So, I'm a bit late posting this, but there is good reason. I cannot share that reason right now, but I assure you, it was important.

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Blessed Hestia, Lady of the hearth, enter this home, you are welcome here.

So began an intense time of meditation, dancing, and singing that culminated in my sense of love for the Gods being once more heightened beyond my expectations. It begins with music. The subtle and beautiful voice of Deva Premal which washes over you like an ocean wave but leaves you unhurt yet feeling all together moved.

It is followed by a closing of the eyes, a subtle movement of the hands, and the smell of incense. It is at these moments, when you are starting to flow with the music, your heartbeat, and the wild undulations of your living mind. You try to focus it all, but then you realize that this is not the moment to do that. This is the time to let go, to allow your nature, your wildness, your very animal nature full reign over you.

Emotions rise and settle down with wild abandon. Names, faces, memories of pain and joy all come to the fore and then subside once more, and then, as if from nowhere, you feel them.

You can't be sure, these are Gods, after all, and they are everywhere, but they are also here, with you. They have not come, they were always here, but you, YOU have moved to them. You have opened yourself up to them and have awakened yourself to their power, and it is frightening.

Here now is the time to take control. Here now, when you can feel them, is the time to settle your heart, your mind, your soul so that you can appreciate them. So you can make yourself acceptable to them you must not be some wild beast, but present to them your human face.

You must seek him out, the one you wish to honor, worship, love, and with that, I felt him.

He radiates all he is. It is a powerful feeling, knowing his very divinity flows from hi like light does from the sun, but you also know that it is working both ways. Your humanity radiates from you, and the all seeing god of the sun sees you, all of you, and there is no hiding from him.

I thank him, and offer my blessing to him who is now growing in power in the North, and who will bring forth the light and heat that will usher in the Springtime.

Kala 'Iliouyenna.

In the general world today is Christmas. People are running around with smiles on their faces and when I go to work I will be faced with cheapskates who will leave me a bunch of pamphlets about Jesus instead of a tip.

So my resolution for the day is to smile and try to come up with a really nice way of saying, "What, didn't Jesus teach generosity?"

But this morning I woke to a feeling of, well, nothingness. I felt neither good nor bad, neither here nor there. And so when I lit the altar candles and made my morning offerings to the Gods and, in honor of Heliogenna, lit three pieces of floral incense for Helios in my East window to bring in the sunrise, I asked for his guidance, his light, and his warmth.

My theme for this penultimate day of Heliogenna will have to be gratitude, and hope that Helios guides me well and that I am able to hear his guidance.

The fires are burning again. My home is once again filled with the delightful smells of incense, and the altar is once again filled with the spirit of the Gods. To the East is burning his offering, Helios Lord of the rising Sun, her offering, Eos of the rosy fingers, and her offering, Selene of the setting full moon.

The air is cold, and I stand there nude before them as I seek to feel them all around me. I can feel it, like the energy of a new birth or the excitement of a burgeoning love, it gives me strength and fills me with a sense of pride and completion.

I have purchased a few gifts, a capitulation to our cultural tradition of gift exchange at this time of year, and I have chosen them carefully to say thank you to those who have made my life worth living this year.

A fellow traveller wrote to tell me and others about her particular celebration. I encourage anyone who has also followed along with us to tell me about it. I'm sure we would love to read about it.

Thanks Cara!
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I detailed the Heliogenna festival that I celebrated during the Solstice. I held a 3 day celebration. My write up isn't that coherent or stunning and I don't write out all of the rituals, etc. But it is what I did and I can say that I will be doing this every year! What a wonderful festival, full of meaning. I'm posting it on here (mostly) because I was able to get a small group together for this celebration and also because I was able to add to my Helios altar.

Day 1 - Sunset
http://snowcalla.livejournal.com/239542.html

Day 2- Night...the Plan
http://snowcalla.livejournal.com/239854.html

Day 2 - Night - What actually happened.
http://snowcalla.livejournal.com/240350.html

Day 3 - Sunrise
http://snowcalla.livejournal.com/240871.html

The flow of this festival - with the time of year - was dead on. Loved it! I made some changes to it, but most of it has been stolen right from Hector. Next year I would do it as a 2 day festival...with Sunset being celebrated on the day before the Solstice, Night during the actual night, and Sunrise the next morning. They are called that, why not celebrate them during their name-sakes? Also...I thought Hekate and Hermes fit in well during Night since that is the Solstice and a time of transition, not really an end. And I honored the Protogonoi during the sunrise as that is about beginnings, hope and rebirth - it seemed to make more sense to me to honor them then.

Anyway...hope you don't mind me sharing this.

Blessed Lord and Lady of the Underworld, hear me as I pray.
Allow me the strength to face you.
I come with no song to woo you to my ways.
I come with no offerings to convince you to aid me.
I come with no desires in need of your addressing.

I come instead with a humble heart.
I come instead with a will to survive.
I come instead with a desire to know you.

Blessed Lord and Lady of the darkness, hear me as I pray.
Allow me the will to not fear you.
I come with no fruit to appease you.
I come with no drink to quench your thirst.
I come with no blood to spill for you.

I come instead with a steely resolve.
I come instead with curiosity.
I come instead with dreams of a future I fear.

Blessed Lord and Lady of the Dead, hear me as I pray.
Allow me the strength to love as you love.
I come not to plead for it.
I come not to bargain for it.
I come not to persuade you of it.

I come instead to inform you.
I come instead to delay you.
I come instead to say that I will live.

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Aside from this prayer, which I write in their honor, I am spending today, from sunrise to sunset, in silence. I will hear the words around me. I will learn and be pleased by them. But I shall not speak or fight against what I hear and see around me this day. I will et it all come to me and see in it all the will of the Gods as I seek to awake tomorrow for Sunrise with a new heart, a new resolve, and a new will for the coming year.