Winter Solstice Blessings!

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday Season. May the God & Goddess smile on you & yours & fill your lives with many joyful blessings!

Blessed Be!

Facilitators of Dragonfly Moon

THE FIRST SONG: A tale of how Yule got its name

This is the story of the very first song; it is a true story, as all stories are, if you believe in them. This story begins a long, long time ago, when the Earth and Sun gave birth to the first beings-the very first plants, and animals, and people. It was springtime, and the Sun shone warm and bright from his high perch above, and Earth, proud mother that she was, held and fed her newborns and relished them withtenderness and love. It was a time of joy, it was a time of
great delight.

The Moon waxed and waned time and again in the night sky, and the children of the Earth grew well and strong through summertime. They played and danced, and Earth and Sun watched over them.

Then autumn came, and the Earth began to sleep much longer every day. She grew tired and pale, she could no longer feed her children, and had no strength to grow new life. High above, the Sun grew distant, and took longer to return each morn. The nights grew longer, and cold winds blew where none had blown before.

And then, one day, Earth went to sleep and never did wake up. She wrapped herself in a blanket of snow, and rested her tired head on pillows of dried leaves, and she did not wake up, Her children could do nothing to rouse her from her slumber. They prodded her, they called to her, but she would not awaken. In the sky, the Sun was nowhere to be seen, and the children of the Earth felt fear, and also felt despair. This was the longest night that they had ever known.

"What shall become of us?", they pondered. "Earth Mother sleeps, and Father Sun is oh so far away that we can barely see him in the sky. He is much too far to hear our call. What shall we do?"

So they brought their questions and their fears to the Moon, the sister of the Sun, for they knew not where else to turn. She closed her eyes, and took a slow, deep breath, and looked within herself, and awoke thoughts that had never been awakened until then.

She opened her soft eyes, then said, "When hope is lost, the best way to get it back is with a song. Climb you the tallest trees, the biggest hills, the highest mountains, and yule a song to reach the Sun". (Now, yule is a word from one of the most ancient tongues. It is related to words like yell or yodel, and it means to call out in a song).

But the first beings had never heard a song, so once again they sought the Moon's advice. "How shall we yule?", they asked. "How shall we sing a song?" "Take the best of what you have", she said, "the best of what you are. Take what you love, take what you cherish most. Take your joys, your dreams, your fondest hopes, and weave them all together in a sound."

And so they did. The climbed atop the tallest trees, the mountains and the hills. They stood on all the places that would bring them closest to the Sun. They shut their eyes, and thought and felt the best of thoughts and feelings, and dreamt the finest dreams. And, as they did, their voices rang and made a bridge of song across the sky, to reach the distant Sun.

He heard, and turned, and smiled, and wrapped himself in all his light and warmth, and sped to where the yuling voices called. As he drew near, the sleeping Earth did stir, and dreamed a dream of spring. The wheel of life made its first round, and hope and joy prevailed. And ever since, that time of year has been called Yule, in honor of the song.

But the first song did not end. It had such power, such eldritch allure, that the first beings kept singing it throughout. And then the second beings born of the Earth took up the song, as did the third. And so it ever since has gone, through seasons and through years, until this very day.

At times the song is very soft, and scarcely can be heard above the clatter of our lives. But when Yule comes, it rises and it swells in memory of that night when the Sun heard, and light and life were spared.

And so do we, upon this longest night, gather with those we love and who love us, and stand upon the body of slumbering Earth, and light the log with last year's coal, and lift our voices soaring to the Sun, and join the song that first was sung so very long ago.

We sing our thanks to those who went before, and sing our fondest wish to those who come behind. We bask in the returning light of reawakened hope, and welcome Yule.

© 1994, The EarthSpirit Community

© 1994, Andras Corban Arthen

October Gathering and New Mailing List

Merry Meet & Greetings!

Our next gathering will be:

Friday
October 26th
6:00pm

Location TBA

We will be discussing the Full Moon & Samhain. Your arrival is anticpated & we can't wait to meet you!

