Holding to the center

As I was walking home yesterday, a major front was blowing in. Low rainclouds had covered the sky all day, but the strong winds that had picked up toward the end of the workday were breaking them up, shooing them eastward to reveal a shifting tapestry of mid-level clouds, puffs and gauzes limned orange with the last rays of the setting sun. And as I curved around the high school football field, I glanced up just as the clouds parted to reveal the crescent moon, low above the school’s roof.

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The moon and Manannán mac Lir

It’s a godly time of year. As I write this, my Jewish friends are in the midst of Passover, and my Christian friends are celebrating Easter. My Facebook feed has been full, the last few days, of joyful exclamations: “Chag Sameach Pesach!” and “He is Risen!” Depending on the interlocking of the cycles of the sun and the moon, these two holidays sometimes align closely with the vernal equinox, but this year there’s been a lag of a couple weeks — my high day came and went weeks ago. Nevertheless, I thought I’d take advantage of the lunar tie-in (complete with a total lunar eclipse this past Saturday morning) to finally write a post I consider writing every 28 days or so.

Samhain and Beginnings

First posts aren’t easy. No new undertaking truly is, I think. And yet: it’s just after Samhain, the beginning of the dark half of the year, the settling cold that precedes spring’s burst of warmth and life. It is, for many pagans, the start of the year. Not necessarily the most auspicious time for a new working, by many counts, but then, neither is the civil New Year, but that doesn’t stop us making resolutions amid the cold and snow. And besides: I have a vow to fulfill.