Honouring the magic and mystery of the darkest light, the longest night of the year.
Winter Solstice is a potent time of year, a threshold from past to future, a symbolic seasonal ritual to grieve and begin again. Honouring all that has passed over the year, including loved ones, outworn dreams, relationships that you’ve outgrown, and parts of our own identities that no longer serve us. This is a magical and mysterious time to reflect on one’s relationships, dreams, fears and foibles.
At the level of the soil, we get low, we bow in humility, in camaraderie with the humus. We allow ourselves to be decomposed, thoroughly transformed by the darkness, because it is in our longest nights that we become aware of our own nakedness. In our most vulnerable moments we can hear the yearnings of our souls. We cannot hide from the niggling anxieties in our psyches, because everything is laid bare for us to examine.
If we are to live a soul satisfying life, we must live an examined life. In the darkest nights we can no longer fool ourselves with comforting thoughts, brushing off our deep seated insecurities, or burying the dirty laundry inside of our minds. This is the time to examine our beliefs about how the world should be, and our place in co-creating it, so as to live in greater clarity and alignment with our values. All of which is for the purpose of living a soul satisfying existence.
Here are some questions that you might like to contemplate this Winter Solstice while you enact some of the rituals below:
Who am I grieving for right now?
What aspects of my life have I been pushing, forcing and failing at over the past year?
Where in my life have I grown hard, rigid, or stubborn?
Where in my life have I been retreating, withdrawing, or collapsing?
In what ways have I grown and evolved in my emotional maturity?
In what ways have I grown and evolved in my intellect and beliefs?
Who challenges me to be my best self?
Who brings out the most regressive aspects in me?
Who have I been pretending to be and who am I actually?
What kind of person do I aspire to be?
What dreams to I need to let go of? And what new dreams can I nurture?
How can I commit to living in alignment with my values, dreams and aspirations?
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THE LONGEST NIGHT | A Ritual
Before we welcome the return of the sun, let us honour the power of coldness, darkness, and death, to thoroughly transform our lives.
You will need:
A piece of paper and pen
A candle or many candles
An orange and some cloves
Light your candle/s to symbolise igniting the energy of the sun.
Write on a piece of paper all that you are willing and ready to let go of. It might be one big thing that’s been plaguing you, it might be a beloved someone, or it might be many little exasperating aspects of yourself that you are done with.
Begin studding your orange with your cloves being mindful of all that you have just written. This can take some time, which is precisely the point, so that you have concentrated space to thoroughly digest the darkness and absolve yourself of it.
Once your orange is studded with cloves, leaving about a centimetre space between each one, place it somewhere that you will see every day. Take your piece of paper and burn it somewhere safe, ideally in a fire, or by the candle you have lit if it is safe to do so.
Wash your hands and hold your orange for a moment with your eyes closed, inhaling the scent. Let this scent imbue your memory with this moment. Return to your orange once a day, every day to hold it and inhale it, returning to this memory.
You will notice over the coming weeks that as your orange dehydrates, it will shrink and the cloves will touch. Let this be a symbol of the time it takes for you to allow for the cold, dark and death to transform you. And for the sun to return to reignite your soul.
Winter Solstice Blessings x