Last night was the Winter Solstice and the first phase of the Full Moon so that meant I wanted to do something to celebrate. I have been seeing so many crafts that use dried out oranges strung together and I love looking at them, so I decided I wanted to do it myself. I got two oranges – I tried to pick ones that were hard and wouldn’t be great for eating but excellent for crafts – I sliced them up thinly and put them in the oven at 170F or 60C with a bit of nutmeg and cloves on top. It took me a really long time, about six hours, turning every two hours for them to be remotely dried out. After that I was so tired that I turned off the oven and let them dry out over night without any heat. While the oranges were drying and night had just begun to set in, so I went outside with my dad and we went out looking for some thin bendable twigs to weave together. We found quite a few and brought them inside, setting them beside the fire place to dry out because they were covered in snow. We let those dry out and the oranges dry out. I spent the night getting some weaving done – my dad decided to teach me a few techniques so that I can use my homemade loom (more information on that later).
Once the twigs were dry I began to weave them together… well I tried. In the end I got my dad to actually do most of the work because it is a lot harder than it seems and I definitely need more practice. We did our best to make a wreath and on the inside we decided to put a pentagram and make a pentacle. Sitting down and doing this I decided to ask them what goals and ideas they had for the next year. The Winter Solstice has great significance for rest and rebirth. Resting as this is a season that outside work lulls and rebirth as it is the longest night of the year. The longest night of the year gives birth to the sun and from now on we will have growing days. So for me it was a day of thinking about the goals for next year. Most of which surround my art and my growing interest in paganism.
This became just the bones of our dreams and ideas, as my mom termed it. As the oranges weren’t done that night so we couldn’t really decorate it. Instead we decided to make this a three day project. The first night was constructing the skeleton. Just telling our ideas and goals, allowing ourselves to voice what we wanted aloud. The next day was decoration and putting the flesh on the wreath. That was amazingly fun. Finally my oranges were dry, so I grabbed those and some cranberries while my dad made some popcorn and we sat in front of the fire place and began to make our chains. Each of us did a different pattern to our chain. At this point we discussed how we could make our goals happen. Rather then just talking about wants and needs, it was time to think about how to take action to make it happen. This was the energy going into the wreath. Our energy and thoughts becoming a physical manifestation. Maybe just as decorations but it was symbolic for our little monkey brains.
We wrapped the chains around the wreath and have hung it up on the wall for the day. The next day will be burning the wreath as it is the third phase of the Full Moon. Burning the wreath symbolizes our energy being released to be used actively towards our goals in the coming year. Sometimes we get a bit stagnate and we never look inwards about the things we actually want to accomplish. It all just feels like we are going through the motions/checklist of what society has laid out to do. And once we look inwards we can sometimes falter when it comes to putting that dream towards being physically manifested. Last night was a great time to do this. While it is good to do it all the time, using a holiday as an excuse can help us journey into ourselves on a regular day. It is practice and it is a celebration.
Happy Winter Solstice!
Check out my Insta for more art: @piercingmooncreations And I just got the Pagan and Wiccan Amino app which is great for getting information on anything Pagan and Wiccan. I also got the Witch Amino app, again, so much useful information. My username is Arwyn181 on both of those, my usual screen name on the Internet. Come check me and the apps out.