Saturday, 30 July 2011
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
The Legend Of St. Swithin.
We have a weather lore rhyme that goes:
St. Swithun's day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithun's day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain na mair.
The myth originates from the time of a Saxon bishop called Swithin. As he lay dying he requested to buried outdoors so that he could be trampled upon and rained upon. However, nine years later - on July 15th - his remains were moved to a shrine inside Winchester Cathedral and during this time there was a violent storm which lasted for forty days. This led to the old wives tale we have above.
Is there any truth in it?
Well, apparently the Met Office have put this to the test on at least 55 occasions when it has rained on St. Swithin's day and they found that forty days of rain did not follow. The fact that the British summer can either be wonderful or miserable is down to weather patterns that set in by the middle of July. Either Atlantic weather systems will fall directly across the UK, bringing wet weather or they will pass to the North, bringing fair and settled weather.
So it would seem St. Swithin has little to do with cursing our summers here in the UK, it is down to mother nature and how a weather system forms during July. That said, we got rain on St. Swithin's day and have experienced rain every day since. This has prompted me to conduct my own survey and I am recording my findings for future reference.
St. Swithun's day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithun's day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain na mair.
The myth originates from the time of a Saxon bishop called Swithin. As he lay dying he requested to buried outdoors so that he could be trampled upon and rained upon. However, nine years later - on July 15th - his remains were moved to a shrine inside Winchester Cathedral and during this time there was a violent storm which lasted for forty days. This led to the old wives tale we have above.
Is there any truth in it?
Well, apparently the Met Office have put this to the test on at least 55 occasions when it has rained on St. Swithin's day and they found that forty days of rain did not follow. The fact that the British summer can either be wonderful or miserable is down to weather patterns that set in by the middle of July. Either Atlantic weather systems will fall directly across the UK, bringing wet weather or they will pass to the North, bringing fair and settled weather.
So it would seem St. Swithin has little to do with cursing our summers here in the UK, it is down to mother nature and how a weather system forms during July. That said, we got rain on St. Swithin's day and have experienced rain every day since. This has prompted me to conduct my own survey and I am recording my findings for future reference.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Holly Month
From July 8th until August 4th we have the Holly Month. This month is the 8th moon of the year and the first moon of the dark half of the year.
The magickal uses for the Holly month are :-
watchfulness, good luck, holiness, death, consecration, rebirth, material gain, physical revenge, beauty and travel, protection magick for animals.
On a personal level I find, again, that there are things I can address within the theme of the month. Life has been so very hard for me these past few months and I am not putting so much time and effort into online pursuits. I have found that a lot of online "friendships" have fallen by the wayside and that left me unnerved, momentarily. I find my priorities have really changed and I no longer give the time to things I did a few months back. I have found that what I thought was important to me then no longer is. At the time I would have felt my life was the poorer for not having such things and such people in it, but I have changed so much since the catalystic chain of events stormed through my life, I don't feel like the same person anymore.
So with rebirth being a theme of the Holly month I am going to do a little cleansing ritual and meditation specifically for rebirth. I feel it is time to re-enter the world.
The magickal uses for the Holly month are :-
watchfulness, good luck, holiness, death, consecration, rebirth, material gain, physical revenge, beauty and travel, protection magick for animals.
On a personal level I find, again, that there are things I can address within the theme of the month. Life has been so very hard for me these past few months and I am not putting so much time and effort into online pursuits. I have found that a lot of online "friendships" have fallen by the wayside and that left me unnerved, momentarily. I find my priorities have really changed and I no longer give the time to things I did a few months back. I have found that what I thought was important to me then no longer is. At the time I would have felt my life was the poorer for not having such things and such people in it, but I have changed so much since the catalystic chain of events stormed through my life, I don't feel like the same person anymore.
So with rebirth being a theme of the Holly month I am going to do a little cleansing ritual and meditation specifically for rebirth. I feel it is time to re-enter the world.
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