Samhain Winter Moon
As the nights grow longer and the temperature drops further, the silence here becomes holy. The weather of the arctic brings with it the isolation of the pole. Andover sits halfway between the equator and the pole, on the 45th degree of latitude. In the winter months we lean toward the pole; in the summer months we lean toward the equator.
Also, our position in the rough center of the North American land mass means that our weather has no direct oceanic modification; our weather comes to us raw and at no time is it rawer than during meteorological winter, December 1st to March 1st.
That’s why the winter solstice is such an important holiday for me. It is the moment when our polar relationship comes into play with the earth’s orbit around the sun. Our position relative to the sun created by our tilted axis and our position relative to the sun created by our orbit reinforce each other to create a dramatic time of cold darkness, silence and wonder both unmediated. It is a pure moment in the year, a suspension in night dominated by the arctic.
