[sunbug]

Dear Kristina,

I wanted to come back to your essay and other comments…

The leaves are just now changing in my part of Nature and the Goddess of Fall is revealing her presence in her own time.
You mention offering paper to fire…

For me the building of fire in a stove is inescapable from ritual…my Dad taught me and it’s a gift never forgotten…my chimney has been cleaned and I am excited! To watch the dance of flames…the fire Goddess and her attending Sprites in a crackling flamenco sparking behind the glass doors…

The last time I was here…unfortunately I wandered off on several tangents chattering in my own mind… and never told you how beautiful your essay was! Or how much I love this paragraph you wrote:

Rituals give our left brain a break. They give the gods and goddesses room to speak, move and act through us – we let them alter us. The autumn equinox is coming up in the northern hemisphere on September 22. A suggestion is to offer your present troubles to a piece of paper, and then offer the paper to the ritual fire so that the words and papyrus can be reduced to the elements. And then allow the elements to be reformed into new patterns so that they can nurture and comfort you. And most crucially, bow down and pay homage to the Great Goddess. Allow her to reshape, recast and remould you for the coming season.

Put quite simply, do whatever you need to do, so long as your head falls below your heart. It’s the quickest and finest type of ritual to move you from one state of being to another.

“Do what you want to do as long as your head falls below your heart.” ( Love it!) Guess I’m still standing on the threshold…with leaves turning and waiting for a cold snap to build a fire…and toast the Goddess with a glass of cider!
Thank you for your kindness and patience! I wanted to put down the semantics and allow my head to fall below my heart. Nature has a way of doing that reminding what is important and sometimes I can almost feel that invisible Goddess gently but firmly turning my chattery head to look out the window and see a fawn lying in my yard at the threshold where two worlds meet.
Or she grabs my ears with the cry of a hawk above my head!
Thank you Kristina for your beautiful piece! And following beautiful posts!