Fire & Ice, Winter Solstice Celebration, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2010, photos © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Sitting, staring out the window. The Hairy Woodpecker has found our suet feeder. This year we moved the deck feeders two feet South to protect them from the squirrels. The rodents can jump about 4 feet from the deck rail to the feeders if they put their minds to it. I love the woodpeckers and am happy they have found a safe place to feed for the Winter.
Last night we celebrated Winter Solstice. 
Letting go of what we want to leave in the Dark, making conscious choices about what to bring into the Light. I was quiet, more withdrawn than usual. Liz wore the Bear this year. I loved watching her dance down the path, calmly and playfully.
The night was cloudy, with a frigid West Wind blowing right into our faces. My fingers grew numb; I pulled them into my coat to keep warm. Homemade ice candles lit the path down to the fire ring. We didn’t hear the coyotes. Or the Great Horned Owl from last year. There were times when we stood by the fire in complete Silence. Other moments when drums and rattles were going full force. The drummer in me is happy at these rituals.
Morning finds me tired, sore, smelling like smoke from last year’s Yule tree. 
It’s 4 degrees as I type. A powerful Solstice is a day away. What makes it so potent is something that has not happened in 450 years — the combination of a Winter Solstice Blue Moon (the original meaning of a Blue Moon was Four Full Moons in one season) which coincides with a Total Lunar Eclipse.
According to NASA, an eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth’s 
shadow. Unlike a Solar Eclipse, it is safe to view with the naked eye. From a Shamanic perspective, the Total Lunar Eclipse collapses time and accelerates what’s already in motion. The rare Winter Solstice Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse is a time that creates maximum synchronization of Solar and Lunar cycles, strengthening the power and intensity of the Sun and Moon together. When this happens the New Year brings increased understanding of a larger cycle of events at work in the world, and of lineage, the knowledge passed down from the Ancients.
Here are the times for Solstice & Eclipse events in Minnesota (CST):
Total Eclipse of the Moon — Tuesday, December 21st, 1:41am to 2:53am CST
Full Blue Moon in Gemini — Tuesday, December 21st, 2:13am CST
Winter Solstice 2010 — Tuesday, December 21st, at 5:38pm CST
Hours to view the reddish hues of the eclipsed December Moon vary, depending on where you live. In Europe and the eastern United States and Canada (time zones AST, 
EST and CST), the entire eclipse occurs during the early morning hours of December 21, 2010. For the western United States and Canada (time zones MST and PST), the eclipse begins before midnight on the night of December 20, and ends sometime after midnight on the morning of December 21. In Alaska and Hawaii (time zones AKST and HST), most of the eclipse occurs on the night of December 20, but ends early on December 21.
You can find official times in your area at Mr. Eclipse and a detailed breakdown of the phases of this year’s Winter Solstice Total Lunar Eclipse. If you don’t feel like braving the elements, NASA is providing a live webcam at their site.
Another year is coming to a close. The frost on our windows tells me Winter is here to stay. We have had a cold December. One that finds pleasure in mimicking the sub-zero temps we usually see in January. And the snow! Almost three feet of it. Last weekend we were digging out. This weekend, back to the mundane chores of living. Chop wood, carry water. You can’t get away from it. Blue sky peeks over the oaks and ash. The woodpecker has flown from the feeder; a Lunar Eclipse is on the way.
2004 Lunar Eclipse Sequence, (c) 2004 Fred Espenak, courtesy Fred Espenak, Mr. Eclipse at http://www.mreclipse.com
-posted on red Ravine, Monday, December 20th, 2010 , partially based on a Sunday Writing Practice about Frost
redravine.wordpress.com 
Interesting about 4 full moons in a season – I had only heard of two full moons in a month – for the Blue Moon.
Yes the Maya say it accelerates things in motion – but have much respect and are very wary because it seems to accelerate the negative – they all stay inside during an Eclipse.
