February 8th is always a day I look forward to in winter. It’s known in Japan as Hari-Kuyō or Festival of Broken Needles, and I like to set aside time to celebrate it each year. Wikipedia says of the holiday “It is celebrated by women in Japan as a memorial to all the sewing needles broken in their service during the past year, and as an opportunity to pray for improved skills. Hari-Kuyō began four hundred years ago as a way for housekeepers and professional needle-workers

The Winter Solstice is the flip side of the Summer Solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere it is the shortest day and longest night of the year. It is the climax of dark on the wheel of seasons and once it passes, the sun begins to wax and bring light back to our world. Hopman says in A Druid’s Herbal, “Traditionally, at Yule or Mean Geimhridh, the dark force, with which the Sun battles all winter, gives way. The first rays of light pierce the hollow dark in preparation for t

For many years now it has been a ritual of mine to create a wreath of flowers and plants on the Summer Solstice. The Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere usually falls towards the end of June and marks the longest day of the year and the beginning of Summer. The Sun is at its pinnacle on this day and after this the daylight hours will begin to shorten again as we swing slowly back to the cold time of the year. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have almost 16 hours of da

As an artist that works in the Nature Realms it feels especially important to make oblations to the spirits that surround me every day. Making offerings to the spirits of spring is one of the ways I like to show my gratitude to the abundance the land affords us here in the Pacific Northwest. Our tradition is to wrap eggs in plants that I've gathered over the year and hard boil them to impart the dyes on the shells and then take them out to the forest to hide as food offerings