Deaf Pagan Crossroads

Day 8

Snow Day

Today, on the Eighth Day of Christmas, we honor…

snow.

Yup, that cold powdery white stuff that is the prime ingredient for the making of snow angels, snowmen, and those sneaky little round missiles of many an impromptu surprise attack - snowballs.

Okay, maybe you’re sitting there screaming at the top of your lungs, shaking your head vigorously and protesting:

“no, No, NO! I’m not honoring that horrendous stuff! Give me sunshine and balmy days any time!”

Fair ’nuff. I’m not a major fan of snow myself, although if given a choice between a couple of inches of flurries or that icky freezing rain, I will pick the white stuff. At least it’s a bit easier to navigate than sliding all over the roads, or breaking your neck on slippery sidewalks.

On the other hand, maybe you’re one of those snow bunnies who lives for the days when you can head out to the slopes; spending your time skiing, snowboarding, or sliding down hills on inner tubes. I admit that one of my own favorite winter memories is going out with a bunch of friends to a big hill, where we all had loads of fun bouncing over the bumps in those round rubber rafts.

But regardless of your opinions about snow, no depiction of the Winter Solstice is complete without it. Snow has so many qualities and so many aspects that it should come as no big surprise that the Inuit people of the North have hundreds of words to describe it.

There are many different legends and myths that surround snow, and various characters related to it… stemming from Jack Frost who comes nipping at your nose, to the Cailleach who brings the winter snows to the Highlands of Scotland, to Mother Holle - who some say creates snow whenever she shakes the down feathers from her pillows and bedcovers.

photograph by Madison Guy

So let us take a day to devote ourselves to the contemplation and honoring of the millions of small crystals that drift across the lands of the Northern hemisphere at this time of the year. And even if we have no snow to celebrate with, let us at least remember it in all its splendor and glory, and on its special powers to turn the darkest, grayest, most depressing of days into a magickal wonderland.

And remember… each snowflake is unique - there is none other like it anywhere in the world. In the same way, each of us is as unique and as natural as that snowflake… each of us a part of the Mother - her child, her lover, her beloved, her self.

photo by CaptPiper