Winter Solstice ~ The Return of the Light

As the sun moves into Capricorn on Tuesday, December 21st, at 8:59 a.m. (MST), we arrive at solstice, one of the four points of the wheel of the year.  

Winter solstice marks the longest night of the year, and the shortest day, and the day when the light begins to return and our days start getting longer again.

This is the time when we thank the darkness for its gifts and welcome the return of the light.  

Resonance, by Stephanie Law

Winter Solstice Lore

The white stag with the sun disc (and later a cross) sitting between its antlers is a common image for winter solstice, and it has a rich history in Celtic lore.  There are associations with the horned god, Cernunnos.  The Horned God is born at the winter solstice, marries the goddess at Beltane, and then dies at the summer solstice, only to be reborn again for a new cycle.  The antlers of the white stag connect this earthly animal to the spirit realms.  

But if we trace this legend farther north, winter solstice was known as "Mother's Night," and was when female reindeer (only female reindeer keep their antlers over the winter - the males shed theirs) pulled the sleigh of the Mother, or the sun goddess, at this solstice.  

In both cases, winter solstice was the night that the sun, or "son," is born.

Winter solstice is the point of year that marks the return of the life-giving light.

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Capricorn, Saturn, and the Sea Goat

Winter solstice (in the northern hemisphere) is exact when the sun arrives at zero degrees Capricorn, and this marks the beginning of Capricorn season.

This of course also marks the longest night of the year and the shortest day, and one of the four major turning points of the wheel of the year.  Winter solstice marks a big shift for us:  a rebirth--the beginning of a new solar cycle.

Capricorn is the Saturn-ruled sign of cardinal earth, the sign of making things happen in the material realms.  We see Capricorn these days associated with the goat, or mountain goat, and mountainous terrain--the epitomy of strong earth vibe, but in the past, the symbol for Capricorn was not actually a mountain goat, but a "sea goat."

And when you stop and think about it, this makes perfect sense.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the Roman god of the harvest.  This ties into the Saturn/Capricorn fondness of systems, rules, discipline, responsibility, limits, boundaries, and showing up to take the action steps that make things happen in the material world.  Like, showing up every day to tend crops from which we wish to collect a harvest.  

Capricorn and the sea goat can be traced back to ancient Sumerian civilization and the god of wisdom, Enki.  Ancient Sumeria was the culture that came after the Babylonians in Mesopotamia.  One of the main reasons that Sumerian culture flourished was that ancient Sumerians figured out how to dig irrigation channels to bring water to their farmlands and their cities.  That means at the very heart of Capricorn is the alchemy of earth and water (and sun) to produce an environment that sustains life--that supports us living in the material world, which is indeed earthly wisdom.

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Honoring Winter Solstice

With this solstice, with sun into Capricorn (in the northern hemisphere), we begin the winter season.

We honor the element of earth and the direction of the north--wisdom, knowledge, and ancestors.

​Light up this longest night of the year with a bright fire, to thank the darkness for its regenerative gifts and welcome the return of the light.

Write a letter of gratitude and of release and offer it to the flames for transmutation.  Write your wishes for the new year out on individual dried bay leaves and read them aloud one by one as you offer them to the powerful magic of the fire as well.  Stare into the flames and envision your bright future for the coming year.  

This is the time for letting go and for planting new seeds--the seeds we will start to see the emergence of above ground with Aries season, when the light gets strong enough to warm the land.  This is where we begin.

In every new beginning, there is an ending.

In every "moving toward," there is inherent release.  There has to be.

And while our words are spells, and fire is potent magic, words and fire by themselves are not enough.  We have to make the inner shift down to our bones, down to the very core foundation of our beings.  We have to shift our energy, shift our attention and focus, and shift our beliefs.

Now is the time to put the past where it belongs--in the past.

Now is the time to commit to focusing our attention, in every moment of every single day moving forward, on creating our future, and that means holding the vibration of being where we right now.

The final step of letting go is really being done with it and focusing our attention elsewhere.  Don't analyze it, don't talk about it, don't justify it, don't explain it.  Simply be done with it.  Period.

And that does not mean switching focus to out in the future, to worry, to thinking about what you want and don't have and analyzing how to get it.

It means keeping the focus in feeling satisfied and content in the present moment.  It means keeping the focus all the time on appreciation of what we have.  It means committing to feeling good every day no matter what, trusting and knowing that when we do that, we attract more satisfaction, contentment, ease, love, joy, appreciation, and abundance to us.  It has no choice but to multiply in our lives.

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This is the Art of Consciously Creating Life!

Wishing you a very happy solstice!

~Kasey