Here is the write-up for this year's Winter Solstice Essence:

 

Winter Solstice and Christmas are about the re-emergence of the light, and the sacredness of coming to inhabit a body on this earth. They are about birth and rebirth (and not being afraid of death). Remember, birth doesn’t come out of nowhere and nothing. It happens after a gestation period.

What are you gestating? Is it an idea, a stripped-down-truer-newer version of yourself, or maybe something entirely new and unrecognizable? Whatever you are growing now has its roots in your past. Every year at this time we celebrate this together in an atmosphere of collective joy and reverence.

This Winter Solstice essence says that Life requires something from us right now: maturity. One of the reasons why is because of Governor Vessel’s message: we will be pushed this winter season. That’s not hard to imagine because most of us have felt rather pushed already! Nevertheless, the pushes aren’t all fraught. Some may be, but I have a suspicion that most will only feel fraught.

Expect life to push you in new and uncomfortable directions. With the solstice essence as your companion, you will be better able to see the traffic in your life and the world around you through the wise eyes of an elder instead of the overwrought sensibilities of an adolescent. You, as the mature observer, will see that everything in front of you contains gifts and opportunities. In your calmness, you will be able to use those well.

Here’s how it works.

Smokebush says, “in some way you are going to be making this descent into the dark of the year feeling alone.” But don’t worry. Do not confuse being alone with existential separation (a difference we have all had time to ponder this year). We are all going through our personal birth canal or portal into that newer-truer version of ourselves. And we will be stripped down as we travel through. For an interesting take on this wild portal ride, I recommend this great article by Jennifer Armbruster.

The image of traveling through a portal as you are stripped of the “superfluous you” or false self can sound scary. But don’t worry! What’s being stripped away generally falls into two categories: how you feel unloved and how you feel unworthy. Just about everything not helpful to you or the planet fits into those two categories, and who wouldn’t like to be rid of those. What’s more, who wouldn’t like to live in a neighborhood where people thought each other loveable and worthy?

But there’s more! As you progress through your portal letting go of barnacles, you are also gathering all of the gifts and “ways of you” that will be useful to you in the coming days, months, and years. The portal will not strip them from you. Your important gifts and ways are old and hardy. The birth canal will very likely shine them up for you. Sounds tricky, but I imagine your gifts and talents will be easier to spot the more those unlovable and unworthy thoughts fall away.

Your wise self doesn’t get involved in the swirl, but moving through with eyes and heart open, she goes about her business of creation. The portal is her trusted companion in the work of birthing the new.

How to take the essence:

The way to get the most out of this essence is to focus on what’s happening with Governor Vessel. Discipline your mind to call on your elder self who draws on her stores of patience and magnanimity. As you keep warming your heart and cooling your head and giving life around you space and time to show you what is needed from you, the rest of the birth canal activities will operate automatically.

Take the essence in the morning as you draw your thinking mind down to your heart. Welcome the new and ask to be shown what is yours to tend to.

My hope is that you will be surprised and refreshed when you come out of the other side.

Click here to purchase the essence.

Photo by sina rajabpour on Unsplash