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Winter Festivals--Offerings for Cara
Winter Festivals.
Looking for info on the Winter Solstice,
inspired by CARA H. CADWALLADER,
who is orchestrating
CELEBRATE SOLSTICE RAIN DANCE
8 PM- Midnight, December 19,
at the EVEOKE DANCE THEATRE.
Date: 12/15/2009 6:36:30 AM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 1531 times
SEED DREAM STATION
at CELEBRATE SOLSTICE RAIN DANCE
What crops will you imagine tonight
that you will grow in the season ahead?
What seeds will you plant tonight?
4:33 AM
December 15, 09
This is from STEVEN MCFADDEN.
I came upon his work during the time
I was actively involved in the acknowledgemen
of the HARMONIC CONVERGENCE, 1987.
http://www.chiron-communications.com/winterfestival.html
FROM MCFADDEN AT THE ABOVE LINK
For most of us, for much of the world, the heart of Winter Festival lies obscured behind the veil of outer celebration. Yet the veil is translucent. Through it, with a willful gaze, we may behold the mystery of the low-hanging Sun as it seems to stop, heralding the onset of the north wind and the clear, hard bite of winter. Through the veil we also may sense something else just beyond our grasp – something vast, poignant, resonant.
Through the twelve holy nights from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the night sky reveals itself with sparkling clarity. Yet darkness dominates. We are called upon not to shrink from the darkness and silence, but to embrace them — to step out at night under the starry firmament and behold its majesty in awed silence. In this way we receive fully the blessings of the light sent down.
Farmers may walk their fields on these nights, imagining the crops that will grow in the season ahead; writers, painters and musicians may hear the muses sing more engagingly; every person has the opportunity to capture the living vision anew – to gaze outward at the stars, and to be filled with their burgeoning light.
Although little appreciated for this attribute, festivals are an effective way for us to connect with basic spiritual realities, and to be reminded of our highest aspirations. Festivals stand as potent opportunities for human beings to make gestures and enact deeds — alone, with our families, and with our community — and thereby uplift and sustain the larger culture while the earth cycles round the sun. This is because, rightly timed, festivals occur at the ‘points between.’
-- If we do not wakefully intend,
we are subconsciously compelled --
The basic pattern of a rhythm is simple enough: activity-rest/activity-rest/activity-rest. Yet there are distinctions, variations, accents, and permutations. These are punctuated by celebration at various festival times: the planting festival, the harvest festival, the thanksgiving festival, and so forth — all natural to the life of a healthy community.
When we fall out of harmony with nature's rhythms, there is a conflict, or arrhythmia, that eventually manifests itself in our lives in a perceptible way as a physical malady or a psychological disturbance.
As individuals and as a culture, we need strength, inspiration, and reaffirmation of the deep truths so we can begin to live their goodness out in our daily lives and so help to restore balance to the planet. There's not much doubt of that.
When entered into consciously and respectfully, festival can be one of our most powerful tools for bringing our lives into harmony with a larger natural rhythm. I see The Winter Festival as a key to this understanding, for even though the mystery is said to be at its deepest in this time, the veils are exceedingly thin.
THE THEME OF DESECRATION OF THE TEMPLE
CHANUKAH
TIMELINE
http://www.ou.org/chagim/chanukah/timeline.htm
Table of Important Dates
During Second Temple Era*
Timeline below based on ArtScroll Mesorah Series "Chanukah - Its History, Observance, and Significance"
OU Editors Note:
There is a conflict among Jewish historians as to the date of the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians. The timeline presented below shows 423 B.C.E. as the date. The other well-known date is 163 years earlier, in 586 B.C.E.
Thus, there exists a 163-year gap in the timeline of Jewish History, with that period of time lying in the period of the First Temple. What happened in those missing years, or whether there are, in fact, missing years, is an unresolved mystery.
3338/423 B.C.E. Destruction of First Temple and beginning of Babylonian Exile
3389/372 B.C.E. Babylon falls to Medes and Persians under Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Great of Persia
3391/370 B.C.E. Cyrus reigns; permits Jews to return to Eretz Yisrael
3408/353 B.C.E. Darius the Persian permits Jews to rebuild Temple
3442/319 B.C.E. Beginning of Greek era
3448/313 B.C.E. Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty rules Eretz Yisrael
3562/199 B.C.E. Antiochus III the Great, scion of the Seleucid dynasty and ruler of Syria, wrests Eretz Yisrael from Egypt
3571/190 B.C.E. Rome defeats Antiochus III at Magnesia
3586/175 B.C.E. Antiochus IV reigns
3594/168 B.C.E. Desecration of Temple by Antiochus
3597/165 B.C.E. Conquest of Temple by Hasmoneans, the miracle of Chanukah
ALSO MENTIONS THE DESICRATION OF THE TEMPLE
Brief Historical Overview
In the second century BCE, during the time of the Second Temple, the Syrian-Greek empire, under the emperor Antiochus, began a systematic suppression of the Jewish religion.
The Jewish rebellion against this oppression began as a small revolt led by the Chasmonean family, Mattityahu HaKohen and his five sons. When Mattityahu died he was succeeded by his son, Yehudah HaMakabee.
Yehuda led the Jews to victory, driving the Greeks out of Jerusalem. The Jews were then able to clean the Temple and to resume the Temple service. This took place on the 25th of Kislev.
At this point the famous "Miracle of Chanukah" took place. Part of the Temple service is the lighting of the Menorah. This requires ritually pure olive oil. Due to the Greek desecration of the Temple no such oil could be found except for one small container which contained enough oil to last for one day.
Since it would take eight days to get the required new oil this was a serious problem. The Jews used this oil for the first day and it miraculously lasted for the full eight days till new oil was available.
The Jewish victory celebrated on Chanukah was primarily a religious victory, it ended the suppression of Judaism. The holiday of Chanukah is named after the rededication of the Holy Temple, Chanukah means "dedication ceremony" or "inauguration".
DEDICATION CEREMONY....
REDEDICTION OF THE HOLY TEMPLE
http://www.ahavat-israel.com/torat/chanukah.php
THE HOLY TEMPLE ESOTERICALLY
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