Day 40 of #CommonersAdvent and the 1st day of Christmas is Two poems for a Winter Child.
This part of the journey is over for now but I won’t be disappearing just yet, as I have plans for the Twelvetide. But, for now, a very Merry Christmas to us all!
beedurban.substack.com/p/two-poems-...
Bees on honeycomb
Day 39 of #CommonersAdvent is The Canticle of the Bees: the Spells & Songs of Christmas Eve.
...the Psalmody of the Bees, Burning the Ashen Faggot, and Welsh Plygain singing. What could be more beautiful!?
beedurban.substack.com/p/the-cantic...
#Advent2024
Swirly Whirly painting
Days 34 & 35 of #CommonersAdvent are 'From Lack to Light', for a-Thomassing on St Thomas’ Day & the light of the Morning Star.
beedurban.substack.com/p/from-lack-...
#Advent2024
Day 34 of #CommonersAdvent is a Praise Song for the Dark on the Longest Night.
…maybe on this longest night in the midnight of the year, it is ok to say that I have given up on hope, because in the darkness I have seen such beauty and wonders.
beedurban.substack.com/p/a-praise-s...
Common shrew in the snow with bare branch behind
Day 33 of #CommonersAdvent is ‘Embertide for a Shrew’
How does a tiny being survive the long dark?
...the frost & snow is scattered with the pattern of her pawprints & the trail of her tail; a constellation of faith that life endures.
beedurban.substack.com/p/embertide-...
#Advent2024
Stained glass bone horse by Tamsin Abbott
Day 32 of #CommonersAdvent is ‘The Winter Art of Tamsin Abbott’.
I adore the glass engravings of Tamsin Abbott, who writes;
“My work is influenced by this ancient land and how we are connected to it. The hills, the woods, the plants...”
beedurban.substack.com/p/the-winter...
#Advent2024
Little metal bucket of cranberries
Day 31 of #CommonersAdvent is all about the old growth fen-magic of cranberries, plus two festive makings!
Cranberries are edge-dwellers of the bogs & fens, & are woven into the Christmas story in the most surprising of ways...
beedurban.substack.com/p/old-growth...
#Advent2024
The 3rd candle has been lit for #CommonersAdvent & the light is quietly increasing, although it may feel to many of us that the darkness has deepened.
And so, I take a long breath as I write that this week's candle is dedicated to joy...
beedurban.substack.com/p/rejoice-fo...
#Advent2024
Lucia crown with lit candles and greenery
Day 27 of #CommonersAdvent is for St Lucy's Day; as we begin, imperceptibly at first, to turn towards the light we must first honour the ‘midnight of the year’.
beedurban.substack.com/p/glad-lucia...
Little lit up pine tree in the forest
For #CommonersAdvent, day 26: Carolling the Trees
Our Midwinter festivities are deeply intertwined with the enduring praise song of evergreens, & so today, for day 26 of Commoners’ Advent, I want to explore three carols that hold trees at their heart.
beedurban.substack.com/p/carolling-...
Flower Garland, National Trust
For #CommonersAdvent, day 23 ~ Gathering Up the Sun: the Cotehele Christmas Flower Garland.
Following a scattering of petals to Green Saint George, the Church of the Shepherd & the Shrew, & the hope that life will return in the spring.
beedurban.substack.com/p/gathering-...
#CelticAdvent
Day 23 of #CommonersAdvent is Longing for Darkness: Our Third Sunday.
..this week, we have rooted ourselves in the older traditions of Christmas, in warm, full bellies, & in the cave where we can mine the treasures of the dark.
The light can wait.
beedurban.substack.com/p/longing-fo...
#Advent
Day 22 of #CommonersAdvent is for the Boar & the Bay: a Rootling Journey.
"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape...something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show". (Andrew Wyeth)
beedurban.substack.com/p/the-boar-a...
#CelticAdvent #Advent2024
St Barbara shrine
For #CommonersAdvent, day 20: St Barbara: Hope that Blossoms in the Dark
beedurban.substack.com/p/st-barbara...
She is "...the sun in the dark, invoked against fire and lightning, causing fruit trees to flower in the winter, protecting those who work underground..."
#CelticAdvent #Advent2024
Chestnuts roasting
For #CommonersAdvent 19; the Open Fire of the Anawim
“Roast chestnuts are a beloved & traditional Christmas food, once put in pockets to warm the hands of travellers, but they were also a welcome addition to the winter table of the poor…”
beedurban.substack.com/p/the-open-f...
