I wish you bright blessings for the Winter Solstice on Saturday 21st here in the Northern hemisphere.

Many different spiritual festivals are celebrated at this time of the year. It’s the time I like to send greetings and blessings for the Winter holiday season, whichever festival you choose to celebrate.

The Shortest Day, by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Winter Solstice marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year. So although it’s the midpoint of Winter and the dark season, it also marks the beginning of lengthening days, the rebirth of the sun and the light. Our Celtic ancestors understood this and celebrated accordingly, acknowledging the ever-turning wheel of the year. There are many ancient monuments which were built to align to the Winter Solstice sunrise; for example Newgrange in Ireland and Maes Howe in Orkney. Stonehenge is aligned to the Winter Solstice sunset.

They lit fires at midwinter to welcome the return of the light with its life-giving warmth and energy. I often think the lighting of the fire must have been not only an act of faith but also an invocation of the earth’s provision for the year ahead. In these dark months food was often scarce, life-threatening illness more likely, and the abundance of Summer must have seemed very far away.

These days, we might place a specially chosen Yule log on the hearth fire (Yule means wheel in Norwegian) or savor the deep chocolate stickiness of a cake version. The sentiment is the same; we’re acknowledging the return of light, warmth, and the promise of the abundant goodness it brings with it.

In many cultures there are myths of sun gods and kings who are born at this time, sacrificed or taken into the underworld with the end of the summer, and reborn to begin the cycle again at the Winter Solstice. It’s no coincidence that the church chose this time to celebrate the birth of their own Son.

I always spend this day in a conscious pause, breathing deeply, and looking back over the year. 2024 particularly has contained much that’s worthy of review! Like me, you might want to take some time out to:

• Honour and celebrate your year’s achievements, joys, and successes.
• Acknowledge the losses and difficulties and search for the personal lessons and wisdom at the heart of them.
• Identify the old and outworn things, habits and behaviours you want to let go of.
• Intentionally align with any new energies you wish to welcome in to bloom into the created space.
• Sit quietly and simply listen to the still, small, voice within. What does your soul have to say to you?

The planetary alignments for this year’s Solstice symbolize the foundation from which 2025 will grow and develop. They invite you to ponder the following questions:

What are the core ideals from which you’d like 2025 to develop and bloom?
What will unify and guide you through continued uncertainty and change?
How have you abused personal power and authority, and how can you remedy that?
What is the collective mindset that can create solutions which respect and accept everyone’s individuality?
Who are your tribe? Where do you find your kindred spirits and soul family?

I leave you with this excerpt from A Winter Solstice Prayer by Edward Hays. You can read the full poem here.

In the heart of every person on this Earth
burns the spark of luminous goodness;
in no heart is there total darkness.
May we who have celebrated this winter solstice,
by our lives and service, by our prayers and love,
call forth from one another the light and the love
that is hidden in every heart.

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