Hello Readers
The Winter Solstice marks the point at which the Sun is exactly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn, which this year will happen on Friday, 22 December at 03:27 GMT. The day of the Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year, but also that it is almost nine hours shorter than the longest day of the year, such is the lack of daylight.
Amongst the many festivals that centre around the Solstices and Equinoxes, the rituals of the 12-day Scandinavian festival of Jul (Yule) are all centred around the Solstice, where the origins of many of our most familiar Christmas traditions originated from, including the Christmas tree, the Yule log and the Christmas wreath. It is a time of endings and beginnings and is a very powerful period giving us time to contemplate our past, present, future and mortality. The season of Winter is a time for introspection, reflection and patiently waiting for new growth to reach out towards the sunlight as the Springtime approaches. The Yule season is filled with magic, myths and legends, much of them focusing on rebirth and renewal. Yule is when the dark half of the year cedes to the light half, known as Solstice Night, awaiting the rebirth of the Sun God.
There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas, something about the close, muggy atmosphere, together with the frost and ice, that draws up the phantoms and spectres of Winters past, and in every story a magical mystery unfolds. At the darkest time of the year, Lord Yule laid down his beard of snow and cloak of frost and ice to illuminate the gloom. The pale, cold light of the Winter sunset did not just beautify, it was like the light of truth itself had visited the wretched, pained and lonely to lift them up from out of the darkness into the light giving them hope of brighter days ahead. Remember, this December, that love is more valuable than gold and silver, and being the last month of the year, it encourages us to think of what we leave behind us what is yet to come. This is the sacred night when you can trust that any direction you may go, that you will be walking toward the dawn.
If we want to ignite our inner fire, we need to go inwards towards our soul. What we might discover there may not only be our own darkness, but also the reflection of others’ darkness. If we sit alone with our own thoughts, we will also begin to understand the process of spiritual transformation as we move slowly towards the light. Even in the darkness, as the Winter Solstice reminds us, there is light, and still more light to come, as each day we move a bit closer towards the Sun once more. Winter is not just a season, but a celebration to be honoured. May the longest night and the shortest day bring peace and rest to your mind and soul and be blessed with the light shining from within.
‘In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty winds made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter,
Long, long ago.’‘Chill December brings the sleet, Blazing fire, and Christmas treat’.
Love and light.
Linda and the Lulas xxx
