occasional posts by risa aratyr
A year ago, my husband and I “celebrated” Bealtaine by completely upending our settled, deep-rooted West Coast Wine Country lives and traveling across the continent to start anew on the shores of Lake Ontario in Western New York State. Like its predecessor, this Bealtaine is shaping up to be a center-cannot-hold whopper of a May-tide. … Read more Bealtaine Redux
The signs above constitute the “Didn’t bring one? Take one” pile at today’s No Kings protest in Rochester, NY. Or rather, at one of the ROC protests. There were several events all over the greater Rochester area. Something for everyone. Something near everyone. A rally to suit every schedule. We picked the mid-day gathering at … Read more Sign Language
Tonight is the eve of Ostara, the spring equinox. Light and Dark, Day and Night are in perfect balance. It’s comforting to be reminded that Mother Earth is still spinning at an appropriate distance from the sun and on her appropriate axial tilt, as she has done for lo these many millennia. Comforting that our … Read more Sprinter and Sprummer: Seasons of the New World Order
“Why, what’s the matter,That you have such a February face,So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?” William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing It occurs to me that, of all the cross-quarter days, divination is most strongly associated with Imbolc (Candlemas, Lá Fhéile Bríde) because when one lives in a part of the world where … Read more Signs & Portents
I look for hope and joy at every station of the sun. I look harder when I’m writing a post. Festivals should be festive, and laments make for poor holiday reading. Since Samhain last, when flawed but still recognizable America fell to the oligarchs, I have done my best to avoid turning this blog into … Read more Season’s Greetings from Oceania