Believe. Along with magic, it’s  a word that is very much part of the vernacular of this season. For many it’s all about flying reindeer and red-garbed individuals who leave presents. For others there are vague references to believing in the spirit of this season. For our ancestors there was nothing vague about it. Animals could shape shift and fly. Magic was a truth. And beyond wistful belief there was a certainty of knowing that Spirit and spirits are real. How things have changed as Fiona Macleod observed and chronicled in the late 1890s.

“In the maelstrom of the cities, the old race perishes, drowns. How common the foolish utterance of narrow lives, that all these old ways of thought are superstitious. To have a superstition is, for these, a worse ill than to have a shrunken soul. I do not believe in spells and charms and foolish incantations, but I think that ancient wisdom out of the simple and primitive heart of an older time is not an ill heritage; and if to believe in the power of the spirit is to be superstitious, I am well content to be of the company that is now forsaken.”       Fiona Macleod

Fiona, woman of the faery realms, I cast my lot with you. Well content to be of the company that is much forsaken. At the same time I am heartened that these words of believe and magic still live in this sacred season. And hopeful they will continue to touch and inspire people with their power and possibility. Inspire: to inflame, to breathe into, to fill. May we open to, breathe deeply, and be filled by the light of this and all seasons. May we rekindle the flame of magic. May we believe. May we know!