NEW MAILING LIST:

Would you like to recieve updates about Dragonfly Moon Womyn's Circle? Just join our mailing list by sending an email to drgnfly_moon@yahoo.com

Harvest Morning Muffins

Harvest Morning Muffins

(Submitted by Dawna)

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 c.)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (you can also substitute unsweetened applesauce for all or part of this)

1 cup grated apples

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup whole-wheat flour 1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. baking powder (yes, really a tbsp)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (I used a lot more than this)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-muffin tin or line it with paper liners. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the eggs, sugar and oil until well combined. Stir in the grated apples and carrots. In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Blend the dry ingredients with the apple mixture until just combined. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Enjoy!

We support & encourage our Sisters in their pursuits! To submit your recipe, essay, article, art work, event or business, etc. just send an email to drgnfly_moon@yahoo.com. Please include any information you would like to have listed & the name you'd like to use.

The Real Origins of Halloween

The Real Origins of Halloween
(Version 4.7)

Copyright © 1997, 2006 c.e.

by Isaac Bonewits

The Real Origins of Halloween discusses the history of Halloween, the origins of trick-or-treating, reasons behind some of the symbols of the season, and why the holiday is well worth keeping and celebrating.........(This essay is very informative & very long. It can be read in it's entirety at: http://www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins-text.html

Welcome to Dragonfly Moon

Beautiful Sister, Sweet Dragonfly, We Want You To Know:

It Takes Courage, To Arrive Unannounced. It Takes Strength, To Believe In Yourself. It Takes Faith, To Live The Path You Know Exists. It Takes Spirit To Move Forward, Past Your Inhibitions. It Takes Life, To Influence, To Experience, To Teach.

However,
Intuition Always Shares….
The True Nature Of Connection.

May We Flourish And Live The Balance, Within Ourselves.

Welcoming Blessings To All,
And A Toast…

To Sisterhood!

Sister Smile Therapy

Sister Smile Therapy:

The Easiest Transformation Begins With A Smile. Take A Moment To Think About That. You Have The Ability To Transform Someone’s Day, Mood, Moment, Etc… With The Power Of Your Smile.

Your Smile Connects You With The Amazing Ray Of Individuality That Only You Possess. No Time To Wait Goddess, You Gotta Share It!

Smiling Creates A Heart Connection That Is Instantaneous.
Within This Heart Connection, We Are Unified As Womyn.

Sisterhood Is The Divine Nature Of Self We ALL Recognize Immediately,
So Sister? Share That Smile.

At The Stoplight, In The Market, On The Way To The Restroom, While Your Breezing By To Check The Mail? When You’re Staggeriing About With A Hefty Bag Of Trash, When You’re Chatting On The Phone With The Relationship You Know Will “Last”. Whatever It Is, Where Ever You Are – Share Your Smile, Change Someone’s Day…

Recreate The Environment, Make It Beneficial.
I Dare You.

Smile.


~Rain 2007

Recognition Of The Mother by Rain

Recognition Of The Mother.

Society And The Standard Of Beauty (Abbreviation: Stab At Wombanity) Have Created An Overwhelming Cloak Of Insecurity And Self-Doubt. As Sisters, It Is Our Responsibility To Combat This Injustice With Ferocity. Are You Ready?

Quietly, Confidently, We Will Weave A Web Of Safety And Positivity, To Create A Global Wide Radiance, Impossible To Resist.

As you read these words, are you inspired by the challenge…?

If so, you are most certainly, “a Sister to Remember”,
empowered by your recognition – of the Mother.

Mother Earth, she feeds us
Mother Earth, she needs us
Mother Earth, she Inspires us

Mother Earth,
Alive in each and every one of us.

Rain 2007

Tree Goddess Photograph by Karmen

ARTICLE: SISTER TRIBE BY LOBA

Tribe: A group of people united by time and place, needs and goals, essential values or a shared spiritual practice.

