EPIPHANY, TWELFTH NIGHT

It is when trying to describe the sky, the colours and depth and quality of the light, that I always find my shortcomings as a writer.

Tonight is viscerally beautiful here in St. Louis. The weather is so mild and temperate that as I walked to the park to get a better look at the stars, I momentarily forgot I was not in California.

(I wonder, if I had not remembered, if I would have slipped into a wormhole or portkey and through the astral plane, would have come up to Delmar and found myself instead en el mar?)

The moon is almost full, and directly overhead.  She reflects the height of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.  But the moon's brightness just enhanced how clear the sky was.  And such a deep rich blue. Like a medieval painting, with an undertone of gold, and the stars sparking like diamonds against the colour.

The whole sky like the dome of a Church, and all the stars like Saints and Angels.

It is a still night with a reverent wind, rustling the remaining leaves as if the murmuring of a congregation hunting for the hymnal during Mass. A sacred night.

Tonight is Epiphany,when the Magi would have brought their offerings to the God as Wee Babe. The God at his most powerful and his most vulnerable.  It is a shame the Church does not celebrate Epiphany as an "Eve".  The bells should ring at midnight on this night, as they do on Christmas Eve.

In Marian Green's Wheel of the Year this would be the night the Sun King, reborn at Yule, would have matured sufficiently to take up his sceptre and sword.

Tonight is Illumination.  There is light enough to see everything.  Either all your blessings or your burdens, the light is bright enough to see clearly.

Tonight is a night to open the heart and let as much Love come in as possible.  Let no dark corner or crevice be spared.  Trust the night to soften the edges; to make the cabbage moth a fairy sprite, a spiderweb the lace of a Sidhe queen.

If there is something you are seeking, or something you think you might want to keep sight of during the coming winter months, tonight is the night to find it and bless it.

Adjust your compass and align your navigation charts to the stars.  Let the Love of the Universe fill you completely.

Illuminate yourself.

Let your Light shine.