So, does anyone else share with me the feeling that "winter time is magic time"? I suspect it has more to do with the fact that here in the northern hemisphere, the energies that are usually focused on keeping things green and growing, are less active, and have retreated into the Earth around us. During the warmer months, these energies both complement and outshine the energies that the people around us manifest, and what with summer months being spent out doors, we are rarely concentrated indoors with magical intent, instead seeking the warmer environs of the world around us. As we move into our winter "caves", hour homes become a focal point for what energies are present in the people in our lives, and the "holiday" gatherings and festivities bring us physically closer (in a broad, general sense) than we are in the summer. Add to this the fact that energy work in these months draws on what I see as a greater "reserve" of the planet's energies, due to their disuse in the greater plant kingdom, and I end up experiencing some of the most wonderful, magical evenings with the people with whom I choose to share my life.

Here on the north coast of California (Humboldt County), it's dark by 5PM, and the rains have begun in earnest. I find myself spending more time indoors with my magical friends, and those moments seem to be more charged and filled with spiritual joy than any other time of year. Specific spiritual/religious activities do not seem, to me anyway, to be as necessary- for gathering and experiencing the magic around us- as they do the rest of the year, but when they do occur, the hold a much more intimate, powerful feel for me.

Or maybe I'm just more connected to my northern European roots in the colder times, since my ancestors spent most of the dark winter months in long-houses, wrapped in furs around the central fire pit, drinking mead and entreating the gods to keep the Frost Giants at bay.

Your thoughts?