Entering the Fertile Dark
It’s the Winter Solstice, the official start of the season for going inward and concentrating our energy into our core and down into our roots. The trees, the Standing People, are great teachers of that. And Bear goes underground, fattened up to rest and incubate and birth her cubs.
So much tending and mending, digesting of the year’s experiences, resting and dreaming up new possibilities can happen in the cozy den of Winter. That is, IF we allow time and space for that and show up for ourselves in the slow quiet.
The Winter holy days are all about endings and beginnings. There is much to grieve, much to harvest, and many seeds to save for the future. We’ve reached the longest night and now the daylight begins to grow towards mid-Winter’s quickening.
The paradox is that we need to go into the fertile dark alone to reaffirm our gifts and talents AND we are social beings who need to bring our Light and shine brightly in this dark season together. We need to gather, find our communities, reach out for mutual aid. So there’s this coming together with others, but we have to know what is ours to bring, what we are uniquely suited to share.
Sometimes we can see better in the Dark
JOURNAL
Winter Solstice is a great time to clarify your intentions for the new year.
What do I want to leave behind from my 2024?
What do I want to carry forward and refine in 2025?
What 3 qualities of being do I want to embody and offer to others?
What 3 things do I want to create and manifest?
RITUAL
In a quiet place, light a candle. Have a cup of water and a small bowl / shell nearby.
Write down on a piece of paper what you’re leaving behind, letting go of, considering complete. It could be aspects of relationships, ways of being, unhelpful habits, destructive self-talk, etc.
Read them out loud, say thank you for the lessons and goodbye. Tear the paper into small pieces, reaffirming you are letting go of these past things.
Safely burn the pieces in the bowl / shell. Give the ashes back to the earth.
Infuse the water with what you want to embody this next year and what you want to create and manifest.
Imagine you are a year from now, having accomplished and received all of your vision.
Drink the water, sharing some with a plant or tree.
You’ve enlisted Fire, Air, Water, and Earth to help you to take all the next right steps to create and manifest your vision. Tune into the opportunities and potential collaborators that appear.
