Solstice/Yule

Yuletide blessings, Beloveds.

Our Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice was exact at 4:44am CT.

What a year, am I right?
To many of us, it may seem as though we have died 1,000 deaths, and experienced 1,001 rebirths. Here we stand, on the edge of a "new year, new you" moment, and we are likely feeling too spent to even consider any semblance of resolution or renewal.

To the Ancient Norse, the Winter Solstice was a time a honoring the darkness; of celebrations dedicated to the preceding year, and of releasing all the burdens of the past.

The longest night of the year was a night to commemorate the deeds and accomplishments of our community, and ourselves. To lay to rest all feuds, and eliminate debts. To cut hair, to exchange gifts, and to offer the final log of last years's old wood to the hearth. The day of the Solstice, and the following 12 days and nights, were set aside as a time to rest, to turn inward, and to close the doors on all that came before.

Unanimously, across ancient cultures, this was considered a time of surrender; of relinquishment and profound release. This moment was one to hold ceremony, rite, and ritual, honoring the great wheel of life. To align one's self with cycles of the natural world.
This was to be the last gasp of a tremendous, universal exhalation, and a pregnant pause, in preparation for the next breath.

In these days and nights of release, I invite you, my Loves, to give yourself permission to stop.

To allow yourself to let go, to cease your struggles, to fall apart if you need to. You have done so much in the last year, you have come so far.
Rather than preoccupying yourselves with thoughts of resolutions, or plans for the New Year, why not just give yourselves a bit of credit for how far you came in 2016?

It was a hell of a year.
Seriously serious.
You did good.

You have done enough. You deserve a moment to absorb all the incredible transformation which you have accomplished.
Take a beat, Beloveds.

Rest.

In the days to come, the light will return, and we will face new challenges... but right now, don't worry about tomorrow. Just let it be.

...and Breathe.

I see you.
I am with you.
I love you.
Always, and in all ways.

© EJB 2016

❤