Sisterhood: The gift of our actively and intimately reaching out to one another, simultaneously serving both the authentic self and the health of the whole.

We are truly a tribe, a Sister Tribe with roots grounded in the ancient past, and branches extending out to every existing community. We are connected not only to each other, but to this planet we're apart of, and all its many creatures.... and to a long lineage of place holders and dreamers, maidens and wise women and crones dating back to the very beginnings of human kind! We may no longer share a common cave or even neighborhood, but we still share a common planet-- and a common, passionate dream. We are united not just by the sensitivities of our gender, but by a glad and purposeful mission.

Even those of us not blessed with having other women on our land or in our homes, find we are members of a tribal sisterhood founded in love for Mother Earth and every child and creation of nature, in the respect and honoring of all life and a commitment to inspiring the greatest possible integrity in all our relations. The word "integrity" is a derivative of "integral"-- meaning that every part is necessary for the health of the whole. And so, the integrity of any tribe is dependent upon the nurturing of wholeness in each being, and each beings fealty to the greater good. And so, Sister Tribe: A primal and primary weaving, of purposeful women's hearts on a mission of personal and global wholeness!
Women from all over the world are consciously interwoven, manifesting art and beauty and ritual often focused on celebrating and paying homage. All-women bands and dance troupes, poetry and women's groups. Sisters living and working closely together as well as at a distance through the mail, creating forums for solitary sisters to join in the sacred circles of prayer.

Sister Tribe. I've nurtured this vision more tangibly since I started leading Wild Women's Gatherings and workshops at my precious canyon home. We spend a whole week camping at the foot of intensely powerful cliffs, cocreating sacred space: giving each other and the land our loving attention, listening to each others' most powerful stories and songs and braiding each others' hair. Asking questions of one another. Tending fires, baking breads, and stirring pots of soup. Dressing up in pretty clothes or running around totally naked.

Noticing every detail of the land, its moods and rhythms. Coming together in the powerful rituals of the sweat lodge. Coming together in all our intensity, tears and laughter. Being there deeply for each other, challenging one another to go ever deeper!

For the women I end up keeping in touch with for years afterward, these gatherings are a microcosm of the way we wish the world could always be, and the ways we wish we could always be as well-- sharing everything together in a place of awesome beauty, learning incredible amounts about ourselves and each other in the process! Giving all we are at all times to the magic of our sisterhood, giving our whole selves to loving the Earth, and receiving the most beautiful and meaningful gifts in return. Of course we all have obligations, and it can be hard just to commit a week to participating in a women's workshop, festival or gathering. But there are ways we can continuously cultivate that same sense of Sister Tribe, the sharing of our hearts, our goals, our love of magic, and our commitments to the evolving creation we're each a sensual and responsible part of. Here are but a few, and I invite you to add to the list!

1. Fully own our power to create sacred space at every available opportunity. With our selves, with the earth, with each other.There are many different levels of sacred space, as there are of depth and connection, commitment, gratitude, enthusiasm, and so on. The more we recognize and own our powers and abilities as priestesses, the more we can go about our everyday life creating sacred space and sacred moments of connection with the mundane and even profane realities that surround us. The groundwork for being able to create sacred space is all about knowing and loving ourselves deeply, being so grounded in our connections to all the parts of our selves and to the earth that we always something to give in any interaction be it with a stone, a tree, the lady at the checkout stand, our lovers.... or a dear sister we've been meaning to call, to write, to visit!

We're constantly being handed opportunities to connect with and serve the sacred, as well as to receive the sacrament of wholeness that resides in each of our hearts, albeit sometimes buried under layers of fear and denial. We can keep reminding ourselves, there's something precious here that is of the heart. What is it, and how can we better touch and open and serve it? We need to practice becoming more aware of these opportunities and acting from our hearts, from our guts. Practice honoring our sisters and other beings, while honoring our own truths. Giving as much as possible, while being careful not to let our tendency to give dishonor our spirits in any way.

