We have been saved from the freeze so far and there are still flowers blooming in the garden – dahlias, cosmos, rudbeckia, nicotiana. chrysanthemum, marigold, lobelia and even primrose. This morning I saw two young deer foraging, and I wonder where the red squirrel is hiding…


I have just returned from holiday with my loved ones in the Southern Hemisphere. It was 38ºC in the shade when I left Brisbane and so it was quite a shock, and somewhat of a relief, to return to the cool climes of Findhorn.


The winter solstice and the shortest day of the year will soon be upon us here in the north, heralding the onset of winter yet promises the gradual return of the sun after a prolonged period of darkness. In the Southern Hemisphere, this is the time of the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. From now on, as the northern days grow longer so do the southern days get shorter.


The extremes of weather between north and south that I experienced in traveling across the equator has me musing on the significance of the solstices, and the meaning of Christmas, the tradition I was brought up in.


Since ancient times, people have celebrated the solstice and observed it with many different cultural and religious traditions. Many cultures celebrate various combinations of the winter and summer solstices, the equinoxes, and the midpoints between them, leading to various holidays arising around these events. For the December solstice, Christmas is the most popular holiday to have arisen. In addition, Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Yule are also celebrated around this time.


Yule is the time to end the period of darkness that has prevailed during winter and has brought us into the gloom of shortened days and barren trees. It is the time of hope reborn as we welcome the growing light that shows us the ways of new beginnings.


The term solstice means "sun stands still." On the year's two solstices (winter and summer) the sun appears to remain motionless for three days (i.e. leading up to Christmas eve) in its incremental journey across the sky. At the time of the Winter Solstice, the light currents within the Earth reverse and change course, just like the Sun, which is reversing its southward course in the Northern Hemisphere, and turning northward. A reverse movement of any planetary body creates a powerful force until the new motion or path stabilises. Therefore, from December 21 until Christmas Eve there is a powerful force field of light and radiation enveloping the Earth.


The solstices mark moments in time and space on Earth when the light waves descending to and ascending outward from Earth profoundly affects all of nature. North or south, east or west, let us celebrate this as a time of rebirth, of new beginnings and the setting of new goals for ourselves. Let us put aside regrets and all that causes us unhappiness and with our loved ones, celebrate the return of the Light.


Love and Light, Marion


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