Photography, graphic design & stationery
Photographs in commission or delivered from the large photo archive of 3 decades black-and- white
and colour photography of Adriana Sjan Bijman, specialised in nature, flowers and landscapes,
ecology, community life at the Findhorn Foundation Community, people as well as organic farming and
gardening.
Adriana Sjan Bijman’s beautiful photographs have been used on record/CD/DVD covers, posters, leaflets
and magazines in Europe over many years. Have a look at her portfolio.
Participant and co-organiser of the Findhorn Craft Group
Celtic Festivals
The Wheel of the Year turns around and around. In the Celtic treadition there are eight Festivals, sun and moon festivals, to celebrate the seasons. In many cultures and traditions there have been celebrations at the change of seasons, as gratitude to nature, honouring the Godesses and Gods. On this page I show you my version of how I see them.
Adriana
Collect leaves, cut out your pumpkins, bake apples and light the candles during this time of transformation:
The Celtic New Year : Samhain
Oct 31st – Nov 2nd. You might also know it as Hallowe'en. For millennia people have been celebrating Samhain in this part of the world. Samhain is one of the eight main ancient festivals in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, as well as the year’s end. With Cailleach, the Crone Goddess of the Celtic World, we acknowledge the coming around of the year cycle. This is a time of decay, letting go, releasing the old to die and to be transformed. It is also a time to recall the memory of beloved ones who have gone before. It is said the veil that divides the worlds is thinner at this time. It is easier to feel the connection with the other realms if we open ourselves up to all the invisible beings in the spiritual world and the Nature kingdoms. Blessings and Gratitude for all Life.
Winter Solstice
The season passed, from the Autumn Equinox in September into the Winter Solstice on December 22nd, finishing with the Winter Solstice, one of the four Solar Festivals in the Wheel of the Year. Yule, as this Midwintertime is also called here in the north, is characterised by long dark nights, magic midwinter bonfires (to bring the light back) and evergreen decorations to inspire dormant plants to grow again.
Ancient images, deep in the collective consciousness, much older than Christianity, of the Mother Goddess giving birth to the Sun(God) abound. These form the basis of Christmas celebrations throughout the world. It is a time to go inwards, to walk the spiral or labyrinth, reflecting on our past year while welcoming the next.
At Findhorn this is a truly beautiful event. While waiting for the colourful Northern Lights (Areola Borealis) to appear in our skies, we enjoy the winter frost; and when we welcomed the New Year for the start of 2009 we also welcomed the Community Angel of "Surrender”. May the new year bring us closer together in our care and love for Mother Earth.
Spring- Imbolc
The Spring Festival in the Celtic Wheel of the Year at the 1st of February, is called Imbolc, or “Oimelc”; an older name relating to the milk of the ewes. The Goddess Brighid was central in Celtic agricultural. We still make Bridhed’s Crosses, woven from last year’s straw or wheat, hung around the house for protection. Imbolc is one of the four Fire festivals and the Maiden is central. Stories are told from a past with rituals around love and sex for the young unmarried girls. The Maiden, as one of the three aspects of the Mother Goddess, will become One with the Earth and become fertile (pregnant). The first sowings are done in honour of Brighid, the seed is blessed and good crops for the long growing season are asked for.
Spring Equinox
This solar festival is one of the four markers and stable points of the cosmic and Earth Energies. The Spring Equinox, or The Vernal, around 21st of March, is close to Mother’s Day in the UK. In Greek mythology the maiden Persephone returns from the underworld, rejoices with Demeter –the Earth Mother, and once more the land can become fertile. The Mother Goddess is conceiving a child now, which will be born at the next Winter Solstice. The theme of Spring Equinox is balance, as this is the time of equal day and night all over the planet. The word “Easter” might come from Oestar or the Goddess Ishtar, being the cosmic egg of pre-Christianity. It has been an ancient tradition for people to give one another dyed eggs at Spring as symbols of the rebirth of the earth and new life after a long winter. Our children here still paint the eggs. Spring Equinox is a Gateway into the Light. There are new lambs, new flowers, new bird nests and it’s the time for (new) love!
Beltane Festival
Beltane or May Eve celebrates and embraces the enjoyment of all new life, all fertility in nature including humans. Beltane, a festival in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, is the festival of Bridget and the start of the Celtic Summer. We build fires. We dance around the Maypole, crowned with flowers and ribbons, on the village green outside. Let’s enjoy the gift of our sexuality, sensuality and sweet desires. New life is conceived and born. The first of May; Mother's Day; the fragrance of blossoms; buds opening; the colouring of the fields..... Let's welcome an abundant summer and give back our gratitude.
