Winter Solstice, A reminder
December Newsletter, closing out the year
There is something extremely powerful when we fully synch with the seasons.
From a wisdom traditions vantage point, the winding down of the year begins in winter solstice and arcs until spring equinox.
The true-new-year was never in the dead of winter when life turned inward.
The new year was in spring, when life returned.
From a traditional Celtic mythological perspective, darkness was not an enemy… it was the womb.
A fertile void where life reorganizes itself and the longest night marks the pregnant pause before the spring rebirth.
The Celts did not see time as “progressing forward” endlessly. So the winter solstice marked more of a threshold, a liminal crossing point where the veil between worlds thins — a time when the ancestors, spirits, and our inner knowing are much closer.
While Indigenous traditions vary widely, several shared themes appear across Turtle Island, the Andes, Siberia, and the ancients of Eurasia.
The Sun Withdraws So Humans Can Remember.
The Sun’s retreat is not a form of abandonment, it’s an invitation to go inward and carry our own inner fire during this time.
They all knew that winter was a teacher, the “elder” season, where true wisdom is born. Winter teaches patience, humility, and conservation of energy. It’s a time where excess is naturally stripped away. My elder Wakia un Manee taught me that winter comes with the snow to cover the tracks of man, so we can start fresh in the spring. In other words, we practice ceremonies around this time as a way of honoring the symbolic death of the old before the light returns. A lost teaching that renewal starts with deep rest. We see this with seeds resting underground and animals go into hibernation.
Trying to “push forward” in winter was seen as disharmonic mis-alignment.
In Chinese medicine they use the analogy of the Qi (chi) or life-force energy getting pulled down into the roots, and would follow suit.
Our ancestors would have done a big harvest, hunts and preparation for the winter season by the fall Equinox, curing meats, creating ferments etc to last through the winter.
We would be resting, conserving our energy, close to the fire and the winter solstice was that pinnacle point of this “death” cycle.
Our modern world gives us a lot of pressure, a couple of days off with family, and then it’s back to the hustle.
I share all of this not to make the modern world “wrong or bad”, but to understand that there is in fact a cost to this way of life. Those of us walking a path committed to reciprocity with the mother earth while also trying to balance our responsibilities with the modern world, us cultural orphans stumbling our way home to harmony are ALL in discovery; so please be gentle with yourselves my friends.
To simply understand teh hidden challenges that directly impact us based on this modern disconnect which aligns with a false-time calendar & out-dated Babylonian system.
The Gregorian calendar in very simple terms, deeply influences our sense of time-space and seasons in a way that are out of sync with the natural rhythms & cycles that our ancestors lived by.
At a systemic level we see this in extractive industries and the collapsing of eco-systems. At an individual level this can manifest as deep fatigue, frustration or bitterness at the inability to bring to life ones visions on the material or emotional levels, often sacrificing vital life force energy in at attempt to sustain and adhere to the whole cultural wheel of capitalism in its current form.
In other words, our entire cycle for the year can be tilted or altered by placing such emphasis on an artificial new year, and how much power & alignment we can reclaim adjoining with the natural cycles themselves.
There is a huge difference between self-imposed ideals (however well intentioned) and sustainable behavioral changes that one can make incrementally when we align more with these natural seasonal shifts and ritualize them correctly.
In the world of personal development there are many perspectives on how to shift behavior from spirituality, mind-set, to psychology.
What I have found to be very effective for myself, colleagues and clients is a healthy combination of these that are inclusive of the sub-conscious mind, more deeply knowing where resistance patterns live & why. Couple this with a re-syncing with the natural cycle of winter into spring and there is a more realistic runway to make these shifts in behavior and actualization through embodiment that is deliberate, gradual
Although some people are able to adhere to their New Year’s resolutions the majority fail miserably, often with much internal self-harm, because the imposed ideals were unsustainable.
Regardless of the modern or ancient, a decision to change is made at the core of our being. This is how shifts happen.
The invitation here is to ritualize the death of an old version of ourselves, honor the potency of sacred darkness and align our spirit / soul with a renewal cycle that develops with the upcoming new season of life.
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Join me Sunday December 21st at 7:30pm for a free transmission and guided solstice ceremony / meditation where we’ll close out this last cycle and prepare for the new.
This will be kicking off my free community “Alchemy Lab” on Circle
→ JOIN FREE TODAY. ←
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On another note relating to Celtic mythology and ancestral codes…
I am releasing a labor of love on 12.22.25
Born out of my time in ancestral pilgrimaging & weaving mythology as a Bard through hip-hop as a medium for story telling.
This is a whole journey birthing a new genre of Celtic Hip-Hop
Ancestral Codes.
Prayers for humanity.
Bars for the times.
Beats you can bump.
Poetry for the soul.
Melodies that uplift.
Anthems you can stand behind.
Forged from lived experience.
Refined in the studio.
Rooted in lineage.
Honored to feature powerful priestesses and voices of remembrance :
• Marya Stark — The Bardess & Master Muse
on “Emerald Hills” & “The Original Song”
• Áine Walsh — haunting Gaelic invocations
on “Ode to the Ethereal Realms”
• Claraty (Clara) — heart-forward vocals
on “Celebrate Again”
This is Celtic Hip-Hop.
This is the return of the Bard…
pre-save to support the release >