And now winter is here!

I had a very nice Solstice. Of all the Sabbats, it’s always the one I celebrate the most ambitiously, with Samhain running a close second.

I decorated the altar and the Yule Log with ivy and holly, and I had some greens on the mantel. I didn’t have as much greenery this year as I’ve had in the past, because all the re-arranging in the living room has eliminated the places where I used to put it. My observance started right after sunset attunement on Sunday. I went out and walked around the house, starting in the north, scattering the ashes from last year’s Yule Log fire all the way around. There was a very pretty sunset, pink and orange through the trees in the southwest. Then I came inside and started the fire. I did a Tarot reading for the coming octave. At 11:59 p.m., the precise mid-point between sunset and dawn, I put the Yule Log on the fire. Then I stayed up the entire rest of the night until dawn. By that time it was 22 degrees out with a blustery wind, and I put my coat on and walked down and got the newspaper. The sunrise was bright red and orange and absolutely beautiful.

I can’t pretend I maintained a concentrated “vigil” the entire night. I was just awake for the whole night, and that was hard enough! For one thing, I participated in an online meeting, via IRC, at 8:00 p.m. To keep myself awake later on, I did my cycling at 3:00 a.m., took a shower at 5:00 a.m. and then got the laundry done, this being something I normally would do on Mondays. But I did it, I stayed up for the whole night and greeted the rising Solstice sun.

I caught a couple of hours of sleep, got up and did my ritual to conclude at the exact turning of the Solstice point, at 12:35 p.m. local time. I used a small charcoal disk and burned real frankincense and myrrh for the ritual incense, which was wonderful but left the whole room in a smokey haze (good thing I’m not sensitive to that!). It was a very good ritual, too.

I was rather tired all Monday afternoon, but I got prep work done for my last video production class that evening. As I drove over to class, which was two towns away in Ayer, I noticed that a lot more people had gotten their holiday lights up this past weekend. Either they delayed for economy’s sake or they just hadn’t gotten to it yet. On my way home from class, I did something unusual for frugal me: I took a very roundabout route home just so I could look at as many holiday lights as possible. They are pretty, but there are definitely fewer lights than I’ve seen in past years. The most popular color scheme, by an overwhelming majority, is all white lights. Multi-colored lights are unusual, and I see very few blue lights, which a couple of years ago were a bit trendy. The most popular light arrangement, by an overwhelming majority, are single electric candles in all the windows of the house, with or without other kinds of lights as well. Everybody has those electric candles, and I don’t think I saw a single house with any other color of electric candles in the windows than white. The runner-up for popular light arrangements are “icicle lights” and/or those netted lights placed on shrubbery. As pretty as the lights are, I have to say, it’s almost a bit monotonous. I saw very few lighted trees placed where they showed through windows, too, and that seems different from past years.

I just finished my gift shopping tonight, and I’ve done almost all of it online. I went up to Pheasant Lane mall today and ended up very frustrated. I came home and got online and bought nearly everything from various online vendors–Amazon, TigerDirect, Overstock.com, a couple of things I’m having shipped straight to the recipients. I am not inclined to feel much sympathy for the complaints of brick-and-mortar merchants after my shopping experiences this season–and I haven’t necessarily bought from online mega-marts, either. I buy from a lot of small vendors online, too.

With the big health insurance reform vote looming on Thursday (Christmas Eve!), I also wrote e-mails to both my Senators (Kirk and Kerry) and my Representative in Congress, John Olver, asking them to support the health reform bill and the public option, and telling them what my experiences have been with the Massachusetts universal health care law. I did, in fact, change my coverage to a lower level plan with higher deductibles and co-pays, so my premiums for 2010 will be slightly lower instead of 30% higher. But I can only downscale my coverage so far before it’s the minimum I can get, and if health insurance costs keep skyrocketing at such a ridiculous rate, I won’t be able to afford coverage at all. I thought Senators Kerry and Kirk, and Rep. Olver, might be interested to hear that the exact same Fallon plan has increased in cost by 64% in just two years!

Some very interesting astrological aspects taking place, particularly a configuration involving Venus, Jupiter and Neptune, while Mars has turned retrograde until March. I’m almost expecting world peace to break out, looking at all that!

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