

There are a lot of facets and lenses through which to view this, including feminism, race and class. By focusing on one specific aspect, I don’t mean to ignore or devalue the others, simply to give more focus.

What struck me about this is how much we have devalued the work that goes into caring for and nurturing our physical selves.

I look at the devaluation of traditional women’s work — of home cooking, caring for a home, making clothing — and I see this as somewhat the leading edge. Because it doesn’t stop there. We devalue work that traditionally falls into the purview of men too now — farming, construction. We have this disconnect with our physical selves.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I’m a typical Aquarian; I like to say that if I could wander around as a giant, disembodied brain, I would. But this isn’t just about the mind versus the physical self, because I think it goes deeper than that.

I keep using pictures of food here because to me food is basic — it’s nourishment and comfort and culture all tied together. But it’s like we want to stop seeing ourselves as those thing. We talk about branding ourselves, about marketing who we are.

But I am not a brand. I am not a product. I’m a person, with all the messy, inherent contradictions held in that.

So we start to see ourselves as brands and products. We have put our faith in the markets and value only what the system calls valuable. The work that sustains us is minimized, ignored or outsourced.

Our food is grown in factory farms, processed, reheated. Our furnishings are cheap and disposable and built on a system of abhorrent practices. We turn a blind eye to it, because we don’t want to see. I think, on some level, we want to see ourselves as free from the messy work that comes from sustaining a life and society.

But no matter how smart, how enlightened we are, we still need these things. We need food to eat, shelter from the elements, water to drink. As humans we also crave more than that — we seek out comfortable and aesthetically pleasing surroundings, food that nourishes our souls as well as our mind, the communal breaking of bread that ties us to our fellow humans.

Yet we are so willing to push all that aside for cost and convenience. I am as guilty of this as any young, urban professional. When I am busy (and I am always busy), it’s the cooking and cleaning that slide by the wayside first. It becomes quick, processed food, unbalanced meals, things left undone til later.

I can’t help think, though, that in this I am doing a huge disservice to myself. We all are, because when we as a society begin to view the things that make us human as drudgery, we begin to devalue our own humanity.

I don’t think changing the way we look at every day tasks will solve all the worlds problems. I’m not even sure we can change how we view them. But sometimes I can’t help but think it might make us all a lot more at ease.