Winter Solstice Lights Up the Land
by Pegi Eyers
Antlered Advent was a collection of seasonal works curated by Jude Lally. On December 5, 2018, Week 2 featured Winter Solstice Lights Up the Land: Ley Lines of Heart and Home by Pegi Eyers.
As we move through the days of darkness into mid-December, and try to bypass the seasonal frenzy that goes against natural rhythms (!) we sense a stillness, and a waiting. Before the modern era our earth-emergent Ancestors found the days after Samhain to rest, honor those who came before, contemplate deeply, and prepare seeds for the future. As we travel through the Land of Winter today, how can our own spiritual journey relate to this ancient wisdom? Clearing and composting old growth in the garden, practicing meditation and introspection, refining our home as a sanctuary space, or celebrating our Elders are all activities rooted in centuries of tradition. Solstice is also a perfect time to develop a more intimate knowledge of the land, to identify the ecotones and life-forms that inhabit the wild places, and to learn about the First Nations in our region.
Within the Celtic Wheel of the Year, mid-winter or Yule is particularly evocative, as it mirrors the progress of our own soul from emergence and rebirth (the “dark”) to the fullness of wisdom and self-expression (the “light”). The Winter Solstice is a time of great festivals in all faiths and traditions, with ceremonies deeply embedded in the land to honor the rebirth of the life-giving sun. Our Celtic Ancestors marked the light’s return at sacred sites with reverence, gratitude, ritual, music, merriment and communal feasting. For thousands of years, great stone markers, megaliths and circles in the land functioned as ancient calendars, time-tracked the cycles of sun and moon, and maximized shadow-casting at the eight cardinal points – the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days.
READ MORE >HERE<
As we move through the days of darkness into mid-December, and try to bypass the seasonal frenzy that goes against natural rhythms (!) we sense a stillness, and a waiting. Before the modern era our earth-emergent Ancestors found the days after Samhain to rest, honor those who came before, contemplate deeply, and prepare seeds for the future. As we travel through the Land of Winter today, how can our own spiritual journey relate to this ancient wisdom? Clearing and composting old growth in the garden, practicing meditation and introspection, refining our home as a sanctuary space, or celebrating our Elders are all activities rooted in centuries of tradition. Solstice is also a perfect time to develop a more intimate knowledge of the land, to identify the ecotones and life-forms that inhabit the wild places, and to learn about the First Nations in our region.
Within the Celtic Wheel of the Year, mid-winter or Yule is particularly evocative, as it mirrors the progress of our own soul from emergence and rebirth (the “dark”) to the fullness of wisdom and self-expression (the “light”). The Winter Solstice is a time of great festivals in all faiths and traditions, with ceremonies deeply embedded in the land to honor the rebirth of the life-giving sun. Our Celtic Ancestors marked the light’s return at sacred sites with reverence, gratitude, ritual, music, merriment and communal feasting. For thousands of years, great stone markers, megaliths and circles in the land functioned as ancient calendars, time-tracked the cycles of sun and moon, and maximized shadow-casting at the eight cardinal points – the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days.
READ MORE >HERE<
Path of the Ancestral Mothers:
Reclaiming Ancestral Wisdom
Through Art, Ritual and Imagination
