the Night time of year
Summer's End is here and The Night Time of Year is upon us.
Time to turn towards the warmth of the interior and prepare to journey deeper into the darkness rekindling our connections with ancestors, spirits of the land, and all that comes alive in the night.
Contents
4 - Winter Solstice/longnight
Into the deepest of the night time of the year, Yule has such gravity. Within westernised, modern society much of the vast repertoire of festivities, each tied with their own patrons and lore, their own social dynamics, only exist as a faint memory. However, the power of Yuletide remains. Be it changed, made to fit in a most horrid form, that of consumerist capitalism. Yet we still see the power of festivity to change the way we think, act, and relate. This is to be reclaimed, rehaunted, and rediscovered!
I have some suggested observations and practices that you may with to incorporate into your own. You will notice that the timeline below is a mess of heathen and folk-christian observances that are connected to those which I am most familiar, the islands of the north atlantic and northern europe. It is in no way meant to be definitive. You may need to research some of the festivities yourself, others I will offer what I know.
Important Yule-Related Dates
Year Walk
I have taken to engaging in a Year Walk, on this Rune Rasmussen writes in The Nordic Animist Year “Yule was a time of divination. In ancient times a volva (seeress) would deliver prophecies for the coming year as part of the Yule celebration. This idea was continuously reinvented, namely that the deepest darkness of the year was the time to take omens of death and marriages and even to perform vision quest to acquire runes and over time establish a more permanent rapport with the spirit world. “ In particular, the power of this practice builds over the years, with some lore suggesting that with performing it over consecutive years secures the relationship with the spirit world and mantic power.
Rune goes on to outline the procedure, '“The person performing the vision quest must fast at least from midday and tell no one what he is doing. He must see no fire before going out, greet no one on his walk, and give no answer if addressed. Two persons may walk togetter, but no more, and they have to walk in absolute silence. The walker must not look back, must no laugh, and must not be afraid. The walker will then go to one of more cemeteries. Here the walker will be given visions…”.
Night carries us towards slumber, towards rest, towards death, toward reconnection, towards renewal.
Night andDarkness within Astrology and the Nativity
3 - PRocessions & Into Yuletide we go
Moving into the heart of it now! Perhaps you didn’t fully realise just how haunted the night time of year truly was. If not, I suspect you might be getting the idea at this point.
When I was a kid, I was so drawn to the spookiness of Christmas. As a wee youngin, and I mean young, four years old at tops, I would wrap myself up in these special winter blankets that my mother would put out at this time of year, take the decorative ice crystals off the tree to make frosty hags nails at the tip of each of my fingers, and divine the future in snow globes with my younger sister.
Later, I would question why it was that ghosts were visiting Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Surely something was going on here?!
It was not until I started to understand the heathen past that is so infused with all the customs of winter that are part of our ‘modern’ custom that I started putting it together.
This time is a ritual complex of entangling with the dead, the monstrous, the grotesque, and the transgressive—the OTHER— appeared. A procession of beings that is intimately tied to the return of light.
Find your way into a much older Yuletide this year my friends. You will not be disappointed!
REFLECTIONS: Full-Mars/Full-Moon
This moment has a particular interesting signature from an astrological perspective, that of the middle of the Mars Rx and the Full Moon in Gemini being in sync. I offer some suggestions for how we might thing with this moment and the weeks that follow it. By now, the themes of the Mars Rx within your life will have made themselves most apparent, look for inflammation, the reddening. This is where there is room to healing, soothing, integration, and renegotiation between the solar and the martial.
2 - OFFERING TO THE REGIONAL GUARDIAN, BLESSING THE HOME, & Reflections on the Lunar Eclipse
As we journey deeper into the dark, the time comes for us to reaffirm our connection with the local spirits, the family spirits, and the spirits of our household seeking their protection and care. In particular, we must reconnect and rekindle the protection that comes from the regional guardian and invigorate our practices of honouring the house spirit. We take care to do so in a manner that is pleasing to them and that fits the season of slaughter before the darkest of nights.
As we become kin with the dark, their powers of the earth, enter into relation with what lives on the edge, it is vital that we ward our home, and those we love, for not all that goes bump in the night is beneficent to the human realm.
