November Almanac

November.

Autumn into winter

yellowing gold into red

Leaves fall and we Remember

Darkness deepens

temperatures drop

First frosts arrive and Fires are lit

Time of Candles and lamplight

Mulching

Burning

the old makes way for the new 

November was Slaughter month, Blōtmonath, or “the month of blood sacrifices.” It’s likely this late autumnal sacrifice would have been the time any older or infirm livestock that seemed unlikely to see out bad weather ahead would be killed both as a stockpile of food, and as an offering for a safe and mild winter.

The old is given up

and melts dissolves mulches down down down, back into the body of the earth

Dreamtime 

https://open.spotify.com/track/7Bl1GdYbcJ0QSffErVWOnv?si=gDIOHCuvTSe-vhvPH02rwQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A2zY5p176SfmupXceLKT6bH
Sit around the fire Jon Hopkins

1st All Saints day 2nd All Souls’ Day starts traditional period of hallowtide ending with Martinmas 

5th Bonfire night

8th Chinese start of winter – Lì dōng

11th Remembrance Day – St Martins day or Martinmas – First calendar day of European winter

13th New moon in Scorpio

First siting of the new moon starts Kislev, the Jewish ‘month of dreams’.
As this moon ebbs into darkness Hanukkah the Jewish Festival of Lights (begins evening of the 7th – 15th December)

22nd Sun moves into Sagittarius

22nd Chinese period of Xiǎo xuě – slight snow

26th Midpoint between Samhain & winter solstice – the darkest 6 weeks of the year from now mid January

27th Full moon in Gemini
Beaver or Mourning moon
Celtic – Dark moon.
Medieval- Snow moon.
Native American- Beaver moon.
Tree moon.
Cherokee- Trading moon

 Mary Oliver SONG FOR AUTUMN

Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now
how comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of the air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees, especially those with
mossy hollows, are beginning to look for

the birds that will come—six, a dozen—to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
stiffens and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its long blue shadows. The wind wags
its many tails. And in the evening
the piled firewood shifts a little
longing to be on its way.

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