Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice - December 21, 2024

The people in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 9:2

For millennia people have celebrated the return to longer daylight by counting the hours, hosting a feast, burning a yule log, hosting a reflective event, lighting candles; the options are endless. Who doesn’t love daylight. This year, however, my solstice reflection has focused more on the gifts that darkness offers. Recently we have had some stunning night skies. We have had 4 supermoons this year, unusual southern views of Northern lights, several meteor showers and amazing views of constellations. We would have enjoyed none of these were it not for the darkness that amplified them. City dwellers miss out on so much of these experiences because of too much light.

Carl Jung believed that enlightenment comes from becoming aware of our shadow self rather than from imaging the light. Light and darkness for me are two sides of a necessarily balanced coin. On Dec 21st this year challenge yourself to celebrate the gifts of both light and darkness.

-Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

Image: Kacper Szczechla @wyroq/ Unsplash

Winter Solstice

Decades ago, I attended a Winter Solstice event at the Timothy Eaton Church in Toronto.  There was prayer and singing as the ritual evolved with a gradual lessening of the light until all were there, feeling each other’s life energy supporting one another in the seeming emptiness of complete darkness. All was still, a moment full of mystery blanketed by darkness and silence.

That trembling moment of standing in the absolute present, without guideposts to enable action also called forth an inner exploration of the energy moving within each of us individually as women, as beings, as one small part of the living being that is Cosmos and animates us all.  Imagine a Celtic cross, with energy moving north and south, east and west; from the Holy One to each individual and the depth of their being and then each individual sharing that energy with each other enclosed by a circle of safety, belief and wonder with the Centre bringing forth a cosmic crash of birthing light. There we were in one holy circle.

Our society stresses action and doing, not being.  It is difficult to remain in the darkness of expectant waiting when our world seems bereft and empty, when all that we have seen and known is taken away from us.  It is sometimes near impossible to remember that the light is ever-present while not visible and that life is gestating and preparing to birth again.  At least this was the case for me when our dearest daughter, Kristina, died in a tragic car accident on Easter Sunday, 1991. The powerful transmission of spiritual energy between the generations was suddenly curtailed; I felt suspended in the deep darkness of loss without knowing the way out. It would take years of psychological and spiritual direction before a safe path was hewed through the wild and untamed forests of grief.

Two experiences sustained me then and still do. That night at the hospital while praying with two Associate friends, the words from Isaiah, “You have given all to me, now I return it” were all I was able to articulate, yet their gift was the confirmation of a sure, unwavering faith in the cycle of life and the sacred mystery that is the Holy.  And then came the dream that called me “to the sanctuary, or spiritual center of my being” and took me “beyond linear and spatial limits” to a new consciousness (Geri Grubbs. Bereavement Dreaming and the Individuating Soul. Berwick, Maine: Nicolas-Hays, Inc, 2004). In the dream,

Kristina and I are walking along a dark alley when suddenly, she falls into a deep rectangular-shaped hole. Desperate to rescue her, I climb down the rocky face to rescue her.  The descent into the hole is slow and scary but I manage to do it. Lo and behold, there she is – just as she was – but cradled in a manger filled with straw! I am surprised that it is not dark down here; the space is filled with a deep, golden, warming light. I figure that we will have to climb up the way I came down but miraculously, over to the right, is a shiny, copper ladder fixed against the wall.  We climb up, me first; I woke before I ever knew if she made it out. 

She taught me that no matter how dark it may seem, there is always an ember of Light to sustain us; that, in fact, an ever-present Holy Fire animates our spirit if only we have eyes to see. And when it is time and we are ready, like the mythical Persephone we will be provided with all we need to rise up and out of the earth and flourish once again.  

Since that time thirty-one years ago, I have become a sacred circle dancer.  We always have special dances that honour the Solstices. Part of me never quite understood why dancers were asked to wear white during the darkness of our Winter Solstice Celebrations.  Now I do!

-Susan Hendricks, Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph

Winter Solstice

Image: unsplash/Elisa Coluccia

The seasons turn and we notice the days shorten and shadows lengthen earlier. It is approaching the time of the Winter Solstice, a time of deepest darkness when we huddle around our families and warm fires. But it is also a special time when we see brightest stars and wonder is awakened again.