Dates on interest: 7-9 Nov TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE IN TROPICAL TAURUS | 11 Nov MARTINMAS
Offering to the Regional Guardian and Blessing the Home
Reflections - Total Lunar Eclipse in Tropical Taurus
Last night I dreamt of a vampiress. White as the moon, with silver hair. Her chest was bare and she cast a pale opalescence. Lips read, fresh with blood, her incisors sharp, her eyes wild. Her body was eerily fecund and primal.
The full moon in tropical Taurus, sign of her exaltation, turns blood red this night. Opening us to the wild, the unexpected powers of the spectral, edolic, chthonic lunar. The excess of the lunar fecundity draws the vampiric, which demands every drop only to create the total reappearance of the white moon.
Perhaps this temporary, but complete letting of the blood, brings us closer to the ferocious powers of the night. Take care in tangling with these mysteries, but know that even the most furious of spirits will respond to epitaphs of sweetness, coming to us as we call them.
It is wise to tangle with these forms on their own turf, the darkness of night. And, take care when returning to your fully warded home. Do night invite them in.
1-AT THE CROSSROADS, LIGHT A FIRE…
If I were to have a place to start my journey into the night time of year…
It would be in the a cemetery in the lowlands of southern Alabama where four generations of my father’s mother’s family are laid into the earth. This is where I was first taught by my grandmother and her sisters to honour the dead. Even back then at the age of five and six, I knew I was called to carry on honouring them. Now so very far away from St. John’s Chapel and graveyard, I yearn to reconnect with that place and once again care for the stones there marking their memory. It can feel like we are so far away from those who have come before us, but this is not so.
As the Sun’s light in our world darkens, it grows within the earth, the mound of the dead, and the darkness. We light a candle in our world for those that wander and those that will visit during this season that ushers us into the night time of year. A light that mirrors that of the midnight Sun in the otherworld.
This year the Sun will be eclipsed on the lead up to All Hallows Eve, ushered by stellar-chthonic Venus. The freshly born Moon will show at sunsets that follow, having asserted lunar providence during the eclipse, the powers of day giving way to night.
Things get darker…
WHAT IF I WERE TO TELL YOU THAT THE DEAD ARE ALWAYS WITH US?
This truth is attested to by most of the world's contemporary and all of the world's known past cultures. It is only relatively recently and in small portion that we have forgotten this fact. Something that we can all agree on, however, is that without those that come before, we are not a thing. A subtle point follows that might be easy to overlook, we can only be in right relation with those that will follow, our descendants, by being in right relation with the ancestors.
Most cultures around the world have times that give particular emphasis to those that have come before. For many of us Halloween, All Hallows’ Eve, October 31st is such a time. Upon closer inspection, we see that historically this period is marked by a number of important times and that indeed, especially in farther northern latitudes, was an entire season dedicated to renewing our relationship with the numinous and otherworldly forces whose power and presence grew ever important at this time. The darker and colder months were times of famine and death for many. It was understood that our survival was dependent on our right relation with the ancestors, the land, and her spirits.
AT THE CROSSROADS, LIGHT THE FIRE…
Optional offerings
This is a unique natal chart consultation where I hone in on the important astrological signatures of your chart and use the Hellenistic technique of annual profections to present an overview of the themes of the next year of your life. Packs a punch! 30 minutes in duration. Booking details will come across in your confirmation email.
Ancestral Cartomancy Reading. We will use the cards and the precision that they can bring to get some clarity on the themes of emerging in the field of your ancestors. 30 minutes in duration. The reading will also come with images of your cards and a recording. Booking details will come across in your confirmation email.
Roots Astrological Consultation. A live consultation where we will focus on the role of the ancestors in your life by looking at your natal chart, your natal signatures, and find unique ways of connecting with them in your chart. Particular attention will be given to the placement of your natal moon and the stellar mansions which are tied to Luna’s placement. 60 minutes in duration. The consult will also come with copies of any charts and a recording. Booking details will come across in your confirmation email.
About the Night Time of Year
In this course, I will delve into traditions contemporary and ancient surrounding the dark half of the year. In particular you will receive:
-A ritual protocol for approaching the Master of the Crossroads; renewing your relationship with The Mighty Dead; and bringing peace to The Lost Souls.
-We will delve into the darkness through practices, contemplations, provocations, and reflections drawing from astrology, lore, mysticism, magic, and witchcraft.
-We will explore Mercury's role as Psychopomp and guide of the dead, as well as become familiar with several other Crossroads and Underworld god-forms.
-Receive practical insights into forming right relation with your ancestors, the spirits of the land, and the Underworld.