New Year!

In our busy lives, we have forgotten many traditions honoured by our ancestors but the ‘New Age’ seeks to bring the past to light so it can be examined and updated and made current, applicable and useful for today’s world. The New Age honours all religions and none, taking the bare-bones of spirituality in order to campaign for more compassion, integrity and justice in our communities. Learning to value our personal experience and the development of our own understanding of people and situations is more important than doing what we are told by others. Growing in maturity and independence and the gaining of skills and abilities is what matters as we try to rediscover the wisdom of ancient times.

As we celebrated the ending of the old, and the beginning of the New Year, we probably sang a traditional song called ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (roughly this translates as ‘old long since’ or ‘long time ago’). In this song the question is posed whether we should forget old acquaintances and never bring them to mind at times of special celebration. However, by posing the question, we naturally remember and give thanks for beloved friends and mourn those who are unable to join in what has become a ritual way to start a new year. 

The Gate of the Year

 I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year “Give me a light that I may tread faithfully into the unknown”, and he replied “Go out into the darkness and put your hands into the hand of God and that shall be to you better than a light, and safer than any known way”. 

May that hand of god guide and uphold you. By Minnie Hoskins 

A card for 2026

Renewal card, 20 from Angel Wisdom Tarot by Radleigh Valentine. Archangel Jeremiah is known for helping us review our situation so we can choose the path we will take next. He is the Archangels of dreams and visions. He is often called upon to re-evaluate the past and envision the future. 

Discuss your thoughts and feelings honestly with those you love. We are invited to question what next? This is a time for review and reflection. Where have you come from? Where are you now? Where do you want to be? This is your time to prepare for a bright future, the best it can be! As with any quest, we need to be able to clearly visualise where we want to go. We can’t just accidentally arrive there. We need a spiritual map of the journey. Envision your happiest and most productive future. Bring the law of attraction to its zenith of power in your life, and when you have it figured out then, and only then, take action. Until that time, peacefully develop the awareness of flashes of inspiration and original creative ideas. These epiphanies are part of our life purpose, and are meant to guide us on our way to joy. Possibilities for 2025. A job or career change. An important milestone. A call to fulfil your destiny. 

New Year Folk Song

Here we bring new waters from the world so clear, for to worship the goddess, with this happy New Year. Sing levy dew, sing levy due, the water and wine, with seven gold wires, the bugles that shine. Sing reign of fair maid, with gems on her too, open the west door and let the old year through. Sing reign of fair maid, let her beauty show, she has great power, let the New Year blow!  Here we bring new waters from the world so clear, for to worship the goddess, with this happy New Year. 

December’s Oracle and Rituals

Celebrate not only what has been brought to fruition during the past year - and also in your life. If there is a clear night arriving, visit a high place with a view of the night sky when the moon is full. This month it will be December 15th. Take a drum, a cup of mead or wine, a warm blanket and a cushion on which to sit and wait. This is the time to write a poem or update your diary or Book of Secrets. When you see the moon, call upon the Moon Goddess, our most extraordinary satelite luminary. It is exactly the same size when seen from the Earth as the Sun. It keeps only one side of its face towards us. On our right, is the Moon card, number 18, the Night Journey. On our left is card number 6, the card of the Lovers, both are images from Amy Zerner and Monte Farber's The Enchanted Tarot. 

Oracle for the New Year 2026

Four cards chosen for 2026 The first is from Influence of the Angels Tarot by Jody Boginski Barbessi and Karen Boginski. Here we have the Magician, number 1 of the Major Arcana. We see Michael whose name means 'to be like God'. He provides his courage, leadership and protection. He points heavenwards, with rays of light entering his body which he directs to the tools and chalk board table upon which he works and produces magic for our world through skills and intentions, focus, solving problems (not creating them), accomplishing goals. The message is: Pay attention to the difference between self confidence and overconfidence.  

The Grail -One

 The dream like story that Chretien presents, is that of a grail, golden and encrusted with gems and radiating a great light, but it is the host that the ailing King requires to keep him alive. Later legends of Joseph of Arimathea report that the Holy Grail is the cup from which Jesus drank from at the last supper, but Jews considered blood unholy and would not have thought it sacred. 

The Papacy, at the time of the story creation, were building massive cathedrals and were requiring relics to attract pilgrims. The church was very wealthy at this time due to relics, such as those brought from the Holy Land, bits of the cross, for instance, of which there was so many it would need an entire forest to supply them. The cup that Jesus drank from at his Last Supper would have been the highest of status symbols as the lips of Jesus had touched it. 

This Year - A Poem

 This year I do not want the dark to leave me.

