This week has been harrowing for one of any number of reasons and lack of sleep is drowning my thoughts in chaotic misadventure.
As much as I wish to write, write, write, I haven’t the time this week to dedicate to it, so I am going to take a shortcut. I wanted to share something beautiful with you, written by a fellow member of the Order of Maine Druidry, Mary Kay. She wrote this just prior to the Solstice but it is too lovely and poignant to remain there as the sole outlet of it’s brilliance and creativity (not to mention it’s intrinsic truthful value)
Today is the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice. The sun will sit for a moment at the tip of its southern most point and then rise again to begin its annual journey northward. This cyclical path of the earth and sun is also a spiritual event that has been celebrated through time and cultures.
This threshold between dark and light holds profound meaning.
The darkness is meant to hold us, in a time of silence, rest and introspection. Our western culture doesn’t necessary allow for this. And yet even if we don’t have time for rest we long for the warmth and light to return. Is it that we are just tired of the snow and cold or do we truly experience this ancient dance between dark and light in our bones? I am sure it is a little of both. On a primal level we know this cycle of moving from dark and light as it reflects the process of birth and death. And we cannot have this new light without the death of the darkness. Winter Solstice offers a spiritually potent opportunity for this transition and the new birth of light to occur in our landscape and in us.
Each Winter Solstice I take the time to reflect on the struggles and places of growth that have brought me closer to experiencing the essence of me. Holding truth to the darkness and light in that journey.
For me the guidance of my dreams has been the path to shaping how I hold my darkness and light. They do this by providing stories that reflect my struggles and my potency. My dreams offer the environment of the seasons the changes of the sun or moon as elements to the story that hold space and guidance. Dreams know who I am and give me direction in understanding my life story. They can be gentle like a tiger cub or ferocious like a grizzly bear. And these dream stories can be weaved together to provide a practice in my waking life for healing.
If I open to the dance of light and dark, birth and death I will unlock what is possible to be seen in me. If I bring to life the gifts of Winter Solstice as a gateway to experiencing the birth of light in me I will discover the brilliance and beauty of who I am. My dreams continue to remind me that like the sun, the light of our essence can overcome the darkness. This is the cycle of nature and life.
May you experience the birth of the light in you.
The Order of Maine Druidry 