Yule is *almost* here!!

It's beggining to look a lot like.... Oak Moon

November is know as the Oak Moon. As the year turns darker, the nights grow longer, the moon is brighter. A time of reflection upon oneself, inner-searching, meditation. Transform yourself by learning what are your truths and lies. Perform insight spells.

Other names: Beaver Moon, Dark Moon, Fog Moon, Frosty Moon, Moon Before Yule, Owl Moon, Snow Moon, Storm Moon

Herbs: Sage and Chervil

Astrology: Sagittarius


The Oak Moon Esbat

The significance of each of the Esbats draws its influence from the changes in the earth around us. At this point in the wheel of the year, we have seen and accepted the demise in nature. We are taught as we look around the barren and frozen earth, that nothing dies that is not then reborn. We know implicitly that lying just beneath the surface, life waits to spring up around us anew. However, before this can happen the earth must rejuvenate to resurface refreshed and renewed with new purpose and energy. The Mood Goddess at this time is heavy with child – the Sun God, who shall be born at Yule. But before we celebrate the beginning of the return of the light at Yule, or the Winter Solstice (21st December), we celebrate the Oak Moon Esbat (15th December). It is now that we must take our lessons from the earth, accepting we all must rest before a new cycle begins, preparing to grow anew ourselves.

During the Oak Moon, a transition occurs, we move in this moon from death to birth, life renewed at the time of the Winter Solstice. With this in mind, it is a lovely idea to keep a candle burning from the Esbat to the Solstice, acknowledging the return of the light ahead, as the days begin once again to become longer. It is best, if you decide to keep a candle burning, to use a contained candle such as a votive, which is designed for extended (and safe) burn times, always observing safety, which is especially important if you have small children or pets. As you light the first candle, recite something akin to:

“Fire of the Sun, illuminate the Earth
Bring back life with your rebirth
We await your coming, until your rise
To re-awake the Earth and nourish our lives”

The candle is then extinguished at the Winter Solstice, when the light returns.

At the Esbat of the Oak Moon, there are many relevant rituals. To give candles as gifts at this time of year is a wonderful thing to do – symbolising our individual flames re-igniting at this powerful time of year.



SOURCE
http://brighterblessings.co.uk/articles/esbats.htm

We all Come from the Goddess

To Mikuni... with love...

The temperatures are slowly dropping around here. The first sign that the winter is coming abroad is letting itself show as Mikuni, my dear companion, has decided NOT to go out as often as she likes to and rather curl up in bed, the sofa or - as it has been recently stated - next to the heater. 

This morning she gave me the scare of my life when she got out to see me good-bye and off to work and decided to walk with me to the corner, only to cross the street without looking and ALMOST being hit/squashed by a car. I screamed. She stood still and the car flew on top of her. I was crying when she got up and ran towards me. She meowed "It's okay... see? I'm okay!" but still that did not stopped me from taking her in my arms and walking back home to get her inside. When I got home after work, she was waiting for me on the roof and ran to meet me, as she always does.

It has now become so hard to imagine my life without her. Just a couple of years ago, I couldn't see myself sharing my life with a cat, now I cannot see myself not having a cat around -- THIS cat, the one who wakes me up at five in the morning for breakfast, the one who curls-up in my stomach when she's cold at night, the one who sleeps in my shoes, the one who walks me outside and sends me on my way to work, the one who welcomes me back and then goes "now feed me!"... 

I am grateful, that our paths have crossed. Thanks to her, I am finding myself less lonely.... and more understanding of the human heart.