The Wheel continues to turn as Yule begins to pass. The old year gone and the new one already underway and perhaps, as to be expected, I find myself in the woods once more. After the festivities and celebrations of Yule and Christmas, the indulgence and glamour of twinkling lights and shiny trinkets, this is what’s needed.
A Blessed relief.
Mist shifts in the lifting gloom as dawn gives way to a low sun that casts the winter woods in a mirage of shadow and light, though darkness lingers still. Gloom gathers in the thickets and lingers in the undergrowth.
The woods beckon with bony fingers, the gnarled and twisted wood of midwinter disguise the nodules that will begin to grow and bloom with the coming spring. But that is for later when the growing light chases the last of the lingering shadows. For now darkness holds sway in the winter woods. It draws me onwards, calling me to remember with my whole being, to feel the dead beneath my feet, the soft decay of the loamy forest floor, to listen to the stories they share with each footstep. The lessons they give. The truths they tell.
The trees sing with the biting wind, the bare boughs of the silver birch and the sorrowful creaking of the tall pines. It’s a fitting ode to this, the woods in deep midwinter. The tune carries me forward, beats in tune with my witch heart beating in time with it, that answers with a quickening beat.
Brave the mist, it sings to me
Embrace the half light. Step into the shadows.
The half dark.
Yield
Yes I whisper back and step off the beaten track, into the wild where I might lose myself for a while, slip out of my human skin and be a wild thing once more, my spirit free to dance with the spirits of the land.
This is the lesson of the winter woods, of nature. To slow down. To unwind. To unravel the pressures of the world and become wild once more, revelling in what is real. To draw solace and a quiet strength from the connection only half remembered but fully felt.
In the cold of the winter woods.
May the New Year be a blessed one, where we remember our wild hearts and lose ourselves beneath the boughs more often. Happy New Year.
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The Wheel continues to turn as Yule begins to pass. The old year gone and the new one already underway and perhaps, as to be expected, I find myself in the woods once more. After the festivities and celebrations of Yule and Christmas, the indulgence and glamour of twinkling lights and shiny trinkets, this is […]
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The Wheel continues to turn as Yule begins to pass. The old year gone and the new one already underway and perhaps, as to be expected, I find myself in the woods once more. After the festivities and celebrations of Yule and Christmas, the indulgence and glamour of twinkling lights and shiny trinkets, this is […]
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The Wheel continues to turn as Yule begins to pass. The old year gone and the new one already underway and perhaps, as to be expected, I find myself in the woods once more. After the festivities and celebrations of Yule and Christmas, the indulgence and glamour of twinkling lights and shiny trinkets, this is […]
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The Wheel continues to turn as Yule begins to pass. The old year gone and the new one already underway and perhaps, as to be expected, I find myself in the woods once more. After the festivities and celebrations of Yule and Christmas, the indulgence and glamour of twinkling lights and shiny trinkets, this is […]
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The Wheel continues to turn as Yule begins to pass. The old year gone and the new one already underway and perhaps, as to be expected, I find myself in the woods once more. After the festivities and celebrations of Yule and Christmas, the indulgence and glamour of twinkling lights and shiny trinkets, this is […]
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