Practical ways we can create sacred space with our sisters that honors the feminine in particular, even when there's only two of us:Taking long walks in natureSavoring beautiful music Dressing beautifully Gathering around a fire, or lighting candlesTrading massage Sharing any form of sweet physical attention such as brushing or braiding hair, hugging, cuddling, or washing one another's feet with hot water!Cooking with or for each other, and eating slowlyChecking in on each other's hearts and feelings

2. Share purposeful prayers and goalsWhat do we really have in common? Let's find out! We need to talk about what our common hopes, dreams, and challenges are so we can give each other support in living our dreams! If we have opportunities to get together, we should make time to address these things, and figure out what we can actually and immediately do to help birth our visions, and make our dreams come true.

3. Challenge ourselves, challenge each other!We'll always encounter obstacles that seem insurmountable at the time. We can help each other see where there are cracks in the imprisoning walls, ways we can shapeshift our realities with each other's help. Finances, children, unwilling partners? We must not let anything get in the way, and where there's sufficient will there's a way! Let's open ourselves to all the help that's available, avail ourselves of the Earth's active instruction, support and assistance.

4. Honor the land and serve the land, together.The voice of Spirit is heard best through the land, and women's land-based communities are cropping up all over the place! Become affiliated with one, start your own, or commit to prayer and service together at a special spot in your local park or on a dead-end road. Create altars, songs and dances inspired by the sprits and beings of these particular places. We can find out about native and invader species in our bioregions, and by spending a little time every day actively healing the land, we contribute to our own healing as well!

5. Honor each other as teachers.What are we learning from each other? We can honor those lessons and gifts, by remembering them and putting them into visible practice. And we need to give our sisters all the credit they deserve for all their efforts or accomplishments, for every way they've served as an example or inspired us. And we must be sure to tell them so!

6. Be an inspiration to our sisters in every way we canMake the time to get to know every aspect of our selves, and to love and be true to that self. To be with Nature, and receive her knowledge through our focused presence. Enjoined.

7. Don't take each other for granted Show as much appreciation of each other as we possibly can at all times, even if it means getting up an hour early to make it happen! Especially when a sister has gone out of her way to make time to serve us in some way in the midst of her own busy life!

8. Communicate our hurts, and be equally willing to apologize and forgiveIt only weakens our relationships, if we keep things bottled up or swept up under the rug. Sisters must be able to be honest about what offends them, to admit where they've gone wrong and make efforts to right those wrongs, and for any wronged party to acknowledge these efforts and make the effort to forgive.

9. Don't be lameWe shouldn't be slackers when it comes to our sisterhood! If we've promised someone we'll write or call them, or do them a favor, we need to avoid making excuses and just do it!

10. Share the work as well as the playInstead of thinking we're too busy to gather with our sisters, we can invite them over to help out with mundane tasks. We'll have a lot more fun and probably get a lot more accomplished if we do our chores together! If mothers have children that make focusing on things like sewing or home repairs difficult, they can come together to take turns getting things done and giving the kids attention!

11. Resist the urge to compete, or to compareBodies, jobs, boyfriends, partners, children-- we women have a bad habit of endlessly sizing each other up and figuring we are the lesser or greater in any given situation. How about accepting that we are all special and beautiful, with our own unique contribution? If we think we have a "funny-looking nose," imagine being able to love its uniqueness so much that we teach our sister how to love her chubby belly!

12. Bring the Sister Tribe togetherWe need to own our power to make new connections happen-- by posting flyers for each other, sending out the pertinent emails you get to every woman on your list, staying alert to great opportunities and available connections that might not be timely for us but perfect for a beloved sister. We can take responsibility and help create major transformations in our sister's lives!

13. Practice giveaway-- gifts that make a differenceWe all have things in our households that don't get enough attention, or that could be useful, or even serve as tools of deep magic and connection for a certain sister of ours. We can give from our own "things" that we intuit will be meaningful and purposeful in the hands of our sisters, such as fabric we're not using, candles that will remind our sister of the loving glow we feel when we're together, gifts of food from our pantries.... anything real, beautiful and nurturing could be a good thing to pass along. We can bring to our gatherings the clothes or jewelry we don't wear enough, bottles of condiments, or lotions we've made. And of all the many possible gifts, the most powerful of all are the drawings, weavings and poems that touch a sister's heart, invoking each other's presence in our everyday lives.

