Winter Solstice

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice always occurs near the end of year, and in 2016 it will arrive at 5:44 a.m. Eastern Time on December 21.  After that moment, days will lengthen and the journey toward spring and rebirth will begin. The sun makes an annual descent southward until after midnight of December 21st, the winter solstice, when it stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward again.

During this time, the ancients declared that “God’s sun” had “died” for three days and was “born again” after midnight of December 24th. Thus, these many different cultures celebrated with great joy the “sun of God’s” birthday on December 25th.

Winter is the season of rest and represents preparation for renewed life, similar to how some animals go into hibernation.  It is also known as the time of germination as spring brings the flowering of plant life that follows the maturation process into summer; autumn gives us our crops (along with new seeds) and we return to winter to complete the full cycle and prepare for renewed life

What Can I Do At The Winter Solstice?
Take some time to look inside and think about what it is that you would like to bring in to your life, or nourish within yourself. What makes you come alive? When we shine with life and light, we enhance the lives of others and encourage and inspire them to improve themselves. In this way we all add to the lights shining around the world, dispelling the darkness.

Remember though, that we’re all responsible for our own light. If it goes out, someone can help us to find a flame ,offer their light to guide us, hand us a match to re-ignite it, even show us how to do it, but they can’t re-light it for us or keep it lit on our behalf.
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Ensure that all you do protects and strengthens your inner light and keeps it alive for you. Use it to get excited about your life, to get enthusiastic about the things that you do. This excitement and enthusiasm is like a forest fire- you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away, and it spreads to those around you.

The winter solstice offers us a moment of spiritual confluence. As the solstice occurs the worlds of eternity and humanity align, providing a conduit for the altogether different light that both flows from and pierces to our centre. Darkness, pain and outdated ways of thinking are released and light infuses the psyche with the illumination of a new way.

This holiday season, remember the Old Ways and the promise of light from a star that is traveling to you from 93 million miles away. Be well and may the light of the winter solstice bring you peace.