I had fun with this mindfulness exercise, although I only did it twice. I used an orange and blackberries. I love the orange meditation, because it’s reminiscent of childhood and climbing the orange trees in the grove in the summertime to get to the fruit. I also love grapefruit, and I used to eat them down to the rind, one after another, until I couldn’t have another bite. It brings back summertime, and a joyful memory.
I’m going to do what I did for Lunasduinn… I’m going to take a pre-existing ADF ritual, and work through it, with the focus on the Core order, and some memorisation.
This high day is an actual astronomical event; in the Northern Hemisphere, it takes place this coming Friday, Sep 23, at 9:04 AM; I need to check to see the local time.
There are many names for this event; the September Equinox, The Autumnal Equinox, Alban Elfed (Modern Druid), Gouel Sant-Mikael (Breton), Goel Myghal (Manx), Goeldheys (Cornish), Gwyl Fihangel (Welsh), La Fheile Michil (Modern Irish), Mabon, Harvesthome or First Fruits (Wiccan), Michaelmas (Christian).
Since it is an actual astronomical event, this is what is happening:
The sun crosses the celestial equator and moves southward in the northern hemisphere during the September equinox. The location on the earth where the sun is directly overhead at solar noon is known as the subsolar point. The subsolar point occurs on the equator during the September equinox and March equinox. At that time, the earth’s axis of rotation is perpendicular to the line connecting the centers of the earth and the sun. This is the time when many people believe that the earth experiences 12 hours of day and night. However, this is not exactly the case. (News to me! Apparently equal day and night is a metaphor, not a literal truth.)
Sources:
http://www.applewarrior.com/celticworld/celticyear/quarters.html
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html
I found reference to the Summer Solstice as being referred to as ‘An Fheill-Eoinm’, on a website called ‘Celtic World’. However, I do know that one of the authors of the site is a SF writer; but I don’t know what her scholarship is. The Gaelic means, basically, John’s Feast and makes reference to it being the Christian St. John’s Feast Day.
Source:
http://www.applewarrior.com/celticworld/celticyear/quarters.html
I heard again from SMO – their regular track for the Gaelic programme is now taking registration. However, since they caught me flat-footed with finances and overcommitment to other things, I’m going to have to go for the February intake. Here’s the info:
“We are now taking registrations for our beginners course in Scottish Gàidhlig, An Cùrsa Inntrigidh, designed to take you to a reasonable level of fluency and provide reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Please consult timetables on the SMO website www.inntrig.smo.uhi.ac.uk and ensure that this coming intake is suitable for you. If it’s not, you may wish to register for our February 2012 intake.”
So, February it is. At least I know in advance, so my goal is to clear out more stuff and then get started in Feb. My friends that are planning on taking this course too would probably have more time then.