Sta.sh
Fèisean: Áed agus Solus
In Summer warmth of solstice sun
when red mare Áine freely runs
and shadows play on forest floor
thence healing harvest has begun
Calendula and Maidenhair
by light of Wisp, cut and prepared
into a curing draft prized dear
beneath still trees and calming air
At season's end, the gift of seed
brings harvest feast, and kin to feed
the first fruits, sweet, and ripening
make goblets filled with berried mead
Then lovelings handfast for the year
though evening tempests carry fear
Lúnasa's bounty overflows
and storms diminish not the cheer
With second reaping's wine and wheat,
a maiden cuts the final sheaf,
and acorns from the ancient oaks
spill with the leaves at Autumn's feet
The dying god, his gift of blood,
pours to the land in crimson flood
that winter's night be not an end
and cost for life be understood
Though light gives way to Samhain's shroud,
and thinning veil shows spirits roused,
in every hearth burns common flame
that Otherworld be disavowed
With hoarfrost at horizon's wake,
and crystal breath on highland lakes
the stores of grain and drying meat
are kept preserved through winter's takes
As length of days slow their decline
the woven Ivy wreathed in Tinne
bring summer's warmth to cold of Yule
with readied casks of mulling wine
The Amaranth and Mistletoe
still evergreen despite the snow
foretell rebirth of land and leaf
though still within midwinter's throws
With wand of Birch clutched to her breast,
the Bride breathes life to consort's chest;
both now reborn, they consummate
to sow the land at her behest
And though the firns and sleet ensue,
sweet milk flows forth from enceinte ewe;
the month of wolves and death may run
but snow gives way to verdure hues
Eostra's dawn shines arulent rays
on Primrose fields of lesser fay
where maidens walk in gowns sheer white
through leveret filled harecrop leys
They gather dew in phials of glass
from albus blooms of Galanthus,
like melting snow from warming days
the healing proof that winter's passed
Now driven flocks to pastures graze,
and bonfires 'round maypoles raised
bring Aos sí from their faerie mounds
to dance at Beltane's golden blaze
from flaming stacks of Winter Rye
and Juniper, to purify
the fertile land of fragrant soil,
will gift Spring's promise to the sky
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) and to say I attended a wedding recently at which the bride and groom did a "handfast" with ribbons--is that what's meant here? "...lovelings handfast..."? I'm pretty sure that's what it was called then. A journal entry by ~
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