It’s December, and we have a lot of new birds coming to our feeder. House wrens and chickadees will be wintering here, it seems, and so we’re making sure they have lots of fatty seeds to see them through the cold months. Husbear found a dove wing in our shed, however, where it had been ripped from it’s owner by one of the neighborhood stray kitties. So the lesson is a reminder that nature is sometimes harsh and unforgiving. I hope as many survive the Winter as possible.

For me, December is about wrapping things up. The holidays are a big theme, sure, but so is finishing up everything that we put into motion this year. It’s kind of a void time where we can think about what it is that we accomplished, and what we learned. A lot of Pagans think of Samhain as New Year, but I like secular New Year right where it is. It’s in the dark of Winter after the holidays that we can really ponder the important questions.

What are you finishing up for 2019? What are you finishing up for this decade?

Birthstones: Tanzanite, zircon, turquoise

Lunations:
December 12- Full Moon in Gemini, 12:12am EDT
December 26- New Moon in Capricorn, 12:12am EDT

Astronomy:
December 14- Geminids meteor shower begins
December 23- Ursids meteor shower begins
December 26- Comae Berenicids meteor shower begins

Celtic Tree Month:
Elder (November 25- December 23): Endings and new beginnings, completion of the cycle, focusing on greater happiness and your heart’s desire, evaluating what you’ve learned over the last year, cutting loose ends, thinking about your dreams for the new year, judgment, transformation, death and regeneration, fate, the inevitable, exorcism, banishment, prosperity and healing, leaves and berries can be used for protection and breaking spells cast against you.
Birch (December 24- January 20): Beginning of Celtic tree calender, new beginnings, making plans for the future, contemplation, resolutions, inception, “Lady of the Woods”, reflects feminine aspects of nature. Renewal, protection, wards evil, banishes fears/builds courage, beauty and tolerance.

Holidays (non-Pagan):
December 1: First Day of Advent (Christian)
December 6: St. Nicholas Day
December 7: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Christian)
December 23: First day of Hanukkah (Jewish)
December 24: Christmas Eve (Christian)
December 25: Christmas (Christian)
December 26: First day of Kwanzaa
December 30: Last day of Hanukkah
December 31: New Year’s Eve

Holidays (Pagan):
December 13: Feast of the Light-Bringer, honoring Juno (Roman) or Lucia (Old Swedish), merged with the Christian festival of St. Lucia
December 17- 23: Saturnalia, celebrating Saturn (representing the weak sun) and Ops (an earth goddess)
December 21-22: Old European festival of evergreen trees
December 21-25: Roman/Egyptian festival of Goddess Isis giving birth to Horus
December 22: Winter solstice/solar new year/modern Yule
December 25- January 1: Old Anglo-Teutonic Yule
December 26-27: Posiedon Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all the gods and goddesses.
December 28-29: Feast of Athena as protector and defender
December 29-30: Feast of Aphrodite and Hermes
December 31: Feast of Father Time (Saturn)

Themes for the month: Coziness, warmth of family and friends around the holidays, evergreen trees, holly, comforting foods, finishing up the year, the beginning of Winter

General activities for the month: Gift-giving, celebrating with friends, feasting, story-telling, passing down information through the generations, decorating your home, building fires, honoring fire, watching holiday movies

Herbs I’m using: tea (I’m enjoying a lot more of it now that it’s cold enough), peppermint (it’s in everything this time of year, and I love it!), cocoa (totally from plants- don’t judge me!)

Stones I’m using: Pyrite (for abundance), garnet (for motivation), and tiger’s eye (for strength and manifesting my will)

Goddess of the Month: Parvati- Faith in a higher power to guide me, prayer and meditation as part of a daily routine, love and devotion to deity. Letting everything fall into place.

3 card reading:

First, we see The Hierophant reversed. So we’re not playing by the rules this month. We’ll be eschewing tradition and trying something completely new. This untraditional approach sounds like a lot of fun around the holidays to me!

Next, we have the 4 of Pentacles. So we’re going to be holding onto our money, not spending wildly like a lot of people do this time of year. This, paired with the Hierophant reversed tells me that we’ll be focusing less on material things and more on the warmth of the season.

Finally, we have the 10 of Cups reversed. So we won’t be seeing our happily ever after, and I feel like this is showing a certain disillusionment about the holidays. While we’re taking a different approach and not spending every dime to try and please people, we’re finding that we’re a bit jaded and disappointed this holiday season. So the message here is to remember that the season will give you back what you bring to it. Make it festive, make it fun, just don’t get hung up on the way things SHOULD be, instead enjoy them as they are.

The special guidance card says “When I think I’ve surrendered, I surrender more.” So again, expectations aren’t going to come through this month. It’s better to let go, relax, and enjoy what we have rather than what we’re struggling to create. This is a good time of year to remember that everything has its season.

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Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
By Shakespeare in As You Like It

Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As a friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

My personal tides and goals: Things are changing for us, and I really need to change the things I’ve been doing. I need to go out into the world in a way that I haven’t for a long time. I also just published my first book, and I really need to focus on marketing it. I’m kind of terrible at selling myself, and I need to get over it.