My teacher has advised us to STAY INSIDE.
Lets be optimistic and don’t worry too much as we are in a Mayan day again which started in Nov and accelerated everything 10-20 times already and the new long count starts very soon. Its darkest before the dawn but next year 2011 there will be a small glow starting before the sun actually rises in 2013.
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Lizzie was the bear? Oh, I’m sad to have missed that. I love this time of year, too. Quiet. Reflective. Deep.
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medicinemeninmexico, I was surprised by the original meaning of Blue Moon as well. Make sense to me though. It’s wild that the Full Lunar Eclipse and Winter Solstice have not happened together since around 1638. I just heard on the news that 1.5 billion will watch at least part of the Total Eclipse of the Moon tonght. I had not heard that the eclipse accelerates the negative. But I guess if it’s going to affect the positive, it will affect the negative, too. Shadow is the other side of Light. I do plan to stay inside. But it’s mostly because we’re in the middle of a blizzard in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, USA. It’s been snowing, blowing, and gray all day. Visibility is only a quarter mile right now. So I won’t be viewing much of the December Blue Moon tonight! Hope you have a good Winter Solstice.
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Teri, it was an unexpected turn of events that Lizzie was Bear on Solstice. She wore Bear well. Wish you had been there. We missed you. Isn’t this snowstorm today a wild way to bring in Winter Solstice? I spent all day driving around in it. I am happy to be home and socked in. I might watch the Total Eclipse of the Moon on the live NASA webcam if I can stay up. And if the clouds part! Happy Solstice. I hope it’s a good one for you.
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Oh, I should mention that I saw Woodpecker today during lunch. She loves our suet feeder. It was a beautiful sight during this blizzardy snowstorm! I have come to know her call well.
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Hi QM. Great post about this amazing event. We plan to stay up for it. I have a book to read, and I suppose if I doze off, Jim will wake me up. We’ll see it in its full glory (when the moon turns red) between 12-1. Will be thinking of you then.
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I missed this lunar eclipse, our flat faces the wrong way and ground level was too low to see anything. But i watched the last lunar eclipse from start to finish from our living room window, wonderful sight.
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Missed the eclipse because of the heavy cloud cover. Last night for the solstice the moon came out for a few hours before the clouds moved back in. Today (Wednesday) the temps have dropped into the upper thirties for a high and the possibility of snow tomorrow and Friday.
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ybonesy, did you end up seeing the Total Lunar Elipse in New Mexico on Solstice? I thought about you because I woke up right in the middle of it. It was cloudy and gray in the Twin Cities so we could not see a thing. Snow was heavy that night.
I woke up around 2:15am, right near when the December Blue Moon would have been full. And about center of the Eclipse. Don’t remember my dreams or anything from the rest of the night. All I know is that I feel things turning. Hope you and Jim enjoyed it!
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Juliet, that must have been a treat to see the last Lunar Eclipse from start to finish. Did it have the red hues?
Bob, we were grayed in in Minneapolis as well. It’s been in the 30’s the last few days. It was COLD the night we celebrated Winter Solstice — last Saturday. That night it was also cloudy and gray. But there was a moment when we were drumming that the almost Full Moon peeked out from behind the clouds and sat there in all her Lunar splendor. Felt like one of those magical moments. Last year, we heard a Great Horned Owl during one of the silences in the drumming on Solstice. I love those little synchronicities. Happy Solstice week!
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QM, the lunar eclipse started at about 11:50 or thereabouts here in NM, and so we got up and went outside and begin watching. We saw the shadow creep across the moon starting in the bottom left-hand corner. There was cloud cover but for the first about 15 minutes we could see it happening. Then the clouds got too thick to watch. We must have stayed out there until about quarter past midnight. We went back out every few minutes up until almost 1 just to see if we could see anything. We did notice how the light in the sky behind the clouds changed. We were so bummed to not see the full eclipse, which would have taken place right around 12:30 am. 😦
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