14. Teach the children together. Mothers all over the world are joining together to home-school their children! And even the kids that go to public school can come together afterwards or on weekends to learn how to cook, draw, knit, sew, dance, do yoga, sing prayers to the trees, and so forth. Sisters can inspire their kids to discuss essential subjects together like the importance of loving ourselves, the benefits and challenges of being whatever age they are, their goals, prayers, dreams, and feelings about what is God or Goddess.

I can feel it, this Sister Tribe.... purposeful hearts weaving, reaching out to each other to join hands across the lands, and across the seas. Touching each other in our most vulnerable places, like a river we're blessed to submerge in, touching us everywhere at once. In my most challenging of times I hear my sister's voices, as I hear the spirits of the ancestors that inhabit this sacred canyon. They whisper in my ear, reminding me to bend down low to the ground, to notice the glowing stone and the magnificence of the spider, to slow down and thank the first flame as I light my woodstove fire. They join me in this magic purpose of reconnection, this dance of deep feeling and delight. Together we feed the fires of our connection, joining the shining land in celebration of our mission: our common tribal song.

More writings by Loba at:

http://animacenter.org/lobawritings.html

ARTICLE: FRIENDSHIP AMONG WOMEN

UCLA STUDY ON FRIENDSHIP AMONG WOMEN

By Gale BerkowitzA landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we really are. By the way, they may do even more. Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis.

The UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down. "Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible," explains Laura Cousino Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. "It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers.

Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioral repertoire than just "fight or flight." "In fact," says Dr. Klein, "it seems that when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the "fight or flight" response and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming response does not occur in men", says Dr. Klein, "because testosterone---which men produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen", she adds, "seems to enhance it."

The discovery that women respond to stress differently than men was made in a classic "aha!" moment shared by two women scientists who were talking one day in a lab at UCLA. "There was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded", says Dr. Klein." When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly 90% of the stress research is on males. I showed her the data from my lab, and the two of us knew instantly that we were onto something." The women cleared their schedules and started meeting with one scientist after another from various research specialties.

Very quickly, Drs. Klein and Taylor discovered that by not including women in stress research, scientists had made a huge mistake: The fact that women respond to stress differently than men has significant implications for our health. It may take some time for new studies to reveal all the ways that oxytocin encourages us to care for children and hang out with other women, but the "tend and befriend" notion developed by Drs. Klein and Taylor may explain why women consistently outlive men. Study after study has found that social ties reduce our risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. "There's no doubt," says Dr. Klein, "that friends are helping us live."

In one study, for example, researchers found that people who had no friends increased their risk of death over a 6-month period. In another study, those who had the most friends over a 9-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%. Friends are also helping us live better. The famed Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life. In fact, the results were so significant, the researchers concluded, that not having close friends or confidantes was as detrimental to your health as smoking or carrying extra weight! And that's not all! When the researchers looked at how well the women functioned after the death of their spouse, they found that even in the face of this biggest stressor of all, those women who had a close friend confidante were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality. Those without friends were not always so fortunate.

Yet, if friends counter the stress that seems to swallow up so much of our life these days, if they keep us healthy and even add years to our life, why is it so hard to find time to be with them? That's a question that also troubles researcher Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., co-author of "Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships (Three Rivers Press, 1998). "Every time we get overly busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of friendships with other women," explains Dr. Josselson. "We push them right to the back burner. That's really a mistake because women are such a source of strength to each other. We nurture one another. We need to have un-pressured space in which we can do the special kind of talk that women do when they're withother women. It's a very healing experience."

Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R.A.R., & Updegraff, J. A. (2000). "Female Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight", Psychological Review, 107(3), 41-429.