The light has returned and Yule came to my house. (And finally, finally, finally Earthlink has restored me to a modicum of connectivity so that I could do another blog posting. I only lost my DSL signal five times today).
The first photo is of dawn breaking over San Francisco Bay. At Solstice time the sun rises and sets far to the south. so it actually rises behind the bridge. I get this great view from the Alameda ferry in the morning when I'm on my way to work at the very big media company. It reminds me that the days will lengthen again and in six months I'll be dancing in some meadow with my coven sisters to celebrate the Summer Solstice.
The second photo is of Julenissen, Mrs. Nissen and Baby Nissen, who come to visit my house every Yule. When my kids were growing up, we never tried to foist the whole Santa Claus business on them. I grew up without Santa, and so did my kids. But they all did love Julenissen, who showed up every year to sit on the mantle and bring good luck to the home. My kids would always bring every visitor over to shake Julenissen's hand. And people who visit my loft during the whole season between the solstice and January 6 are invited to do the same.
It's been a difficult holiday season this time around. I caught some nasty nasty cold/flu thing that left me hacking and sneezing and feeling so awful that I didn't even make it to the Yule ritual with my coven. And my lack of connectivity with my ISP made me absolutely berserk. I was offline from Nov. 21 through Dec. 30, and for someone whose job is absolutely dependent on being connected to the Internet, life and work were impossible. I still don't know why it's so difficult to get me stable connectivity, given that I live in a major city in the heart of California's technology belt. One of Earthlink's tech-support people actually said to me ``well, because you live in a rural area . . . . '' Hey, I don't think so.
There were some good moments over the holidays, though. I was pleased, that my youngest was home, and that we were able to spend a couple of good days together.
She helped me pick out and decorate the Christmas tree, and after years of hassles over whether the trees were standing up straight in the stands, we've now learned to let the guys at the Christmas tree lot nail them into the stand.
I guess you'd have to say the trees we have are always very ethnic. They always are decorated with strings of Norwegian flags, lots of small wooden and straw ornaments, and the home-made julehjerter, which are the woven paper hearts. Some of mine are made from construction paper and are so old and faded that they're barely red or green anymore. But I love every one, and a tree just wouldn't feel right without them. Here's the tree.
On Christmas day, Margot--that's my youngest kidlet--my friend Thalia and I went out to the Dead Fish up on the Carquinez Strait for dinner. We had two great regional seasonal delights: Dungeness crab sauteed in the shell with loads of garlic, and cioppino, which is a tomato-based Sicillian fisherman's stew containing many different delicious sea critters. Cioppino is a traditional San Francisco Christmas meal, but it's so very expensive to try to make at home that most of time time when I eat it, it's in a restaurant.
I had been invited to a friend's house for her very excellent lasagne, but I was still so germy that I figured it was a better idea to hang out with the two people--Margot and Thalia--who had already been more than amply exposed to my germs rather than spread my crappy cold/flu to a whole new group of people.
When Julenissen came to visit, he edged Gyhldeptis out of her usual and accustomed spot. She's a nature deity associated with the Tlingit and Haida people, and is the goddess I chose last year at Imbolc.
It's the custom in my coven every year in early February to choose a goddess to invoke for the year. After I went to work for the very big media company, I realized I was spending way too much time in front of the four computer screens at my desk. What I needed for the year was a deity with a strong nature connection. So I chose Gyhldeptis, the lady of the hanging hair, who is known to manifest herself in both the forest and the ocean.
Last year on our Imbolc retreat, we each made a figure embodying the goddess we invoked. My vision of Gyhldeptis is a crone version of this deity. She has long hanging hair like the cedar found up in Haida Gwai and the Alaska panhandle. I envisioned her as a crone. Some day I hope to make her a miniature Haida button blanket to wear.
Anyway, here's Gyhldeptis who was hanging out in the garden for a few days while the Nissens moved in.
Funny thing, I did get a lot more closely connected to nature this year, but not in the way I envisioned. I'd overlooked the fact the Gyhldeptis is both a forest and ocean deity, and had been expecting I'd find myself up in the redwoods. Instead, I'm making the trip across the bay by ferry every morning and loving every minute of the new connection I'm finding to the marine environment.
I find myself reading the tide tables, and watching the shore birds and the big pelicans that skim across the top of the bay. Twice I've seen seals in the bay, and several times in the morning when I've been waiting for the ferry, I've seen great blue heron wading in the Alameda estuary. And I received a great pair of bird-watching field glasses as a Yule gift, so I know I'll be noticing even more of the birds and animals along the shore.
Solstice Christmas Yule God+Jul Norway Norwegian Holiday Ethnic San+Francisco California Pagan Paganism Coven San+Francisco+Bay Alameda Alameda+Ferry Birds Native+American Haida Tlingit Goddess Deity Art Art+Doll Family Earthlink ISP internet-service-provider
What a great Yule tradition summery - very much like we do it in Norway :-)
So as you said in the comment on mine: '``Old Country'' ways survived the immigrant family's journey to America.
Btw: Nice to meet you and I wish you all the best for 2009!
Posted by: RennyBA | January 03, 2009 at 01:29 PM