❄️Happy St Lucy's Day and New Moon in Sagittarius🏹

Also in this penultimate edition of 2023 - the Geminids Meteor shower and rituals for Yule🕯️

Hello there dear one,

Welcome to this bi-monthly newsletter for anyone who’s new here. Thank you so much for opening this edition at a time of year when many of us are feeling overwhelmed by sensory overload. My intention is to offer rituals and stories to calm the nervous system, and suggest subtle ways to sychronise with the energies of the more-than-human world here in the Northern hemisphere.

Some seasonal dates to ground you this week:

• Tomorrow (12 December): New Moon in Sagittarius

• 13 December: St Lucy’s Day

• 14-15 December: Geminids meteor shower

December is often a month where time appears to unravel at a frightening speed, crammed with social events and endless to-do lists, until the moment when many of us may find refuge in a liminal space - a pause in the final days of the December - as those who follow the Gregorian calendar await the turn of the page - leaping into a new (leap) year!

Interestingly, the astronomical pause at this time of year occurs right in the busy run up to the holiday season, with many of us not even noticing it. If you’re a long-time reader of this newsletter you’ll know that I curate my writing around the New and Full Moons as well as the 8 festivals in the Wheel of the Year. One of these festivals is coming up on 22 December - a solar festival - which marks the time in the year (if we’re not at the equator!) when the sun stands still - or Solstice, in Latin. More about this in my next and final newsletter of 2023 which will be free to unpaid subscribers.

With just under a fortnight until Yule (Midwinter/Winter Solstice/Shortest Day), I’d love to direct you to the editions from around this time last year where I offered a weekly grounding ritual in the lead up to this day. To help you to find them in the Moontime Musings Archive I’ve labelled them ‘Yule Ritual 1/5, Yule Ritual 2/5’ and so on. As we approach the New Moon I’d invite you to carve out time for one of my favourite rituals for this time of the Moon’s phases: to create an altar. Follow the link below for some suggestions of how to bring the essence of Yule to your sacred space.

Yule ritual 3/5, Full Moon in Gemini and 2 weeks until Yule!

Ivy, crab apples and fire thorn waiting to be made into Yule decorations

After writing about Michaelmas, Martinmas and Andermas December finally gives us the opportunity to celebrate a feminine Christian deity - St Lucy or Lucia - martyred when she was killed Romans in 304 CE because of her religious beliefs. More about St Lucy for paid subscribers below…