#CrossQuarterDay was a few days ago- mid-way between Winter Solstice + Spring Equinox. #Latvian #Metenis /Meteņi : 'Waiting for Spring' is Feb 06. Masking, feasting, bonfires are usual things - blog post here: cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/02/wait...
A Blessed Season to all!
#PaganSky
painting of a woman in antique clothing reading a prayer book and holding beads stands in front of a window and lit candle, tempera over gesso on mahogany wood, Candlemas Day by Marianne Stokes (1855-1927) c. 1901, Tate #T02108, Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1977, public domain
To those who celebrate, may you walk in #light.
#Candlemas
#Imbolc
#StBrigidsday
Enjoy your #crossquarterday.
Northern Hemisphere is ~halfway from #wintersolstice to #vernalequinox; #Spring is coming.
#astrophysics #calendar #season #solstice #equinox #Earth #Sun #histsci
Several partly blurred fine dry grey branches enter view from lower right and reach almost to the left side, curving gently toward the centre. From the left, just above centre, a darkish red-brown branch, larger but still slight, crosses the upper left corner of the image. From it dangle a handful of paper thin dry leaves. The narrow maple leaves are pale through dull golden brown, a bit deeper where they overlap and the faint sun from behind causes them to shade one another. The leaves are slightly wavy or recurved from the drying. The background is a blur of grey roughly vertical narrow trunks and mottled red-gold-brown leaf covered ground with a few hints of green.
A mid-sized Sorbus/Rowan/Mountain Ash enters the view from the right, some of its leaves still clinging, dry, silhouetted against the dusky sky. A little farther back, straight ahead is a line of dark spruce and bare poplar, their intricate branches set against the sky with its slightly darkening lavender with ripples of light fluffy clouds, pale to coral from the unseen sunset.
An open stand of woods- some mature poplars, along with saplings and taller still skinny trunks, as well as several spruce: small, mid-size and tall but sparse stands silhouetted against the sunset sky. We can see through to the horizon where a small bright pale gold patch marks the locastion of the sun behind clouds. Above that are bands of gold and blue-gry giving way to patches of darkening blue sky mixed with feathery pale gold to coral clouds.
Last week's #snow didn't last long- patches in shady places a day or two; since then we've been above to well above average temperatures, which continues for the next few days at least: colder next week #sunset #snow #Winter #CrossQuarterDay #Alberta #Canada #PaganSky #photography #weather
A vibrant astronomical image of the Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118) set against a backdrop of deep space filled with countless stars. The nebula features intricate wisps and clouds of gas and dust, highlighted in shades of blue and faint white, creating an ethereal appearance reminiscent of a witch's head. Bright stars punctuate the scene, with larger stars exhibiting a bluish glow. The image is framed with a black border that includes a label with the nebula's name and identifying the image as using data from the STScI Digitized Sky Survey Blue, Red, and Infrared Plates processed into a full color image by Noel Carboni
#Astronomers
Try your #Adsabs accounts & libraries in #SciX by midnight on the #crossquarterday to obtain a lifetime of necromancy-free results (limited time offer)
@scixcommunity.bsky.social guarantees your safety or your money back
A close-up photograph of a lit white candle with a flickering flame, positioned in an ornate metal candlestick. The candle is surrounded by a warm autumnal scene, featuring a harvested arrangement that includes pumpkins, red apples, and fall leaves. Wisps of smoke rise delicately from the candle's flame, creating a tranquil atmosphere. The background is dark, allowing the colorful elements in the foreground to stand out, reinforcing the seasonal theme of warmth and coziness associated with autumn. An orange cloth is draped beneath the scene, further enhancing the autumnal aesthetic. photograph by ozaytseva 2020 via Pixabay
To those who celebrate #Samhain, may you have the #blessings of #harvest, #hearth, and #home this #season.
To those who celebrate #Halloween, may you have more treats than tricks.
#calendar #timekeeping #crossquarterday
A diagram illustrating the concept of cross-quarter days within an astronomical context. The diagram features a spherical representation of Earth positioned at the center, with labeled points indicating the Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice, Vernal Equinox, and Summer Solstice located along the ecliptic plane, which is denoted by a blue arc. Red crosses mark specific points identified as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cross-quarter days, positioned between the solstices and equinoxes. The North Celestial Pole (NCP) and South Celestial Pole (SCP) are indicated by vertical arrows. Image credit NASA
Roughly halfway between #autumnalequinox & #wintersolstice, we celebrate the changing #seasons, the coming of #winter:
#Halloween
#AllHallows
#DíadelosMuertos
#samhain
the 4th #crossquarterday
Take a moment to enjoy the #sky, as did those who worked out our #calendar.
