Temple Free Spirit Solstice Gathering
(These are some of the people who came to our gathering. Including children, we had about 25 people attend, which was a really fantastic turnout, especially with all the snow we had yesterday!)
Temple Free Spirit hosted its first every gathering last night. We celebrate the Winter Solstice! The gathering was held at Shannon and Robb’s home on Spokane’s South Hill and a total success! We held a small ritual, had a potluck and had lots of fun! As with all Temple events, we also had a food drive and received several large bags of food for Second Harvest.
(You can go to the the Temple gallery to see a few more photos.)
The Winter Solstice Gathering was a wonderful chance to get together, build community spirit and celebrate the Earth. Thank you to everyone who helped with preparations and attended.
Blessed Solstice!
I just wanted to wish everyone a blessed Winter Solstice. I am completely rejoicing with the thought of the returning sun. Longer days, yes!
Also Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Yule, Hanakhah, slightly belated Saturnalia and everything else I am missing! I hope you all find the brightest joy in this season of so many holidays!
Community
Michael and I have Chiefs tickets for tonight, against Tri Cities! Let the mayhem begin.
“Free Spirits - Open Minds” so far as gotten great reviews. I was a little nervous about it at first but Michael did a really professional job laying it out and Temple Free Spirit members submitted wonderful articles! I am already looking forward to our Imbolc issue.
My current nervousness lies in next Saturday when we will be having the first Temple Free Spirit event, a Winter Solstice gathering. It will be in one of our member’s home. Shannon has a large empty full basement with a kitchen and bathroom which will work perfectly. Right now almost everything is planned down to the T, except some last minute work on the ritual. My friend Dee gathered lots of information on various Solstice traditions, and we met up this week to review them. Today I am working on knitting our favorite ideas together.
Community is so important, I can never seem to stress this enough. I could not having planned the gathering to this extent on my own. All the brainstorming and planning and little details have come together wonderfully thanks to all of us working together. The people in my community are all blessings.
Anyhow, I better get back to work. I can hardly call it work though since it is so enjoyable!
Golden Squash Soup
Have you heard Into the Night by Santana and Chad Kroeger? Sexy Rwar!
Anyhow, soup…
Golden Squash Soup
servings 4
Ingredients:
- 1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 2 3/4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 6 oz can coconut milk
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Peel and cut up squash in a 1/2″ dice.
- Heat 2 tbs broth in a medium soup pot and saute the onions until tender. Add garlic and ginger and saute for another minute. Stir in turmeric and curry powder. Mix well.
- Pour in remaining broth and add the squash. Turn heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 10 minutes (or until the squash is tender.)
- Pour the soup mixture into a blender and add coconut milk. Blend until smooth. Return mixture to the soup pot and add cilantro, salt and pepper. Reheat and serve hot.
Santa Skeleton
Should the skeleton stay by the door through the Winter season?
Would it be too morbid to leave him up but put a Santa hat on him?
