Elizabeth Candlish

The Gift of Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice came to light on December 21^st 2023. This is a time when the shortest day and the longest night draw in, kick starting the beginning of the celebration of light which sees the reversal of dark nights transgress into long, light-filled days. From this moment forward, we get to observe as the celestial occurrence unfolds before us, one day at a time, into something bright.

For those who are aware of Winter Solstice, you may have your performed your own ritual with the intention to reflect over the past year’s experiences, honour the gratitude you hold for that which you’ve learned, all that you’ve received and been able to provide, and you may have processed all that you wish to let go of, so that you can move into the light with less baggage, a lighter version of yourself, with a keen sense of who you’ve become and all that you desire to be.

As this is a celebration of winter light, and rituals centre around just this, light. You may have lit a fire, you may have created a spread of flamed candles, or you may have even stood beneath the light of the moon as the central piece of your practice. This time enables us to consider at length what we’re grateful for, how we’ve grown, what we want, and what can be released. This is a time of shedding the old and embracing the new.

During this process, and the days preceding the Winter Solstice, you may find that you become heavier than expected as you gently go from place to place, this could be work, this could be a family member’s home, this could be meeting a friend for drinks, or it could be attending a social gathering that you’ve attended a hundred times before. When you get there this time, something has shifted, and you may have experienced a sensation of being out of place.

Have you experienced this lately? If you have, try not to look on this in a negative way, but look on this with the opportunistic energy of the celebration of winter light. This moment, however scary and uncomfortable this may feel to be in a place of familiarity, and feel as if you don’t belong, is a golden opportunity for you to look at what you do want from this place, these people or this situation, and whether you can achieve that in the coming year.

These revelations happen for a reason. Sometimes your intuition will be calling you for a while before you actually connect with it, and when you do, you’re called to listen. So, with this in mind, I invite you to honour that feeling, to sit with that feeling, and to thank it for all that it is trying to show you. Any confusion that might come up will indeed be set straight in time. Trust your intuition at this golden time on earth.

Winter Solstice invites you to honour the darkness in order to let in the light. It’s a time for reflection, renewal, growth and healing. It may occur in the days leading up to Christmas, but the process of celebrating the winter light may last for days or weeks, which means, we can continue to adapt, evolve, hear messages from our intuition, understand the new shape we’re taking which allows us the space and time to align with our new form. Each year we have the magical opportunity to step into the light in just the way the universe wants us to.

You have the potential to not only let go of the old but to honour the person you’ve become and are destined to be this year. You can set new goals with gentle understanding of who you are and why these goals are important to you. You get to embrace fun and joy on a deeper level. You get to connect with family and friends with sincerity and gratitude, and you get to be the best person you can be.

Take this time to honour all that you are right now.