Celebrate

I felt like I had a good balance this year of spending time with my sweetheart and time to myself. Yesterday was Beltane proper. My sweetheart and I spent some time poking around the local markets before heading off to a movie. We took a lovely walk at dusk and had a good heart to heart.

Today I spent the morning rereading an old favourite of mine and spent some time in the afternoon doing some contemplating. It was lovely.

The roses in the neighbourhood are spectactular at the moment. A friend of mine brought me a huge bunch from her garden the other day and they are currently decorating my desk. They’re a little past their prime now, but when they first arrived they looked like a wedding bouquet. My study smells glorious.

The weather has been quite hot. I can certainly see why the Celts thought of Beltane as the first day of summer—it certainly feels like it here. The wonderful greenery around here is starting to turn brown, though the lawn is still going berserk. It’s such a contrast to last Beltane, which was overcast and cool.

September is one crazy month. I’ve managed to celebrate about five different birthdays so far. Some merely required dinner out with friends. One entailed a visit to my sister for a few hours. It was a nice, relaxed visit with passionfruit cheesecake. She does shift work, so it was great we could catch up and that she had the day off. My sweetheart also had the week off for his birthday. We took it easy, went to the local flower festival, had a walk in one of the state parks, had a family dinner. It was great to see him relax.

I was also bridesmaid at my mum’s wedding. I had a fantastic time, getting to wear my gorgeous dress and catch up with lots of old friends of the family. Mum looked wonderful and was clearly very happy.

Ostara is today and after everything that has been happening, I decided to have a very low key celebration. Some less than pleasant weather had me foregoing the ramble in the hills I had planned in favour of some downtime inside.

It cleared up enough for me to have a walk around the front and back yard, as I have been doing lately. The trees all have green shoots and my flower bed is a riot. I picked some irises, bluebells and freesias for my altar to go with the gemstones—moonstone, bloodstone, rose quartz and tourmaline quartz. There’s jasmine oil in the burner.

My mum and stepdad dropped by for a visit this afternoon, having just returned from their honeymoon in Hawaii. They were full of lots of interesting stories and I had a wonderful time just listening to them all.

Tonight I’m off to watch anime with a bunch of friends.

There’s a strong possibility that I’ll be moving house quite soon and so I’ve decided to start celebrating Discardia a bit early this season. I’ve already made a start on cleaning out one of my boxes of stuff. I probably haven’t been as ruthless as I could have been, but the knowledge I might have to pack it all up soon has been helping. I feel lighter already.

I’ve been a bit depressed lately, so Imbolc has come like a breath of fresh air. The weather has been doing its best to amuse me: sunny and warm one minute, cloudy and cold the next. It seems to be the way of Imbolc.

Nevertheless, it has the distinct feeling of spring this year. It has been quite a mild winter—we’ve barely gone below freezing. There are definitely more flowers out this year than last. The snowdrops and starflowers are out in my garden, the blossoms started early and my lavender has a few flowers. There are violets in other gardens that look so gorgeous I’m tempted to get some for my own.

I spent quite a bit of time outside today. I looked at the sky and marvelled at the intensity of its colour. I wrestled with the honeysuckle that is trying to take over my blossom bush. I went for a walk around my front and backyard to check in on how everything is doing.

No seasonal meal tonight, but I have had a bit of orange and poppy seed cake and a milkshake. My altar is looking gorgeous with a new white cloth. It shows up the colours of the gemstones—carnelian, garnet and amethyst. There’s a small vase of flowers from my garden and some gardinia oil in the burner.

The energy of Imbolc is turning up in the people around me, too. I’ve been invited to two housewarming parties for tomorrow night.

I still haven’t celebrated Discardia, though I have recently put some effort into cleaning my study. I think I shall let the holiday pass me by. Ostara is on its way next, bringing with it a spring edition of Discardia, so I shall simply wait for its arrival.

Now I’m off to write a love letter to my sweetheart.

Of all the holidays, I struggle with Yule the most. I didn’t manage a seasonal meal or any kind of formal celebration, but I still had a nice time nonetheless.

My sweetheart and I went out to the markets. There’s a permanent place there that sells fresh orange juice. This time around they also had mulled wine, apple cidar and a hot lemon, honey and ginger mix. I don’t know whether it was a winter thing or just for the solstice, but I treated myself to some of the honey, lemon and ginger. It must have been one of the tastiest things I’ve ever drunk. I also came away with a lovely journal cover in purple leather embossed with Celtic designs. The grey bearded man that served me was very sweet and gave me some tips on looking after it.

I had a chance to do some reflecting yesterday, which was lovely. I took a walk around my front and back yard, checking on all the plants and making sure that everything was going well. Amusingly, the blossom bush already has buds even though the coldest part of winter was still to come. There was a heavy fog, so I didn’t get up to watch the sun rise.

My study has been decked out for a week now. The appropriate sabbat banner is up, along with some tinsel hanging off my bookshelf. My ivy wreath didn’t want to cooperate this year, so I used some more tinsel to bind it. There was pine essential oil in my burner and starstone, garnet, sunstone and citrine on my altar.

