Winter Solstice is this weekend, and has me thinking a lot about The Sun...
Here she is in her full glory - something we remember as we connect to her during this shortest, darkest time of the year. The light in the dark. The core of heat and vitality in the cold emptiness of space. The force of warmth and life-giving power that rests as deep in the earth as it does inside each of us. We celebrate our ability to endure, share, and honor what's born anew. We surround ourselves with reminders of what sustains us and nourishes us in dark times - community, color, sweetness, spice, warmth, fire, food, drink, joy, solitude, cozy comfort, and more.
Here is one of my favorite meditations on Winter Solstice, with a little bit about tea and magic, from the lovely creatures of Worts and Cunning. My Winter Solstice tea this year includes St. Joan's Wort for sun and light, Star Anise for stars and dreaming, Transylvanian Mountain Mint for calm, ease, and a reminder of the year's magic adventures, Hawthorne Berries for heart and movement between worlds, Rose Hips for sacred heart and vitamin C, and locally gathered pink peppercorns for the flavors of home and a little peppery kick. Have fun brewing and charming your own holiday tea!
I am loving practices like candlelight yoga - basically candlelight anything. (Attended by music about the descent to and return from the Underworld no less!) Being with the quiet and the dark, tending the spark and seeing by its light. Holding the spark of whatever comes to me in these quiet moments as a seed, held and nurtured by the darkness as it germinates, waiting to bring new magic into my life in the coming year.
What might you do to mark this time of honoring the light in the dark?
--
Kaeti is a therapist, teacher, and dreamer based in Long Beach, California. All of her work (and play!) is interested in dismantling intersections of oppression and breathing magic and radical healing into all the daily corners of her life, into all the spaces of community she helps weave.