© Sharon St Joan, 2021
Created around 2001.
Category: Turning of the seasons
Within the snow
Within the snow,
Eternity.
Within the tree-topped circles,
Flocks
Of red-winged blackbirds
Singing silver reeds of song.
Beyond the words,
The clear
Bright
Voice of the moon speaks,
The voice of all that is and might
Have been.
Above the long
Waves of the ever-turning, white-pounding sea,
Seagulls
Seek
Peace.
Rains
Run by the crease
In the page
Of the dusted year.
Beyond the clouds of storms, of bursting rifts of light,
The bitter winds of jagged rocks.
Beyond the thought forms, tumbled, broken,
Remains
The peace of the One
Who is only
There in the deepest mist
Of the great forest
Beyond the many worlds that come and go,
Within the heart of basalt rocks,
Within the soul
Of the jaguar and the tadpole,
The lily and the dandelion,
Within the black night
Of wonder
And the snow
Falling on the juniper
Branches and the flowering gold sage
Of eternity.
© Sharon St Joan, 2021
Pisces, when life is but a dream
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Pisces, when life is but a dream. When hard reality gives way to soft impressions. When feelings are more important than thoughts. It’s a time without certainties, and without the need for them. When time itself becomes an illusion; the ticking of the clock a hollow and meaningless sound. It’s a time to reflect, to turn inward for the answers, and to find the truth within dreams. When colors are no longer held within shapes, and intuitions have impossibly loud whispers.
It’s a watery time of deceptive outer stillness.
A video for feeling in Pisces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY3YRly9ySE
A video for thought for the right-brained sign of Pisces:
It’s a talk by a woman who had a stroke, but who miraculously survived, and gained tremendous insight into the nature of happiness through her trying ordeal.
https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight
You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
– Mark Twain
© Niamh Fodla, 2014
Aquarius: A windy time of change
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Aquarius, when the state of the whole world is a personal matter. When everyone’s problems are my problem and your problem. And when conformity becomes an ugly word. When we’re all willing to break form and break mold in order to go out and make sure that everything is fair, that everything is correct, and that goodness is prevailing not just at home – but everywhere and in all matters. It’s an active and interactive time during which we all may feel a little more assertive, a little more willing to do and say what we know should be done and said if we personally are going to help make the world a better place.
It’s a windy time of necessary change.
This is interesting. It was created by someone who believes that every time it’s played, the planet in a 22 mile radius around that person receives some healing. And that if everyone played it every day, we could heal the Earth. Is it true? I have no idea. But what a nice idea! Let’s hope it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IleTerc07Ns
A video for Aquarian thought (saving the world):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHRE10ZiYjM
Things do not change; we change.
– Henry David Thoreau
© Photos and text, 2014
Capricorn, when everything makes sense
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Capricorn, when everything makes sense. When clear patterns can be seen in the chaos. When anything can be achieved, and there’s nothing that can’t be understood. It’s a time of creation, when thoughts can become a reality, and wishes can systematically be granted. When magic is being able to reach out and move a stone with one’s hand. When hard work grants miracles. It’s now that abstractions settle into clear and present, usable information, like bursts of sparks floating back down to earth, forming intelligent designs.
It’s a grounding time of great sanity.
A video for feeling during the time of Capricorn. The sign of rocks. Click here.
A video for thought during the time of Capricorn. Money is a topic of interest for Capricorn, so here’s a video of something important to understand about money. Click here.
Opportunity is missed by many because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
— Thomas Edison
Photos: © Niamh Fodla
Christmas and the Winter Solstice
By Sharon St Joan
All over the world there are megalithic monuments with alignments to the Winter Solstice. At the moment of the Winter Solstice a beam of light from the sun strikes the deepest recesses of an underground sacred temple, as at Newgrange in Ireland or Maeshowe in Orkney, Scotland.
In the New World, at Chaco Canyon in new Mexico, the Sun Dagger at Fajada Butte marks both the Summer and Winter solstices, as well as other important celestial alignments.
The significance of the Winter Solstice is that this point in time every year marks the darkest time of the year; the death point if you wish, and at the same time, the return of the light. It is the time, when the sun, having reached the moment when the days are the shortest, returns, and the days begin to grow longer.
The light returns, and with it comes the promise of spring and summer, the rebirth of the world.
This is also the message of Christmas – and for that matter, it is a message in many religions, not only Christianity. At the hour of greatest darkness, the light returns, having conquered the darkness.
