The Wheel Turns Once Again...

...and thoughts are set to preparations for the coming chill and hoped-for snows.

Greetings my darling Lair visitors. 'Tis nearly a year since last I posted and, in that time, much has happened.  I've had my office relocate to a new building--a building with a WINDOW where I can see the seasonal changes and all the beauty that She bedecks Herself in with each Sabbat and Cross-Quarter celebration. We've a new inhabitant at the Lair proper--a housemate with respect for and knowledge of the Old Ways (though not a practitioner).

The "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" is truly upon us. As I glance behind me at the trees without, I note they're beginning to gild themselves in the burnt golds and russets of Autumn.  V-shaped formations of wildfowl cut across the skies as the birds make their pilgrimage to their winter grounds. Woodland squirrels are glutting themselves on newly-ripe pecans and late-season berries as they prepare for the derth of winter. The sky itself has started softening from the lush cornflower of midsummer to the quieter powder blue of this season.

Neighborhoods are far from immune from observing the seasonal delights! Houses are decked in bales of hay, chrysanthemums, and all manner of autumnal wreathes and garlands. Pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes now grace entryways and town squares as the Season is welcomed and celebrated by Pagan and Christian, Jew and Muslim, Believer and Atheist alike. Neighbors pause a bit longer to share pleasantries.  The scent of wood smoke wafts across the chill breezes--beckoning us to gather 'round the hearth or firepit and share quieter times.

Amidst the chaos and tragedies the temporal world suffers through seemingly daily, we need all the more to open to the warmth of the shortening sunlight, the songs and silences of the Season, and the softness of the ever-present Moonlight.  She sustains our hope in the constancy of Her ages. As Rilke observed, "...you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall."

My dear ones, may the coming Samhain bless you with renewed faith in the strength of today and the hope of tomorrow. And, may you, my darlings, ever be embraced by the Softness of the Moonlight...