#Astrophysics 🍎
Happy #CrossQuarterDay mid-way (or thereabouts!) between Summer Solstice / Autumn Equinox! I've finally (after a lot of work + technical difficulties..lol) got my June solstice #SlowWalks + #garden views video posted! YT link, Spectra next #Alberta #PaganSky #nature #BugSky 🌿🌱📷
youtu.be/jj7atc_JgQ4
#Spring sees many traditional + #pagan celebrations. Here's a post from last year for Ūsiņš Day #Latvian celebration for #CrossQuarterDay +/- #MayDay though Christianisation has bumped it up to April 23 nearly on top of #Easter this year #WitchSky #nature
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/04/blog...
Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 2080, the Ghost Head Nebula, a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This nebula, spanning 50 light-years, resembles a ghostly figure, making it a fitting astronomical image for Halloween, a holiday with ancient astronomical origins as a cross-quarter day.
Astronomy Picture from 31/10/2007
Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071031.html
#SpookySpace #GhostHeadNebula #HubbleTelescope #Astronomy #HalloweenSpace #SpaceHalloween #NGC2080 #StarFormation #MagellanicCloud #CrossQuarterDay
🧵5 Last YouTube video
6 Winter Sun-Waiting for Spring- Halfway to Equinox #Metenis #Imbolc #Alberta #pagan #Latvian #CrossQuarterDay #WitchSky
youtube.com/shorts/ktwTV...
🧵1 blog post with short videos, pics and blab from the last few weeks: #winter #weather + #CrossQuarterDay #Meteņi #Imbolc #WaitingForSpring
#Alberta #Canada I'll post YouTube+ Spectra links + extra photos in this thread ❄️ 📷 #nature #GoOutsideForMe
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/02/wint...
3- Setting sun glows fire orange through a stand of bare poplar trees on the right rising out of shin to knee deep snow with tufts of thigh high dried gold grass and dried brown clover poking through, along with many young poplar suckers, to the left and beyond the trees. Farther on we can see the same pasture, wind fence and dugout as in photo 2,and beyond that sunset coloured clouds above the horizon in gold and coral blended with grey. Farther up bands of pastel cloud thin and mix with faint blue.
4- similar setting to photo 2 in previous post, but later, at sunset and this one is zoomed and cropped so we just see a bit of shadowed snowy pasture, low dark willows with some frost highlighted, then the hazed mountains, a few fluffy clouds above them, linear cloud above that. This is the sunset zone and the entire band of sky we can see is pinky orange blending to red-violet with darker lines and paler bands, the mountains blending in to these colours- as if an orange filter were put on the photo over a blue, grey and violet background.
🧵3 of my #CrossQuarterDay posting #metenis #imbolc Wishing you all a beautiful season ahead and may you find some respite- in nature (even if your only nature is the sky, urban trees and houseplants- take it!) in art, in beauty, in kind friends like so many here 🙂 #BeKind #SolaceInNature #PaganSky
Painting of a young women with long, dark hair, white skin and red lips. She is standing, looking down at a small plant with reddish leaves cupped between her two hands. The clod of earth seems to have a light within so this might be a magic plant. All around her snow is lightly falling and there is a breeze slightly blowing her hair about. This reminds me of the Goddess Brigid and Imbolc.
In Celtic lore, Brigid is the goddess of healing, smith craft and poetry.*
We’re going to need care, inventiveness and creativity now.
Courage.
💜🌻🔬🎭🌎🕯️🛠️📚
#Imbolc #Candlemass
#CrossQuarterDay
* She is also an Irish Saint and her nuns were brewers 🍺
🎨 Magdalena Korzeniewska, Polish born artist
Another #CrossQuarterDay (November 6ish). This is the root of all holidays/observances at this time. In Latvian tradition #Mārtiņi marks the beginning of #winter end of the #TimeOfSpirits
Last year's blog:
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/11/mart...
(reposting: original previews didn't show)
photograph of six rows of graves at night each lit by a lantern and decorated with flowers, a few overhead lights in the distance, Bromma kyrkogård at All Saints Day 2021, courtesy Bysmon via Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY SA 4.0)
For those who celebrate, "#death is no more than a turning of us over from #time to #eternity" (William Penn)
Feliz #diadelosmuertos
Blessings on #allsaintsday
Peace on #allsoulsday
#crossquarterday #calendar
View of a small part of a rather overgrown garden bed, with green foliage fully covering. In front an odd plant with narrow stems with slightly puffy pinkish bracts below flowering stems each topped with a handful of spikey looking purple-black composite flower heads, rather like paint brushes. behind, some not fully open pink cranesbill flowers poke out of the background foliage. Edges of the image are darkened to signify the darker seasons to come.
Another image from my Māras #CrossQuarterDay observances-- this is Saussurea cf S. iodostegia (an interesting genus in the Aster family) with Geranium swatense - a couple of Asian species enjoying this #Alberta #garden ! #pagansky #BloomScrolling #flowers🌱 #GrowFromSeed
This #CrossQuarterDay is also about the bounty of #harvest. I have several short videos showcasing #berries here on the acreage (raspberries, skunk currants, dogwood, several more to come) #permaculture #PaganSky 🌱
youtube.com/shorts/VhNTj...
youtube.com/shorts/gtpe7...
youtube.com/shorts/k2GHm...
