On a recent evening I watched the moon. It was beautiful- clear and full and fast against the mountainous clouds of night. It was younger than me then, but the cycle of time will see its brightness wane. So too our star, the sun, has waned from our northerly view in the past six months and that loss of light has cooled and darkened our landscape.
The winter solstice can be observed this year at 10:09 PM, PST on December 21. The winter solstice occurs at the moment that the sun reaches the southernmost observable limit of its journey across the earth's sky.
The commemoration of the winter solstice stretches long into human prehistory. As befits a moment that gave birth to several of the world's religions, the solstice carries great truth. In an instant, darkness finds its fullest memory while simultaneously light, weak but present, returns to the world. It is the journey - both end and beginning - that is held in that eternal moment, duality is vanquished as two become one.
The mythologic expression of the solstice is found in the symbolic conflict of the Holly and the Oak King and the quest for the Holy Grail. Both of these traditions call for the recognition of darkness before light can once again find its place. Indeed, at winter solstice the sun, consciousness itself, turns back to rediscover its path, made new again by a light unique only to this cycle.
For us too, there comes a time when a limit is reached and to go forward, we must turn back to retrieve vital fragments, pieces that were dropped long ago. Like the newly reborn sun, we return to the dark paths of our lifetimes. Only this time, we can use the strength of new consciousness to perceive the distant figures that formed our past and to illume the dim figures that present our future. It is a queer light to be sure - but it is in that strange, growing light that pieces are found, perception is altered and life is genuinely created anew come spring.
And as that perception unfolds, we come upon the insight that it isn't just the sun - solar consciousness - that has made the great journey. It is us - we of earth and matter. It is the earth too that has reached a turning point in its annual trip around the sun - we who have walked patiently into darkness to find the light. We so often see daily life, with its drama or sunny props, as something that happens to us. When in truth, all of life is our own inner script cast upon nature, so that we may encounter it physically in a world outside of ourselves.
This is a time of light in the darkness. May you find peace and may its vision hold you throughout the year. Blessings of the solstice to all.