Happy 2018, everyone. Hope your holiday season (that nebulous time
between Hanukkah and New Year’s) is or has been a good one. Yule for me is a time of Mystery, when so
much is happening offstage. In my own
personal Wheel of the Year, the Sun God dies in the Underworld and is reborn. The Oak God is in his Warrior aspect, keeping
vigil alone through the long night that is January. The Goddess is in her
fourth form, that of the Star Goddess, but will return as the Maiden at Imbolc,
bringing with her the infant Holly Child. But for now, the Warrior waits.
For me, the holidays, and the 25th in
particular, is a respite between the long buildup of hype, music, and shopping
madness that is the Christmas season, and the subsequent Boxing Week chaos and return to the normal grind. Almost everything stops, and we can
shut out the day-to-day world and concentrate on the things that are important
to us – family, friends, self-care – that can so often be ignored in the course
of our regular duties. This may sound
trite, but it is truly important. Yule
is a time for reflection, and for beginning to work on our own “resurrections”
in the form of New Year’s resolutions. We remember the Roman God Janus, for
whom January is named. His two faces
look both backwards into the year just past, and forward to the year ahead.
This time is a modern equivalent of the “intercalary
days” – literally, “between the calendars”, when peoples at least as far back
as the Egyptians, resynchronized their calendars with the solar and lunar
cycles. In Egyptian mythology, back when the year was figured as 360 days, we’re
told the goddess Nut was unable to bear children on any day of the year. The
wise god Thoth gambled with the Moon for a portion (1/72) of her light, and won
the five days on which Nut’s children – Isis, Osiris, Nephthys, Set, and Horus
the Elder – could be born. In the same
way, we can use this time to renew ourselves, and prepare to move forward into
2018, with the Oak Warrior at our side.
January Events:
Note these events are listed for
information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see
the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this
listing, please contact me. All times MST.
Jan 1: New Year’s Day.
Jan 1, 7:24 pm: Full (Wolf or Cold)
Moon. Supermoon.
Jan 3: Earth at perihelion.
Jan 4, predawn: Peak of
Quadrantid Meteor Shower.
Jan 16, 7:17 pm: New Moon.
Luis/Rowan Lunar Month begins.
Jan 20, 12:00 pm: Women’s March
to City Hall hosted by Women’s March Canada - Calgary and March On Canada - Calgary, at Famous Five monument. Info: http://www.womensmarchcanada.com
Jan 21: Celtic Tree-Month of
Luis/Rowan begins, according to Robert Graves.
Jan 27, 10:00 am: He for She –
Speaking out Against Misogyny and Sexism, at McDougall Centre.
Jan 27, 7:00 pm: Calgary Heathens
Meet and Greet at Denny’s McKnight.
Jan 31, 6:27 am: Full (Old or
Wolf, Blue) Moon. Lunar Eclipse.
Jan 31, 7:30 pm: Full Moon Circle
in NE Calgary by Calgary Witches’ Meetings Facebook group.
