The world has tilted far from the sun, from color and juice…
I am waiting for a birth that will change everything.
~Hilary Llewellyn-Williams

Darkness. It surrounds us. The darkness arrives long before dinner time and stays with us until what seems like mid-morning. It is palpable. Over the last weeks, I have taken to asking Alexa what time the sunset will be and what time the sun will rise. I am not sure why I am doing this. Perhaps there is some assurance in hearing a voice..even one created by AI… say that there will be light…sometime…just not yet.

As I write this I am looking forward to marking the Winter Solstice on  December 21st. This has not always been a practice. In fact, I lived a large part of my life not even being aware of this day which others have celebrated since…well, for a long, long time. The ancient ones certainly noticed that the Sun was retreating in ways that we more ‘modern’ beings mostly just complain about. They took in the mystery of the Universe and marked their lives by the times of light and dark, of the ways the seasons unfolded, by the slant of shadow cast by trees or animals on snowy, white fields and forests. When you live close to the Earth these are the patterns of living that emerge. I long for more of this kind of wisdom.

In anticipation of the Winter Solstice, I began searching many of the Celtic books I have accumulated over the years.The Celts seem to have honored this time of the year when darkness became a companion. The quote above comes from one of these books, The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews. In another of her books she writes this welcome to the Winter Solstice:

Brightener of Darkness, hail!
Keeper of Clearness, Opener of the Depths.
Gifts of plenty are arising,
Winter wonders, white snows’ fall.
Joyful be the heart within us,
Open wide the guesting door,
Wisdom waken in abundance,
Warm our beings to the core.

Darkness is both reality and metaphor. There is darkness that seems to walk with us in new ways these days. The many places around our world where injustice and violence is a way of life casts its shadow far and wide. This week, once again, our children and those who cared for them experienced the darkness of fear as shots rang out in the hallways of their school. This shadow hangs over us all with a cloak of powerlessness and anger. When will we do something as a country to stop this madness? When will we light the way for change in our gun laws so that this darkness will no longer hang over us?

The Winter Solstice is a teacher that reminds us that even in the darkest day the light will loyally begin returning. There is comfort in this. It is a threshold time…reseting the darkness that has held us in its grip. Slowly, if we notice, each day the darkness will recede and more light will appear. This threshold asks us to rest in the sacred, constant rhythm of the Universe. 

Those of us in the Christian household will celebrate the birth of Jesus just days after the Solstice. Like the poet we are ‘waiting for a birth that will change everything.’ On this December 21st may our hearts be open to the ways the light…the Light…can give birth to the change the world so desperately needs. May the Winter Solstice find us with joyful hearts, open to the doors that awakens wisdom. Wisdom in abundance.