I am sitting in the kitchen of my family home–an old log cabin from the 19th century, brought down from a Tennessee field over forty years ago and reconstructed on our land in north Alabama. It was my parents’ dream to recreate a home from another time, and to co-inhabit with deer, bobcat, raccoons, snakes, squirrels, spiders, coyotes–all who call this mountain of forests and limestone ridges home. A place where human beings are decidedly in the minority! The Winter Solstice draws near–the longest night and the shortest day. Cold wind and rain pelt against the windows, but inside I am cozy, with a roaring fire crackling in the stone fireplace, a sparkling evergreen tree bedecked with lights and ornaments in the corner, and a wreath of cedar vine, deer antlers and candles on our old oak table. All these bring me quiet warmth and good cheer on an otherwise dark and dreary December day.
Far away, in Australia, the Summer Solstice draws near–the longest day and the shortest night. This year, the weather where Linda Engel lives is hardly different from the weather I am experiencing in Alabama. She writes that “it is hailing, heavy rain, squally winds, cold. I have the heating on…Usually I can be in my garden, but the weather is really too cold and wild to do any gardening in it. The poor plants don’t know what to do–my tomato plants are just waiting. The zucchinis and cucumbers gave up. With this wild weather I wonder if the Devas of the winds, the rain, the hail, the thunder, are a reflection of the emotions swirling around our planet.”
Linda calls the strange weather “destabilizing” and shares how she is longing for the usual sunlight and warmth of high summer there. She adds she “always feels scattered at this time, most of my family including myself have their birthdays, lots of Christmas parties, the year is ending, people are preparing to go away, everything is hectic–so I am not settled. Too much to do.”
I was struck, reading Linda’s words, with how similar our experiences as human beings can be at this time of year, no matter what hemisphere we live in. Whether we are experiencing the ascending outward expansiveness of light and growth of summer, or the descending and inward contraction of light and dormancy of winter, or whether we live on the equator, where seasons are less defined–many of us are challenged by the incredible busyness and distractions of our cultural “holidays.” Yes, in these activated times, it is difficult to stop and breathe and simply be.
And yet, that is what the Solstice time asks of us. “Solstice” means the “sun standing still”–a holy pause, a sacred stillness in the year. Creating an intentional sacred festival time that helps us pause and recognize and honor that point of stillness–whether it be summer or winter or something in between–this can be a much-needed gift of stability and peace in our turbulent lives and times.
At Solstice time, Gaia is breathing out in a great expansion of breath in the Southern hemisphere and breathing in and contracting in the North. But, for the planet as a whole, there is really only One Breath, one rhythmical Circle of Wholeness. The Lorian team of festival makers–Freya Secrest, Linda Engel, Ara Swanney and I, Lucinda Herring–are inspired this year to create a Circle of Wholeness, rather than the Spiral, which we had people create for last year’s Solstice celebration. We want to create a different pattern, and a gesture of movement that will invoke our deepest sense of Wholeness, and our living connection with Gaia, no matter where we are.
It is in this Solstice spirit of rhythm and connection that we invite you to create your own Circle of Wholeness in whatever way you feel called. Allow your breath and beingness to be a center of balance and wholeness in the midst of seasonal celebrations and changing conditions.
Some of us are inspired this year to create our Circles from stones with gateways for the four directions/four seasons of the year. Some will be honoring the Sidhe and the times when humans and Sidhe gathered at stone circles around the globe to celebrate the festivals of the Earth’s year together. If you have the Card Deck of the Sidhe, you may wish to use that portable Circle in your festival time as well. You could also create a Circle that honors your allies in life–the devas and plants you love and work with, branches from a favorite tree, a circle of figures representing your beloved animals or humans. Be creative and ask for inspiration from your own piece of land or garden, and from your unseen friends and allies who would love nothing more than to join you in sacred festival making and fun.
Another inspiration: We want to encourage everyone to work in co-creative ways with the seen and unseen realms of life, in service to all. The Earth festivals are natural thresholds where we can commune with other life forms and beings of nature more easily, and, in our experience, the natural world loves to be included at festival times! Choose one ally with whom you wish to deepen your relationship in the coming year. Bring something to your Circle that intentionally invites and supports that ally to be present with you at the festival and in the year ahead. Because I am here on my Alabama land, I will be inviting the waters that inhabit the limestone caverns beneath my feet, those that pour out whenever it rains enough, rushing down the mountain in gay abandon. I am also inviting an ancient nature spirit of our forest, who once accompanied me all the way from Alabama to Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest to be part of a workshop I was helping teach on “Spiritual Landscape.” I have lost touch with this being, and I want to find him again, and ask if he would be willing and able to help our family steward this land in ways that are regenerative and healing.
A Solstice Ritual
On the Solstice, or whenever you wish, stand at some place in your Circle, and feel your own sacred Self-Light radiating from your being. You may wish to have music playing that captures the mood and spirit of your festival experience–deep contemplative music that honors the close and holy darkness for Winter Solstice, and joyful lilting faery music for the time of greatest light at Summer Solstice. In your own time begin to walk or dance around your Circle–clockwise for those in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise for those in the Southern lands. This is a Dance of Darkness and Light, one that you are creating as you make your way around the Circle, weaving the brief dark days of the North with the long light days of the South into a living Circle of Wholeness. When you feel ready, stop and stand in a sacred pause of Stillness, honoring the Solstice time. Feel your Self-Light in that pause, your unique individual sovereignty and all that you are in your power and beauty as a human being. Feel other sovereign individuals and beings standing in their Self-Light there in the Circle with you. Then open to the Light and Presence of Gaia, and the Sacred Wholeness of all existence. Stand in that Wholeness, together, present and powerful at the Still Point. Feel your allies in that Sacred Wholeness. Feel what it means to be a living emissary for Gaia in this time. Then walk or dance again around the circle, co-creating this time with Gaia, with your allies, and with each other in Sacred Emergence and Love.
For those of you who are part of the Lorian Commons, we will be creating this Circle of Wholeness together online via Zoom on December 21st, the actual Solstice day at 12 noon Pacific time. There will be Solstice seasonal sharings, music, a guided Dance of Darkness and Light with Gaia and our allies, and sharing stories over festive food and drink together. All are welcome! (See the solstice topic announcement in the Commons for more details)
Solstice Blessings be Yours!
Lucinda, Freya, Ara and Linda