In the silence of an early morning, I watch the light rising over a hushed, snow covered land. Gently, snowflakes dance toward the ground. As they fall they whisper to me "all will be well, IxChel."
The last two weeks have been emotionally and logistically chaotic. Between a 2nd degree initiation, working in a software company whose primary market is Wall Street, and having a family and a home to participate in for the holidays I've been feeling like a combination marathon and relay runner.
For an HPs, initiations renew the initiaory and magickal currents within. They tend to ebb as time wears on, and each initiation is a little softer on the internal works... but any initiation of an HP or HPs is very intense and rare. Thus those events will tear through one like a bottle of Drano, and though welcomed, do create a bit of chaos.
Taking that chaotic energy and trying to build a solid emotional foundation on top of it is a bit of a challenge. Though not impossible, it is tricky. I need to keep the energy surges hidden from the view of the muggles, while monitoring my water intake and food choices. Exercise would have been a good choice throughout the past two weeks, but I just didn't have the physical energy to get out of bed at 5 am and walk on the treadmill.
I am finding that the Uranus-Saturn opposition and the T-Square with the Sun and Mars have been causing an already emotionally charged Wall Street to become positively rediculous. The people who work in the financials were already rude, selfish, and painfully self-absorbed.. but the recent "drop" along with the hectic planetary energies has made them all into babbling children who are afraid to try anything for fear one small step will ruin their already shaky careers. Knowing that the planetary energies were going to amplify this experience, I did make it through the past two weeks fairly smoothly, much more smoothly than I expected to anyway. There were some rough spots, and I did hear more positive -joking expressions of Mars or Uranus energies than I thought I would.. but overall it was like being on a log flume ride where the water is boiling hot. You're grateful for being in the log, but the hot water splashing up around you is not welcomed.
Now, Yuletide eve is here and it's snowing. The winter blanket covers all the little, prickly, frozen blades of grass. It hides all the ugly brown muddy spots, and brings a welcomed deadening of all the harsh cracking and howling sounds that the wind makes as it blows through the trees and the ice. Mother earth rests, and so do I.
Now is the time when time slows down a bit. When the books that pile up over the warmer months start to get finished, and the writing gets polished and finished off.
Gently, the snowflakes remind me that I too am made of the elements, and thus I must take the time to float, time to think and feel without pressure, and time to just do nothing but rest.
Water grows colder in the winter, so too do our trivial connections. Our emotional bodies create a layer of ice around them and our emotional energies are turned inward to nurture our selves and our closest friends.
The earth freezes in the winter, preventing growth. The body's energy dies back and demands rest, thus we heal the areas that need attention.
The air becomes crisp and cutting, and we must work to remember not to let our words follow that lead.
And fire becomes our friend in the winter. Heat and warmth are the sacred sisters of survival. We huddle and cling to the things that keep ours spirits up, our energies high.
Thus Yule is a celebration of fire, of warmth, of the rising of the light. In our most base natures, we long for the sun and to ritualize it's birth is to nurture the fire within us all to ensure our survival throughout these cold winter months.
I honor all who walk the paths laid down by their ancestors, and by the elders of this new tradition who have gone before us. Thank you for keeping the fires of magick alive, thank you for digging up the old ways and renewing them for us so that we too can honor the rising of the light. I am grateful for your sacred sacrifices.
