Saturday, December 20, 2008

thoughts on the last day of the year

".... light and life to all He brings..."

it always amuses me how many christian carols can be turned into pagan ones by making the simple substitution of "sun" for "son." the fact that these two words are homophones in english can't possibly be an accident, can it?

tonight is the longest night of the year. the solstice occurs tomorrow.

if november is the long slow slide into the dark, the next few weeks are the long slow (cold) crawl out of it. for the ancient celts and other indigenous peoples the magic of this time was as a threshold place - a point in time where one thing turns into something else. our more linear way of thinking has turned this understanding into an ending and a beginning, and consequently, we have lost something in our broader culture, i think, something that might make it easier for more of us to comprehend and appreciate shades of gray.

the woods are snowy, dark and deep outside my writing room window - the sky is pearly pewter, the pristine snow has blanketed everything in white. the only spots of color are the pale green splotches on the otherwise gray trunks of the birches. only the ravens, stark and black, swoop and scream through the pines across the ponds. winter has arrived, precisely on schedule.

and yet, when the new Sun rises tomorrow, i know the Light will only grow stronger, and spring will not seem so far away.

the candle i lit at dusk yesterday to honor my great-grandfather's passing, to honor the end of the old Sun, burns steadily on my altar. sleep sweet, pop, and send us someone to buy the house!

and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.

9 comments:

Dina said...

Happy Solstice to you! I am going to my first ever Solstice celebration tonight, I will post pictures.

Martha@A Sense of Humor is Essential said...

Blessings to you and yours on the Winter Solstice.

Danyele Easterhaus said...

i'm there with you in so many ways. we just had our fam christmas get together and my grandpa passed away earlier this year and it's the first christmas without him...and honestly, just not the same.

Anonymous said...

Happy Solstice to you and your family.

lynette355 said...

thank you for the beautiful tribute!

Kathy said...

Happy Solstice! May the new light shine on all who have lived in the darkness.

Aunt Julie said...

I always look forward to the winter solstice, 'cause that means the days will be getting longer. Summer couldn't be too much farther behind, could it?

rose AKA Walk in the Woods - she/her said...

I started last night, at dusk, by lighting the torches outdoors, so that they might burn out on their own as the candle (and electric) light within took over to usher us through the deepest dark of the year. It felt good.

Tonight I re-light the Yule candle again. Later we will be making offerings to the Yule bowl I recently made. Tomorrow these offerings will be released to Nature. It feels good.

May your light shine bright in the darkness, and may the warmth of your loving heart comfort you in the coming spiral ...

Blessings!

Judy Vars said...

The deep woods of Conneticut sounds alot like Alaska.. Me I'm crawling towards the light.