Winter Solstice

By Peter Shepherd

We live in a special time in the history of our planet, when the sun sits in the dark rift of the Milky Way galaxy when viewed from Earth, effectively in alignment with Galactic Center. It is located there for a period of 30-40 years, and this cycle recurs every 26,000 years. This was known and predicted since ancient times, and our elders understood its impact upon human consciousness, that we are entering “The Age of Aquarius”.

The December solstice is a turning point, with the strong light of a new age defining and illuminating equally strong shadows. Light and dark necessarily accompany each other.

As humanity awakens toward a more mindful consciousness, the conditioning and lies to which we have become accustomed start to break down. Everything is questioned and the establishment and powers that be can be expected to fight back and attempt to maintain their control by discrediting that which becomes visible.

This may be a difficult time but it may also be a great time, a time of ascension for Mankind, a time to reclaim our freedom and rights. A time for the light of Love to take over from the shadows of fear and hatred. A time to reclaim our true nature.

Please feel these words of appreciation with me…

I am grateful for my health and the health of those I love.
I am grateful for my family.
I am grateful for my warm home.
I am grateful for all the animals in the world.
I am grateful for my human rights.
I am grateful for my liberty.
I am grateful for my values.
I am grateful for my beliefs.
I am grateful for my creativity.
I am grateful for the beauty that surrounds me.
I am grateful for Life itself.

These are words from the Sufi teacher, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee…

There is a winter in all of our lives, a chill and darkness that makes us yearn for days that have gone or put our hope in days yet to be.

Spring is full of expectation - buds opening, frosts abating and an awakening of creation before the first days of summer.

Then the sun gives warmth and comfort to our lives, reviving aching joints, bringing color, new life and crops to harvest.

Autumn gives nature space to lean back, relax and enjoy the fruits of its labor… mellow colors in sky and landscape as the earth prepares to rest.

Then winter, cold and bare, as nature takes stock, rests, unwinds, and sleeps until the time is right.

What is the inner meaning of this turning from the darkness towards the light?

We are both the darkness and the light, the sorrow and the joy. It is in the midst of the darkness that the light is born, that the longest night turns toward the sunrise.

But what is the light waiting to be born? Could it be an awareness of the sacred within creation and the deep knowing that we are all One — one living planet full of wonder and mystery, not just a resource waiting to be consumed?

Could it be the simple awareness of the divine that is present within all of life, within every cell of creation?

It is from within the heart we reawaken to the knowing that all of creation is sacred — it is one living whole and we are its guardians.

In our heart and soul we are each like Mary, holding the possibility for a birth that can change the world.