Denmark is a windy place. I never really used scarves except in deep winter when I lived in the US. Now I have one handy year round. The wind takes the generally cool weather here and can turn it sharp in a moment, even in summer. The second new moon of the year is a delight with the days getting brighter, and it also reminds you that winter has not yet let go. The wind still storms through my garden with icy blasts. So on February 17 this the new Wind moon.
The Cold moon was indeed frigid here. We had our coldest winter in 16 years. The lake froze over for the first time in 5 years and we were below freezing for several weeks—an incredible rarity here. During the Cold moon the common wheel of the year holiday of Imbolc is celebrated by many in the druid/witch/pagan/et al world on February 1st in the Gregorian calendar. I don’t celebrate it myself since I don’t have a strong connection with Celtic traditions and prefer to not use Gregorian calendar dates as sacred markers. Instead I wait to see when my land shows its first signs of waking from the winter sleep. I mark the time when the snowdrops and alder trees flower. This is often around the same time as Imbolc, but this year the winter has been fierce so I haven’t seen the snowdrops yet. The alder trees in the city bloomed very early, but my beloved alder friend by the lake up here is waiting patiently for the ice to melt.
The past month was spent staying cozy, spending time with friends, and trundling along with life. I’ve been more focused on community work within the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) this month as well, both in the mentoring program and the monastery. The monastery has been going through a transformation for the last few months and we have now sorted out our new understanding of who we are and why we exist. We came to a consensus on changes we needed to make and while the need for re-evaluation was troublesome for a number of reasons, the process itself and the shared effort to find our grounding was very nourishing and rewarding.
Looking forward to the coming month, I will be starting a certification course for Non-Religious Spiritual Direction. I’ll probably talk more about this as I get into the coursework, but I’m drawn to this particular program because it has a strong focus on helping people deconstruct their old religious life in order to build the spiritual life where they can really thrive. I myself struggled with leaving Christianity many decades ago and only came to be open to a spiritual life again in the last 5 years or so. I’d very much like to help others find their spiritual paths and ease the navigation through negative aspects of previous paths that may hold them back. I’m very excited about this program and looking forward to diving in.
May the winds bring spring air and hopefully I’ll see the snowdrops soon.
Hawthorn Seed 