Saturday, Dec 21 at 4:21 am EST, our darkest eve of the year will reach maximum night, and from there our Sun will start his great return. The triumph of light over dark will proceed. What has been building up until then is the struggle within the battle. The Solstice reminds us of what we have been carrying around, waning limbs that weigh us down.  Limbs that further anchor us into an inescapable past, robbing us of crucial nutrients for upward growth. The Solstice is a point of inward reflection, a period that permits space to digest what it is we need to release to the underworld so we can live in the outerworld. 

To our ancestors, this period of growing darkness gave way to various rituals and celebrations, honoring the dark and the return of the light. All festivities and rituals were focused around the gradient aspect of light, and ultimately the return of the Sun. Darkness is just one side of the scale, yet it always is light that remains, and this is the beauty in our relationship to solstice.