#blessed solstice

Midwinter Yuletide

✨🌟 May all your days be merry and bright, whatever you celebrate, whoever you are and wherever you are 🌟✨

Especially if you are under duress, of any kind. Shine. Brightly, and always. 

🎄 (And of course, a very blessed Solstice to all my fellow Pagans!!) 🎄

AND, of course, this is the Bard Level Bonus piece for December! Anyone who signs up at that level by December 31st, at midnight, EST, will get this image (black & white version – the blue is a digital special for winter vibes) as a 5×7 inch print in the mail. Details here.

~

I was lucky enough to spend summer solstice at Stonehenge, with friends

We ended up sleeping there for a couple hours by the stones which was freezing, but invigorating

Watching the sun set and rise on the longest day was actually extremely magical

Blessed Solstice my Friends🌞💕

June 2023

Most of this post hinges on my living in the northern hemisphere, so for you southern hemisphere folks - uh, save it and read it in six months?? Time and space are weird.

Anyway, I love how so many cultures, countries, religions, and practices there are at this year with similar themes and rituals. It's such a human thing for us all to need certain stories and narratives and ways of relating to one another and just all independently coming up similar stuff but with different specific meanings and mythologies attached. 

As a mystic agnostic who was raised a liberal Christian and has adopted various earth-centered traditions into my mishmash of spirituality, I acknowledge and celebrate a few different traditions this time of year. I won't speak to the holidays and festivals that don't relate to me, except to occasionally and briefly note some of the thematic and ritual similarities.

But when it comes to advent/Christmas (including both the spiritual and more commercial aspects of Christmas), and solstice/Yule, and even a bit of New Year's, there is so much common ground along themes of:

* waiting: waiting for something magical, waiting for a miracle (I hear you Mirabel), waiting for new life, waiting for the thing that will spark hope during a hopeless time, waiting for the right time to overcome oppression, waiting for the light to return, waiting for the sun to return, waiting for the warmth to return, waiting for the opportunity to make things better, for a fresh start, waiting in watching wonderment as the earth (or the sun) seems to stand still and knowing and hoping and praying that it will continue the journey, kids waiting for Santa, advent calendars, advent wreathe candles, counting down the days until the holiday, counting down the hours and minutes and seconds until the new year

* sharing: sharing what light we have with one another, sharing our warmth, sharing with our loved ones and our communities, sharing with the stranger - the traveler from out of town or the neighbor who needs our help, sharing our love and our gifts (whether you're rich enough to share sacred oils or talented enough to share your music or kind enough to share a smile - it all counts), sharing food to keep us healthy and warmed, sharing shelter as we gather with loved ones or house the refugees in our midst, sharing greetings via ritualized words in passing or cards in the mail, sharing our magic and our hope and our love

* the possible: the magic, the miracle, the wonder - all of the things that seem impossible suddenly feeling possible, whether it's a jolly elf who brings toys to the world's children or the child of a divine being coming to live amongst us to teach us how to love one another better or the fact of communities gathering to chant back the sun together or noticing how nature always provides even during the loneliest times by showing us how to rest in dormancy or fallowness or hibernation or just by sharing resources or tucking away extra nourishment to get us through, maybe it's the oil in the lamp lasting longer than expected or the miracle of humans remembering to share their light with others, maybe it's three men following a star to greet the baby they know will create great change on the earth or maybe it's three ghosts coming to scare a miserly capitalist into sharing his wealth, whatever it is - it feels more possible this time of year

* light, light light light, the light of the world, the light of life, the yule log, the advent candles, the menorah, the returning of the sun, the Diwali lights, the new year's fireworks, the burning of the Galve goat, fireplaces, candles, Christmas lights, candlelight Christmas Eve services, sharing our light, bringing back the light, resting - just for now - in the dark

These are by no means all of the associations between these different holidays and holy days at this time of year, but it's enough to give me food for thought.

I love the sense of magic that comes this time of year, the sense that anything and everything can change for the better, that pregnant sense of waiting and wondering what will come, the cozy feeling involved in sharing what we have with others so that all may feel warm when it's cold and all may have light when it's dark and all may have nourishment when the harvest is over and less food is available for the taking. 

Winter is hard for me. It's hard on my chronic pain, it's hard on my depression and trauma, it's just a slog to get through - especially up here in Wisconsin. I don't like the cold. I don't like the sun spending less time with us. I don't like the extra isolation that these bring. And I don't like settling down with the peace of my own mind and facing the difficulties in my own spirit and in the world at large.

I often overly focus to the point of obsession on the aspects about bringing back the light and sharing with others. It makes me feel less lonely, it makes the cold feel a little cozier and the quiet less oppressive.

But I've been trying, this year, to focus more on the other side of things, too. On finding quiet moments to appreciate the dormancy of spirit that comes naturally at this time of year. 

On remembering that many good things come from the waiting, as much as from the arrival; from the resting, as much as from the activity; from the solitude as much as from the company of others. From the balance of all things, even access to the sun - that majestic giver of life. 

To be more like the evergreen tree that is hardy enough to thrive in the snow, and whose greenery we intentionally bring inside at this time of year to remind us that we, too, can survive the long lonely nights of winter.