A Winter Solstice tale for you: Winters Child There was once a couple who had been married a long time and had longed for a child of their own, but had never been so blessed. One day in early Spring the woman found an injured hare huddled in the doorway of the farm where they lived, the poor doe had been attacked by a fox in the night and had sought sanctuary in the farmyard. The woman was a kindly person and brought the doe into the warm kitchen and placed her in a basket by the stove. She washed and treated her wounds with healing herbs and fed her with her own hands and spoke soothingly to her until after a few days the hare had fully recovered and could be released back into the world outside. When she opened the kitchen door the hare sprang out of the basket and ran outside, she lifted her head to sniff the fresh clean air and let the bright Spring sunshine bathe her face. At the garden gate the doe turned to the woman, bowed her head in a solemn blessing and then spoke. Blessings be upon you mother, said the hare, For your kindness in saving my life and the life of the kits within me, I will bestow life upon your womb. You will give birth to a daughter at the Winter Solstice. A child to love and bring you joy, but a child for a season only. As we hares have short lives, so your time with your child will be limited, and at the time of her twelfth birthday she will return to us. And with a final bow, the doe sprang out through the garden gate and away across the fields. Just as the hare predicted a few weeks later the woman did indeed realise she was pregnant, and at the time of the Winter Solstice she laboured long through the dark night to bring forth a daughter. The man and his wife were overjoyed and filled with love for their magical child. She grew to be a beautiful and ethereal child with silver blonde hair like the light of the moon, and pale blue eyes like frost on grass. She was very sweet and loving and had the gift of healing, bringing home many small animals and birds to heal and nurture, and she returned her parents love a thousand-fold. But she was also a very lonely child. Because they were aware that they would only have their child for a short while, the couple wanted to spend every moment with her and were loath to share her with any other person. So that the child lived with them on their farm and saw no other children, not even going to school, but being taught at home by her mother. Now the farm was in a remote place with only fields and woods surrounding it, except for an ancient hill topped by a ring of standing stones that could be seen from the upper windows of the farmhouse, and at the full moon each month, the light of the moon would illuminate the stones and the girl would lean out of her bedroom window to watch the hares leaping and dancing on the hill in and around the stones themselves. And she longed to go and dance with them. Every night of the full moon the yearning to run with the hares would grow stronger and stronger, only to wane away as the moon passed its peak, and growing again with the new moon. The strongest pull being the Snow moon, the full moon at midwinter. During the Autumn before her twelfth birthday the pull of the full moon became stronger and stronger, and even though her parents hugged her for longer and wanted and wished to hold her closer, they felt her change and begin to pull away from them. Until on the night of Midwinter, which happened to be a full moon that year, as the girl leant out of her window to watch the hares, a bright shaft of moonlight bathed her and she changed in an instant into a doe. She sprang out of her window to the porch roof, from there to the garden and ran to the gate. At the last moment she turned, looked up to her parents bedroom and saw them watching her. She bowed her blessing to them for the love and care she had received and then she turned and ran over the fields to the hill and the stones and the hares, where she leaped and danced for joy.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 13:17:21 +0000
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