“The longest night is ending / it will be
morning soon / the earth turns on her axis / round the sun / a ray of light is
shining through the darkness / and a hope we cannot name wakes in our
hearts…..”
Anne
Bonaparte-Krogh, circa 1987
This chorus of a Solstice song written by a
circle sister many years ago plays through my mind, keeps time with my
heartbeat and hums in my blood. Some of
us from this same circle have been keeping vigil these past months for one of
our own as she traverses her unique pathway between the dark and the
light. While sitting with her I am not
always sure whether it is her waking time or her time of wandering between the
worlds that holds the darkness, and which it is that holds the light. For some of us the darkness is the place of
rest; the time when it is possible to let it all go and float in the spaces
between time and space. For others it is the place of nightmare and injustice.
This season has been bleak for many of
us. Our culture and the world around us
seem bound towards destruction. We see the killing of people of color, the
degrading of our earth’s resources, the selling off of lands to those who would
not honour them. Perhaps this destruction is the compost to build a new way forward. We see pain, grieving and ignorance dance with hope as many of us
take a stand on behalf of justice.
Always at Winter Solstice we in the north acknowledge
the Turning of the Wheel of the Year towards the re-birth of light while our
neighbors in the Southern Hemisphere turn towards the dark. But this particular turning is special as it
is also a New Moon, marking this as a new beginning in both the sun and moon cycles.
One of my Moon practices is to plant my ‘seeds of intention’ for the cycle that
begins now. How potent to plant them at
this time of double beginnings!
It just so happens that since December 8th
(and continuing until April 8th) the planet Jupiter has gone retrograde. Retrograde is the term used in
astrology to describe the path of a planet that appears to stop in its tracks
and reverse direction. Of course, we understand that the planet doesn’t
actually stop and turn around. This is merely
an appearance from our earthly perspective.
But due to this appearance, those who follow such things interpret it to
mean that the planet’s energetic influence changes.
Jupiter is the planet of increase, of success and abundance, of
positive unfolding, of commitment and of following through. During its retrograde time, Jupiter gives us
the opportunity re-visit and re-examine our commitments, our desires and our intentions.
What a fortuitous synchronicity that this time of re-considering
our intentions and options comes at a time of re-birth along with the sun at
Solstice and re-newal at this New Moon.
My personal re-commitments are to re-turn to writing and these
blogs and to re-new my personal practices that have lagged as I traveled to be
present for friends and family during their times of need.
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