WINTER SOLSTICE RITES

Conception/Communion

As I walk this space please join with me in extending your love and blessings out onto the land. Know that we are bringing these seasonal celebrations to bring bounty and blessings to the land, to honor the ground upon which we stand and to stir up the energy so that more and more will come to know peace and receive the blessings we offer.

I like to begin either with a simple chant or some toning. Tonight, I would like us to simply sing Om. While you are singing this Om we will raise the energy and fill our space with feelings of love and joy! Use your own energy and that which you breathe in from the Universe. See this energy as love and fill this space and beyond with that love. And so we begin to stir the energies of the land!

And now we will awaken the elements of creation.

(sing each verse alone once and and then sing twice more with everyone)

Spirit of the wind, carry me
Spirit of the wind, carry me home
Spirit of the wind, carry me home to myself.

Spirit of the sun, healing me
Spirit of the sun, healing me home
Spirit of the sun, healing me home to myself.

Spirit of the sea, flow with me
Spirit of the sea, flow with me home
Spirit of the sea, flow with me home to myself.

Spirit of the land, walk with me
Spirit of the land, walk with me home
Spirit of the land, walk with me home to myself.

INVOCATION

We honor all that is sacred and holy in this space. Reach into your hearts and invite that presence which is the Greatest Mystery of all to be with us now. Join with me in welcoming the presence of the land Herself, our loving Mother, She who is Earth and Sun - Moon and Stars, She who nurtures us and restores our hearts, She who gives birth to all life.

"We call you by the winter winds that chill our bones and awaken our minds.
We call you by the warmth of the hearth fire that gathers and comforts.
We call you by still waters, whose mirror leads us to inner journeys.
We call you by the quiet earth that waits and dreams.
We call you by the visions we make and the love we share.
Great Goddess, who contains all things,
Bless our rite as we
celebrate the rebirth of Spirit."

Blessed Be!

Winter Solstice comes at the dead of winter and marks the longest night. The ancestors saw this season as a time of faith and the rebirth of spirit. In ancient celebrations of Midwinter, on hilltops and in homes, fires were lit with ceremony. People huddled around the blazing Yule log and lit ritual fires outside to encourage the sun to return. In many old traditions, later adopted by the more modern calendar, it was at this time of the year that the Star Child, sacred son of the Mother, was born. He represented hope during the hard months of winter. The Winter Solstice was a time of magic and faith. By projecting and energizing hope for the Sun's eventual return and the Earth's renewal, the people made a "spiritual cradle" or psychic space for the newly conceived light to eventually fill. 

For some people the Goddess is not the fertile mother giving birth at this time of year to a physical being. Few creatures choose to give birth in the middle of Winter and fewer offspring can survive. On the contrary, The Goddess is the Hag of Winter who goes to seed. At Winter Solstice it is the Goddess as Hag who begins to release Herself from the physical world and conceive Herself anew as the Infant Light, so the new solar cycle can begin. She contains the seed of Her own rebirth. Unlike a physical child who can he seen, She conceives the Spirit of the Infant Sun, a Spirit Child, the Daughter of Light, who can be sensed but not yet seen, an invisible point in the vast darkness. This time brings the promise of light, not the actual delivery. Winter Solstice can he described as the dark moon cycle of the sun. The light is there but no one can see the light, nor fathom it until later. The actual, physical presence of the light returning isn't experienced until the Wheel of the Year turns closer to the holiday of Brighid, on February 1st, the Festival of the Waxing Light.

Midwinter invites us to dream in the dark, to become still and listen to the wise self within, the Old Wise Hag, present in everyone. Winter is Her season, and She lives on the edge of Spirit, able to access both this world and the next. It is the Old One who is already in the Future looking back into this moment at the choices you made, the values you chose to follow, the paths you took. Dreaming is Her power, and She patiently waits in the dark with wisdom and guidance. It is often this wise-self who we try to avoid in our constant rushing toward the light, whom we choose not to see with our inner eyes.

The dark season challenges us to surrender to our dreaming, to trust that the strength of the earth will support our weight as we sleep. It is out of the darkness that flowers eventually emerge, babies are born, and inspiration for poetry and ideas are nurtured toward the page and through our voices. In the deep, dark places in ourselves, we find the inner truth about ourselves. In this winter season of so many people prematurely rushing toward the light, remember to slow down and do Winter's inner work. Celebrate the dark, where the inner life is honored and nurtured. One is made confident that the seed of light, sown in the womb of the dark, will grow, and in its appropriate season, bloom.

So that we might be aware of our own internal spark, our of light of creation, we will each light that light and together, we will spiral into the center, leaving our own light on the altar as a living symbol of our living dreams.

(Teach the song. Then pass out the candles. Light them around the Circle beginning with the working candle on the altar. Once all are lit, begin the slow spiral into the center where everyone places their candle, and then spiral outward again to reform the Circle.)

  (Some of the content and wording for this ritual comes from  Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries by Ruth Barrett)

I am the source
I dream the dreams
I am the spark
Creation lives in me
Creation lives in me
Jana Runnals

Closing

We called you by the winter winds that chill our bones and awaken our minds.
We called you by the warmth of the hearth fire that gathers and comforts.
We called you by still waters, whose mirror leads us to inner journeys.
We called you by the quiet earth that waits and dreams.
We called you by the visions we make and the love we share.
Great Goddess, who contains all things,
Thank you for kindling this new light and the rebirth of Spirit.

Blessed Be!

Ritual followed by drumming and singing