Winter Solstice December 21st

IMG_20131215_122615The Festival of Lights

In the days of old before Christianity, pagan holidays marked seasonal times that were important for the development of the soul.  The cycles of the year are connected to the seasons and quality of light illuminating Mother Earth.  These seasonal markers describe Earth’s relationship to the sun over the course of a year.

To acknowledge these dates can help remind us of who we really are and where we come from; to develop our potential in this lifetime.  The universal source of knowledge which comes from the light of the sun.  Its not just a burning ball of energy that the Earth revolves around but is responsible for all life, for growth and awakening, and tug of gravity on Mother Earth.

During the winter solstice, on the darkest day of the year; the longest night, we look to the sun as light comes back to us and enriches us with its life-giving heat and warmth.  A time to reflect on the importance of this light and energy in our lives.

Some thinkers believe the sun’s energy symbolizes John the Baptist as the prophet heralding the coming of Christ. John the Baptist is seen as a human witness whose historical purity and humility have been proven, his link with the social-judicial aspect of life.  John the baptist through the act of Baptism itself transmuted darkness into light.

The light of the sun brings knowledge to a place where there is ignorance, healing where there is woundedness, lights the darkest hours of our consciousness. Winter solstice can be said to represent an aspect of the dark night of the soul, the painful release of dark material from the unconscious before the light makes its way into our soul and our life.  For me it is the light at the end of the tunnel, that magnetically pulls us toward spiritual illumination.

© Lorraine Hughes 2013

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