Enveloped in the darkness we Brits rapidly approach the longest night once again. Winter is at its mid point. For some it may be a time of deep reflection and spiritual dreamtime, and for others somewhat troublesome and ‘heavy’. I’d like to say that I’ve spent the dark evenings in  meditation in front of a log fire, and contemplating my own soul’s journey as it moves from one season to the next. But actually I’ve been trying my best to negotiate through the effects of movement of a very different and more earthly kind! Settling after a big change of any kind takes more time than a couple of seasons, it seems.

For as long as I can remember December hasn’t just been about Christmas, but about the return of the Light. Year on year through my childhood, whilst putting up the Christmas tree and paper-chain decorations , which was always the week just before Christmas, I can picture my Yorkshire Nana in my mind’s eye now drawing the heavy curtains (t’keep t’Winter cold at bay’ and t’dark nights out)… telling me that “it’ll soon b’ t 21st and’t shortest day, ‘n’ then t’days ‘ll get longer. It’ll soon get lighter again”, as if reassuring me in case I believed the Winter would last for eternity.  Then vases would be filled with sprigs of holly, pine branches placed onto the fireplace, a piece of mistletoe always hung up on the light-fitting in the hallway and a chocolate cake shaped into a Yule Log. I loved the excitement of preparing for Christmas (and still do),  and I’m delighted that in the mix of celebrating Christmas I’m also carrying on the pagan traditions too. Yule Traditions that we still practice but perhaps without the knowledge of the mystical symbolism being passed down through the generations. (Thanks to the lovely people at The Goddess & The Green man for this information I’m about to share.)

Evergreens represent everlasting life and were traditionally hung around doorways and windows. Each has a symbolism of its own.

Mistletoe

Greatly revered by the Druids, this is the healer and protector. Growing high in the treetops it is carefully cut to ensure it never touches the earth. It’s magical properties are believed to be connected to the fact that it lives between the worlds, between sky/heaven and earth. The white berries of mistletoe represent the fertile white semen of the life-giving male. Which is where kissing under the mistletoe comes from!

Holly

Another evergreen of protection, holly’s spiky bristles are believed to repel unwanted spirits. Newborn babies used to be sprinkled with ‘holly water’, water in which holly had been soaked, especially potent if left under a full moon overnight. Holly is sacred to Holle, the Germanic underworld goddess, and symbolizes everlasting life, goodwill and potent life energy. Its red berries represent feminine blood. Together, mistletoe and holly represent the Sacred Marriage at this time of year with the re-birth of the Sun/Son.

Ivy

Evergreen symbol of immortality and resurrection, growing in a spiral reminding us of reincarnation and rebirth.

Pine

Its branches bring healing and joy to the home, and burning pine will purify.

Today the ‘darkness’ so many of my peers and fellow Light-Workers have been reporting is of a very different kind. Friends and I have been talking about personal feelings of chaos, depression, lack of drive and energy. More than just Wintery days, it has been compared with a ‘Dark night of the Soul’… en masse. I have felt it myself. Sensations like a tumbling, chaotic darkness from which I’ve have been wondering, even with my extremely high levels of hope, and faith in the guides and angelics of the Higher Realms, will there will truly be a return to normality, (whatever that is). Change, on a global scale is happening rapidly, bringing more uncertainty than whether there’ll be a return of the sunlight/ rebirth of the son?

Many empaths and sensitives all over the world have been experiencing a personal ‘heaviness’ that isn’t just about lack of sunlight. Lives, as well as the climate, have been changing, some dramatically. Many of us have been moving, thinking of switching career, or at least wondering how to re-structure our work. Change is inevitable, and all of us know that nothing ever stays the same. But the magnitude of emotion my friends and peers are describing recently reflects a truly cosmic shift within humanity itself.  And, our own micro-cosmic daily dramas are a reflection of the mega-chaos going on all over our world. Politically and environmentally from country to country and nation to nation everyone seems to be feeling and experiencing it. But what is ‘IT’?

What we are feeling is ‘the shift’.The turmoil many are experiencing is all part of the shift that the New Age spiritual teachers have been predicting as the Earth’s Ascension. The rapid shedding of the outer skin as the new spirit of humanity is birthed, or reborn. From chaos comes creativity ( that’s what I keep telling my husband when he remarks on my messy office). And from the deepest darkness comes forth the seeds of Light as the sun returns.

So what should we do? We can all pause, breathe, ground ourselves and remember that we are all here together now because we have agreed to be. We can embrace the change and be the Light we are hoping for!

As the shortest day and the longest night move in, and Solstice arrives, embrace the symbolism and spend a moment to go deep inside your core being. Ask yourself how you can make a difference. Perhaps together with every lengthening day we can resolve to become the agents of change for good. We can bring positive energy into our thoughts and actions. Cancelling out any negativity we see not with judgement and criticism but with kindness and compassion.

I used to begin all my workshops by explaining that I felt like a ‘Little match girl” re-igniting the tiny pilot light inside everyone’s heart, wherever I was needed, so that people may either turn up the flame or turn it down however they choose. After over twenty years I’m pretty much doing the same I guess. Except that instead of individuals I’m reaching many more people. My passion remains to ignite a small light in even the darkest corners. It just so happens that now the world is full of little match girls. The world is full of brilliant, amazing, loving, Light-workers  inspiring others every day of their lives. So let’s all turn up that spark and create a Light so bright that other galaxies will see our tiny planet and wonder if we have turned it into another sun! Let the change begin.  And as we move together through the Solstice May the Light bring the change we all want to Be!