#CelticAdvent
Cow and calf in the snow
For #CommonersAdvent, day 18; 'We Have Kept Vigil With Owls'; three poems which celebrate the precious light in the winter dark.
"..This time the trees tremble.
Is it with a kind of reckless joy
at the gentle light
lapping their leaves..."
beedurban.substack.com/p/we-have-ke...
#CelticAdvent
Frost covered apples
For Commoners’ Advent, day 17. On the Blessings of the Rot Mother: Who Will We Name as Lord?
“Some find the Rot Mother ugly. I say that she is the most beautiful, & the most generous, of all.”
beedurban.substack.com/p/on-the-ble...
#CelticAdvent #CommonersAdvent #WinterLent #Advent2024
Vintage Advent calendar
Day 16 of Commoners’ Advent is ‘A Short History of Advent Calendars’.
Here’s to the opening of doors!
beedurban.substack.com/p/a-short-hi...
#CelticAdvent #OldAdvent #CommonersAdvent
Also, look at this shareable Substack gave me. Oooh, posh!
Night sky with cave lit from within
For #CommonersAdvent, day 15: Two Poems for Dark Advent.
“And so, Fox began to tell stories about the wonders of darkness. And Fox sang songs about the gifts of darkness. And Fox danced dances of delight for the darkness…”
beedurban.substack.com/p/two-poems-...
#CelticAdvent #WinterLent
My hand on Scots pine bark
For our pine trees, for the hawthorns, and for the ancient olive trees, because there can be no Peace on Earth without peace for the trees.
Commoners' Advent, day 14
beedurban.substack.com/p/a-meeting-...
#CelticAdvent #CommonersAdvent #Advent #Advent2024
Evergreen with pine cones
Church with Christmas tree
"Make this place glad:
adorned with green
With many garlands hung
So shall God’s gift of life be seen
His praises gladly sung!"
For #CommonersAdvent, day 13; the Hanging of the Greens.
beedurban.substack.com/p/the-hangin...
#CelticAdvent #WinterLent #Advent2024
Bare branch tree with snow and sun behind it. Photo: Jacqueline Durban
For day 12 of #CommonersAdvent I want to share this beautiful piece of poetry; 'Illuminate: an Advent Poem' by Brittany Deininger.
beedurban.substack.com/p/illuminate...
"The first word you ever spoke was “light”
and the heat from your voice thawed us..."
#CommonersAdvent #CelticAdvent
This is a candle-block that provides light for many lacemakers using only a single flame in the centre of glass globes or flasks filled with snow-water.
Read more about it in @radicalhoneybee.bsky.social #commonersadvent post for today
Also I get a mention!
beedurban.substack.com/p/cattern-an...
Catherine wheel
Reclaiming Catterntide, a Women’s Winter Journey for #CommonersAdvent, day 10.
Today has been Catterntide, the Feast Day of St Catherine, one of the ‘Fourteen Holy Helpers’, champion of self-organisation & work free from exploitation.
beedurban.substack.com/p/reclaiming...
#CelticAdvent
Encaustic Wax art of St Martin the Lantern Bearer by Nic Wilkinson
Encaustic Wax art of St Clement the Smith by Nic Wilkinson
Encaustic Wax art of St Catherine the Lacemaker by Nic Wilkinson
The Lantern Bearer, The Smith & The Lacemaker*
Gather from them what you need to walk the labyrinth of Midwinter.
Which way will you go down into the old, still, expectant darkness before the light returns?
Follow @radicalhoneybee.bsky.social for more on #CommonersAdvent
Rosehips
Rosehip Advent
#CommonersAdvent, day 9
In our first week we have found the threads of the swan & goose saints, the wolf saints, & the Church of the Shepherd and the Shrew, the power of witnessing, of connection to the wild, & the winter star of hope.
beedurban.substack.com/p/rosehip-ad...
'Checking on the Girls' by Lucy Almey-Bird. A woman feeds chickens in the snow.
Something gentle for this stormy-outside, cosy inside, Stir-up Sunday; the Winter Art of Lucy Almey Bird for Commoners’ Advent, day 8.
beedurban.substack.com/p/the-winter...
#CommonersAdvent #CelticAdvent #WinterLent #Advent2024
Mistle thrush in winter on twigs with red berries
As I am still in a swoon over the Church of the Shepherd and the Shrew, which we visited for day 4 of #CommonersAdvent, day 5 is a little poem by W.H.Davies, which feels to share its heart with the in-between church on the lonely marsh.
beedurban.substack.com/p/on-a-cold-day
#CelticAdvent #Advent
