WINTER SOLSTICE/Summer Solstice down under, arrives Dec 21 @ 2:44 am PST/5:44 am EST/ 10:44 am GMT. Happy WINTER. Happy SUMMER to all my friends down under.
This is the shortest day of light where we are north of the equator and the longest night and vice versa. This is the rebirth of the SUN! which Christmas is based on.
Solstice. The word means Sol=Sun, stands still. The Sun appears to rise and set at the same location on the horizon for three days. It really should be spelled SOULSTICE.
It is an ancient wiccan/ pagan/Germanic tradition called YULE. Al indigenous peoples celebrated in the participation of the turning of the wheel of time. It is the REBIRTH of the LIGHT, in the northern hemisphere. The Christian religion couldn’t eradicate the ancient practice, so they made this into the day of Jesus’s birth -Christmas. This time also marks the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia.
WINTER SOLSTICE is one of the 4 Main power gates and 4 cross- quarters in the Year.
Zero degrees Capricorn marks the WORLD POINT. The SEEDING of all consciousness for the next year. It is a time of great HOPE, the SUN IS REBORN. An ancient pagan festival, Christianity overlaid its religious tenants over the ancient knowledge.
We are in the middle of the Ancient festival of SATURNALIA which the Romans celebrated. Red and Green colours were worn and candles were lit to SOL INVICTUS the SUN which is reborn on the Solstice. There was major partying and revelry, slaves were allowed to be equals, It was quite a wild time.
YULE Ancient Pagan/WICCAN Winter Solstice Festival is the basis for Xmas.
YULE pronounced EWE-elle is the name for the shortest day of Light in the Year, the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. It is when the dark half of the year dies to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, the sun’s “rebirth” was celebrated with much joy. Our ancestors celebrated the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, giver of Life. From this day forward, the days would become longer. As the people participated in the mystique of the turning of the wheel of Life, their participation and prayers to honor this propitious time was all important. For if the Goddess did not bring rebirth to her Son the sun, and the Sun’s Light did not return then that signaled the death of all life on the earth.
Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were ‘wassailed” with toasts of spiced cider. Children were escorted from house to house with gifts of clove spiked apples and oranges which were laid in baskets of evergreen boughs and wheat stalks dusted with flour. Apples and oranges represented the sun. The boughs symbolized immortality (evergreens were sacred to the Celts who worshiped trees, because they did not “die” thereby representing the eternal aspect of the Divine). The wheat stalks portrayed the harvest, and the flour was accomplishment of triumph, light, and life. Holly and ivy not only decorated the outside, but also the inside of homes, in hopes Nature Sprites would come and join the celebration. A sprig of Holly was kept near the door all year long as a constant invitation for good fortune to visit the residents. Mistletoe was also hung as decoration. It represented the seed of the Divine, and at Midwinter, the Druids would travel deep into the forest to harvest it.
The ceremonial Yule log was the highlight of the Solstice festival. Traditionally, the log must either have been harvested from the householder’s land, or given as a gift… it must never have been bought. Once dragged into the house and placed in the fireplace it was decorated in seasonal greenery, doused with cider or ale, and dusted with flour before set ablaze by a piece of last years log, (held onto for just this purpose). The log would burn throughout the night, then smolder for 12 days after before being ceremonially put out. Ash is the traditional wood of the Yule log. It is the sacred world tree of the Teutons, known as Yggdrasil. An herb of the Sun, Ash brings light into the hearth at the Solstice. The Teutonic God ODIN, was hung upside down on Ygdrasil the World Tree to receive a vision of the RUNES. He is the symbol of the HANGED MAN #12 in the tarot.
2016’s Solstice features Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn, conjunct Pluto squaring Jupiter in Libra and squaring Uranus, Eris, and Ceres in ARIES. The Cardinal Cross is very tense and we are trying to find a balance. Jupiter in Libra contrary to what you would think historically produces exaggerated dictatorships and not peace makers.
The Moon is in LIBRA and inconjuncts NEPTUNE in PISCES later today
disappointment in relationships and dashed dreams. Moon squres Mercury in PDT later tonight.
What do we need to learn from The Hanged Man now?
The Hanged Man symbolizes surrendering the ego. Allow, simply allow, The Universe has another path in mind. BUT don’t be a martyr either.
MEDITATE at the SOLSTICE and plan the next 3 months till spring. Rest, it is an intense three days and then its Christmas and Chanukkah this year too.
I will be doing ceremony with my family. I have come down with a head cold.
Blessings of the season to you and yours.
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WINTER SOLSTICE SONG LISA THIEL
Tara Greene,Tarot Reader, Astrology Psychic 