Tonight we all come collectively to rejoice the internationally beloved Annual Solstice Sun Wreath ceremony.
For those who and your loved ones are counting all the way down to Solstice (and maybe additionally to Christmas), tonight is your second lighting of the candles. Our first candle was lit final Sunday, Nov. 26.
In case you are counting down solely to Christmas, you may be lighting your first candle tonight.
I do know it sounds a little bit complicated, however it’s simply that this yr, now we have an additional Solar Day between Solstice and Christmas. So the official Christian introduction countdown begins tonight, Dec. 3.
That’s why I’m suggesting that, in case you want to accommodate each traditions, you’ll be able to merely have an additional lighting of the candles on Christmas Eve, and/or Christmas Day, or no matter different day in addition to Solstice it’s possible you’ll want to commemorate.
PLEASE NOTE: Even in case you are simply now listening to about this, you haven’t missed out!
As a result of we return and rekindle the prior week’s candles earlier than lighting the present one, you’ll be able to be a part of any time by the ultimate lighting at Xmas or Christmas! So please share – the extra, the merrier, and the stronger we’re.
Additionally, in case you are busy at sundown and may solely do that later or earlier within the day, no worries. There’s sure to be somebody, someplace in some time zone becoming a member of you! As some have mentioned, it’s like we’re doing a prayer model of “the Wave,” touring throughout the globe.
☛ Likewise, please, please share! Invite everybody you understand to affix in! ☚
To seek out out the final concepts about what you’ll want to do to affix within the festivities, click here. It’s extremely easy actually, and takes little or no time. Though I primarily write in regards to the Pagan and Christian interpretations, this may be simply tailored to all of the world’s main religions and philosophies.
It’s the vitality and which means that come out of your coronary heart, not the esoteric complexity (though in case you are into that, by all means, go for it!).
And by the way in which, in case you are on Fb, now we have a private group of practically 2,000 people who’re sharing their photographs and ideas. It’s extremely lovely and galvanizing. All I ask is that new people full a short questionnaire, to ensure our little nook of the platform stays secure and pleasant.
Right here’s The way to Do It
At sundown in a darkened room, take just a few quiet moments to be totally current as you stand earlier than your wreath.
Then understand how you maintain the flexibility in your arms to rework the darkish into vibrant heat illumination. When you have phrases or a prayer track to share aloud, please do.
You may want to take into account, too, that you’re joined on this sacred circle by males, girls, and youngsters of many religions, many languages, from many lands. Through the years, folks have instructed me that this realization is among the strongest parts of this follow.
So it’s possible you’ll want to take a second to open your consciousness to the various lots of of us who’re collaborating with you at that very second. Truly, it’s 1000’s in case you embody the totally different time zones and occasions of sundown. Since starting in 2004, numerous different blogs, social media pages, communities, and mates have shared this — far past the scope of my figuring out.
We could also be celebrating throughout the actual second as you, or forward of, or behind you, in “actual” time. However we’re concurrently all within the everlasting Circle, in our personal liminal second, as night sweeps throughout the Earth.
So take just a few moments to soak up the deep quiet of the darkish. Give thanks for its time of gestation, the candy blackness that holds and feeds our roots, the thriller that nurtures, the sleep that stills our weariness and offers house for our desires.
Then, because the nightfall deepens, with our intention in thoughts, mild your first candle (from final week).
Concentrate on all that it means to you, maybe reviewing this aloud together with your family members. Has its significance modified or grown stronger for you, since that first lighting? For Pagan contributors, this may be the candle for Air or East.
As you mild your candle, take pleasure in its lovely mild, giving thanks in no matter methods your coronary heart speaks to you.
The Hearth Candle
Subsequent, gaze on the unlit second candle.
Most of the Earth traditions counting all the way down to Solstice may even see the second candle as representing the Ingredient of Hearth, in its side because the aspect of fireside and hospitality.
Thus, allow us to ponder the which means of Hearth and what Hearth presents.
In its shadow side, our mates in Canada, Chile, Australia, Greece, Brazil, the U.S. (particularly Maui), and Spain can attest to the profoundly harmful energy of Hearth. Our hearts exit to those that have misplaced family members, houses, and their livelihood due to the ravages of wildfires this yr.
And Hearth represents our want as people for light and heat — which drives the endless quest for fossil fuels, in flip contributing to the worldwide local weather disaster and a number of wars.
Which then, in flip, contributes to the unprecedented drawback of wildfires.
Hearth’s Items
Tonight, you may acknowledge these shadows. However then, flip your consciousness to the items of Hearth in your life.
Hearth is the very essence of life — the electrochemical stream that’s the life pressure itself.
It cleanses, transforms, burns away what have to be given up with a purpose to feed the life pressure. Ardour is sometimes called our Hearth, and all of us expertise bodily want as a flaming vitality. Hearth is our creativity, our welcoming hospitality. Hearth feeds us, and we feed the fires in our lives.
It’s the valuable present of Prometheus, it’s the sacred blessing of Brighid. It guidelines the Tarot’s swimsuit of Wands.
You may visualize the bonfires lit upon historic hilltops, signaling in occasions of want or celebration. Consider the hearths of our ancestors, soup effervescent, youngsters gathered spherical in heat and security whereas icy winds blast outdoors.
If You Are Counting Right down to Christmas ONLY
Welcome to all our households and mates who’ve begun the Christian Introduction season right now.
For Christians not additionally counting all the way down to Solstice, tonight is your first candle. In lots of denominations, it represents Hope. Different denominations take into account the primary candle to be in honor of Isaiah and the opposite seers and prophets of the Bible.
Observe how that is in concord with any Solstice celebrants in your family who see their first candle because the Ingredient of Air, for to start with, was the Phrase.
As you mild your candle, discover how this one candle adjustments the darkness to mild in and of itself. Isn’t that precisely what our frequent want is, no matter denomination or religion?
Bringers of Mild
Know that our candles this night time are being lit by others who’ve joined on this ceremony throughout the globe. Collectively we are going to chase the gloom, the dank, and the chilly darkish which have chilled our hearts this previous yr.
Gaze upon the flickering lights and understand how a lot brighter every part has change into! That is how we are going to see change taking place within the coming yr.
Have a good time our mild with track, tales, prayer, or silence. Let your Solar Wreath’s glow heat you within the some ways you and others who could also be current want to share.
Then eventually, if you end up prepared, gently, reverently bid it farewell and extinguish the second candle, adopted by the primary candle.
Blessed be.
Photograph courtesy of earlier participant, 2019
