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Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's nearly Summer Solstice. Thankfully, the Texas heat has (mostly) held off so far, and we've enjoyed some lovely temperate days. The full force of the Sun will surely arrive after the Solstice, but it's been a nice respite to have our days in the 80s and low 90s.Here in the high, bright days of June, the Winter Solstice seems very far off indeed.

As we approach the midpoint of the year, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on what it is I'm trying to create in my life, what I'm trying to manifest, and what I want for my future. My companion this week is a Winter Goddess, Berchta. Worshiped throughout what is now Germany, and one of the patrons of Midwinter, Berchta is thought to oversee spinning.  Cloaked in her mantle of snow, and sometimes pictured with swan's feet, Berchta is also the guardian of beasts and of mothers. (Her celebration at Winter Solstice is known as Mother's Night.) She is a great teacher and an initiator. And like other Goddesses associated with spinning, including the Fates and the Norns, she is also a Goddess of Destiny.

Maybe I should be a little worried that a Goddess whose message is about communication showed up while Mercury is in retrograde. Those who know me know that I have a hard time restraining my tongue and my rather...strong...opinions at the best of times, and during a Merc Retro I'm even worse. My patience runs very short and my "filter," which is porous enough on a regular day, goes down entirely. Add in that I'm someone who makes much of her living with words, whether by lecturing in front of a classroom, writing articles, or blogging, and anything that interferes with communication can wreak all sorts of havoc in my life.

But Oya, Yoruba Goddess/Orisha of the Winds -- is my guide for this week, and I've learned in my time working with the Goddess that you don't resist. When She wants to talk, She will be heard. And that goes double for the Orishas.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu. While I don't work with the Japanese deities at all in my own practice, one of the most moving public rituals that I have ever assisted with was an ordination of a priestess of Amaterasu. It was a Midsummer over 15 years ago, a hot and humid Texas Midsummer where it had been well over 100 degrees. (It was the summer of 1998, where we had over 100 consecutive days of over 100 degree temperatures.) But it wasn't the heat that made it memorable. It was the fact that the priestess we ordained was born in a male body, but identified as a priestess. Others had refused to recognize his -- the pronoun he preferred -- priestesshood, but my circle agreed to do so. It was a beautiful, powerful moment of someone stepping into power and being supported by community. Ever since then, I've associated Amaterasu with stepping into our full beauty -- a message especially important to queer and gender nonconforming people.

It made me smile that Amaterasu appeared in my cards on this first Sunday of June, which is also the first Sunday of Pride Month.

As I often do in hard times, I turned to my oracle decks in search of some insight and some comfort after the horrific events in Santa Barbara this week. I expected a Goddess of Justice, like Athena, or a Goddess of Healing, like Sulis, to appear. So imagine my surprise when Erzulie, Vodou Lwa of Love and Luxury (among much else) made herself known to me.

When Sekhmet, The Mighty One, roared into my cards this week, I didn't even know what to say. Sekhmet encourages to get in touch with our anger and our rage and use it to transform our lives and our situations. As someone who wrestles with depression -- "anger turned inward," as the saying goes -- giving free range to my anger and rage is sometimes frightening. And given that American society's response to a woman with strong emotions and opinions, a woman who shows anger, is typically to dismiss her as irrational and thus not worth listening to, letting my inner Sekhmet out is something I've been strongly socialized to avoid.

But she is here to visit, in all her lion-headed majesty....

It's not an easy few days around here. Finals time is always stressful, between the piles of papers and exams to grade, soothing freaked-out students, and trying to get all the end of academic year paperwork turned in. Add in that I had a sudden and unexpected -- and still bewildering -- falling out with an old friend, that I'm staring at a summer with no teaching income, and that I'm just plain tired, and its all too easy to fall into a spiral of negative thinking. I've been really working to stay positive, to see my teaching-free summer as a great opportunity to build my business and do some much-needed writing, to trust that things will work out as they should. I know too well what happens when I let myself go down the rabbit hole of negative thinking -- nothing good, to put it mildly.

The Universe definitely wanted to send me a message along those lines this week, because Aditi, the Hindu Mother Goddess, came up in my cards this week:

It's the first week of May, which -- along with Beltaine -- means it's finals time. Now that I'm a professor I'm on the "grading" rather than the "taking" side of the exams, but I'm not entirely sure that makes things less stressful! In the midst of all the finals time tasks -- grading papers, answering panicked emails, crafting review sheets and exams, and generally wrapping up my classes -- I've been surfing a wave of inspiration for new ideas for my Etsy shop, my Tarot blog, more metaphysical classes I want to offer, and various writing projects I want to undertake. It is quite like me to get very inspired when I have a pile of rather mundane tasks to square away.

When Brigit came up as the Goddess for this week, it was a bit like meeting an old friend. Brigit (or Brighid) has been one Goddess I've worked with consistently in my practice. I like her triune nature, as patroness of poetry, smithcraft, and midwifery. I appreciate that she is the one who brings imbas, the fire in the head that is inspiration. The first circle I ever practiced with was dedicated to Her, and our major Sabbat celebration was Imbolc/Brighid. It will be nice to spend the next week with her, as I navigate the waters of both inspiration and obligation.