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Halcyon Arts brings
​the world of music and spirituality ​
to ​New England by presenting
programs ​that enrich and transform. ​

Featured Programs

  • Goddess Spirituality
    Goddess Spirituality
    Friends Discount
    Sun, Oct 01
    Six twice-monthly sessions online via Zoom
    Oct 01, 7:00 PM – 8:10 PM
    Six twice-monthly sessions online via Zoom
    Explore the Ancient Story of the Sacred Feminine and its Revival
  • Mysticism Meets Modernity
    Mysticism Meets Modernity
    Friends Discount
    Tue, Oct 10
    Ten twice-monthly sessions online via Zoom
    Oct 10, 7:00 PM
    Ten twice-monthly sessions online via Zoom
    Ten 20th Century Contemplatives
  • Lectio Divina
    Lectio Divina
    Friends Discount
    Mon, Oct 16
    Online via Zoom
    Oct 16, 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM
    Online via Zoom
    Exploring Lectio Divina or divine reading.
  • Soul Friendship
    Soul Friendship
    Friends Discount
    Mon, Nov 20
    Online via Zoom
    Nov 20, 7:00 PM – 8:20 PM
    Online via Zoom
    Watch Anam Cara (Soul friendship), a sermon by Simon de Voil (YouTube link: https://youtu.be/nn_kw0ku06A)
  • Kongero
    Kongero
    Friends Discount
    Sat, Dec 09
    All Saints' Episcopal Church
    Dec 09, 7:30 PM
    All Saints' Episcopal Church, 7 Woodbridge St, South Hadley, MA
    Since its formation in 2005, Kongero has toured the world (Europe, North America, and Asia) and released five studio albums.
  • Oratory Retreat: Halcyon Days
    Oratory Retreat: Halcyon Days
    Friends Discount
    Fri, Jun 14
    Mercy by the Sea
    Jun 14, 2024, 4:00 PM – Jun 16, 2024, 10:00 AM
    Mercy by the Sea, 167 Neck Rd, Madison, CT 06443, USA
    Early summer days of peace and spiritual transformation.
Bird's Nest Floating in Water - by V Fitzjerrell

What does halcyon mean?

1. adjective: denoting a period of time idyllically happy, calm, and peaceful.

2. noun: A bird in Greek legend generally associated with the kingfisher. There was an ancient belief that the bird nested on the sea, which it calmed in order to lay its eggs on a floating nest.

According to Greek mythology, Alcyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught when she learned that her husband had been killed in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea and was changed into a kingfisher. As a result, ancient Greeks called such birds alcyōn or halcyōn. The legend also says that such birds built floating nests on the sea, where they so charmed the wind god that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds' eggs hatched. This legend prompted people to use halcyon both as a noun naming a genus of kingfisher and as an adjective meaning either "of or relating to the kingfisher or its nesting period" or "calm."             --from Miriam Webster

Thus, the phrase halcyon days owes its origin to this beautiful myth of Alcyone, when, for two weeks around the winter solstice each year, Aeolus, Alcyone's father, calms the winds and the waves so that Alcyone, in the form of a kingfisher, can safely make her nest, lay her eggs, and care for them until they hatched and fledged. Hence, the term "halcyon days" comes to signify a period of great peace and calm. 

Belted Kingfisher illustration.jpg

Belted Kingfisher
Megaceryle alcyon

The Kingfisher native to New England

Background Image: Bird's Nest Floating in Water - by V Fitzjerrell. An original charcoal and pastel drawing in shades of blue.

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