return of the meme.

[witchscauldron]

1) Autumn
I love autumn, even though I've stopped thinking about the world in four seasons anymore. It's the absolute end of the light - a glorious blaze, like a Viking boat burning into the distance. I am in love with the idea of autumn, a slow beautiful decline into winter, that decay into death thing...but the metaphor doesn't really work here.

Autumn here is short. It's usually hot here right until Canadian Thanksgiving, so the leaves don't turn colours much until the last week of September. By the third week of October, all the leaves are gone, the weather has snapped super-cold at least once, and we generally have snow here before Samhain.

But - my own feelings about the season, and the Wheel's turning, have really changed over time. For me, I start feeling 'autumn' at Lughnassadh, when we have the ripening of fields, the harvest of fruits and vegetables then. So it's not as much autumn as late summer, for me.

October is my favorite month of the year. I used to know the exact moment winter was eating the summer's bones, when the old concrete step of the farmhouse we lived in was too cold for bare feet. The sky and the water of the Rideau would be as cold, incredibly blue, and the cornstalks in the fields all hissed in the wind.

2)Bears
Spiritually speaking, Bear was one of the first animal spirits I met, and worked with. It seems to be a family totem on my mother's side. Bear offers me comfort, rest, sleep, and healing - something I'm not often in possession of. I think of Bear as "Grandmother", but as an honorific, not an actual familial relationship.

3)Bíle
Bíle is an Irish God, who is the Tree of Life. His roots and branches connect the Realms to one another, and cradle the sacred fire. He is the consort of Danu, the Irish goddess who is the mother of the Tuatha de Dannan. He is the Lord of Life and Death, which makes sense to me in that he touches all the realms as the World Axis. I honour both him and his consort as the parents of the Tribe.

4)Blood
It's a funny thing, blood. Mine looks like a frosted donut, if my sugar levels get too high. Heh. Erm. I think it's a mighty powerful thing, and obviously a personal one. It is a magical component, a sacrifice, and a symbol - something that connects and binds.

5)Macha
Despite having The Morrigan as a patron, and having been a stable rat for a good chunk of my youth, I came into connection with Macha rather late, relatively speaking. I haven't ever really connected with any other horse gods or goddesses, so I don't think it's the horse aspect that does it. At any rate, it wasn't until about 5 years ago that Macha came to me.

I know distinctly when I'm dealing with a particular 'name' or 'face', or when I'm dealing with the unified parts of The Morrigan; I don't know how to describe that, really. Macha is the single 'name' that comes to me most. My own shrine at home is obviously welcome to Her, but I also tend a shrine specifically in Her name at the covenstead, as well.

6)Multiverse
Woo-boy. Here we go.

When I was about 9 or 10, my Dad started suggesting to me that I read his collection of Sci-fi and Fantasy novels. In doing so, he exposed me to a lot of Michael Moorcock's different series. I became a fast and firm fan. MM's novels are set in the idea that there are many different universes, all connected by pathways between. Some align with each other nearly parallel, and some are completely isolated and alien from the rest. Sometimes they overlap. The Multiverse and its' realms are constantly being fought over by Law and Chaos, with the Balance struggling to maintain itself between the two.

It's fiction. And yet it shaped my own perception and concept of reality. It makes sense to me.

Why yes, I am a geek. Or is that nerd? I never know anymore.

7)Spiral
Just such an awesome shape, and a concept - a motion towards the within, that all things are connected in cycles, that we turn into, and emerge from. It's a symbol for transcendant mystery. And If you cover something with spirals, I will probably want it. It's a Celt thing. :p It's also, in a kinda cool serendipity, the symbol of my coven.


Same as before - comment and I'll pick 7 of your own interests, then you post them in your journal with the same deal.