May 16–June 12
Eighth Lunation, May/June
Ogham: Tinne (tinn-yeh, chin-yuh), T: 
Keywords: Warrior, masculine, direct action, the spear of the warrior or shaman, the art of negotiation, protection, self-surrender for the common good, truth and justice, polarity, duality, balance, legal proceedings, wholeness, relationships
Totems: Swans, the Lovers tarot card, the twins, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces (Roman and Greek)
Guides and Deities: The warrior, judges, warrior gods and goddesses, the Holly King, Lugh of the light, the underworld goddesses of the dark, Leda and her World Egg (Greek and Roman)
Practical Guidance: Seek balance and be direct. It is time to fight for what is right.
Tinne/Holly Month Ceremony
Purpose
Work with conflict and polarity in a relationship. Create a personal wand.
Preparation
Collect enough Holly sticks before your ceremony to give to each of your participants.
Welcome and Greetings
Welcome to out Holly month ceremony. Introduce yourself and go around the circle having each participant share their name and why they came to the circle. Have them close their eyes and share a moment of silence to prepare for the ceremony.
Call the Directions
Call the directions and invoke the energies of the Holly tree (balance, direct action, warrior energy, protection, polarity and wholeness, right relationship) and her totems, guides, and deities (swan). Place Holly leaves and stems on the altar.
Teachings
Holly represents justice and fighting for the underdog. She represents protection.
She also represents polarity, but her main goal is integration and wholeness. Everything today feels more and more polarized. However, the potential is always there for a greater vision and the complement of opposites. Both sides carry truth. How can we include the positives of both and work to heal and bring light to that which is troublesome? How can we bring understanding to that which we reject? This is not compromise but a new potential.
This month also represents lovers and relationships—which also can break down in argument and conflict, each one fighting for who is going to get their way, or out of a desire to be understood or listened to. We seek healing and understanding in our relationships. We build reciprocity and equality within relationships. We seek to build loving and supportive relationships.
Chant
What is the teaching of the Holly? Justice and fairness.
Our Holly offers us strength and protection.
Behold! We stand in our wholeness.
And we are free to create our relationships in love and understanding.
We seek healing.
What is the teaching of the Holly? Unity and diversity.
Guided Meditation
In this journey you will work with an important relationship that is troubling you. You may find yourself coming to a better understanding of the person that you are in a relationship with.
Close your eyes. In your mind’s eye, conjure up the person you are in conflict with or have difficulty with. Set the intention to understand this person in a new light. Ask Lugh (the god of light) and the underworld goddesses of the dark to help you with love and understanding. Feel their support and their ability to bring in a new, fresh possibility. Invite in the strength and protection of the Holly.
Use all your inner senses to focus on this person. See them in detail or, if you are not a seer, imagine them, sense them, or simply know … Slow down to the breathing pattern of this person and breathe with them …
Remember that so much about conflict has to do with our own projections. When you have an enemy, see if you can claim any of that enemy energy within yourself first. Soon you will begin to receive information. You may understand your own projections and begin to withdraw them from the person or situation … (long pause)
You may realize thoughts, feelings, memories, or messages from this person. These will simply appear. Be willing to just witness this information however it comes to you. Allow compassion and understanding to move from your heart into the person you are connecting to. You may notice your own agenda melting away for this … (long pause)
When you feel complete, pull back into yourself and disconnect from the person. Refocus your attention back onto your own heart. Ground yourself, and when you are ready, open your eyes. (Make sure that each participant has opened their eyes and is fully present within their own body and they have disengaged from the person they were observing.)
Sharing
Pass the talking stick and allow each person to share their experience and ask them to relate how this journey has shifted their perspective of that person and their conflict.
Activity: Dedicating a Holly Wand
Ask each person to choose a Holly stick. They can take this home with them. Ask them to take the time to form it into a wand of protection that will remind them to do their own shadow work (projections onto others or hidden agendas run by unclaimed jealousy, envy, judgment, and wounding) and compassion work—for those they have a difference with, or for themselves when they are engaged in a difficult polarity. Encourage them to embellish their wand when they get home. Go around your circle and have each participant state the intention of what they want their wand to represent. Give them these examples:
• My Holly wand represents forgiveness and understanding.
• My wand represents unity and wholeness.
• My wand will remind me to do my own shadow work and claim my own projections.
• My wand represents diversity and respect for difference.
• My wand reminds me to hold the tension between duality and polarity and breathe into a state of neutrality.
