say goodbye to Winter

In a glass bowl, place fresh snow or ice cubes. Light a red, orange or yellow candle, place in a holder behind the bowl so you can see the candle behind the snow or ice.

As the season turns,
and the sun shines,
I hail the light that returns to the land.
Darkness ebbs, light again flows,
and day by day the land will grow warm.
Welcome again, Bright Sun.
May your beams caress the land
and transform ice to water,
snow to rain,
cold to warmth,
and winter to spring again.

Allow the snow or ice to melt until it is water. Watch the reflection of the candle on the water and think about the warmth of the sun. Feel the energy of the snow as it melts, the energy of the flame as it emits light and heat. Observe the communication between the two.

When you are finished, pour the water outside at the base of a tree.


adapted from a Solstice ritual by Ann Murphy-Hiscock
The Way of the Green Witch
photo found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50994135@N00/3276588737

the Language of Stones

The strangest landscape begins to look familiar. I can walk this country in my sleep: signs of divination, the Maze of Emergence, the ritual dreams for saving the soul of the world. The sounds are as intimate as breath. My lips move over the syllables like a blind woman’s fingers over the face of her first-born. Insects hum at the forest’s edge & the sun stops overhead. Smoke rises from a ring of river stones & the ashes are thrown downwind. The smell of sage & cedar will be on my skin forever. Everything becomes sacred. Bits of thread flutter from the bushes, as if marking a trail.

I am learning to speak the language of stones. Like rivers over rock, life flowing in the bones, a fire in the wind, an ocean over sand. I am traveling home, where I first began, knowing for the first time, where I once began. Full circle.

Language of Stones
words & music © by Geoff Bartley 1990 & 1994