There is something powerful in a simple ritual that you know many other people are also doing – even if you’re separated by time, place, and pandemic. It brings a sense of togetherness and the feel of participating in making a pattern.
Every week, I hold a “zoom experience” with my Patreon folks. As the Solstice falls between our regular meeting day (Wednesdays), we decided it would be best to engage in a Solstice ritual prior to the event, rather than after the fact. As the group is a diverse group of folks – ages, levels of experience, backgrounds, etc – I try to create experiences that can be meaningful and accessible to as many people as possible.
Not everyone could attend this past Wednesday’s ritual, so I decided that I would film a variation of it for those who missed it – and anyone else looking for a simple ritual to do. This ritual addresses cleansing away aspects of the current year while preparing for the New Year to come.
You will need:
– a small bowl of water (tap is fine, or you could melt some snow if that’s ample where you live right now.)
– a tealight or small candle (and something to light it with. You can also use an electric/battery operated one if you can’t have open flame.)
– a spring of evergreen (pine, holly, juniper, cedar, laurel, bay, rosemary, etc – fresh is best, but if all you have handy is a bay leaf in your kitchen cupboard, that’ll do.)
I talk about this more in the video, so I recommend watching it first to get a sense of how to do it, then modify to suit your needs.
A note: with the cleansing and blessing motions – you can choose to do them as many times as it feels effective, or you can choose a prescribed number – such as 3, 5, or 7.
Additionally: You could also read the poem in my previous Solstice post to set the mood.
Also: I’m a tad word-derpy in this as I just finished teaching a 2 hour movement workshop – and I wanted to take advantage of shooting this video at night, versus in the bright, snow-reflective daytime of New England.
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