At New Moon, no Moon can be seen at night because she is up by day, conjunct Sun. But on a clear wintry night, the sky will be filled with stars.

Then, get up early on Solstice morning and go out to greet the rising Sun. The photo shows a past Solstice sunrise over my stone circle garden, with Sun's bright rays bathing the tall East stone with light. Lift your hands high and wide in greeting and draw down the Sun energy, feeling it flow through you, right down to your toes. This is an invigorating way to begin any day, but especially so on the day the Sun is reborn! Celebrate the renewal of Light, resolving to do your part to increase it—within yourself and to share with others.

My Circle celebrated the Solstice—Yule—early, on December 16th. Because some drive quite a distance, we nearly always hold our Sabbat rites on Saturday. On a beautiful, clear night, with lights surrounding the stone circle garden, we burned our Yule log on the center fire, begun with the remnants of last year's log .

Below, holding our Yule wreath, are those of us who invoked the deities for the mythology of this year's Yule rite. From left, Oak King, Maiden, Mother, Crone, Holly King.

Nothing much is getting done on time this month, other than the family holiday activities, so my apologies for those who may have checked in for a pre-Full Moon ritual idea. Though Moon was officially full early this morning, she'll continue to appear Full in the sky tonight and tomorrow.

Both to keep ourselves warm and to raise the energy, we used fire—first with the lighting of our pole torches, and then with the sparklers we carried while dancing around the circle. Then, it was good to go back indoors for hot chocolate!

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are calendar days originally set for political reasons, rather than in sync with natural phenomena. They may be fun, but for magic, moving within the cycles of Nature are best. So, now that the revelry of "Happy New Year" is past, are there old issues still remaining from 2006 that you'd like to resolve and leave behind so you can more freely move forward into 2007? If so, this Last Quarter Moon phase through the Balsamic period that follows is an optimum time for magical workings of release. The Last Quarter Moon symbol of Libra is the Scales of Balance. If life is out-of-balance, we know it, if we're honest with ourselves, and we are also most likely quite aware of what areas of life are demanding too much of us to the neglect of others. The challenge is whether we can...and will... do something about it. Use the Libran element of Air, the mind, during Last Quarter Moon period to carefully think through what you can change in your life, and what you need to release in order to create the change. Take a little time each day to write it down and save the paper. Then, during the time of Balsamic Moon, do your release with Fire, the element of Sagittarius. Prepare a safe place for burning the paper. Center and meditate on your intent, and then with firm resolve to carry out the changes you've decided upon for your life, burn the paper. As you watch it burn to ash, chant your intent three times three. Make up your own phrase to match your intent, or if not that, a generic one like this: