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Sun Standing Still: Celebrating Solstice
Posted on Friday, December 16, 2005 (CST) by Thoth
 This December, the Earth is actually 3 million miles closer to the sun than it was in June. It is the Earth’s tilt that sets the seasonal clock to winter.
At this time, the Northern Hemisphere slips farthest away from the sun, like an uncooked egg rolling to the corner of a tilted frying pan, creating the sun’s lowest arc in the sky from our perspective. At the exact moment when that arc is the lowest, and darkness the longest (this year it occurs at 11:35 AM PST, December 21st), for thousands of years, people have prayed for the return of the light. This is Winter Solstice.
Solstice has been an event of spiritual cosmological import in cultures throughout time. Solstice literally means “Sun Standing Still.” And as many know, the architecture at Stonehenge (built between 3000 and 1500 B.C.) perfectly marks both Solstices when the rising sun rests momentarily atop one of the great central pillars of the structure.
Older by
centuries than Stonehenge, a giant circular stone building, Newgrange,
in Ireland was built 5000 years ago to receive a shaft of sunlight deep
into its central chamber at dawn on Winter Solstice. The light
illuminates a stone basin with intricate carvings of spirals and solar
discs. In another example, the ancient “Sun Dagger” site was built atop
a nearly inaccessible butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico 1000 years ago.
At this site, three large
stone slabs collimate sunlight in vertical patterns on two spiral
petroglyphs carved on the cliff behind them. At Solstice, a narrow
vertical ray of light moves downward near noon through the center of
the larger spiral. The intricate constructions at these sights, and the
hundreds of others like them that demarcate the Solstices, not only
required an extremely sophisticated understanding of astronomy and
geometry, but also illustrate the profound cultural intactness that was
present in the lives of the ancient architects who built them.
Christmas was transplanted
onto Winter Solstice, as Christianity spread throughout the globe.
Earth and seasonal-based celebrations were labeled “Pagan”, and were
not tolerated. In that process, we lost a deep connection within our
celebrations, connection to the processes of our home planet, and to
feeding the Spirits that keep the world turning for another year. We
need look no further than to see what Christmas has become to feel the
loss of sacredness in our cultural rituals. As a result, many people—of
a myriad of spiritual and religious backgrounds—are looking to regain
that connection.
Carrying on the tradition
of recognizing Solstice in our modern-day lives can offer a new
dimension to the “holy days” season. Ways of doing this include:
keeping candles burning to pay homage to the continuance of light,
making confections in the image of the sun, sharing myths and legends
about winter, the sun, or renewal, or using bows of evergreen at home
or on an altar to represent life’s continuity, and to celebrate
abundance.
Solstice is a good time to reflect upon the closing of
circles, and to learn from nature how to honor the darkness in life,
while holding a strong faith in regeneration, and a coming time of new
growth. Walking outdoors on this day is highly encouraged, as is
contemplating what in your life is extraneous, as well as making
strides toward releasing those things.
To honor the sun is to
proclaim our dependence upon it. To know the darkness is to honor the
cycle of death and rebirth. To feed the light is to hope for its
continuance. To know of its path across the sky, and on what day it is
to return, is to be connected to a tide larger than our own private
lives.
Many cultures believed that
without their mid-winter celebrations for the “Birthday of the
Unconquered Sun,” as the Romans called it, the sun would continue to
retreat, until we were left with only darkness. So on this year’s
shortest day, perhaps we could take the time to pay homage, in whatever
ways we can imagine, to that which keeps the whole world alive: truly
the birthday of the sun, and the beginning of a new cycle! Blessings.
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