I kinda hate Christmas. Mix the memories of stressful family feelings growing up and the capitalist consumer nonsensical waste, I am the grinch. Or was. This year I am seeing the benefit of the magical with my children… and I feel it too.
So I searched for the meaningful. Whilst I’m not religious, I am spiritual. And my Steiner playgroup community reintroduced me to Advent… and it got me thinking of how I’d like to approach traditions that my family can belong to in our seasonal celebration of the beginning of summer, the end of the year, Christmas, and chanukah.
So follow along our adventure this month, for this last week we began by celebrating the Mineral Realm.
What do you love and dislike about your end of year celebrations?
ALTAR
We made a simple altar on a round plate of clay, rocks, stones, seashells and bones. We have a tendency to gather treasure from nature and it was not surprising that we had too many of these. We rolled and decorated a beeswax candle and placed it in the centre of an old clay bowl which had been fired in a ground pit, and blackened in the centre. Being on a plate, we could carry it to be the centrepiece of our low dining table, or place it on our side cabinet to clear some space. Each day we played with the altar, added bits or rearranged it.
What do you do with all the rocks you’ve collected?
CALENDAR
Advent doesn’t have to be about daily chocolates or gifts in anticipation. It can be about tracking and time passing us by. Many Waldorf advent traditions will do the winter spiral calendar as you move inwards for the solstice. I just wasn’t sure if it felt relevant being summer which is more of an expansive season. This week I was particularly inspired to create a circular moon calendar because I began menstrual bleeding for the first time since I was pregnant with my son. It also happened to be the phase of the moon I was born on, as well as timing up with my son's 9 month exogestation.
So we worked clay as a mineral. First we rolled out a slab of clay, cut a rough circular shape, and smooshed dimples into it with our knuckles. We went around the edge imprinting dents with a weirdly spherical rock we found (it looks like planet earth with clouds of white floating around green grains). Inspired by a Hawaiian moon phase journal I have from the World Oli Movement — we decided on 30 moon phases.
Then we got charcoal we had kept from a campfire and crushed it up in a mortar and pestle. My daughter loved this part. We rubbed the fine charcoal into the edges and divots of the clay. And blew away the excess with our breath. Then it was my controlly turn to carve the white phases back.
Here the lesson is not that she gets something everyday, or that we are getting closer to the ultimate day at the end of the year. Instead each day she wakes, we ring the bells, and she moves the stone over. She enters a ritual of being a part of movement. It was for me, about being cyclical in nature. That time passes. That phases come again and we can wonder how different it is. It was for me to track the moon in connection with my cycle, our moods, environmental activity, anything. But mostly, it turned out beautiful and I like it.
We also started drawing our weekly schedule with symbols on our chalkboard painted fridge. She moves the love heart along as the days change so she can see what’s next in our rhythm. And we get to make up symbols together that she can understand.
How do you track time?
PAINT
Exploring natural pigment is a great tactile and magical experience. You can find natural colours in nature and pound them up into a finer powder. These pigments we used were gathered, crushed and gifted to us by a dear local friend. We mixed them each with sand from our local beach, and added water with pva glue as a binder. I would like to try out more natural binders but this one felt of ease in the moment. She slopped them onto small canvases and we laid them to dry into these beautiful gifts.
We also used handmade water colour paints from Ruco Paints to decorate beautiful hemp journals from True House Collective. These are also a gift for christmas.
I am loving that advent is providing a focused time for gift giving. She asked about Santa and I am unsure what to do yet. But what felt right in the moment as Ricky and I fumbled to try find words was… that Santa is a spirit who brings us the gift of giving. (And anyone dressed up as Santa is not the spirit but a representation of, and please don’t follow some random man dressed in red anywhere). So we spend advent, making gifts for others as well as celebrating the gifts from the mineral, plant, animal and human realms.
What gifts could you make with the mineral realm?
LOOSE PARTS
I wanted to include my little bub so I gathered a platter on an accessible table for him, now he’s pulling himself up. I chose large solid stones and seashells that weren’t easy to break or choke. He would visit each day and choose some to gnaw on, bang or throw.
What other baby safe rituals could involve the mineral realm?
PILATES
Relevant because my body matters - we started doing 20 minute Pilates videos on YouTube at home. I have my personal qigong practice but I find that requires privacy and I just wanted to shake things up. I want to regain my strength. My daughter joins in, dances around or watches because it’s a screen and she’s glue. My son is busy exploring the room or climbing on me. But I feel so good adding this to my day. Building the foundational strength to do life.
What moves do you add to your day?
With love and gratitude,
Clio