Summer Solstice/ Midsummer
The Wheel turns to Midsummer, around the 21st of June. It is said that the Summer Solstice is the Give-Away time of the Sun. The light of the day has grown and has been expanding into its highest lights during these long, endless summer nights here in the north. Filling up the day and spilling it over. Breathe in deeply the abundance of fragrances in the air and the earth; light a fire; dance; wear wild flowers and bless the bread and honey and breathe deeply again.
In the Celtic tradition and pre-patriarchal times in which the Divine Feminine was honoured, the Goddess would share her power with the Sun King during Summer Solstice and they would sit side by side on their thrones. Let us honour both their energies in us. On these Midsummer Eves let us rejoice and enjoy the immense, sacred energy of the universe while the Sun touches the mountaintops and the sea and land at dusk and dawn. Happy Summer and Solstice !
The Wheel of the Year turns....
It is said that the Summer Solstice was the Give-Away time of the Sun. We've had so much of it. And slowly the nights get longer.
Lamas or Lughnasad
Lamas is the Celtic Festival at the beginning of August that marks the ending of the summer. This is the time to harvest the first fruits, the corn from the fields and the fruits of our labour. In all traditions, Celtic, Hopi, eastern and pre-Hellenic rituals and myths connected the cycles of the year with the sowing, growing and harvests at this time of the year. In Ireland the earth and sovereign Goddess Eire was served. Next to the Celtic Sun God Lugh this is the festival of the water Goddess Sulis (later romanised as Sulis-Minerva). Imagine the processions from the hills to honour the earth for her gifts. In Saxon areas Lammas was celebrated. In the classical world it was understood that the Grain Goddess Demeter, the all-giving Earth, stops her blooming now and summer is changing into fall. Grapes into wine, grain into bread. The cycle of grain has always been associated with the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The grain dies so that the people might live. In the Christian tradition corn bread was offered on the altar on the 1st of August and later called Loafmass. Lamas is about change, about transformation. The grains are almost ripe, but not harvested yet.
What harvests do we wait for in our own life? And what can we do to achieve them?
Autumn Equinox
As we have come to the end of a season of harvest and of abundant gifts of nature,the Sun is entering Libra. It is called Autumn Equinox in the northern hemisphere, and around 22 September day and night are equal worldwide. This is a time of blessing, a time of balance in giving and receiving, in light and dark, in summer and winter and in life and death. How do we find balance in our personal lives? How do we balance the planet? The Earth has blessed us with full fertile fields and orchards. What do we give in return? How do we keep the soil, the air and water clean and healthy? How much care, awareness and positive action can we dedicate to the seas, rivers and lakes? After the fire of a summer from an abundant giving sun, to what cause do we commit our passion? And with the clean Scottish air moving through me as a creative life force, I wonder what I myself want to co-create and bring with Beauty into life, this coming season? While the days will be getting shorter, the geese and swallows overhead prepare to leave. As the birds, so I am preparing for a new journey.
Samhain or Halloween
In the European, Celtic tradition we celebrate the festival of Samhain, meaning summer’s end. It is the turning point of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, beginning the Celtic New Year at the first of November. If we want to understand the Light, we must understand darkness and honouring darkness is the main theme of Samhain or Hallow’s Eve . These days mark the gradual transition into the irrevocable onset of dark winter night. There are many fascinating myths and ancient folklore associated with this great Celtic festival. Cailleach is the wise crone Celtic Goddess who presides over this special Festival. We are beyond time, beyond the old, before the new, between the world of Spirit and Matter.
We know that at this time of ‘no time’ around Samhain the veil between our visible daily world and the invisible world is thinner than normally. This has always been known to other cultures too. Even the Christians embraced this “other reality”, celebrating All Saint’s Day on the 1st of November and All Soul’s Day the day after. These are magical days and anything may happen.
However there were no fires, pumpkins or labyrinths for me at this year’s Halloween. For I celebrated Samhain in Argentina with the Spirit of the Water and the Mountains. Read more about this in my blog.
And another Winter Solstice - Happy New Year !
The overwhelming brightness and colour of Midsummer has changed 180 degrees to the soft winter darkness at Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere. I can see our planet with all its opposites and duality.At the Winter Solstice of last year (December 2009) we had a “Blue Moon” at New Year’s Eve. The „Blue Moon ” is a second full moon in a month, the 13th full moon in a year. This only happens “once in a blue moon”.Some say it is only called "Blue Moon' if it is the ssecond moon in the same astrological sign, I don't know. Midwinter is about stillness and being focussed. “Darkness precedes light and she is mother”. In many pre-Christian traditions the birth of the Sun by the (Mother) Goddess was celebrated around this time. At Findhorn we walk the Spiral during Winter Solstice: releasing our experiences of the old year and inviting the new. There will be the beautiful sounds of Gongs to experience the vibration changes.
Adriana