Well, primarily, it’s for me. – Less glib answer? OK. Yesterday’s full moon marked the beginning of winter according to the Anglo-Saxon calendar, as described in the Venerable Bede’s “On the Reckoning of Time” (my translation from the Latin here, so as not to infringe anyone’s copyright):
“The main division of the year was into two seasons – summer and winter – assigning to summer the six months when the days are longer than the nights, and to the winter the other six. The month in which the winter season began they called Winterfylleþ – a name bringing together the words for “winter” and “full moon”, because it was with that month’s full moon that winter was considered to begin.”
As a heathen, the Anglo-Saxon calendar shapes and underpins my year, and a couple of days before the full moon, while foraging for rose hips from a hedgerow in my village, I was musing about where the oncoming season might lead. À propos of nothing I can think of, I thought reviving my old blog might be an interesting idea. I used to write one ten or so years back about manifestations of witchcraft and occultism in popular culture, but it didn’t last long. So, since the domain name (“Daddy Ogg”, which was my husband’s idea – a Terry Pratchett reference) was still live, it seemed less of a faff than creating a new one to clear it out and start it up again.
And here it is, my blog for the winter half of the year. My plan is that it will focus on spiritual life and related topics, now and again things I feel an urge to vent about, and in general the sort of stuff that goes on in my head – stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily want to (and possibly couldn’t) post on Facebook. Brace yourself for – tremulous gasp – “adult themes”, and let’s crack on with winter.