I need its wrap of silent stillness,

its cloak of long lasting embrace.

Too much light has pulled me away

from the chamber of gestation.

Let the dawns come late,

let the sunsets arrive early,

let the evenings extend themselves

while I lean into the abyss of my being.

Creating a Vision Board

First Step: Get a large board like paper. Poster paper is perfect. You will need glue or two sided tape and scissors. 

Second Step: You will need lots of different types of magazines. You are going to look for pictures that either show how you want to feel, where you want to go or want you want to have. If you don't have many magazines search for pictures on Google and print them out.

Include the ocean or a beautiful house, or find a picture of that house on the ocean. Look for pictures that really light you up inside when you look at them.

If you want to lose weight find a picture of the physique you want to have.

If you want to travel cut out or print out pictures of the places you want to go. Find pictures of someone doing the things you want to do, sailing or skiing, climbing a mountain or hiking.

Christmas Postbag

Dear Wendy, can you provide a Christmas meal prayer please, Jenny S.

Dear Jenny, this is my suggestion, change it as you would like to!

I call upon the Godhead of all names and none, as I give thanks to those who grew, transported, prepared, packaged and sold the food and prepared and cooked it for today. Especially I give thanks for any animals that were involved in food production. I ask that the food is blessed so I can eat with love and honour, and can enjoy every mouthful and pray that it will renew and revive my health with good quality nourishment. I give thanks for my life and remember those who have not survived to celebrate this day. I remember those without food, comfort and kindness as we celebrate Christ’s birthday, as he was the one who said ‘Do unto others as you would be done by’. Amen. 

Dear Wendy, can you explain the first verse of the carol of ‘Once in David’s Royal City’? Myra 

Mother Mary’s Story

All saviour gods have virgin mothers! 

Mary and Joseph made a powerful team. Both of the royal line of David, the shepherd king, their first born son would have been a contender for the role of King of Judah. Like many female visionaries, Mary was around the time of her menarche when she became pregnant by an Angel. Angels at this time were not winged. They were always men and their meeting often resulted in a pregnancy. But this illegitimacy of Jesus may have caused him embarrassment. Joseph was not mentioned in the gospels after the childhood of Jesus. And what caused Jesus to be scathing and rude to his mother? She was a young mother, and maybe she was seduced and deceived  by one who presented himself as an ‘Angel’. It dashed his chances of a bid for the legitimate throne. 

Her correct name was Miriam and in legend, she was the daughter of Joachim and Anne. From the canonical gospels, we are told that Mary’s story begins when she was described as a virgin - a young girl before marriage. She would have been betrothed around the age of puberty and would have been living in an extended family in Galilee, such as the tribe of Ephrahim. She would have sat by the river bank, watching the water ripple as the breeze created waves. This Galilee sea is shaped like a harp - it’s a beautiful and romantic setting. Whilst engaged to be married to Joseph, the Angel Gabriel is said to have visited her and told her she would bear a son who would become the long prophesied messiah. Both she and her fiancé Joseph were of the royal line of Judah, and therefore their son would be the rightful royal heir. At that time, a ruthless puppet king, Herod the Great, sat on the throne who would do all he could to destroy the lives of Mary and Joseph.

Mary’s Story

Luke uniquely tells us the story of the mother, whereas Matthew’s account has the father as the central character - history was told always from the male perspective! We read of a girl named Miriam (or Mary in translations), who had come of age to marry, she would be around the age of 12 - 14 yrs old. We are told she was betrothed to a Joseph, meaning that they were engaged but she would be living with her parents, a home she would rarely leave until she married. They were of the House of David - a royal line when a corrupt puppet king sat on the throne of Judah. 

Suddenly, a supernatural messenger from God, an angel named Gabriel appears. Mary was agitated and disturbed by his presence, because this Angel has a name that translates from the Hebrew as the ‘strong man of God’! This unobserved girl, concealed in her family home, finds herself no longer isolated but in the presence of one who is spoken of as an angel who is called upon to incite war and who destroys the enemy! Here Gabriel acts as God’s instrument, and a young girl is confronted and alone with a male stranger to whom she is not related, and she refutes accepted customs!

The Story of Jesus

From the earliest written gospels, we have the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. “Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven, give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us, our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. 

The name Jesus is a corruption of Yeshuah; in the Old Testament name, it is Joshua. 

Jesus spoke the language of the people, Aramaic, he also read in the synagogue, so he knew Hebrew, and when interrogated by Pilate, the Roman governor, he may have spoken to him in the Latin language. 

