Winter Solstice Blessings 2022

The thing about cycles is they have no real beginning or end. Each is folded into the other in an endless series of curling tangles. 

Though I've long celebrated the Celtic Sabbaths, I never really felt like I vibed with the medicine of each one until I really understood they are not about moments of singularity, but opportunities to recognize relationship. Opportunities to honor those tangles, the ways we are inextricably bound to one each other, to the ancestors, and to the earth. To honor the way one thing is always another, and the kinship in all consciousness. To honor the ever changing inter-connective nature of soul, of psyche, and the divine.

In the northern hemisphere, six months ago at the summer solstice when we honored the light, we turned towards the darkness. Now, on the darkest day, we turn again towards the light.

The day the northern hemisphere turns towards the light, the southern hemisphere turns towards the darkness. it is always both.

Dark and light are inseparable. They are parts of a whole, neither complete or even possible without the other.
They are not poles of an extreme. Rather, the seed of one is tenderly nestled in the womb of the other.

I've been walking in the darkness a lot lately. I imagine many of you are too.
Unable to see the next step, never knowing if I'm headed towards safety or a sudden fall into nothingness. It's familiar energy, honestly, for this Pluto baby.

My path has always been the underworld path. My work is to be a guide in the underworld to others, to teach them to love the darkness, to navigate it in wholeness, and to learn how to bring light into the darkest places. Not to replace or fix darkness. But to know it.

We always think we want to know what lurks in the darkness, that it will bring us safety to know, but the courage to look in our dark corners is a skill like any other. It takes just as much courage to shine a light into the darkness as it does to sit in the dark. Or step into it.

Six weeks ago I told the universe I trust her, myself, and everyone else; Without hope, without conditions, without proof. Powerful magic, because I meant it. Such complete trust was like giving my heart to the abyss. The only way forward. A terrifying surrender.

Turns out the universe was listening. The next day she broke my heart and dragged me, kicking and screaming, into Hades.

Thus are we initiated. We climb to the mountain top to see the great truths, the beautiful views, the flowers, and we are dragged down to learn to put our spiritual truths in action, into matter. Few of us go willingly to those depths. Even when we've dedicated our lives to such work.

We lose our innocence to gain our power. With our power we can dream the world into being. With our power we can dream the more beautiful world into being. And we can withstand the grief every time it doesn't appear.

This particular journey into darkness has been unique.
I screamed and kicked, and yet I am present with the darkness both outside and inside of me, in really new ways. I am able to love it, while honoring my wish for some light, some clarity, some clear path forward. I've been able to honor myself, my wish for something solid and decided, while accepting the waves of change which come crashing down again and again, each one unique, all so utterly beautiful and powerful. Some so destructive.

On the solstice, I am going to imagine the seed of light planted within me. I will bless it with a fire, and with words, and with tears.
I am going to ask for release for all beings from suffering and the root of suffering. I am going to rededicate myself to supporting that liberation.
I am going to say a prayer of thanks for the darkness, and all it teaches me. The invisibility it gives me. The silence. The peacefulness.
And I am going to love my fear. Love the part of me who craves certainty and wants to know exactly what is in the dark around her. Love the part of me who is so intent on safety she can't see the little shimmers in the dark, guiding her somewhere new, somewhere fuller, somewhere she can be more complete.

All the parts of me are so wise. None of them are better or worse than the others.
All the parts of you are so wise. None of them are better or worse than the others.
All are worthy of love, and care.

On days like the solstice, we are given an opportunity to love all the parts of ourselves.
The parts we know, the parts we fear, the parts we imagine, and are waiting to know.

I hope tomorrow and the next few days you make space for all that you are.

I hope you find a way to trust that the thing you long for is buried deep in all you don't want.

Patience, the gift of Capricorn season, which begins tomorrow, is your friend in this.
There is no rush.
There is only now, and the opportunity to begin again. The next stage in the cycle will bring the darkness to light. Or maybe the next after that. Or maybe what you long for is already here. Maybe it's already this.