Dear Reader,

I’m writing to you from my candle-lit kitchen table, wrapped in a warm blanket and sipping on a cup of tea. It’s been a mild start of winter, cloudy with light rain throughout the day, melting away the last snow. I’m feeling warm, soft, cozy, earthy, and grateful for the time and space to drop into the energy of the seasonal Solstice with you.

What are you noticing in your surroundings, and how are you feeling today?

How are you experiencing this time of year?

The beginning of winter

The end of December features a major seasonal turning point in the yearly cycle of the Sun. At Winter Solstice, the Sun reaches 0 degrees of Capricorn in the tropical zodiac and marks the shortest day and longest night of the Northern Hemisphere’s year before the light of the Sun will begin to increase again. This year, the exact Capricorn/Winter Solstice falls on December 21st, 10:49 p.m. CET (convert to your time zone).

At the start of winter, we’ve come full circle around the solar wheel of the year, where the ending flows into the beginning and death leads into rebirth. Winter Solstice marks the sacred pause between the years when the Sun (sol) stands still (sistere) at its lowest point in the sky, rising and setting in the same places for a few days, and then starts moving northward. In the depths of darkness, dreams are turning into seeds of intention to be planted in the fertile soil of the Winter Solstice.

Completion and dissolution

We’re gathering what we’ve experienced and how we’ve unfolded in the old year and letting go what is ready to be released so we may be centered in an expanded heart. It’s a time of preparation and deep rest, warming our bodies, and calming our minds so that healing and renewal can happen in us and through us. It’s a time of celebration and deep nourishment, restoring joy to our souls, and opening to receive the blessings that this new year is ready to bestow so we may be aided in becoming who we’re intended to be.

Are you ready to enter the portal of winter?

How are you arriving in the winter season? What is yet to be released, so that renewal can happen?

What kind of rest would be most nourishing to you?

What sparks of new life are waiting to be called forth from within you?

What lights you up on the inside?

What are you committing to in the new year? What will be worth your energy and time?

How are you making yourself ready for your own rebirth at the March Equinox?

The questions you find throughout this newsletter are intended to help you weave yourself deeper into the mysteries of winter. You may take them on your walk, into your journal, your dreams, or any other creative or contemplative practice.

What this time of year is good for:

Completion, meditation, rest, reset, regeneration, nourishment, naps, snuggles, sleep, prayer, inner expansion, speaking blessings, sharing dreams and visions, tending fire and flame, silence, non-doing, rituals of spiritual renewal, journeys into otherworldly realms, entering stillness, setting intentions

Rest to regenerate

At a time when all of nature sleeps, may we allow ourselves to move more slowly, make deep rest and nourishment a priority, and find ways to stand still, even if just for a moment, so the hidden light in the darkness can find us once again.

How may you support your winter body?

What would be deeply nourishing and grounding for you?

What would help you deeply unwind?

I’m wishing you a beautiful winter season, wherever you are. I know I’m looking forward to dropping deeper into stillness, making time for contemplation and visioning, and nourishing my body and being with herbal brews and broths, winter soups and stews, and warm cinnamon and cardamom apples.

What is your relationship to winter, this time around?

Are you perhaps a child of winter, having been born during this season? And if so, how does that inform you?

Until next time…

I very much look forward to speaking with you again around the time of the Aquarius Cross-Quarter, also known as Imbolc, which marks the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and heralds a time of quickening and emergence. It will fall on February 4th, 3:43 a.m. CET this year (convert to your time zone).

In the meantime, may we remember every day to connect with the Sun, our home star and the source of all light and warmth on our home planet, and breathe its life-giving energy into our being and any places where we need support.

Sending you the very best wishes for the turning of the year on this Winter Solstice!