It is the time in its journey when the earth is tilted the furthest from the sun. The Solstice marks the shortest day of our year and is celebrated on December 21, the first day of winter. The days gradually lengthen after this moment in universe time. It is the seasonal rhythm of earth, seeking balance and harmony through the turn of seasons. There is its counterpart, the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. At the marks of the fall and spring we the season’s change once more, and it is the Autumn and Spring Equinox, equal time of day and night calling us to balance and re-centering in the energies of light and dark.

“It is precious time for being within and seeking the Creator of all being and life nestled in solstice time.”

These seasonal markers of earth have been celebrated by millennia of human ancestors. For the Celts, the calendar was marked by the solstices and equinoxes, marking the Quarter Days. Traditionally our pagan ancestors celebrated this time to pray for the sun with its life and light to return. We often associate “pagan” with a people without faith and the true light. Yet in the origin of word “pagan,” we find beneath its layers of history that it is derived from “people of the woods or people of the land.” Originally a term of disparagement from those who were “civilized.” Yet it is something to ponder in this wintertime, for we have lost our connection to nature. Although we might not follow the pagan traditions that evolved, there is something to recover in our relationship to nature. For we have largely lost our intimate connections with the natural world, for with our technologies and power we feel self-sufficient. Our ancient ancestors knew they needed the earth, to listen to is rhythms and to honour the ways of the universe.

Image: Unsplash/Aaron Burden

The word solstice itself is from the Latin sol “sun” and sistere “to stand still.” The sun seems to stand still, its movement invisible. It reminds us, though to take moments of “standing still,” contemplative space for pondering meaning and place in our hearts and lives. The season of winter calls us to a different way of being, apart from the busy rush of long days of light inviting glad work and happy projects. All now lies dormant as the fields rest and the forest quietens to usher in this sacred time of letting go and renewing of peace and inner life. Beneath the soils there is a waiting, a becoming unseen and yet present, awaiting its wakening when the time is right, and the seasons turn once more. It is precious time for being within and seeking the Creator of all being and life nestled in solstice time.

-Sister Linda Gregg, csj

Winter Solstice 2020

IN THE DARKNESS, BE THE LIGHT!

The cycle of the seasons includes times of darkness and times of light.  Winter Solstice is associated with renewal, a time of rebirth of the Sun and Light.  The first day of winter, December 21st marks the time of the year when the darkness will give way to the light.  Together with all creation in our Northern Hemisphere, we remember that the longest night of the year is a sign and a promise that the sun will lengthen our days once more.  In this Advent season, we anticipate the celebration of the birth of Christ who is “the true Light, the Light of the World.” 

In the beautiful prologue to John’s Gospel we read: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  The theme of darkness is a common thread running throughout the course of our lives.  Even our body was formed in the darkness of our mother’s womb.  When we were born, we passed from darkness into light.  In fact, I was born on the Winter Solstice and light and darkness are part of who I am.  Since birth, I have had an inoperable cataract on my right eye.  While I have vision in my left eye, I do not have sight in my right eye.  I was given the precious gifts of sight and light and not total blindness and darkness.

Some of my most treasured memories of growing up near Lake Huron include the awesome sunrises and sunsets which continue to speak to me of God’s faithfulness.  When a thunderstorm was brewing, my Dad, siblings and I gathered the animals into the barn.  In the safety of our cozy farmhouse, we watched fascinating lightning streak across the tumultuous sky.  Even today I feel deeply safe and secure amidst the storms of life.  God’s embrace shelters me in the depths of my being.  When I witness a rainbow arc across the dark sky, I am filled with delight remembering God’s covenant with us.

In the cool of the evening, after the work was done, my family would often relax in the backyard gazing at diamond-like stars in the summer night sky.  Sometimes we would catch a glimpse of fireflies flitting around us.  During an annual retreat, fireflies became symbols of faith and hope flickering in the darkness.  

People too can be tiny sparks of light bringing hope to others in their stormy night skies.  I remember light-filled people who have made a difference in my times of darkness.  We carry our greatest treasure within us.  It is the Christ-light which will forever shine.  It is an inner radiance which lights our way home to God.  Let us trust the Christ-light; it will never fade.  This 2021 let us be light in the darkness!

-Sister Kathy O’Keefe, csj