Sunset on the Labyrinth in the Woods Out Back
Winter Solstice is the time when you give up what you have and accept what is being born as the new power within you, the new awareness within you and the new person within you. (Gregge Tiffen, December 2019 newsletter)
All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)
I’ve been feeling the energy of the Solstice for several days. Monday’s New Moon felt especially powerful here in the snowy woods, almost as if it were the Solstice day. I was called to walk the labyrinth in the early morning cold and again as the sun began to set across the valley. I’m walking it daily and taking long slow walks with Zadie Byrd in the afternoons. Mild weather of a week ago has given way to winter weather. Eight plus inches of snow over the weekend and another inch overnight Monday. The beauty and the quiet that snow brings are tonic for the tumultuous frenzy that the world seems to be spinning in. Grateful! I am THAT!
Winter Solstice is a time of natural transformation, newness that comes forth with or without our awareness. It is the time when our receptivity is heightened in consciousness. Is it any wonder that with fewer hours of daylight, we are drawn inside into our homes and into ourselves at this time of year?
Solstice is the birthday of the Planet. It was celebrated as such with reverence and respect in ancient times by our ancestors who lived in close harmony with the Planet’s rhythms.
Solstice is the time of completion and of new beginnings. The old cycle is done. We are presented with the opportunity to declare completion and move on with awareness of the seeds of newness planted inside. A new ‘you’ with its potential to bring wondrous change in the cycle ahead is ready. Are you willing to claim it?
In keeping with my understanding of ancient traditions, once again this year I will take time at Solstice to create a personal ‘silent night’, a time to harmonize my rhythms to those of Mother Earth. With love and gratitude I let go of everything from the year behind and acknowledge the seeds of newness inside. I invite you to create quiet time amidst the tensions of the world outside of you and the hustle and bustle of the season to do the same.
A good place to start is by harmonizing with nature. If you are blessed as I am to live in nature’s beauty, take a walk. Observe and honor the rhythms of nature, whether the slow steady growth of a tree or the daily cycles of ocean tides. This year the planets will offer quite a show as Jupiter and Saturn come together and appear as one bright star in the night sky on Solstice.
If nature is not outside your door, then sit quietly and imagine your favorite peaceful place in nature. Feel yourself in that place and allow its rhythms to bring you the quiet peace of the season.
In that atmosphere embrace an attitude of gratefulness. Let go of everything that has come to you in the cycle ending. Empty and prepare space for the new. Let go of not only what doesn’t serve or suit you, of those things you consider ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’, but of everything: every attitude, your wants and desires, your fears, your hopes, your stories about the events of the year ending, the people in your life.
Finally, when you are ready (perhaps after only a few moments, perhaps a few hours), evoke the sound of newness with the declaration “I am new”. Speak it boldly. Be still and feel this newness. This is the place where heaven and earth come together in you, as you. The place where ‘heaven and nature sing’. The new you is ready to meet, greet and receive the gifts of the new cycle. On this dark and silent night, let us sing with the angels and call forth love and light and peace. Then, in all the days ahead, let us BE the love, light, and peace that is our true nature.
May the blessings of your unique newness follow you into and throughout the year ahead!
A Protective Blanket of Fresh Snow Cradles Grasses and Seedlings and Mother Earth Herself