Candlemas marks the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. As the long, bleak, cold winter dragged on, our ancestors yearned for warm sunlight to return. Your great-great-great grandmother might also have woven a straw ‘circle cross’ to honour St Brigid at this time. On February 2, countryfolk took candles to their local parish and had them blessed. All over Europe, churches twinkled with beautiful candlelit processions. Candlemas was a festival of lengthening days, candle-lighting, picking snowdrops, hearth fires and special foods (particularly dairy, as ewes began lactating in early spring). In the southern hemisphere, we acknowledge this annual ‘Festival of Light’ on August 2.
![🌲SOLSTICE SPECIAL🌲 I haven't raised the prices of my psychic counselling sessions for probably about six years, and the universe is tapping me on the shoulder to do so at the end of this financial year (i.e. tomorrow). BUT! Before I raise the cost of my 30min and 60min sessions, I wanted to offer YOU the chance to still make a booking with OLD PRICES in the beginning of July (which works out to 15% off!) So: email me before Saturday 4 July [your appointment can be anytime, not necessarily this week] and I will lock you in before the price hike. If you've been thinking for a while that you need to hear what the universe wants you to know, right now... consider this the universe sending you a telegram!!! It’s time for a reading if you’ve noticed: -- intense dreams, insomnia, interrupted sleep? -- any unresolved karma / persistent emotional blocks that STILL won't integrate? -- higher than unusual levels of anxiety, fear, frustration, annoyance, grief? -- a stronger-than-ever calling to higher purpose? -- stronger-than-ever pulls to old addictive people / beliefs / substances? -- that you're standing at a crossroads, with fuzziness about what the future holds EMAIL: rebeccadettman@wishingwell.love](https://scontent-syd2-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/106264244_171626107687963_6983748463774354059_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=FG3jstbjPZgAX9IWndV&_nc_ht=scontent-syd2-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=3480077da9b21ea8b43ebce91ef839fa&oe=5F48F118)
![Nobody in Australia understands why I dogmatically boycott Hallowe'en every October. Walking through giant supermarkets and KMarts filled with plastic Made-In-China "spooky" crap and cheap bags of lollies makes me want to RAGE. Why? Two reasons. 1) Hallowe'en is a pagan autumn festival. IT IS NOT DESIGNED TO BE HELD IN SPRING. (It's also not intended to be a marketing frenzy driven by soulless corporations.) 2) Hallowe'en is traditionally a night for paying respects to people who have died. (It's not about Hollywood slasher films. It's not about gluttony. It's not about decorating your house with blood stains and dressing as a serial killer and putting 'eyeballs' in jelly.) The word 'hallow' sounds creepy (think: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). But its actual meaning is 'holy; sacred; greatly honoured'. So when the church's liturgical calendar holds "All Hallow's Eve" / "Hallow E'en [evening]" / "Old Hallowmas" / "The Day of the Dead" / "All Souls Day" on Oct 31 and Nov 1, they are referring to a holy time in which we think about friends or family who are no longer with us, and about martyrs who sacrificed their lives. Why am I talking about Hallowe'en in April? Because when you flip the seasonal calendar and realign ancient Celtic traditions to the Southern Hemisphere, this near-winter custom ought to be observed this Thursday 30 April. The natural world provides much symbolism and wisdom concerning "death" at this time of year: the last leaves are falling from the trees, leaving them bare and rattling in the icy winds like skeletons, the garden is curling up its toes and falling into a long sleep, and dark coldness settles upon us all. Our planet is also staring Death in the face right now. Physical death, regarding the people who are no longer with us due to Covid-19, and energetic death, as the world we've known our whole lives crumbles and falls away, never to return in quite the same way, ever again. The end of a great era has collapsed, right in front of us, in our lifetimes. Seven billion people signed up to be witnesses on the world stage for this momentous galactic event. 🎃 [cont’d in Comments]](https://scontent-syd2-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/94498108_528564377823585_5027428109930060267_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=we6spvF2jWYAX9quSFi&_nc_ht=scontent-syd2-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=43c80a3605577405e384ce92218dda25&oe=5F499121)
