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Dear ,
No matter if you celebrate Christmas or the Winter Solstice - December and especially the time towards the end of the year is all about honoring the light.
The days get shorter and shorter until on the 21st of December we have the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
Ancient civilizations from all across the world celebrated the winter solstice. The Greeks made offerings to Apollo, the Incas to Inti, the Mayans to Kinich Ahau and the Pagans celebrated the birth of the “Sun Child” who would defeat the powers of darkness in the following spring.
It is surely not a coincidence that Christians choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus right at this time of the year.
Winter solstice is a turning point that marks the return of the sun, when the darkest hours begin to brighten, and the nights grow shorter.
Reflecting on all this made me think about how much so many people are focused on the light only. So many of us are searching for the light somewhere outside, in a God or Goddess, or other spiritual beings.
What happens as a consequence? Of course, we also see the darkness, the shadow, as something outside of ourselves. And this makes it easy to be afraid of it, to not want to look at it, to reject it.
It seems we believe that the battle between light and darkness is a battle happening outside of us that we have to fight.
And yet this time of the year teaches us something else. It reminds us that darkness must exist before dawn can break through once more into the light.
December can be a time of reflection on our own darkness, on our shadow, on what we are afraid of and don’t want to look at. On what haunts us and hinders us from moving forward.
During the last weeks I had two constellations where light and darkness played a big role. And it was interesting that in both the situation was blocked as long as the focus was on the light only whilst rejecting the shadow. The healing movement came through looking at the shadow (or what the shadow represented), the dark spot that was rejected - and through embracing it and connecting with it through the heart.
May the month of December be a month of understanding that light and darkness belong together, that one cannot exist without the other, that when we stop the fight and allow the darkness to teach us, we will be able to allow the light within us to shine.
In the spirit of love and reconciliation
Ursula
PS: I apologize for the quality of this newsletter's pictures, they are definitely not among my best shots, but they just felt so right for the topic. |
