Winter Solstice: The Return of the Light

The timing of the winter solstice is marked when the sun reaches its furthest north position in the sky and starts to move back towards the south.  As it does, it marks one of the main turning points in the year, the others being the equinoxes as well as the summer solstice (that occurs in December).  

The timing for the winter solstice here in Adelaide this year was this morning, Sunday, 21 June at 7:13 am (ACST time).  From this moment onwards, days start becoming longer and night times shorter.  However with the worse of the winter weather yet to arrive, this thought is not often the first that comes to mind.

With the increase of light it was hoped that social distancing in relation to the COVID-19 may have been relaxed.  However, as new cases are still be detected, and despite South Australia still being remarkably lower than other States, it has been decided to continue hosting events via Zoom conference calls at least for the time being.

This means that the July Gathering Around the Cauldron event which is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 2 July 2020, at 7pm (ACST) will be in the format of a Zoom conference.  The theme for July's Gathering Around the Cauldron is The Witch's Familiar.

In European folklore and folk-belief from the Medieval and early modern periods, witches and cunning folk were believed to assisted by certain supernatural entities that were known as “familiars”. These spirits would appear in numerous guises, including as in a humanoid figure, but more commonly as an animal. When they served cunning folk, familiars were often thought to be somewhat benevolent, however when they were in the service of witches, familiars were considered to be rather malevolent.  On 2 July 2020 we will be exploring the historical sources as well as the modern perception of familiars.  More information as to how you can register for this discussion can be found here.

At this stage other events being hosted at Riverdell Spiritual Centre are still going ahead.  These include Imbolc celebration on Saturday, 1 August 2020 and A Day with Hekate on Saturday 15 August 2020.