Herod Antipas thought that Jesus was John the Baptist who he had imprisoned on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea in the Machaerus fortress and his death was by beheading. Jesus was also, like John, a revolutionary spiritual teacher whom Herod also feared. It is likely that John and Jesus were of the true royal line, unlike the King (tetrach) Herod. We know a little about John, an ascetic who proclaimed the end of the world and who baptised all people without exception in the Jordan river in the name of forgiveness of sins. He also, like Jesus, had a miraculous birth and was a messiah in his own right. During his imprisonment, he asked if Jesus would step up to take his place, and Jesus accepted the role. We know far more about the life of Jesus, his birth, miracles, teaching, his disciples, his torture and death and resurrection. We know also that he fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures where the life of the messiah was foretold of a glorious king, a conqueror who would give sovereignty to the nation,  a suffering messiah, humble victim, whose destiny was sacrifice. 

Christmas Past

The ancients observed the sun, moon and stars. They lived by nature and knew when to plant and when to harvest, when to feed the beasts and when to kill and salt. They would place a post in the ground to measure the length of the shadow cast each day. At midsummer and midwinter, the sun appears to stand still for three days, hence the name 'solstice' from the Latin 'stetit', when the sun appears to ‘stand still’.

Carvings on Long Meg in Cumbria are aligned with the sunset at midwinter. In 4AD the church changed the calendar so the equinox provided a consistent date. The date for Christmas was not changed. Many ancient stone circles are aligned with the sun festivals, such as Stonehenge, and Mays Howe.   

The sun was thought by the Greeks to be hauled across the sky each day by Apollo in his chariot. Christmas falls on 25th December rather than on the winter solstice because in the time of Julius Caesar, the calendar was obviously out. As it was based on the ancient Egyptian calendar that was 3000 years old in Julius' day, he introduced in 45BC the Julian Calendar. 

Away in a Manger

Mary and her husband Joseph were descendants of David, the first King of Israel, and they were both true heirs of that royal line. At the time of the birth of Jesus, Herod, a puppet king was seated upon the Judaic throne by the Roman oppressors. 

David was born in Bethlehem many hundreds of years previously. He was a a young shepherd boy, guarding flocks of sheep on the cold hillside. These were unblemished lambs that were slaughtered by the High Priest in the Temple of Jerusalem for the remission of sins. Mary's cousin, Elizabeth's husband, Zachariah, was that High Priest. They were too old to have children, yet, when an angel appeared and Elizabeth became pregnant, Zachariah was struck dumb for his unbelief in this miracle. 

Xmas Poem

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed for the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day, Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay; Enough for Him, whom angels fall before, The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there, Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss, Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him? Give only my heart.

Symbols of Christmas

Each Christmas, we remember a story that began 2000 years ago and involves a very poor young woman, perhaps only fourteen years of age. Her name is Miriam, and she is engaged to Joseph, of royal blood and descendant of the line of King David. But she is met by a man, as angels in the Bible are ordinary men! She becomes pregnant and could be stoned to death for fornicating outside marriage, but Joseph marries her and her life is saved. When she is in the final stages of this first pregnancy, and suffers the discomfort of a long donkey ride with her husband, to pay their taxes in the homeland of their ancestor, King David. But her story begins far earlier, as a descendant of the royal line, Miriam is a princess - but in a land oppressed by a foreign army and with a puppet king on the Jewish throne. The two together could create a power base to jeopardise the puppet king and raise an army against the Roman oppressors. It’s a dangerous and very specific situation as Judah was desperate for a messiah. 

Create a Lunar Altar

 From Moon Magic by Marie Bruce - An Element Book

“ Setting up a lunar alter in your home is a great way to connect with the moons power. Having a special place dedicated to the moon and your magical practice is one way you can begin to invite the magical light of the moon into your life. Begin by collecting items which depict all represent the moon, so postcards, pictures, ornaments, candleholders, crystals, mirrors, and so on. Find a place in your home to use as a moon alter. This could be a windowsill, a countertop small to side table. You might like to cover it with a white or silver cloth, but this is optional. Next arrange all your items in a pleasing way, ensuring that you have a couple of candles ready to burn, place towards the back of the water. I don’t incense burner and alter is ready for medical use. You can use the space to cast spells, perform rituals, lay out divination card spreads and lights in the sense in honour of any Luna dirties you are working with. Add a statue of the loan a totem animals you connect with and make the space that is personal to you and your magical moon journey Finally, that’s the space by sprinkling a little spring water over the altar, and saying the following words. I dedicate the sacred space to the loaner light and to the moon is magical grace.”

