A Magic Mukluk Meander past the Moon Lodge, winding my way into the center of the spiral garden. My feet remember every layer of mulch, clover, compost. I nod in greeting to every buried friend: anise hyssop, lemon gem marigold, borage, wild garlic (transplanted from the Ozarks), asparagus, thyme, blue flag iris, parsley, rudbeckia, arugula, kale, strawberries, and so many more.

My bird's-eye view from the back porch. We hadn't had a ray of sun here in eight days! Basking

Another angle, just for perspective. See the little pixie-sized boot prints? Moments before I took this photo, there was a chickadee at the feeder just in front of me! Deep Roots Records studio has been set up and there will be a song on "Renegade Spade" for the chickadee, my favorite joyward bird.

A Winter Solstice tradition in the deGaia household is the making of these spiral cookies along with story telling that deepens our awareness of the earth's cycles.

As you probably already know, the Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is the longest night and shortest day of the year. Here in the northland, it is also the darkest and coldest time, it's as if the sun is dying. We celebrate the birth of the sun as each day after the Solstice is increasingly longer until we reach the Summer Solstice and the light begins to wane again.

We burn candles, neighbors decorate their yards with lights, we come together to sing and celebrate and collectively strengthen the fire within and without. To represent the balance of day and night and the turning of the wheel of the year, we make two batches of cookie dough. One includes carob flour, dark and rich. The dark is where dreams are born - what lives deep within you that wants to shine this year? For the light dough, we grate the peel of an organic orange, adding the flavor and aroma of sunshine. We thank the sun for the energy it gives to the world, without it, life would not be possible. We honor the dance of day and night, winter and summer swirling and wrapped together in the cosmic map.
Here is Magic Mama's Solstice Cookie Recipe, a gift to all of you from the deGaia clan - the sun has been born in the longest night!

You will need: 2 large mixing bowls, wooden spoons and scraper, unbleached waxed paper, rolling pin, cookie sheets, an electric mixer is helpful but not required, sharp knife, spatula and a roll of brown craft paper (grocery bags work too).

Ingredients for the Day Dough: 1 cup of softened organic butter, 2/3 cup cane sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 2 cups unbleached organic wheat flour (white), finely grated peel of one or two organic oranges.

Ingredients for the Night Dough: 1 cup of softened organic butter, 2/3 cup cane sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1 and 3/4 cups unbleached organic wheat flour (white), 3 heaping tablespoons of carob powder.

The steps are basically the same for each batch of dough: Cream butter in mixing bowl. Gradually add sugar and vanilla (and the orange peel to the day), cream until light and fluffy. Now gradually add the flour (and carob to the night). When the dough is thoroughly mixed, form night into two balls, do the same for the day and let them chill for an hour or two. We simply set them back into their bowls and put them out on the front porch.

Prepare a surface for rolling the dough, lay a piece of waxed paper down and choose one ball of dough to begin with. Press the ball with your hands until it's more of a cake, lay a second piece of waxed paper on top and roll until all the dough is an even 1/4 inch in thickness. The goal is to create a long rectangle so trim the sides and use the scraps to fill in the shape, roll again to make sure it is evenly pressed. Now, repeat this with the opposite dough, creating another rectangle of the same length and width. Lay one sheet of dough on top of the other and carefully roll the two together to form a log. Roll the log a bit to make sure there are no air pockets and the day and night are really stuck together. Wrap the log in one of the pieces of waxed paper and allow it to chill while you roll out the next two batches of dough.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and allow both logs to chill for at least a half hour or more. When the logs are quite firm, use a sharp knife to slice into 1/8 inch discs and place on a cookie sheet. (Usually the first two slices will be a bit wonky but then the beautiful spiral will reveal itself). Bake for 5-8 minutes, don't let them get too brown, you still want the day to be light. We let our cookies cool on brown craft paper, which absorbs a little extra bit of the greasy butter.

Eat some and share some - Solstice Blessings!

Tis the season of giving, right? Maybe it would be more appropriate to call it "the season of buying more stuff." In the current Market Economy paradigm, people are increasingly feeling stressed, squeezed and drained as the sense of obligation to buy stuff weighs heavily on pocketbooks while draining our emotional and spiritual reservoirs. All this in the name of "giving".

What better time than the winter holy-days to invest in the Gift Economy! Consider that you are already abundant in many ways and then find ways to share some of that abundance with your family, friends and community. Though it certainly is joyful to hold an ornately disguised object and experience the thrill of anticipation as the mask is removed and the gift revealed, a gift does not need to be a thing. You can give the gift of massage, meals, home repairs, songs, hugs, seeds, something handmade, a love note, anything you can do to fulfill the needs of those around you. Both the giver and the receiver are gifted with the joy of expressing love and gratitude. The emphasis is on our relationships and interconnectedness.

In a Gift Economy, there is no expectation that the receiver give back to the original giver, only the encouragement to "pay it forward" and continue the flow. In other words, when our needs are met, we are freed to express our genius and in turn gift our unique abundance to the world in some way; we become agents rather than passive consumers, giving our skills and abundant resources freely. By doing this, we are spinning the web of life, reinforcing interconnections and with each gift-string we weave, we voluntarily opt out of the Market Economy (exchange culture) that is founded on, and funded by, the myths of scarcity that perpetuate selfishness and fear.

Joy to the World! The Earth is naturally abundant, and so are we. We have the power to choose altruism and love, and to gift each other without having to spend money. When we do choose to participate in the market economy, we have the opportunity to support our local economies by using our money to purchase products made and grown, and services offered, within our own communities. (For every dollar spent at a local business, 45 cents is reinvested locally; for every dollar spent at a corporate chain, only 15 cents is reinvested locally).

For a deeper exploration of the Gift Economy, check out these links:
~The Gift Economy & Gift Giving and the Goddess,
by Genevieve Vaughan
~The Gift Economy
by Gifford Pinchot
~The Gift As a Worldview in Indigenous Thought
by Rauna Kuokkanen
~How to Save the World - The Gift Economy
by Dave Pollard
~Gift Economy Health Care in Berkeley, CA
KarmaClinic.org