The chill of winter’s embrace enfolds us in an ever-darkening time of anticipation and joy. In all of us, it seems to stir up a caldron’s brew of memories—of times past and possibly of things and moments no longer. The earth waits and waits, as do we, for the promised return of the light. It is a time to feel—to be aware of the fertile dark soil of potentiality that lies within us, as well as the dark, the dark that does not serve us and the dark that needs to be released.
This is a time of Hope, Love, and Peace. A time to acknowledge, not deny, the “Great Struggle” we are all facing. The “Great Struggle” of not only the pandemic, but also, our Democracy.
This cycle of light and dark repeats endlessly but each cycle is intrinsically slightly different. Time is cyclical, not linear. There is the past and the present that some indigenous cultures refer to as the non-past. But there is no future only potential ones based on the actions of the present influenced by the non-past.
This is a time of peace and joy—joy as the sun, now far away in the south, begins to travel north at the winter solstice, bringing the wintry earth a new promise of light and warmth.
On the night of the Winter Solstice (December 21/22), the sun reaches its southernmost point. Were it to remain in the south, it would mean death for living beings in the northern hemisphere. Thus, we greet the returning sun as a “savior.” On the night when it begins its northward journey, the constellation Virgo, the celestial virgin, appears on the eastern horizon at midnight and is therefore, astrologically, the ascendant. This coordinates with the myth of the various light-bringing saviors of humanity, immaculately conceived and born from a virgin. Later, the sun symbolically sacrifices its life on the cross when it passes over the equinoctial point at the spring equinox, an apparent descent as seen from the southern hemisphere and an ascent in the northern sky.
Historically and spiritually, this is the month (at the time of the winter solstice) of the mythical birth of the light-bringers. These are the messengers of love and light—the hero-shamans that first brought the knowledge of the fire of the heavens, the knowledge of the light in the darkness, to all of humanity. These heroic messengers of light are born of the Virgin—the constellation Virgo. In the heavens Virgo is a Y-shaped group of stars resembling a cup that just happens to rise in the Eastern sky at this most spiritual time of the year. This is the mythic Holy Grail, the Cup of Light, the Bowl of Love that is Light—all the key to the metaphoric message of these virgin light-bringers—that the sun, the spiritual sun—the divine, is contained within all beings and all living things. This is the message that institutionalized religions do not want humanity to hear: that each one of us, like the light-bringers, is also a virginal vessel of love and light. No inborn sin here, just intrinsic love and light.
The winter solstice presents us with the opportunity to honor and to reveal (revelation—lifting the veil) this prime mystery of life. This is the time to honor these heroic messengers and to pay homage to the metaphoric moment of their “virgin birth” (based on the positioning of the constellation Virgo not on an actual physical birth—the actual birth of the prophets and messengers such as Jesus was late summer, early fall under the astrological sign of the Virgin-Virgo). In addition, it is the occasion to celebrate the return of the light foretelling the truth of eternal love and life and to honor and practice the message of the returning heroes—the light-bringers.
Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh
It’s a great tale told of the Three Wise Men and their gifts; and the star they followed—Venus in its evening star phase. In reality, the gifts symbolized spiritual teachings:
Frankincense and myrrh are plant resins, and both have a long history of use as incense. Incense has been used for religious purposes for more than 3,000 years The Maya of Mexico have used resins as incense for at least 2,500 years. The principal use was religious and aimed at establishing interactions with deities and ancestors.
Gold is symbolic of the eternal; the divine spark (starlight) within all things—trees, animals, and so-forth (sentient beings).
Frankincense symbolizes power, sovereignty, and was associated with the masculine energy of the heavens and of life whereas Myrrh symbolizes a feminine and nurturing essence, or energy, which is linked with the earth.
In other words, Gold symbolizes the One eternal Source of all creation, the Absolute while Frankincense and Myrrh represent the Relative: spirit – matter, life – death; beginning – end.
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The Winter Solstice, the second night of Yule, is the time from our perspective when the sun seems to stand still. For approximately three days, it appears that the sun does not move. The Winter Solstice marks the time of the longest dark and the shortest light. Symbolically, it portrays, on this darkest of nights, the goddess as the “great mother” giving birth to the young-hero god—the sun god. This is the symbolic birth of the messenger of light. It is the darkest time of the year, the time of the longest night, but there is always the everlasting promise and hope of the return of light. And watching over this eternal process of the virgin birth (Virgo on the eastern horizon) is the Sun Angel—the Archangel Mikael.
This is a time of holly and mistletoe. Both symbolize fertility – the mistletoe berries are white, representing the semen of the god, and the holly berries are blood red, symbolizing the menstrual blood of the goddess.
Decorations during this seasonal celebration are excellent symbols of spiritual truths. The following are just a few:
- Candles and Lights – remembrance of the gift of fire and light and the divine spark (starlight) within.
- Mistletoe (seed of the divine) and Holly symbolizing and honoring the faëries and hidden Ones.
- Evergreen Wreaths – Symbolize eternal life, immortality and the wheel of time, add pine cones, which symbolize the pineal gland as well male and female and the DNA of life; add mistletoe and holly with berries and you have the sacred semen of the male and the sacred blood of the female.
- Evergreen Swags – Symbolize eternal life and when put into the shape of the serpent with lights symbolizes death and rebirth, reincarnation, and wakefulness to these truths. It’s important to put a swag over the threshold of your home if possible.
- Yule Log – a phallic symbol – newborn sun can be decorated with holly, mistletoe, and evergreens to represent the intertwining of the god and goddess. The log may be cut into 12 pieces and burnt each night of Yule. Additionally, on the night of Yule, carve a symbol of your hopes for the coming year into the log. Burn the log to release its power. It can be decorated with burnable red ribbons of natural fiber and dried holly leaves.
- Julbock or “Yule Goat” was the bringer of gifts to the household. Symbolically represents the goats of Þórr and the gifting of resurrection (rebirth).
- Evergreen Christmas Tree – Symbolizes the Tree of Life/Light – needs to be alive, honored and lighted and decorated symbolizing the joy of life.
Symbolically the Tree of Life is the central axis of creation. Microcosmically, each one of us is born with this central tree (axis mundi) of light/life (spine), which shortly after becomes the tree of knowledge—of duality—good and evil. Our ever-born quest is to return to our original tree of knowledge of oneness (light/life) within us – our spine. This is an excellent time to dedicate or re-dedicate one’s life to the divine quest of awakening.