3 large purply pink thistle flower heads each a composite mass of tiny thread-like flowers sticking up and out- classic pin-cusion effect. The centre flower head is past prime and starting to brown. Behind the capitulae are a bunch of prickly thistle leaves in medium-dark green, beyond that blurred rich green mixed foliage and grass.
The beginning of autumn sees many plants in seed, others ripening, some with late flowers and a few just hitting their stride. (blog link in first post, for the #CrossQuarterDay #Goddess and #nature and #garden videos). This is #native Cirsium drummondii a later individual in shade #FlowersOnFriday
A #blog post for the #CrossQuarterDay #Māras or Mara's Day in #Latvian tradition, marking mid-way between Summer Solstice / Autumn Equinox, the beginning of Autumn. Some #pagan blabber, more photos and a handful of videos- late #flowers a #SlowWalk #berries cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/08/summ...
photo collage in six panels, framed in cranberry in centre, blending to lavender top and bottom. Top left multiple stems of kinnikinick, small leathery green leaves lined with frost. Centre 2 wild rose hips, deep red, waxy and wrinkled with just a hint of sun hitting them, against a blurred background of thorny stems and circles of light. Right clump of tight dark green foliage rosettes lined with frost on a small alpine plant in the rock garden, with a tangle of dried seed stems rising.. Bottom left 2 dried thistle stems with the dried everlasting flowers at the end of each, against gravel and snow with the rim of a terra cotta pot sunk into the soil visible. Centre stem of bunchberry with 6 leaflets, dark green tinted burgundy, partly in sun against dry fallen leaves. Right a small space between two pinkish rocks in the rock garden, with several small rosettes of yellow green hen and chicks, only partly emerged from snow.
Nevermind that it's Tuesday + the photos are a couple of weeks old... this is when I got the collage finished...lol #SixOnSaturday Much of our October snow melted, though not all + we have a fresh coating since these photos. 🌱🌿 #Alberta #November #CrossQuarterDay heading to #Solstice #animist
A grouse the size of a small chicken displaying how well its camouflage can work if it doesn't move! it has a complex pattern of stripes and dots in brown, grey, black, white blending well with the tangle of dried stems and leaves around it, with a shaft of afternoon sun coming from one side and hitting the edge of the bird and the snowy ground.
#FotoMontag #PhotoMonday Nov 7 is the #CrossQuarterDay between Autumn Equinox / #Winter Solstice- this is the real reason for the end of October/ early November cultural/religious celebrations that have developed in various places #BirdGoddess has made sure she stays top of mind! 😀 #birds #witchsky
photo collage in 6 aquarish panels, 3 across top, 3 on bottom. Framed in burnt orange in centre, blending out to light lavender blue top/bottom. Top left skeleton of a sturdy, low ornamental thistle, covered in fluffy snow, just a few prickly leaves sticking out. Centre a bright orange and gold sunset over dark blue mountains with lines of trees, snowy fields and fences in the shadowed fore and middle grounds. Right several pointed orange leaves hang from a thin horizontal branch, with little mounds of snow on the petioles and parts of the leaves, snowy background. Bottom left winter sun shines through gap halfway down in snow covered spruce trees, with blue sky behind. Centre a black cat is rapidly becoming white as thick fluffy flakes fall on his back as he chews dried grass hung from a wire fence. Right sky and snowy ground are blue-grey, broken by several bare poplar trees in silhouette, and a zone of broken cloud near the horizon showing some blue and subtle gold.
#SnowMother brought #Winter October 23 (snow, temperature drop) and it has stayed! still bits of colour to be found (tons of it in sunsets!) +the #seasonal #beauty of light, shadow and texture. #SixOnSaturday #nature #Alberta #garden #GetOutside #garden 🌱🌿 #c #pagansky #CrossQuarterDay 🐈⬛📷 #caturday
#CrossQuarterDay!
www.facebook.com/1867824430107624/posts/3...
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/AKCiHJyWzXhAedst8
#DYK that #GroundHogDay has its origins in astronomy? It's a #CrossQuarterDay. B/c of the move to the Gregorian calendar it should now be on 2/5. At that point we're closer to the spring equinox than the winter solstice. #SpringisComing #OurIslandUniverse...
#DYK that #GroundHogDay has its origins in astronomy? It's a #CrossQuarterDay. B/c of the move to the Gregorian calendar it should now be on 2/5. At that point we're closer to the spring equinox than the winter solstice. #SpringisComing #OurIslandUniverse...
#DYK that #GroundHogDay has its origins in astronomy? It's a #CrossQuarterDay. B/c of the move to the Gregorian calendar it should now be on 2/5. At that point we're closer to the spring equinox than the winter solstice. #SpringisComing #OurIslandUniverse...
