December Solstice: Kindling The Light Within
by Julianna Souza  

December has always been a time of deep introspection and contemplation for me. Perhaps my connectedness to the cycles of nature came from my mixed heritage, although I did not have the benefit of wise elders sharing old stories with me as a child. The magic of the holiday season always brings great joy—family gatherings, lights, music, and revelry—plus the realization that another year has come to an end. As I reflect on this past year and the last few months in particular, I can’t help but be aware of the families who have lost so much and will be experiencing increased pain and sadness during this season of celebration. Consequently, I felt the need to delve more deeply into my psyche for a way to try and understand the horrors of violence. The symbolism of this season—a bright star, Hanukkah candles, and lighting trees—helped me to realize that I have a responsibility to these fallen heroes, to their children and to all the innocent victims of this war we are engaged in. Illuminating the darkness—bringing forth the light must be their legacy.

Ancient spiritual wisdom centered on predictable shifts in seasonal energies, as rituals revolved around sowing, reaping and cycles of light and darkness. The four cardinal points of the spiritual year were summer and winter solstice—the longest and shortest days of the year respectively—and spring and autumn equinox, when the hours of light and darkness are equal. Our ancestors celebrated winter solstice as the turning point, when the darkest day of the year gave birth to the light. Many of the Judeo-Christian holidays are variants of these more earth-centered rituals, with Hanukkah and Christmas, both festivals of light, being outgrowths of winter solstice celebrations. The circle, sometimes referred to as the Medicine Wheel or the Sacred Hoop by Native Americans, is the most powerful symbol in all Native American cosmologies, because it represents the cycles of nature and nature’s tendency toward roundness or wholeness. In December, we enter the season of darkness, as the Great Medicine Wheel shifts from West to North and all the forces of nature align to help us give birth to our inner Light.

The seasonal rhythms correlate with our bodily rhythms. Bears hibernate in winter, and humans also put on an extra layer of fat as metabolism slows. The dramatic light of summer favors outward-directed activity while our dream life and inner life grow more insistent in the winter darkness. As the earth turns, one’s business is finished, and the old year is put to bed. The earth energy draws us inward in December while the cultural energy draws us outward to shop and prepare for the holidays. Magazines abound with articles on holiday stress. Now is the moment to plan time for rest and reflection, time for shopping and cooking, time for visiting and time to meet with family and friends to prepare joyful, meaningful holiday rituals. Without careful planning, celebrations of the Light can become dark, stress-filled weeks and lost opportunities for joy and inner awakening. Make the holidays Holy Days.

Every spiritual tradition stresses the need to be reborn. Rebirth is a moment in which we perceive that peace and safety come not through blame and self-righteousness but through forgiveness. An ego-death is a crisis of monumental proportions. After we die to who we were there is a time that must pass before we awaken to who we have become. The caterpillar rests in apparent death while the miracle of transformation proceeds in the silent darkness of the cocoon. This period of transformation requires faith. The great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart summed up the necessary attitude in his teaching that in the time of darkness we have never been closer to the light.

We are living in unprecedented times in which the esoteric or hidden spiritual wisdom of many cultures has come into mass consciousness. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi manuscripts were discovered in the mid 1940s, casting new light on early Christian/late Jewish thought. The holocaust which the Chinese perpetrated on Tibet in the 1950’s has resulted in the broad distribution of previously little known Tibetan Buddhist texts and practices. And a new awareness of and respect for Native American culture has accompanied mounting concern over ecological damage to the earth. In addition to the surfacing of ancient wisdom, medical technology has inadvertently created a large group of modern-day mystics—people who have reported near-death experiences. Their message is the same as mystics from both the East and the West—that the purpose of life is in learning how to give and receive love. All the world’s spiritual traditions—from Judaism to Gnosticism, from the Native American wisdom fires to the life of Jesus, from Bahai to Islam, from Buddhism to Vedanta, from A Course in Miracles to the depth psychology of Carl Jung share the same philosophy of peace and loving kindness, which is the measure of success in any religion or spiritual practice. Peace on earth begins with peace in our own souls.

The elders of the Seneca nation traditionally encouraged their people to reflect on these four essential questions to determine if they were living in balance with their world:

1.  Are you happy living how you are living and doing what you are doing?

2.  Is what you are doing adding to the confusion?

3.  What are you doing to further peace and contentment in your own life and in the world?

4.  How will you be remembered after you are gone—either in absence or in death?

On the journey, according to the elders of the Seneca tribe:

Self-knowledge is the need.

Self-understanding is the desire.

Self-discipline is the way.

Self-realization is the goal.

If we take some time to ponder these ideas, we might discover that these simple principles can help us to live in greater balance as pilgrims of peace on the path of wholeness.

The Peace Pilgrim, a woman who crisscrossed the United States seventeen times carrying no money, no bags, and no possessions had only one objective:  to share her message of peace and forgiveness. She said:

            Every good thing you do,

           every good thing you say,

           every good thought you think,

           vibrates on and on and never

           ceases. The evil remains only

           until it is overcome by the good,

           but the good remains forever.

The Winter Solstice in December is the darkest day of the year, but on the very next day the time of light is greater than the time of darkness. May September 11, 2001 be our darkest hour, may our light shine in the true spirit of compassion and forgiveness that is the heart teaching of all religions and may the renewal of faith in this season be the ground from which perfect peace will grow. And peace be with you.

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