New Year Rhythms to Match Our Natural Needs
Reflection on the wisdom of the Solstice
If I had to sum up this letter in one sentence it would be this:
The slow simmer of winter welcomes you to dream your next phase of life through the next six weeks, not a single day.
The Story
I don’t remember how long ago I started celebrating the New Year on the Winter Solstice, but I believe I’ve pinpointed it to the first time I attended a Yuletide celebration circa early 2000’s in Seattle.
Picture a large smokey room, the smell of cider and muling spices filling the hall where a square of tables is set up with a theater troupe dressed in old English attire, a king and subjects performing for the guests.
There was singing, there was drinking, there was storytelling. It was the longest night of the year and to honor it we celebrated the return of the light.
Welcome to Winter
In the Northern Hemisphere today, we are celebrating the Winter Solstice. The shortest day of sunlight for the year. For our Southern Hemisphere friends, they welcome the full strength of the light, with their longest day. Our earth and it’s inhabitants are living in full contrast within the solar cycle these next three days.
Solstice roughly translated means stand still, or still point; the sun pauses it movement away from or towards the equator. This clue to our steps forward at the new year lives in the sky as much as in our seasonal surroundings.
A true sacred pause
The six weeks between the winter solstice to the Imbolc cross quarter point are liminal1. Reflection, introspection, and gestation are being supported inside this solar wheel of time.
It is the deep sleep of winter and there is much dreaming. Welcome it.
In our fast-paced collective world, the new year is celebrated for one night and resolutions are made and lost in a week; celebrating the new solar cycle inside six weeks brings life to a pace that is sustainable and meaningful.
As alchemist, we learn to become masters of synergy: blending physical needs with the devotion of our long term goals. A sacred pause to honor, collect, grieve, listen, explore, these are the ways of the Alchemist inside the larger realm of reality.
Action inside the stillness
The world will keep going forward. As a culture we have one heck of a time letting anything simmer. I’m suggesting a new gentle way to allow for more time while pushing forward.
Take the moments as they come, create the intention to sense the slow down in nature. Embrace the darker days, feel the the quiet stillness below your feet.
Grab a pen and paper. Light a candle. Turn the lights off. Write down all you have accomplished in 2023. The tiny to the big. Be okay with whatever comes up, you can’t do this wrong. Then simply walk away, let the silence that surrounded you in your acknowledgment of your accomplishments be your partner in the coming weeks.
Today as the sun enters it’s still point, may we find stillness of our own to reflect and celebrate being a witness to life.
Blessings to you dear heart, now and always.
Love,
Lenaleah 💕
While the solstice points are exact on the 21/22 day of both December and June, the cross-quarter points are based on Astrology and have therefore shifted over the thousands of years as our galaxy has drifted closer to the galactic center. Imbolc will fall on approximately February 5 ET, 2024.
Thank you for this, Leah. It feels very hopeful to try to arrange the next six weeks in the way you are suggesting. I appreciate your words and your writing so much!