Notes Wendi: "In winter the hares fur turns pale to provide better camouflage in the snow. Ever watchful ever fearful, I love the sensitivities of these creatures. Sadly, we don't see many hares here in Cornwall these days. I find their demeanour of mystery and silence inspiring and intriguing."
Image: Subject and photographer unknown.
. . . In connecting with the natural world in a way that honors the sacred immanent in all things, we establish a resonance with the seasons. Ritual helps to shift our consciousness to reflect the outer world inside our inner landscape: the sun stands still within us, and time changes. After the longest night, we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished. Sol Invictus – the Unconquered Sun – is seen once again, staining the horizon with the promise of hope and brilliance.
We need to see that light. We need to feel that hope remains in the world, even in the face of young children shot dead in a classroom, or in a village after drone strikes, even in the face of rising waters and devastated forests. The sun is our symbol of that hope. Day and night dance together in the cosmos, just as beauty and fear dance among us every day.
As 21st century people, do we really think the sun won't rise again? We don't. Yet kindling our small fires and gathering in the darkness feels important. Singing up the coming light is a balm for the embattled soul. These rituals remind us that in the midst of the worst pain that can be inflicted, some things are still whole. Some things are still beautiful. Some things continue to occur, in all their beauty, no matter what else is happening on this earth.
Image: "Luna Moon Hare at the Winter Solstice" by Wendy Andrew.
Measuring 7 1/4" in diameter, Royal Copenhagen's 1971 Christmas Plate is entitled "Hare in Winter." Kai Lange is credited as the artist on the back of the plate. It is number 64 in a series of Christmas plates issued since 1908 in limited quantities. The master model is always destroyed at the end of each year.
Royal Copenhagen's "Hare in Winter" plate can often be found for sale on sites such as E-bay and MyVintageChina.com.
Image: Subject and photographer unknown.
Writes textile artist Sharon Blackman: "All my pictures are made entirely by hand using recycled textiles. I love reusing a favourite old shirt or vintage buttons and trimmings, making each artwork completely unique. I have a quirky naive style, never using patterns or templates and cutting directly into the fabric and stitching everything by hand."
To view more of Sharon's beautiful artwork, visit her website.
Image: Subject and photographer unknown.
In ancient Greek and Roman [times] . . . the male hare was thought capable of bearing young and, perhaps for this reason, was associated with both transgenderism and same-sex eroticism. The poet Philostratus writes: "And let not the hare escape us, but let us . . . catch it alive as an offering most pleasing to Aphrodite . . . the hare . . . possesses the gift of Aphrodite [i.e. fertility] to an unusual degree . . . As for the male [hare], he not only [sires offspring], but also himself bears young, contrary to nature." Men desiring other men, having "found in the hare a certain power to produce love," give hares as gifts, "attempting to secure the objects of their affections by a compelling magic art."
Image: Roman Hare Mosaic (350 CE).
Image: Subject and photographer unknown.
