The Solstice

badger

Dec 21, 2024

∙ Paid

The Shortest Day, by Susan Cooper
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome, Yule!

WATCH Winter Solstice 2024: Sunrise Live from Stonehenge

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THE SOLSTICE BADGER

by Robin McFadden

Who is responsible for winter? According to this tale, the sun is lonely in the sky, so he travels to the depths of the earth every six months to spend time with his only friend, badger.

When he returns to the sky, the planet warms, and round and round we go.

MOTHERHOOD

by The Solstice Badger

Friend, you know me. I have seasons. Some invite output. Not this one. I’m consuming art like —

Making work of ingesting is my creation.

How about we share? I’ll link some of what I’ve been eating, and you can do the same?

First, walk me through your heavy church doors. Sparkle my eyes with glass stained in jewels. Show me G-d and explain how the sun rises and falls and maybe I’ll be present enough to go on a ride.

You want to taste what I mean?

The easy route there is to inhale smoke or a muddle yourself. To intake an automatic blending of your soul with the oneness. Problem is, you lose your-self. There’s nothing to tune your senses. Dulling them might support your curiosity but it stops the point from penetrating.

The way into the present is through heightened tuning in. It’s not fast or easy.

It takes focus to cultivate presence without fear blocking.

Do you want to try?

A deep feeling slow down and feast for the spirit?

Okay.

First, we prime our minds right with ritual.

The winter solstice is considered the seasonal dark night of the soul. Spiritually, it’s a time to honor both the light and the darkness that resides within each of us.

Take small scraps of paper and write down the elements of life that you would like to let go of.

When you have finished throw them in the yule log fire, transforming darkness into light.

After “letting go,” set intentions for the new season ahead—speak aloud a thing, idea, habit, or practice that you would like to bring into your life and meditate.

Lie back in savasana or remain seated, take a moment to honor the light and dark aspects within yourself. Acknowledge the sun and the moon: different yet essential components to the whole.

Acknowledge one radiant quality you possess, and wrap gratitude around it.

Feel the love for this wonderful aspect of yourself.

Now, acknowledge a part of you that you've judged in the past (You don't have to begin with your biggest, baddest, most loathed quality: start small and build up. Shadow work takes time.)

Take a long while to breathe love and appreciation into this quality. Embrace this piece of the great puzzle of who you are: unique, valuable, weird and wacky and absolutely wondrous.

Then, send gratitude to the earth and to the sky. Once again to the sun and the moon. And to yourself, Divine Wonder that you are, here experiencing life. - Melissa Carroll