The Winter Solstice happens on Tuesday, December 21, 2021! It sets the stage for the rest of the holiday season! Astronomically, the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere. The sun is at its most southern point in the sky. Therefore, for the northern hemisphere, it is the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. It is the darkest day. That is opposite for the southern hemisphere. In this blog I will address the spiritual meaning of the Winter Solstice and the way it sparks the holiday season in the northern hemisphere.
Centuries ago people honored the winter solstice. Celebrations and rituals existed to acknowledge the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Today, while many don’t celebrate Winter Solstice on that day, inadvertently we all celebrate the winter solstice throughout the holiday season.
The energy of the winter solstice is in your favor for setting your intentions for the coming season; to focus on your inner growth and the peace within yourself.
The celebration of Winter Solstice was to honor the light coming back into the world. Christmas honors Jesus Christ as the light of the world. They found the winter solstice a good time to celebrate his birth as a new beginning of light because Christ came into the world to become the light of and for life. Furthermore, Christmas trees decorated with ornaments, and holly, mistletoe, Christmas carols and gift giving all come from the celebration of the winter solstice.
The winter solstice was a time to celebrate the natural world. It was a celebration of light to come from the darkest night. People would decorate a yule tree with candles and ornaments and would make wreaths of evergreens and pinecones. The ornaments on the yule trees symbolized the moon, the sun, the stars and the loved ones who had passed. They would share gifts and put yule logs in the fireplace. Sound familiar?
More powerful is the energy of the winter solstice and how you can use it for life mastery and manifestation. The wintertime is a time of quiet, patience, going within. And the winter solstice is a time of quiet energy. It is the darkest and longest night of the year. That represents our shadow side. So in that quiet energy, you can go within yourself and begin healing challenges that may block you from any manifestation of your dream or freedom in this life. For all of time winter solstice has been that opportunity to look within yourself and focus on what you may want or need. Once you see your dream, then this is the greatest day to set your goals and intentions for the coming year and focus on the manifestations of your dreams of life and change within you.
Again, this sounds somewhat familiar! For New Year’s Eve you may set resolutions; and those resolutions are very similar to setting the goals and focusing on the manifestations during winter solstice. Further, winter solstice is a new solar cycle and New Year’s’ Eve is a new calendar year. The energy of the winter solstice is in your favor for setting your intentions for the coming season; to focus on your inner growth and the peace within yourself. It is the time to honor the faith within yourself that light will come and your dreams will manifest. So as the light grows and as the days get longer your dream is being lit and is coming to life.
As you can see, a good chunk of the holiday season rests upon the age-old holiday of winter solstice. Maybe you would like to sit quietly on the winter solstice and focus on your dreams, your true resolutions, and put those dreams into a yule log fire to represent the transformation of your intentions to this physical reality. Then use your New Year’s Eve and the new moon of the new year to further activate your dreams that you put in place on this winter solstice. It is a magical time of year. May you each use the energy of the Winter Solstice to propel your life and dreams. May all of you see your dreams come true.