Go around the circle and have your participants choose places or situations to send healing energy to. Send healing energy to all those in conflict to help us understand the other side and allow for difference—be it countries, relationships, religions, or belief systems. Have each person point their Holly want to the center of the circle and say “And so it is”
Sing
Choose an ending song such as “May the Circle Be Open,” “Merry Meet,” or “We Are a Circle” or one that reflects wholeness and unity.
Ending
Give gratitude to the energy of Holly and to the guides and helpers of Holly. Release the directions and open the circle.
A Holly Story: Duality and Wholeness in Relationship
The sign of Gemini (May 21–June 22) and the Holly month (May 16–June 12) share similar themes—both are about duality and holding the tension between opposites. As I think about the sign of Gemini, I also think about Leda and the Swan and the World Egg that held her twins, Castor and Pollux. I think about my own two children and I am reminded of two pieces of art that I created. One was a picture I made right before my son was born in 1981, depicting the World Egg. The other was of two swans, and I made it within a few days of my daughter’s birth in 1990.
Duality is represented in my life with the birth of a boy and a girl. My son is a double Gemini, the sign of intimacy (into-me-see). His rising sign and his sun are in Gemini and his life is full of Tinne Holly energy. My daughter was born with her moon in the sign of Sagittarius, which is the sign opposite of Gemini. His sun and her moon are in opposite signs within the zodiac.
These children have their north nodes in opposing signs, hers in Aquarius and his in Leo, and their south nodes in opposing signs, hers in Leo and his in Aquarius. The north node represents what you are moving toward in this lifetime that is new for you. The south node represents lessons learned, skills gained, and what you are moving away from in this lifetime. She is moving away from the need for personal achievement and praise that she already knows quite a bit about. She is moving more toward using her skills to improve the lives of others through progressive avenues. He is moving away from a more universal approach to a more personal one of achievement and recognition. They are teachers for each other, as each holds a key to new growth.
Again, coincidences appear that present opposites: the male and female, the sun and moon, Gemini and Sagittarius, and their opposing nodes in Leo and Aquarius. I am the mama swan, protector and great mother. My children are very different. How am I to parent such opposing personalities?
The pictures I created before the births of my children seem to have everything to do with holding the world of possibilities open and sustained. Holly says: Keep to the wholeness and don’t get lost in the details of difference. Honor the wholeness and hold the differences as sacred, not better or less, just perfect in their own way. Hold and honor them in reverence. I am grateful to Holly for her protection and strength, and for this powerful teaching. As with all things, hold the opposites and the magic will unfold. Breathe in neutrality and acceptance.
And it is not just the relationships with my children that Tinne Holly is helpful with. I have my birth sun in the seventh house of relationship and a lot of my will and purpose in this lifetime has been devoted to my relationships, learning about others and still maintaining a relationship with myself. This has been a lifelong process to be sure. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I have been married many times, but the last one has been for twenty years, thank the Goddess. My friend Cathy said to me something very profound when I was struggling with marriage yet again: “You sure know how to leave a marriage. What you might be struggling with is how to stay in a marriage.” That hit a nerve for sure. I do very much want to stay married and be married in a good way. But for me this has been a lifelong challenge. So often I just can’t hardly stand the polarity and the conflict.
The Holly reminds me to see things from the larger perspective of the whole. This helps me bring understanding to what I want and to what my partner wants. It helps me to know that there is enough time, energy, and love for both of us in this sacred cauldron called marriage, even when it heats us up and life together feels more like a crucible. It is never either/or. I have the blueprint of the ferocious loyalty and lifelong mating pattern of the swan. When I get lost and discouraged I am reminded to come back to the teachings of Holly and her helpers. This is indeed wise medicine, especially for the relationship challenged like myself.
Holly has everything to do with relationships. And we all know how challenging they can be. Holly can teach us about balance, reciprocity, and maintaining healthy relationships while we also take care of our ourselves. Can you allow the teachings of Holly to remind you that there is enough time, energy, love, and healing for all, yourself included? Can you maintain strong boundaries? Can you remain strong but pliable as the winds of change require flexibility? Can you maintain balance, neither giving in to another’s power too much, nor overreacting and fighting for your position all the time? Rest in Holly to help you stay in balance.
Holly also teaches us how to handle polarity. Think about the dualities in your own life. Is it possible for you to bring a sense of neutrality to this set of opposites? Can you embrace the wholeness? If you find yourself feeling that no resolution within a situation or relationship is possible, go sit with a Holly tree. Allow the tree to meld with your energy and to feed you with the energy of wholeness. You will receive exactly what you require in order to deeply understand and appreciate difference. You will understand how important each part is to the whole.