Solstice Spiral Walk

Yesterday was spent celebrating the Winter Solstice. We gathered friends and family for a Solstice Spiral Walk and celebration at our home. We spent the last year remodeling our home and living in our detached garage, so this was a house (re)warming as well. It felt like a special blessing to host a Solstice Gathering.

For the ritual, I've adapted a Waldorf Advent ritual that works beautifully and is full of richness and meaning for people of all (and no) faiths. The ritual itself is quite simple. People gather around the spiral in silence or singing quietly with unlit candles. We used beeswax candles in apples that had fallen from our tree. The spiral is made of evergreen boughs and has a lit candle in the center. One at a time, each person walks to the center flame in the spiral and lights their candle. They may place their lit apple candle anywhere along the path while walking back through the spiral. Since we had about 25 people, not many of them regular singers, we played two songs quietly over speakers and invited folks to sing along or remain silent to hold space for each person's journey from darkness to light. I had folks gather beforehand away from the spiral to give a brief talk about the structure of the ritual, but left the meaning for each person to individually interpret. There are no photos from the actual ritual, as we agreed not to be distracted with phone cameras, but to enjoy the moment collectively.

Songs

The two songs I chose were Rise Up Oh Flame and Now I Walk in Beauty, both performed by Libana. We played them softly over speakers during the ritual. Recordings of these hauntingly beautiful songs are easy to find online. A few years ago we were involved in a homeshool nature education collective where lots of moms and dads could sing, so we provided our own accompaniment for the ritual. When we do this again in the future, I will try to find a musician or two to accompany on harp or flute.

Preparation

We had a huge storm on Thursday, which took out the power to our home and about 5,000 neighbors for most of the afternoon. So, after taking our offspring to school Friday morning, we headed out at sunrise (around 8 am this time of year) to a nearby park with lots of old growth to collect blow-downs. Parks workers were busy clearing trees that had fallen in the storm, and didn't mind a little extra help clearing branches from the large meadow. We found blow downs from predominantly of douglas fir, spruce and some choice ponderosa pine. Bald eagles were chattering above as we collected the boughs.

At home we had already cleared our summer container garden and table from the patio, leaving a large open circular space. We started at the center and made a spiral with the boughs, with a center altar decorated with pine, rosemary, and a single large candle. We were so blessed that the powerful (60mph gust) windstorm from the day before had blown itself out and left us with crisp, clear, windless weather. Here are the beginning and finished spiral. In the second photo, you can see our decorated Solstice Cave on the white table in the upper right hand corner (photo at end of post.) This is another yearly ritual that I create with my (now) 5 year old dragon/child earlier in December. It is a bit disheveled from being dumped over in the storm the day before :)

Next, I set about preparing the candles. We had several down apples that were not completely rotten, so I cleaned about 25-30 of the best ones and inserted smallish beeswax candles. I poked holes in the apples with our knife honing tool, which was coincidentally the perfect size. I was not sure how many people would be there in time for the ritual, and amazingly we just made one apple candle too many.

The Sacrifice

Marking the wheel of the year in ritual helps our family find deep rhythm, meaning and connection. We could all feel the energy of the day building as we made our preparations throughout the day. Right as the sun was setting over the hill to our west, a robin flew into our west window and broke its neck. We were all distressed and sad as we brought his warm body into our home to determine what to do. This was 30 minutes before guests were to arrive and we were in the thick of final cooking and cleanup for hosting a large gathering in our home. My child and partner's eyes were welling with tears, trying to make sense of the tragedy. That's when I remembered some old folklore that it is King Robin who rules summer, and at the Solstice is defeated by King Wren, who rules the winter until they exchange places again at summer Solstice. We thanked the Robin for his sacrifice on our window, making room for King Wren to come and preside over the winter. We kept the robin warm until all the life was drained from his beautiful body, then gave him a place of honor in the Solstice Cave overlooking the spiral. We feel honored he chose to spend solstice with us and wish his spirit well in it's next journey.