Time to Emerge: Celebrating Winter Cross-Quarter
Dear Reader,
I’m writing to you from the comfort of my home, wrapped in a warm blanket and curled up in my armchair. It’s a grey, gloomy kind of day. Thick clouds are covering the sky and gusty winds are blowing through. I’m feeling slow and a little sleepy, yet inspired and full of hope and promise.
What is your inner and outer weather like?
How are you experiencing this time of year?
The heart of winter
The beginning of February features a major seasonal crossroads in the solar year. At the Winter Cross-Quarter, the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Aquarius in the tropical zodiac and marks the exact midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the exact Aquarius/Winter Cross-Quarter falls on February 4th, 3:43 a.m. CET (convert to your time zone).
This is the year’s first cross-quarter, signifying the height of winter and speaking of the promise of spring even when winter lingers. As the days are beginning to lengthen and the land is slowly emerging from its deathlike sleep, we ourselves are slowly finding our way out of the dark, dreaming days of winter. Deep in the earth, seeds begin to stir, and the first signs of new life are beginning to pop up. New shoots and buds are beginning to appear, snowdrops and other early bloomers are beginning to emerge, and songbirds are beginning to sing again.
Have you spotted your first snowdrops or crocuses yet?
What else is coming up now that feels important?
Pregnant with new life
As the light of our life-giving sun is growing stronger every day, so is our own desire to shine, create, and bring forth new life following the darker, inward-looking days of winter. Whatever dreams and ideas we’ve conceived since the Winter Solstice are now beginning to awaken in and through us. It’s still too early to know exactly what form they’ll take, but nonetheless we’re beginning to feel that something new is stirring underground and wanting to emerge into our lives.
It’s a time of gentle quickening and emergence when we can get glimpses of what’s important and what’s to come. It’s a time of slow awakening, pregnant with new possibilities that have been incubating during the long, dark days of winter when we allowed ourselves to slow down and be still. It’s a time of inspiration and renewing our vows, tending those flames we hope will never go out, and asking for blessings that a path may open up ahead for what we hope to bring into our lives this year.
Are you ready to enter the heart of winter?
What new dreams have you conceived since the Winter Solstice?
What is emerging or waking up in you at the moment?
What is pulsing with life inside you?
What new story are you ready to let yourself fall into?
What are the flames you hope will never go out?
What dreams are you bringing into the burgeoning light?
The questions sprinkled throughout this post are invitations to weave yourself deeper into the mysteries of the season. You might take them on your walk, into your journal, your dreams, or any other of your creative or contemplative practices.
What this time of year is good for:
Gentle movement, journaling, reading, collaging, tending fire and flame, lighting candles, renewing vows, reviving morning rituals and routines, building self-trust, whispering words of encouragement, practicing patience, making way for the new, mapping out dreams and desires for the new year
The Winter Cross-Quarter corresponds to the Waxing Crescent Moon (that first thin sliver of the Moon reappearing in the evening sky after the Moon has been dark for a few days) and to the time of dawn and morning twilight (when we’re slowly coming out of sleep and starting to wake up to a new day). Just as the light of the Waxing Crescent Moon continues to grow until it reaches maximum illumination at the Full Moon every month, and the light of the Morning Sun continues to grow until it reaches its highest point in the sky at noon every day, so will the seasonal energy of the Sun continue to grow and blossom until it peaks at the Summer Solstice in June.
Gentle transition into spring
Now is a good time to review and renew our morning rituals and practices, which set us up for the entire day. I’ve recently picked up writing morning pages again. I find there’s something so comforting in having a daily practice, and I find mornings are simply the best when it comes to building self-trust and deepening inner connection.
How do you start your day? What are your morning rituals?
In what ways are they working well for you?
And what changes would you like to make as you move into spring?
As we’re rolling out of winter and opening to spring, doubts and fears may arise. We may not feel ready to come out of winter hibernation and feel reluctant to reemerge. It’s a good time to explore our feelings so we can address them from a place of kindness and wisdom, to allow ourselves to go slowly, and to break up bigger dreams and wishes into small, actionable steps.
How may you support yourself in gently transitioning into spring?
Where may you need more patience as you’re slowly waking up from the slumber of winter?
Where may you need encouragement? And how will you go about giving it to yourself?
Until next time…
I’m wishing you a beautiful rest of winter and first glimpses of spring, wherever you are. I know I’m looking forward to more journaling and cross-quarter collaging, exploring my dreams and desires for the new year, and setting up daily rhythms and routines that support me in nurturing them into reality.
What is your relationship with the Winter Cross-Quarter?
Were you perhaps born during this time? And if so, how does it inform you?
I very much look forward to speaking with you again at the time of the Spring Equinox, which marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and heralds a time of rebirth and rejuvenation when we’ll birth our new creations for the year. It will fall on March 20th, 10:25 p.m. CET this year (convert to your time zone).