Weaving the Web of Light

Tending our Signal Fires

August light, 2019 …. Lightspring Glen

Hello to all and a warm Welcome to new Subscribers and Followers. The Web of Light celebrated in this post is reflected in the virtual Community you step into when you come into this shared space of Notes of an Earth Pilgrim. I am so grateful for your presence, each and everyone of you! If this is the first post you’ve come to, there’s an abundance of posts and notes to browse through of the nine months now I’ve been here on Substack. Click here to do some exploring:

June 12th……My morning walk around the pond and woods this sunny June morning offered an extra zingy-liveliness, everything imbued as it was with the shimmering gifts of last night’s Full Strawberry Moon. And she, of course, delivered these same silvery-pink gifts to you wherever it is you call home, and to all Mother Earth’s beings. With the Summer Solstice a little over a week away, we could not be more lavishly gifted with lunar and solar light. As my weather app tells me Grandfather Sun is delivering 16 hours and 23 minutes of “visible light” today here to my Catskill home, Lightspring Glen. And if that was not enough, the trees and all of the green world are working in tandem with this incoming glory, offering the photosynthetic miracle of the Season’s Green Fire.

In stark contrast, in the human-centric world a menacing darkness is at large and threatening ominously, conjured by those seeking dictatorial control and dominance. It has loomed over us before, something I all too clearly recall from my coming-of-age years in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. In this year, 2025, I'll admit to wondering…somewhat fearfully at times…if perhaps the forces confronting us this time around are larger and more intimidating. But when I took part in the Hands Off! protest in early April I knew that we were once again—and with pursuing some Good Trouble in addition—going to make our way through it to higher ground. I take heart that now as it was then, we have the means to not just cope but to come together in staggeringly huge numbers, organize effectively, push back, and triumph over these not monolithic forces.

We beleagured Earth dwellers are presently being bathed in lunar and solar radiance from the Strawberry Full Moon and the soon-to-arrive Summer Solstice with its longest day and shortest night. As Above...So Below is time-honored truth and guidance. The blessings and nourishment of this extra-terrestrial lavish light streaming down upon us are mirrored in the Light we offer to one another here on Earth.

And it is a Light that has never been more sorely needed. There are gratifyingly many ways to create and offer it to one another. I find it—this Light—every time I come to Substack. Without fail I encounter inspiring and heartening brilliance of so many many creatives—writers and artists of all persuasions.

In my highschool classroom of years ago when I was an English teacher I had a small poster on the bulletin board with these likely familiar words: We receive the light, then we impart the light, thus we repair the world. Attributed to Goethe, I’ve come to know these words are also found in the Kabbalah.

Signal Fires

That is why we are here, you reading, and me conjuring words and choosing eye-catching images all woven together into a shareable post. Each time I tap the Publish button, my aim and hope is to send out something of Light into the world.

You see all those people carrying their individual torches? How they’re making their way along together through the swirling darkness? Some are holding hands. All are reassured by the presence of the others before them and behind them, moving forward together. Yes, they…we…are bringing Hope, but we’re bringing more than that. I am tending my Substack Signal Fire, aka Notes of an Earth Pilgrim. I am one of many hundreds doing so here in this rather remarkable and invaluable inter-web platform. Here we set up our singular beacons of Light—Signal Fires—in the format of our choosing and creative inclinations. Inspiration, guidance, refuge…we fire tenders are in hope of offering some sort of communication and perhaps also fostering some sense of connection. In pre-modern times signal fires lit atop hills and mountains flared forth messages across long distances, fiery missives. No matter the intent it was sourced in a desire to convey important meaning.

So if you are reading these words, my Signal Fire’s light has reached you today. Thanks for receiving this offering conjured here on my corner of New York’s Catskills and in the midst of my singular journey through these daunting days of 2025. Please leave word of how you’re doing in your corner of this battered but still hauntingly beautiful Earth home.

And of you’re going out on Saturday to join a No Kings gathering, I wish you well and all of us a safe day. We are all in this together. I see your Light.

With blessings for a blessed and sacred Summer Solstice,

~carol