https://spectra.video/videos/watch/74591a55-bea8-4197-913f-ab9c331e8f23 The old calendars divide the year into 8 seasons marked by the Solstices, Equinoxes and the Cross-quarter days between. The cross-quarter day near the beginning of August marks the mid-point between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox- the peak of summer, beginning of harvest and the first signs of Autumn. In the ancient Latvian tradition, this is Summer Māra, for the Great Goddess, Great Mother, responsible for earthy things like birth, death, soil, water. The most ancient roles of the goddesses have become a bit muddled (you can find divergent claims) and either overlapped or split into multiple aspects personalities. However, in her role as the greatest goddess, I feel she descends from the truly ancient Bird Goddess described by Marija Gimbutas. So I use a figure from my Mother's Penguin collection to represent her on this altar filled with the flowers of the season- plus a few berries etc, plus wood and stone to represent her flesh/Earth. (I'd usually include more fruit etc as a nod to harvest season, but it was not a good year for many berries/fruit with a Tent Caterpillar population boom!) I'll be working on a longer video of the garden and wild plants of this time, laying of the altar and more. Music excerpt: Redding Rainbow - Benjamin Andrews from the YouTube Audio Library Thu, 29 Oct 2026 09:36:12 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://spectra.video https://spectra.video/lazy-static/avatars/71f5d173-eea9-47a7-b254-f7e91f9f5d25.png https://spectra.video/videos/watch/74591a55-bea8-4197-913f-ab9c331e8f23 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://spectra.video/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.