{"id":966,"date":"2007-12-22T16:29:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-22T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=966"},"modified":"2007-12-22T16:29:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-22T16:29:00","slug":"solo-mountain-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=966","title":{"rendered":"Solo Mountain Solstice"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

“Sunrise” in the mountains is a malleable moment. You rise and dress for the -5 F (-20 C). weather, taking a hiking staff and the drum case.<\/p>\n

You walk the trail up the east ridge, then shoulder through a grove of Gambel oak until you can see the Sun’s glow.<\/p>\n

Start drumming softly. A Steller’s jay is the only other voice. Faithful Dog snuffles and crunches in the snow. Less Faithful Dog has already gone her own way, following fox tracks through the forest.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, not one car is moving on the state highway down in the valley.<\/p>\n

The Sun is on your face now. After a time, having thought on what you need for the new solar cycle, you follow your tracks back down. Less Faithful Dog is on the front porch, all wiggly and cheerful.<\/p>\n

The temperature has climbed to 0 F. <\/p>\n

Best wishes to my readers for a happy and productive solar year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Sunrise” in the mountains is a malleable moment. You rise and dress for the -5 F (-20 C). weather, taking a hiking staff and the drum case. You walk the trail up the east ridge, then shoulder through a grove of Gambel oak until you can see the Sun’s glow. Start drumming softly. A Steller’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-yule"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-fA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5924,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5924","url_meta":{"origin":966,"position":0},"title":"New Article on Polish Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Via Scott Simpson, who is quoted in it, \"Pre-Christian Slavic Beliefs are on the Rise in Poland\" (PDF file), from the Krakow Post. \u201cThe native faith movement as a whole is loosely organised and doesn\u2019t have a strong dogmatic component, it is actually less about faith \u2013 as in \u2018correct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":920,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=920","url_meta":{"origin":966,"position":1},"title":"Deities Scramble after Bus Crash","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This puts a new spin on the phrase \"rush hour of the gods.\"In the gods' haste to resolve the matter, some of the souls were apparently misplaced. In one instance, an adherent of Buddhism slated to be reborn into an Ohio family was temporarily reincarnated as a tree sloth. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"polytheism\"","block_context":{"text":"polytheism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=polytheism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":449,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=449","url_meta":{"origin":966,"position":2},"title":"Ojo de dios","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue, no. 65, of Shaman's Drum reprints a portion of Visions of a Huichol Shaman by the anthropologist Peter Furst.Furst has spent much time among the Huicholes, who live in Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and who are sometimes considered one of the least-Christianized tribes. Their religious use of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"New Mexico\"","block_context":{"text":"New Mexico","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=new-mexico"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10390,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10390","url_meta":{"origin":966,"position":3},"title":"Norse “Chess” Pieces Reveal an Ancient Whale Hunt","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The ancient Norse loved the game of hnefatafl, in which a king's faithful followers try to protect him against raiding forces, which pretty well describes so much of early medieval politics. An article in Smithsonian, however, suggests that these game pieces \"were the product of early industrial whaling. If so,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"history\"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com\/9o4yksMkWj0rJFQNOIqloAtcOQc%3D\/800x600\/filters%3Ano_upscale%28%29\/https%3A\/\/public-media.si-cdn.com\/filer\/c9\/6e\/c96ed25b-63b6-43f2-afc8-3c52e5809a52\/header-viking-game-pieces.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com\/9o4yksMkWj0rJFQNOIqloAtcOQc%3D\/800x600\/filters%3Ano_upscale%28%29\/https%3A\/\/public-media.si-cdn.com\/filer\/c9\/6e\/c96ed25b-63b6-43f2-afc8-3c52e5809a52\/header-viking-game-pieces.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com\/9o4yksMkWj0rJFQNOIqloAtcOQc%3D\/800x600\/filters%3Ano_upscale%28%29\/https%3A\/\/public-media.si-cdn.com\/filer\/c9\/6e\/c96ed25b-63b6-43f2-afc8-3c52e5809a52\/header-viking-game-pieces.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com\/9o4yksMkWj0rJFQNOIqloAtcOQc%3D\/800x600\/filters%3Ano_upscale%28%29\/https%3A\/\/public-media.si-cdn.com\/filer\/c9\/6e\/c96ed25b-63b6-43f2-afc8-3c52e5809a52\/header-viking-game-pieces.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=381","url_meta":{"origin":966,"position":4},"title":"The loneliness of the long-distance\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The loneliness of the long-distance columnistJason Pitz-Waters looks at some of the press coverage that newWitch magazine is receiving and wonders why no one mentions his music column.Ain't it the truth. You shoot these columns off into the dark and wonder if anyone ever reads them.Some years back, I wrote\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1710,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1710","url_meta":{"origin":966,"position":5},"title":"Should You ‘Out’ Yourself as Pagan?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at Pagan + Politics the call is for everyone to \"out\" themselves for the good of the movement or something: I did notice that those who are in the \u201ccome out, come out, where ever you are\u201d camp are becoming more vocal about the need for the majority of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Subaru plastered with Pagan bumper stickers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/wiccacar1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}