Solstice

The winter solstice occurs tonight at 7:27 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. In the Northern Hemisphere, the December solstice happens during the coldest season of the year, when the sun is at its lowest angle and is seen for its shortest period. This is the turning point, the moment of new beginnings - the darkest time, with the brightest hope.

We need to believe in these little myths - that the sun is returning and hope is reborn - so that we can continue to believe in the Big Myths, like justice, mercy, democracy, freedom - "That sort of thing".

“Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.” ~Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

 

And tonight is known as Modraniht, or Mothers Night, by Saxon Pagans. On this first night of Yule the early Germanic and Scandinavian tribes paid tribute to the ancestral mothers who protected and watched over the family, helped with childbirth, and healed illnesses.

Agenda today:

1. Read a novena

2. Light a candle for Discernment

3. Plan a Spirit Guide trance

4. Make candles

5. Mother's Night fire and prayer

1. Read a novena:

I've been reading this Creation Novena from the Indian Catholic Matters site:

Day 6: A Prayer for the Air

Creator God, we give thanks for the air. We thank you for our enjoyment of its caress. Thank You for the soft play of wind in the treetops and the warm touch of a breeze against our faces. Thank You for the air we breathe, for the breaths we draw every moment.

As we warm the air of Your Earth, help us understand its mighty power, its ability to not only caress but to destroy. As we pollute the air of Your Earth, help us understand how essential it is to breathe itself.

In this season of Advent, give us understanding, and give us the will to use our understanding well.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2. Light a candle for Discernment:

For the first part of Soyal I am meditating and writing about each of my core values, and making plans for the coming year based on guidance from the Spirits. Today I am giving attention to Discernment: Thinking before acting; listening within deeply, and seeking clarity; making wise choices with an open mind.

My first resource for discernment is my practical wisdom - I collect information, ask myself questions, and reflect on my own answers. But for big choices, I will seek a leading of the spirit, or inner Guide. And then I always have my community to test out my discernment on.

Today I light a beeswax candle for discernment, and ask the Spirits to bring the rain of loving care down upon the whole world.

3. Plan a Spirit Guide trance:

I feel the darkness of winter in my body and my heart; some mornings my bones ache and I can't shake the gloom. The expectation of joy and good cheer are not helpful.

A couple of year's ago I found this article by Jade Grigori, a Shaman teacher, about Winter Solstice in the indigenous north:

Winter Solstice: A Time of the Shaman’s Gift Bringing

"The underlying aspects of the various cultural Winter Solstice celebrations lies rooted deep in Shamanic origins. Amongst the Saami (Laplanders) and Siberians, Buryats and Altaic tribes, all of the far northern climes, there was and is a very common motif in the Shamanic practices surrounding the Winter Solstice ceremonies."

The shaman was called on by the people to go into a deep trance, helped along with mushrooms and/or shamanic drumming. The purpose was to access and deal with burdens of Inner Darkness:

"At the time of the Winter Solstice the days have descended into the depths of darkness. It is at this moment, however, that the Sun begins to return, and with it, the days begin to lengthen. As the days become longer more light radiates into the world. This natural rhythm of the dance of Earth and Sun is a trigger within our psyche.

As all the things that have remained hidden in the darkness begin to be revealed in the greater light of day, so do all the things that we tend to hide in our own Inner Darkness begin to be brought forth into activity as the days lengthen, just as seeds left in the darkness beneath the soil begin to sprout and grow in response to the emerging light. Generations upon generations of experiencing this cycle of our own Soul’s dynamic led the people of ancient cultures to utilize the very same patterns of nature to deal effectively with their burdens of pain and suffering, of anguish and trauma that had laid hidden within the Inner Darkness of their own Soul."

Jade suggests that we can use Winter Solstice ceremonies to release our burdens and the grudges we hold, forgive the debts owed us, and start fresh - be reborn, accepting how things are.

The Shaman also receives a symbolic gift for each person, which he or she sings into the Soul Essence of each person, as a blessing and a gift of the Spirit.

"The ceremonies performed at the Winter Solstice are powerful in their transformative effect. They are empowering of each participant in the awakening of each to their own inherent spiritual gifts. They are ceremonies of compassion and liberation, ceremonies of blessing, well-being and abundance in the year to come."

I plan to perform my own interpretation of a Spirit-Guide ceremony, on Sunday - Christmas Eve, with an intention to receive a message or a gift or an insight of some kind, from my Inner Guide. As a Quaker, I've got lots of experience in listening to the small, still voice, but this is a different thing: I am going to be directive, and specific. I will call on the Spirit of Love to guide me in the New Year, and ask "How can I effectively witness for Unity with the Earth? What can Love do?"

4. Make candles:

Fire is central to the symbolism of this season. Our ancestors lit fires to remind the sun to return, and we light candles to recreate those ancient winter fire ceremonies. I find it satisfying to make a supply of my own candles each year, to use and to give as gifts, but this year I'm making only a few rolled candles with my grandson!

5. Mothers Night Fire and Prayer:

My ancestors were predominantly Anglo-Saxon, that is, of English and Germanic descent, and I've done some research into modern Saxon Paganism in an attempt to reclaim some of my heritage and better connect me to my ancestral roots.

When Anglo-Saxons first began to settle in England they brought Yule with them. We don’t know too many details about what this festival entailed: They cut a Yule Log to provide fuel and gradually pushed it into the fire as it burned. They decorated homes and halls with evergreen leaves and branches. They feasted. Some records say it lasted 12 nights.

Modern Pagans celebrate the start of Yule on either December 20th or 21st. On the first night of Yule they pay tribute to the ancestral mothers.

This first Yuletide evening, we are having a family gathering, and a solstice fire; I'll ask each member of my family to add two sticks to the fire: One for something light, and one for something dark. We might share out loud, or we might not.

When my family goes home, I will go outside again alone, and have some quiet time, to honor my ancestral Mothers, those wise and well female ancestors who hold the authority of my lineage as a whole; I choose to honor those women who transcended the racism of their times, and who knew how to live sustainably on the earth. We all come from a mother, so it seems fitting to start the Yule festivities here. 

I thank the spirits of all the wise and well women who came before me, back to the start of time, for your gifts of life, love, and light. 

Grandmothers: I honor you, and thank you for giving me the strength to be a good mother, wife, daughter and sister, and for passing on a legacy of kindness, hope & strength of spirit to me and to my descendants. Thank you, thank you, thank you.