Discardia was due to finish today, but I haven’t yet celebrated it. There has been too much going on for me to give it any attention. I’m very thankful that Discardia is such a flexible holiday. I plan to start next week, when things are a little quieter.

I celebrated Samhain yesterday. A thick, rather ghostly fog had rolled in overnight, which made me smile because it was so in keeping with the holiday.

I enjoy decorating my study for the sabbats and the decorations have been up since ANZAC Day, which always marks the start of Samhain’s season for me. There’s a pair of fluffy black skulls hanging from my door. A couple of months ago I bought a set of sabbat banners and the appropriate one is currently hanging up as well, decorated with a cheeky looking black cat. I also covered my altar with a black cloth and was amazed by the change in energy it brought. A photo of my grandfather is sitting on the altar along with pieces of bloodstone, jet, onyx, obsidian, carnelian, amazonite and jade.

I spent some time in the morning bundled up in layers and sitting outside to reaffirm my commitment to my spiritual path. The sun came out as I was finishing up and a wagtail perched nearby—an unusual visitor for these parts. He brought me a special message.

Since Samhain marks the start of the new year, I did some further reflecting on the past year and thinking about my goals for the new year.

The day disappeared entirely too quickly. I would have liked to spend some time sitting with my grandfather, but it felt like I was trying to fit too much into the day as it was. There was a writing group I attended in the evening and I had to spend some time preparing for that. I think next year I shall try and give the holiday more space.

It has now been a full cycle since I started this goal. I’ve given some thought to marking it as done but have decided against it. I enjoy this goal too much and I’d like to put some more work towards celebrating the smaller occasions. I’ve enjoyed reading over my entries.

I celebrated Mabon on Friday. It was quite a busy holiday, but I got a bit of a chance to reflect on things. Mabon is often called Pagan Thanksgiving, so I have been working with the theme a bit. Over the last year I’ve kept lists of thankyou cards to write and I made a start on them.

I also kept a list of accomplishments which I took outside and burned (in a fire-safe container, of course). It may seem strange, but it was difficult for me to decide that’s what I was going to do with the list. Some part of me wanted to cling to it, to wave it around and say “Look at all these wonderful things I’ve done!” Realising that was what made me decide to burn it. It also seemed to fit in with the themes of Mabon—harvesting and then clearing away the old to make way for the new. I won’t be held back by the accomplishments of the past year; I shall be free to go out and do new and more outrageous things.

The book launch was another harvest of sorts for me. I’ve worked so hard on it, particularly over the last four months, that it was nice to celebrate, to finally let go of it and send it out into the world. Many of my friends and family attended, which was wonderful for me. The editor said many nice things about me and gave me a bunch of flowers on behalf of the committee. I had a very lovely dinner out afterward with some of the authors who had come from interstate. I even got to sign a few books, though I was neither editor nor author (simply behind-the-scenes help).

All in all, a very interesting harvest this year.

I’ll be assisting the editor with her next anthology, beginning around Samhain. It will also mark a full cycle on this goal. I haven’t quite decided yet whether to mark this as done then or to keep it on a bit longer.

Discardia is set to begin again in about three weeks time, but I feel called to start early. In particular, I’d like to focus on three questions this time around:

• What do I cling to?
• What can I give away?
• What can I share?

A holiday was exactly what I needed and I seemed more in tune with this Sabbat than I have with the others lately. In doing a little research on this holiday I came across tales of Tailtiu and Macha—tales of superhuman efforts made to bring something new in the world. The day before Lughnasadh I had just finished helping to prepare a book of other people’s stories for publishing. It has been a massive effort, with many things that have gone wrong. But I have stuck with it and I know I am going to be pleased with the harvest.

The day itself was quiet… a much needed break. I took some time to bake some bread and eat some blackberries. I watered my garden. I remembered how much I love the smell of sandalwood oil in my burner. I noticed the fig tree over the fence beginning to fruit. I did a lot of reading.

It was just what I needed.

No, not my engagement. My mother’s. An old family friend threw her a dinner party to celebrate. It was filled with other old family friends, many of whom I haven’t seen in a while and all of whom are lovely.

It was a very hot evening, so we started out on the balcony and watched the sun set and the rain roll in. Then I was treated to the best meal I’d had in a very long time. Cottage pie, eggplant parmagiana, cantalini bean quiche and to top it all off the tastiest apricot crumble I’ve ever eaten, made from homegrown fruit. There were also many long, interesting conversations and much laughter. And champagne. I had such a wonderful time and so did my mum.

Australia Day was yesterday. I didn’t get a chance to celebrate, as I had to work (and on a public holiday, too!). But it occured to me that I don’t really celebrate it anyway. The same friends who hosted the engagement party were throwing a huge BBQ. Other friends went swimming. One even wrote a post about some infamous (and some less well known) bushrangers. These various celebrations highlighted that I’m missing out on a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the country I live in and get out into my community more, while also having a little fun. Definitely something to think about for next year.