Today, December 21, we are given a gift, the return of longer days with the celebration of the Winter Solstice. Soon to follow we celebrate the gift of Jesus and his wonderful light.
Many of our customs today have a basis in those early traditions including Yule logs, mistletoe and Christmas trees – having their roots in the pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice.
Long before the birth of Christ, our stone age ancestors had their own theologies. They were dependent upon the seasons. As such, they followed the wheel of the year. How anxious they must have been as the days kept growing shorter and wondering if the sun would again return, reborn, gifting longer days once more.
This is Advent — when, as sleepers, we awaken to our own light of love, deep within us, waiting to be reborn again.
Lindsey Mead speaks to the nascent light of her own inner longing as Solstice approached, and offers a meditation by author Meg Casey that captures the hushed beauty of December here
December is a holy month. Maybe it is the dark, silky silence that descends so early that speaks to me of reverence. Maybe it is the promise that December holds — that no matter how dark, how cold, how empty it can get, the light is coming back. Something always shifts in me when December arrives — I embrace the darkness, and am eager for the coming solstice when the whole world is still and holds its breath, waiting to be reborn again.
What a not-to-be-missed treasure the natural season of Advent can be then, when the “nascent light” inside each of us can turn to, and answer, the promises of light surrounding us everywhere in the December dark — the whisper of candlelight from darkened windows, the blue-black light of dusk against the silhouetted trees of winter.
Soon we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We also experience the return of the sun after the darkest night.
At the Winter Solstice we reach the depth of that darkness with the longest night of the year. Darkness has reached its peak.
“Now we start to wonder: will this continue? Will the Earth grow darker and colder as the Sun disappears into the south until only darkness is left? But at Yule a wonderful thing happens. The Sun stops its decline and for a few days it rises in about the same place. This is the crucial time, the cusp between events. The Sun stands still, and everyone waits for the turning.”
In our heads we know the light will return. But in the darkness of Winter, can we be sure? Do our hearts believe what our heads tell us? Will the light keep its promises? We all have moments of darkness, when we don’t know how much deeper we will go before the light starts to return (or even if it will). The Mother earth has moments too; understanding us, and lives as we do.
The Sun does start north again and the light comes back. In the world, in our lives, the light comes back. This is indeed something worth celebrating.
Taryn Harbridge created and performed in this video as part of her music ministry with a medley of Christmas music that I think reflects this pensive mood as we remain waiting…….
I suggest watching it in full screen.
What if we could see the Solstice and the Sun/Son as “the light of the world” as did the ancients for thousands of years before us.
It’s a beautiful video that captures the essence of the season perfectly. Enya singing Silent Night in Gaelic in the background, setting the mood.
So Mote It Be….
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 