Long Night’s Moon- December 2021
Dear ,
Are you ready to move into 2022? Do you have rituals and traditions that sustain you each year during this time of darkness and the coming of the light? I do, and I want to share some of them with you in hopes they bring you comfort and joy.
My year in review: around December 15 I begin a very long journal entry about the past year. I write about events, of course, but more importantly, what they meant to my growth. I write about people I love and my relationships. I write about demarcation points – birthdays, holidays, past rituals – those moments that define who I have been and who I’d like to become. I write about nature. I finish this writing on New Year’s Eve.
My Word for the Year is a part of my meditation during this time. I try on many words, rolling them around in my psyche and on my tongue, attempting to find exactly the right one that best defines my intention for the coming year. However, it isn’t until New Year’s Eve that I finalize the choice. See below.
Winter Solstice/Yule is one of my favorite days of the year. My ritual begins at sundown in complete darkness. I meditate on the dark times I’ve been through during the past year, and on the coming of light in my life. Then, I light one candle. Then another. Then more, and more, then the Yule Log, until the house is ablaze in light. I listen to the amazing Paul Winter Consort’s annual Winter Solstice Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City (this year it’s a recorded retrospective). I send up prayers for light in the world in the coming year.
Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa are celebrated with friends and family in a variety of ways, each unique and wonder-filled (particularly with the children in our family).
New Year’s Eve I walk the labyrinth at a church in a nearby city. Etched into the church’s sanctuary floor, it is an exact replica of the 11-circuit labyrinth that adorns the nave floor at Chartres Cathedral in France. The walk inward, winding toward the center, is about shedding, purging, releasing. The time spent meditating in the center is a time of illumination, of finding my own center. The walk outward – back over the same circuitous route I took inward – is finding union with parts of myself and with the Divine. It is while I am on the labyrinth that my word for next year is either solidified or changed. I always trust the information I receive while walking the labyrinth.
Full and New Moon, depending on the date of their occurrence, each invite me to live in the rhythm of nature. There are suggestions for you for these lunar events in this month’s meditation recording. I hope some of them resonate with you.
FREE Meditation!
Remember to click on the link below for your FREE monthly meditation recording! Here’s the link to Lessons from the Long Night’s Moon meditation I’ve recorded for December.
I want this newsletter to be informative and helpful to you, and I’m so happy to connect with you! I’m grateful that you have taken a course with me, listen to my podcasts, have emailed me, had a reading with me, or subscribe to my blog!
If you missed my last newsletter, you can read it here.
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Upcoming Courses!
Both my January Unlocking the Mysteries of Tarot introductory course and my February Deeper Mysteries of Tarot advanced course are filling! I hope you’ll join me! I’ve been reading and teaching Tarot for more than 40 years.
Both the introductory and advanced courses are three intensive sessions of one and one-half hours each. You get great handouts and exercises to work on between sessions. AND you get to connect with like-minded seekers from around the world! There are afternoon and evening sections available for both, so you can join from anywhere on the planet via Zoom!
Here’s the link for detailed information and registration for all sections:
https://debbowen.com/product-category/new-category/
AND – You can still attend my Awaken Your Spirit webinar on-demand on the Edgar Cayce ARE website.
Click here for details and registration:
Tarot Key for the New Year
What better key for 2022 than Two of Cups? While 2022 resonates to the number Six, I want to break this number down into the gifts of the Twos within. Two is a number of duality, of seeking balance, of bringing the swinging pendulum of our lives to center.
Here we see the coming together of male and female energies balanced in harmony, sharing cups of blessings. Some theorists see the cups the figures hold as containing thoughts and emotions from the unconscious and conscious mind. The twining snake reminds us of the caduceus, the symbol for healing. The lion’s head above the figures teaches us that there is always a higher calling, a way to rise above the carnal and mundane.
The Two of Cups as my symbol for the start of the new year is about seeking, and finding, balance of energy, of hope for healing of the world, and a deep belief that divinity is always present, no matter what.
Podcast
Our PsychicTeachers podcast outlets continue to grow, and our Android listeners can now hear us on Podcast Addict. We’re also on Google Play, iTunes, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Spreaker and almost all podcast apps and outlets! Remember listening is FREE!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/psychicteachers/id361910564
Another way you and I can connect is through my Facebook pages. I’d be honored if you’d follow my pages. They are a great way to see up-to-the-minute news!
PsychicTeachers Witches of the Shore
Just One More Thing Before You Go
YOU have made my journey through this autumn a tremendous blessing! Deep gratitude for all of you who joined me in my Edgar Cayce A.R.E. Awaken To Spirit webinar, who took my Tarot courses, and my Table Talk course. You are the reason I keep teaching and creating! I hope you’ll continue to learn with me!
I’m excited about some new events coming up later this winter, so stay tuned.
Most of all, I wish you hope and love during this darkest time of the year. I believe, with all my heart, that the light will return as it has for millennia, and dawn will come in our lives once again.
(Photo at Chalice Well Gardens, Glastonbury, UK)
Thank you, !