Winter Solstice/Midwinter 2008
Dec 22nd, 2008 by celticshaman
May the Winter Solstice bless you and yours with the returning light. This morning, December 21st, the first light of the rising sun shone in the inner chambers of Maes Howe in Orkney and into Newgrange in Ireland. This return of the Sun has been marked in these sacred chambers for thousands of years. Good news. The first news! The Sun returns! Night is put to flight!
Dillon Carlyon’s reading this Midwinter is from “Christmas in Ritual and Tradition” by Clement A. Miles, (http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/crt/crt17.htm) “Chapter XIII, Masking, The Mummer’s Play, The Feast of Fools, and the Boy Bishop”. The reading is preceded by the Brobdingnagian Bards (http://www.brobdingnagianbards.com) “Greensleeves Medley”, from “A Faire to Remember”, (2001). Dillon’s reading is followed by James Edwards (http://www.jamesedwardsguitar.com/home.html) Gloustershire “Wassail - Wassail Song” from “Magnature Compilation: Christmas Music”, (2008).
Tira Brandon-Evans and Dillon Carlyon together recite some Midwinter verses from the Carmina Gadelica. Dillon recites in Scots Gaelic and Tira in English. “Hey the Gift, Ho the Gift” (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1063.htm), The Gift of Power (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1064.htm), and Hogmanay of the Sack (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1067.htm).
Cheryl Ann Fulton’s (http://magnatune.com/artists/fulton) “Winter Song” from the “Once and Future Harp”, (2004) carries us into the Outro by Dillon Carlyon.
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Have a happy and blessed Yule. Be well, be strong, be free!












