This time of the year we turn inward, measure the mood of the trees on the mountain as the roots deepen and leaves begin their litanies of surrender. We slow our pace and turn our attention to what is falling away and where our roots sink deeper areas into the Earth. We gather our much-needed energies as we begin our march into the long nights of winter and the season of our elderhood. 

What projects need completing before you reach the longest night? What loose ends need tying? What remains to be harvested that will sustain you in the coming months, and what remains to be gathered? 

The rites of Winter Solstice are important in many cultures because they help us release those inherent lessons we have learned but no longer serve. We then work the alchemical process of transmutation for those lessons which remain and become our highest source of wisdom as we move forward on the Earth. 

Every season brings its own initiations, and during Winter Solstice, it is the season of darkness, the time when the earth falls dormant once more, sleeping until the spring returns. TS Elliot calls Winter Solstice ‘the still point of the turning world and he says that at the still point, there the dance is’.   We are coming upon this time to hold still in the heart of the dark.

During this time on the turning of the Earth for those of us who are in the Western Hemisphere,  it is cold, often brutally so. Our ancestors knew that a lack of preparation could mean certain death. Those who didn’t plan in advance might starve, freeze, or die of illness. The days were short, the nights were long, and it must have seemed as though spring would never return.

Despite all of this, the ancient ones held, that despite the darkness of the night and the chill in the air, soon, the light would return to the earth, bringing with it life. This night, the Winter Solstice, welcomes back the Sun, the ultimate giver of light.  Sharon Blackie talks of this as a “sacred pause, the place between stories.”

We enter the season in our alchemy of becoming of transitioning to our elderhood. It’s a time to immerse ourselves in the cycles of nature: of death and rebirth, of darkness and light. It is our time to go into our cave of dreaming, to be the oracle of our transformation, to let the long, cold dark hallow us like a bone so that our ancestors and helping spirits can show us how to be right sized in accordance with our destinies.

What we will do:

We will oracle how to navigate the elder times in accordance with the turning of the wheel, coweaving shared dream space, through dismemberment and rememberment rituals and intentional journeys to discern:

• How to hold still, embracing the uncertainty of the dark and the seemingly fallow periods of our lives. What is falling away? What are you being called to surrender? How do we let loose the certainties and regrets we cling to in order for the dark to work its magic on us?
• When the burdens we have cloaked ourselves with are laid bare, what is the purest essence which remains? What does this tell you of your sovereignty?
• We are like Persephone in the underworld and as we lie in our wintery abode, dreaming of what is to be in our birthing. What do your helping spirits need you to know about this holy sacrifice you must make before you can find the way back into the light? 
• As we are entering the season of the light returning, what are the gifts you take with you to nurture deep within the belly of the Earth until Spring returns?

By actively engaging in the rituals of Winter, we keep the circle of life turning. Our actions and sacred intentions serve as a catalyst for renewal in the spring, for all of nature both seen and unseen, over and over again, as we travel through the seasons. In the Calendar of the Soul, Winter is also the time to update the consciousness of adulthood in each of us, so that we may perceive our roles and responsibilities as we envision our elderhood in life in a more spiritually mature way.