We are now at the half-way point between the equinox and solstice, those places that the ancient Celts thought of as the hinges of the year. In the north, the dark increases as we celebrate the November Cross Quarter High Day (called Samhain by the Celts), while in the south, the light increases as we celebrate that same Cross-Quarter High day, but which is called Beltane by those self-same Celts.

Two strikingly different holidays, celebrated at the same time but in different hemispheres. How can we possibly feel like one folk, we ask, when our holidays don’t even match! How can some of us celebrate the return of summer and green and light while the rest of us celebrate our sacred dead while we look forward to the return of the sun in our darkening skies?

Not hard, as the Celts would say.

Time is cyclical, following the wheel of the year through the seasons. There is no beginning or end of time but rather continuing cycles – birth-death-rebirth, and spring-summer-autumn-winter-spring being the most obvious ones. And what things may these cycles hold in common?

Balance is one of these. And the entire cosmos seeks balance.

Life is balanced by death. Dark is balanced by light. Male is balanced by female. We all hold these opposites within ourselves, to varying degrees. And in our seasons, summer is balanced by winter, and autumn by spring. These things are all parts of a harmonious whole.

So when we have the beginning of winter in the north, we have the beginning of summer in the south. Without one we cannot have the other. Our members in the south help balance out our members in the north, so that we may all be part of a harmonious whole. And we, the folk of ADF, personify part of that harmonious whole.

As we stand between equinox and solstice, let us ask our Kindreds for Their blessings upon us all, that we, as one folk, may live well in balance and harmony with the Earth and each other. So be it!