Today, December 21st, is Winter Solstice. The darkest day of the year.
The darkness has been building and today is the apex. The scales tip. The light will slowly start to build again. Today we celebrate both the darkness and the return of the light.
I follow The Celtic Wheel of the Year. It is a beautiful way to stay connected to the cycles and rhythms of the natural world. It’s easy to think we are not a part of nature, to feel disconnected from what’s going on with Mother Earth. But we are a part of the system and when we’re disconnected from the cycles and rhythms and gifts and stewardship of our natural resources, we can start to feel isolated and alone.
The Celtic Wheel is a way to feel connected.
Winter Solstice opens Yule season on The Celtic Wheel. The invitation during this season is for rest and quiet reflection. Restoration. Listening, dreaming, visioning.
How can we nurture ourselves? How can we honor and invite rest?
Looking to nature for guidance, we see a slowing. The squirrels were busy in the fall preparing for winter. Now I don’t see many. The leaves have fallen and blanket the plants that appear dead. But they’re not! Well, the annuals are, but the perennials and the trees are resting - an important part of the cycle. It doesn’t look like much is going on but there is quiet and still work below the surface. This work requires no effort and is necessary.
I love the way Karen Clark shares about Yule season in her book “The Path of She: Book of Sabbats”…
“Nature remembers what we humans have forgotten: every cycle must return to stillness, silence, the dark. Every out-breath requires an in-breath. Every outer endeavor turns back inward to its origins, its center, and begins again. From death comes new life and from the darkest night, the new dawn is born. Nature calls you to stillness and silence and the deepest mysteries of your inner world.
In the deepest dark of Winter Solstice, the light of a new dawn is born. So too the depth of your wounding births forth the shining light of your true beauty. Our life story, with its trials and wounding, is the crucible of our greater becoming and deepest beauty.
In our human world this is a season of festive gatherings and gift giving, perhaps because we need the joy and comfort of each other’s company as a solace to the heavy weight of the darkness on our hearts and psyche. The celebration of light and the miracle of rebirth are common themes this time of year across many cultures and traditions.”
And this poem by the great Wendell Berry so beautifully captures it:
To Know the Dark
by Wendell Berry
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
In closing, here’s one more share from Karen Clark:
“The seasons of nature turn. The dark gives way to the light. The old to the new. Nothing lasts forever. In these primal truths, you can find the hope and courage to change your life and our world for the better, birthing new light and beautiful possibilities from the darkest night of your wounding and the pain and sorrow of our collective humanity.”
Here’s to the beautiful possibilities found in the dark, quiet, stillness. Happy Winter Solstice!