In ancient times, we’re told, communities gathered on the Day Itself for holy days. In Ireland and Egypt, among other places, we find stone constructions aligned so that the rising or setting or noonday sun lights up a wall or an altar exactly — but only on the Solstice or Equinox (or, in one case, only on Samhain and Imbolc, but that’s another story).
In these modern times, though, we alter the calendar to suit our busy schedules. This year the actual solar solstice fell on Dec 22, a Tuesday. So I was privileged to attend celebrations on Saturday and Sunday as well.
How do we celebrate the Winter Solstice? One of the advantages of Unitarian Universalism is the absence of a fixed liturgical form.
In one local congregation, Winter Solstice is celebrated with the Burning of the Wheel. A wooden wheel maybe six feet in diameter is covered in straw tied loosely around its rim, all doused in vegetable oil. After suitable chanting and storytelling about the Hag of Winter, someone leans forward with a long taper and lights the Wheel on fire. Then two volunteers each hold one end of an axle and run with the wheel, rolling it down the hill in the paved parking lot until either the fire goes out or the wheel falls apart (sometimes both).
In a congregation not too far from here, the storytelling centers on the astronomical solstice, complete with a spinning globe from an elementary school classroom, carefully held at the 22 and a half degrees of tilt of our planet’s axis and walked around the glowing chalice. Here we speak and sing into the dark until the ‘sun’ (a balloon) rises from its hiding place behind the piano to hang from the rafters.
In UU-Pagan ritual, as in UU Sunday services, things generally go according to plan, with very occasional minor mishaps – the mic doesn’t work, say, or the Order of Service has the wrong hymn number printed.
One of the advantages of small-group Pagan practice is the opportunity for spontaneous shifts or additions in ritual. (Me, I can’t help thinking these are divinely inspired; your mileage may vary. Engaged in the free and responsible search for meaning, you are your own Spiritual Authority.)
In my coven, we planned a ritual in which each of us claimed our ‘light’ for the following year – an action or a project in progress in which we feel more whole. We sang the chants we’d planned, and each in turn claimed our light … and then one of us stepped forward again, this time to claim and release a personal darkness, a habit or situation that no longer served, grabbing a piece of kindling and throwing it into the rising fire. And suddenly each of us in turn was moved to send something into the fire to be burned to ash. The ritual was beautifully planned, and the spontaneous addition was beautiful, too.
The Witch leans over my shoulder. “Dry as dust, this writing. Why so academic?”
She wants me to let you hear my heart.
I claim my Light: this work I am learning to do, and that I am becoming peaceful and whole in doing. Walking with hospital patients through suffering and challenges. Bringing human connection and spiritual comfort by using mySelf – warm attention, loving regard, by listening to understand, by reverently acknowledging what has been shared or said or sobbed. Bringing divinity present to the patient who seeks or needs it, in the Person of Allah or Demeter or God or Cerridwen or SpiderWoman or Shiva or Durga or Lakshmi or WhoEver the patient speaks with in their heart. Praying with the patient in whatever words serve them best while being true for me as well. It’s a strong Light, this work I am in; it strengthens and changes me.
Into the fire I threw my continual need to be right, my perfectionism and judgmentalness, my grasping fear that I will be invisible. A lifelong process, this has been, and each time I have been able to release more of it. Soon, perhaps, it may fade away. (Please).
Walking out of Yule ritual this year I feel cleansed, whole, peaceful and powerful.
May it be so for you.
Blessed Be.
Yule and Christmas 2015
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