Equinoxes, Solstices, Cross-Quarter Days and Esbats

A mini-blog/reflective journal, from a self-confessed air-head.

Equinoxes and Solstices

Photo: Aaron Burden

This is not what I said I was going to write about for this blog post, but my chronic health condition and consequent energy management issues aren't going anywhere soon, so there'll be plenty of time for me to post about that in the future.

This is also out of my sequence as I start drafting this post, because as I write it's the morning of Saturday 20 June and I'm planning my summer solstice activities for the day.  So, as inspiration (Awen?) appears to have struck I've decided to go with it. /|\

Photo: Melissa Van Gogh

Our cat has helpfully made sure that I'm up and awake in good time to make the most of the day (poor boy, he's on a diet so he reckoned he was starving hungry and wasting away, therefore the humans must be up and about in order to serve His Highness).  So providing he doesn't demand too much play or cuddle time, I should get lots done today (I know, first world problems right?)

I've always felt an affinity with the equinoxes and solstices, from when I was quite small.  It's a feeling I can't easily put into words; it's part of what leads me to pursuing my spiritual path*.  It's just a feeling of being connected with these days.

I'd love to make it to Stonehenge one summer solstice just for the experience.

Photo: Ganapathy Kumar

(I've got to be honest, I've probably only included esbats in the title of this blog post for a sense of symmetry and the tiny bit of alliteration it provides - I'm not a Wiccan or a witch, and I don't feel the same level of affinity with the esbats that I do with the Wheel of the Year holidays, though I do think the full moon is a beautiful and therefore a magical thing.  Sorry for the false advertising - I will, however, make a note to myself to blog about esbats at some point in the future.)

Photo: Bethany Cirlincione

So, what am I doing to mark the summer solstice in 2020?

• Blog a bit (check ✅)
• Finish making and hang my summer decoration (a string of daisies made from 2mm craft foam)
• Pot up some of the spider plant 'babies' which have been appearing since the last time I did it - also try and rescue an aloe vera plant (I think I overwatered it)
• Some celebratory food and drink
• Light a candle, come the evening
• Finish and publish my Apps blog post!
• Do some of my work (my day job), even though it's a Saturday (because it's work which is of benefit to the local community); I also aim to do a bit of 'e-volunteering' on the Zooniverse site (again, because it's work which is of benefit to wider society)
• Provide a meal for and spend some time petting the semi-stray cat who lives on a doorstep of one of the houses in my street
• If there's time, do a bit of crafting on my 'druid staff', and possibly look at my distance learning course I'm (very gradually!) studying
• Start looking ahead to the December solstice

That last one is not because I'm wishing the time away (that's the last thing I'd wanna to do!) But because the forum I'm a member of has an annual online celebration of the December solstice called Up All Night, and in previous years we've talked about doing more promotion of this event - so this year I've taken it upon myself to undertake some of this promotion. And I liked the sense of symmetry which I felt beginning that promotion upon the June solstice would provide (with the permission of the board host).

That's it for this first half of this post - I shall return to update (plus write a bit about cross-quarter days) and publish this after the solstice weekend has passed.  🠟

The second half:

It's the morning of Sunday 21 June as I write, and to my very great surprise today I woke at almost the exact moment of the sunrise here!  I watched a bit of the live stream of the moments following sunrise from Stonehenge on the English Heritage YouTube channel (though due to being overcast not much of the actual sun was visible).

I didn't get up and going for several hours, as I'd been aiming to get some more sleep.  At 11:30am I was still dozing on the sofa when my husband woke me by phoning me from our bedroom because the cat had woken him up (evidently it was his turn to serve today - I'm glad our cat has this equitable view of our servitude! 😻)

So it seems my To Do list created yesterday was a tad bit ambitious as I've not yet potted up any of

those spider plant 'babies' or worked on my 'druid' staff (and being the weekend I've also all the regular household chores to do, only a very few of which I did yesterday).               Photo: Abel Y Costa on Unsplash

Photo by Michael Pujal

I'm okay with both the above things because I haven't actually got anywhere for more plants to go (I need to take some to the office, but there's no-one working there on a regular basis during lockdown who can be relied upon to tend them); and there's always autumn equinox to work on my staff.

I managed to finish and publish my Apps blog post yesterday (and it's here if you haven't already seen it).

I'll now round out this post by briefly mentioning cross-quarter days, of which my favourites have always been Beltaine and Samhaim, both from quite a young age also.  Again, these days just resonate with me for reasons I can't seem to elaborate on.

So, along with autumn equinox I'll be looking forward to the latter (Samhaim) before very long 

Photo: Estée Janssens

- in the scheme of things- and doing more crafting of additions to the plentiful decorations which I like to put up at the start of October.
(Apologies again for lack of any real mention of esbats in this post - I'll make a note to myself to come back to that topic some time in the future.)

Credit: EH Bowen

And finally, coming back to publicising that Up All Night online celebration of the December solstice which I'll be looking forward to come the winter months, this here link will take you to the page I've created for this purpose.  I hope this year we'll have some new members getting to know the community there and taking part in the revels.

Evening update:  In view of all of the above, and in spite of not getting every last thing on my To Do list done, I'm overall very pleased with what I've achieved this weekend.

Smiley face emoji!  😄

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and that you had an enjoyable solstice, too - let me know in the comments if you feel like it 😃

*I think of my path as "Druid-ish"

Photos from Unsplash; 'Up All Night' artwork: EH Bowen on https://ecauldron.com/



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