Star of the Messiah

The Gospel of Matthew describes how astrologers travelled to Jerusalem where King Herod met them. They told Herod that they had followed a star that prophesied the birth of the rightful King of the Jews, and they came to worship this baby. Herod was concerned about his own position as he was just a puppet ruler, and he asked the wise men to return to him when they had found the child. He called his scribes to him for information. In the Book of Micah, it states the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, birthplace of King David. The wise men continued to follow the star which led them to Bethlehem. We are unsure of the exact date of the birth of Jesus but a bright conjunction, supernova or comet could have been ‘the Star of Bethlehem’.  

It might have been a conjunction (coming together) of two planets, one being Jupiter which is known to represent Kingship. (Jupiter is known as Sedeq to the Jews, a word which means righteousness - a title for the Messiah). Regulus might have been the other star - this name means, in Latin  'prince’, and in Arabic, it means 'the heart of the lion' because it appears in the constellation of Leo and also represents Kingship. These two stars appearing together would have been a meaningful sign to the star gazers of the Middle East (possibly Mesopotamia where astrologers were recognised since very ancient times). 

Malidoma

“At this moment in history, western civilisation is suffering from a great sickness of the soul. The West’s progressive turning away from functioning spiritual values, its total disregard for the environment and the protection of natural resources, the violence of inner cities and their problems of poverty, drugs and crime, the spiralling of unemployment and economic disarray, the growing intolerance towards people of colour and the values of other cultures, all of these trends, if unchecked, will eventually bring about a terrible self-destruction. In the face of this global chaos, the only possible hope is self transformation.”

King Solomon's Mines

Jews worshipped in tents on the top of mountains, where god appeared or where his voice was heard, until the first temple was built on a threshing floor where the wheat was sifted from the chaff! This was the citing of the first temple, Solomon, the wisest and richest king of Judah, and the temple had two pillars and it contained 3 rooms, the farthest of which was the Holy of Holies. 

     We know of Solomon’s great wealth, and the mines of gold found in Ophir, of three days travel. The box called the Ark of the Covenant and the golden menorah were said to be just two of the great ancient treasures. The Ark was said to be able to miraculously bring success in war. Maybe at the time of the first temple conquest, it was abandoned, or perhaps taken to Babylon in 586BC. The great magical Ark that brought success in war did not always provide success and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed! Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians and allowed the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild their precious Jerusalem Temple.

This second temple contained the menorah which is said to have been taken to Rome in 70AD when this temple was destroyed and the Jews dispersed. 
How can we investigate these temple sites because there is no evidence for the Temple of Solomon! 

It has been suggested that there was a huge mistake in the names of kings and the dates of this one great building. Amenhotep III was a great 18th dynasty Egyptian king who embarked on a great building spree. The description of Medinet Habu sounds identical to Solomon’s Temple! He built it in Canaan, and he is known to have built on Temple Mount in Jerusalem. 

And here we come to ahi ram of Tyre, the place where the great cedars of Lebanon grew. The Melqart Temple also had courts and two pillars, one of gold and one of green stone. What is most surprising is the cherubim were depicted on the Ark and all over the Temple building, however the Jews are not allowed to reproduce the human form. 

The 10 Commandments were originally thought to have come from Egypt, and many of David’s psalms are almost identical to those from Egypt. 

Was the entire Jewish Bible a fabrication, a jealous god wanting what Egypt had in abundance. 

Charlie Kirk

Hi, this is a stream of consciousness, having watched a good part of the memorial service for Charlie Kirk late last night. It was a mixed bag. Firstly, my criticisms: I feel uncomfortable with religion mixed with politics. Politics adulterates religion and I suspect the manipulation of minds. Sadly, it became a political rally as they used every opportunity to be salesmen for the masses who were there and those watching across the world! There are times when I felt that Charlie Kirk (who as a human being was not perfect - we are all found wanting in the sight of God) yet it was alluded to several times that there were comparisons between Charlie Kirk and Jesus Christ - an exaggeration that is tantamount to hubris, and  adulation. The speakers were trying to outdo each other to praise him in extreme ways. 

The Grail -Two

Extract from The Grail Legend by Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz.

“ The fact that the Grail was considered to be a real object engendered the very widely held belief that it was identical with the vessel known as the Sacro Catino, a bowl, believed to be made of an emerald, brought back as plunder and payment by the Genoese after the seige of Caesaria in 1101. A 16th century Genoese Chronicle in the library at Berne says that the exceedingly precious bowl was called the Saint Graal and that according to some it was a platter Christ had used at the Last Supper with his disciples but that others thought was the vessel from which King Arthur ate, very devoutly at important ceremonies, with the companions of the Round Table. Napoleon took it to Paris, where under expert examination, it was found not to be made of emerald stone at all, but simply moulded glass!