Yesterday could be considered Candlemass (nowadays equated with the Celtic cross-quarter day of Imbolc - coming about halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox); which a festival of burgeoning light (here, about an extra hour and a half per day, since the depths).
Symbolised by harbingers of spring, if not spring itself - such as Hazel catkins and the Snowdrop flower - who first put-in an appearance a couple of weeks ago, but is now making its presence felt (at least in the city; it will not begin to peak in the countryside for a couple more weeks).
It happened to be a rare day of mostly-clear skies; very welcome after a few weeks of cloud-cover and sharp showers.
It was also the second full moon since the Solstice - and in the late evening she was almost dazzling, and cast a tremendous silver light.
Nearby was Jupiter which is currently exceptionally vivid: as bright as I have ever seen him, blazing almost as brightly as Venus usually does.
Candlemass is also associated with Ireland (and Glastonbury's) premier woman said: Brigid; who is regarded by many as having absorbed the character of a Celtic goddess of the same name.
My "chore" for the day was a bit of a clear-out; which included sorting through a mass of photographs taken in my twenties and before I got married - which was a mostly pleasant and nostalgic activity; being reminded of my former self, family, old friends, girlfriends (linking, perhaps - implicitly, with the Brigid theme), places, events...
And a phase of my young adult development during which I was taking (and printing for myself) pretentious soi disant artsy monochrome pix; accurately reflecting my own self-aggrandizing self-consciousness and underlying alienation.
But I was in a broadly forgiving mood; and my present nature therefore (graciously) forgave the rather obvious conceit and self-dramatizing qualities of my earlier personhood.
Altogether the day generated a diffuse sense of positive expectation: as if it were an auspicious day in a quasi-astrological sense...
Although, if so; I am unclear and sceptical about how such things might operate in this world and in real life.
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