Because I'm cool like that...: Solstice Fun

We have a new holiday tradition. It started while I was in Africa, and this is th first year I have been able to participate. On the morning of the Winter Solstice
(21 Dec this year) we go and sing up the sun. We jump the bonfire to give it strength, and we sing to encourage it that first morning we all know how hard it is to get out of bed when it is cold. Imagine if you were the one expected to warm everything up>. Though, hearing some of us sing, I am not sure if we are encouraging it to come up, or to run away... This year it was at Reid Park.

I think for next year I am going to knit us all matching hats and scarves. Maybe glvoes. Nan thinks I should do element themes, but I am thinking rebirth of the sun theme. Either way, it is COLD at dawn!

A lot of Pagans (some of the BNP's and those who think they are, which is sad) think that a lot of the things we do are just symbolic and stuff. One author told me that the Gods don't exist, that they are just anthromorphic representations of your psyche needless to say, I have not read any of her books since then. Her first wasn't that good to begin with, but how can you write books about dieties you don't beleive in? Or claim to be the priestess of a religion you don't think is anything more than a psyhological construct?. But here is the thing. The ancinets all over the world of every religion belived that if we didn't do these things, the sun would not come back and winter would last forever. Gardnerarians beleive the ones who know what they are talking about. Unfortunetly, like anything, there are a lot out there who are more interested in power and ego and were never trained properly because they were taught by people who were more interested in power and ego. The cycle continues, and we have groups like the Hard-Gards, who are fundamentalists. The kind who would be quite happy to start a new Inquisition to get rid of everyone who does not beleive their exact way or won't bow down to their athority. And I am sure these people also don't beleive in the Gods they claim to worship either that if we stop doing these things - stop celebrating the sabbaths and stop jumping the bonfire ect - then the wheel of the world will stop spinning. You can laugh, but think about it. For the whole of human history, someone out there has always done these things. And the world keeps turning. Do you really want everyone to stop because you think it is a silly superstition? What if we are right?

After, a few of us went up to Mt. Lemmon to play in the snow. Mt. Lemmon is about 7000feet or thereabouts and an hour drive from my house. So you can go up there and have a blast in the snow, then get cold and come back to Tucson and warm up. Nan, Gary, Mike, Dad and I went.

Playing in the snow Neo, Mike's Husky mix and Ava, Nan and Gary's Jack Russel. We think the two of them have a thing going. :)