Interestingly, it is also the message of Jesus’s death and resurrection. The moment of crucifixion is followed in three days (actually a day and a half according to the Biblical account) by the resurrection, as life overcomes death.
Winter itself represent cold, darkness, and death. It is the time when nothing grows and every being that can, takes shelter or hibernates, waiting for a change of seasons and the return of spring. In warmer lands, the rainy season, or even the sun-baked, dry season may represent the time when one seeks shelter and waits, for a more propitious time – for a change of the seasons.
Though today the Winter Solstice occurs on December 21 or 22, the festival of Mithra, who was the god of light in ancient Iran, was celebrated from December 17 to December 24. The Romans adopted these dates for a festival to their god Saturn, which lasted several days and ended on December 25 – a date then later adopted by Christians as the birthday of Jesus.
When or what time of year Jesus was actually born isn’t relevant in this context. The symbolic meaning has a significance that lies beyond the historical dates.
Life is cyclic. Life follows death, and death follows life. Both are two sides of the same coin. In the darkest hour, when there seems to be the least hope, the light returns, and a new age begins.
Photographer: Rhion Pritchard / “I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.” / Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales, which has an alignment with the Summer Solstice.
© 2013, Sharon St Joan
Sagittarius: A time when everyone is free
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Sagittarius, when everyone is free. When there’s no choice that can’t be reversed, no sin that can’t be undone, and no pattern that cannot be broken. When the restraints of dogma slacken, and the mind and body are liberated to explore the universe. When philosophies are born on a fresh, nudging breeze.
It’s a fiery time of free-spiritedness – the month of a vagabond clad in purple.
Here’s a video for thought: click here. Here, Carl Sagan, (a lifelong atheist) gives an explanation of the 4th dimension that won’t seem atheistic in the slightest to many of us! A beautiful explanation of what “other existences” could be out there. And a genuine lesson in “thinking outside the box.”
Here’s a video for feeling for the month of Sagittarius: click here.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
– Saint Augustine
Photos: © Niamh Fodla, 2013
Scorpio
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Scorpio, when turbulence wields its power. When simple reality implodes into denser matter. When hatred is strong enough to kill without a sword and love is strong enough to heal without a whisper. When beauty lies in the impenetrable mist.
It’s a watery time of glorious secrecy.
A video for thought, click here.
Exploring a mystic reality.
A video for feeling, click here.
Scorpio’s passion finds solace in its own deep waves.
Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.
C.S. Lewis
First, second and third photos: © Niamh Fodla
Last photo, used with permission, © Jennifer Razee.
Welcome to the month of Libra
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Libra, when the empty spaces between souls come alive. When the company of two becomes three: Me, thee and the pulse between us. It’s a time when relationships matter, when friendships form among trees. When human nature is just that – nature. Even our apartment complexes as natural as a bird’s nest. Our longing for truffles on fine china as innocent as a squirrel’s longing for a nut.
It’s an airy time of deep civility, it’s color a soothing blue.
A Video for the heart:
Here’s an easygoing Prayer for the World, with words written by Rabbi Harold Kushner, loved for his comforting theological message that God is never on the side of the bad things that happen to you, but always on the side of your happiness. (My paraphrase!) The music is by Stanley M Hoffman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROR-iSY_szU
A video for the soul:
Featuring breeze and a Libran elegance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiDYljAxrq4
A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
– Joseph Joubert
© 2013
Welcome the month of Virgo
By Niamh Fodla
It’s the time of Virgo, when the little things matter. When the single flower becomes as important as the great expanse of outer space. When the mysteries of the universe can be observed in the crevices of a stone. And our actions can be judged not by their magnitude, but by the precision and beauty with which we perform them.
This is an earthy time for studying what’s right in front of us.
A video for thought:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/more-than-an-apple-a-day-preventing-our-most-common-diseases/
Did you know that a pound of strawberries a day can reverse esophageal cancer? That half a serving of broccoli a day can cut the chances of having a recurrence of breast cancer in half? That meat is one of the worst things you can eat for your health? This video is full of valuable, detailed information and studies. But the presenter tells some off-color jokes from about from minute 28 to minute 33.5, so if you may want to skip through those minutes. Otherwise, it’s just full of lifesaving information.
A video for feeling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BWiVDl4DyM
Some of the earthy colors of Virgo – soft grays, browns and greens (with just a little bit of Leo’s gold still shimmering) offer gentle healing in a detailed forest setting on a rainy day.
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. — Saint Augustine
Photos: © 2013