Winter Solstice
Long Night Moon
December 16, 2021
Full Moon in Gemini is Saturday, December 18, at 9:35PM Mountain Standard Time (MST)
Known as the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon, it is the closest to the Solstice or the longest night of the year. This moon is a good time for necessary personal reflection on where you have been, what you have learned, and where you wish to go from here, so you can prepare to release the old on the Solstice, and begin to plan, organize and bring in what you truly want on this expansive platform.
It is good time for dreaming, sharing, and opening up your optimism, all the while using your personal truth as a point of reference. A focus on relationships can bring emotional realizations, either bringing people closer together or drifting them apart.
The need for balance emerges as not only something to consider but something to include.
We study and embrace the balance between intuition and thought, information and wisdom, doing and being, action and patience, community and personal time.
Use this full moon time as a preparation for Solstice and to practice optimism, hope, truth and curiosity.
-Lena
Power Path
Winter Solstice
The winter solstice happens on Tuesday, December 21, 2021, 8:59 AM MST.
Think of it this way: Although the winter solstice means the start of winter, it also means the return of more sunlight. It only gets brighter from here!
This is all thanks to Earth’s tilted axis, which makes it so that one half of Earth is pointed away from the Sun and the other half is pointed towards it at the time of the solstice.
-The Almanac
birth of the sun
Blue Christmas
December 21, 2019
‘Blue Christmas’ Services Offer Refuge From Holiday Cheer
Deena Prichep
Dec. 21 is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. And across the country, some churches are offering “Blue Christmas” services — setting aside the tinsel and other trappings for a night, to acknowledge the darkness in life.
The format of Blue Christmas services vary church to church. But the common theme is dropping the usual merry and bright, and recognizing the hard stuff. People offer prayers and light candles, and open up to the sadness they’re carrying. About loss, relationships, addiction.
people write down things they’re struggling with. And then everyone’s invited to grab some of these notes — literally lifting someone else’s burden — and hang them on the church garland.
“It’s not putting our sorrow on display. “It is inviting us to remember that it’s all part of the experience.”
At Portland’s First Congregational United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. Janet Parker welcomed a small group for a service in mid-December, which they called “Out of the Darkness.”
In a very dark worship space, participants sang hymns, walked a labyrinth, journaled and prayed both alone and together. They also lit candles — some dedicating the candle’s light to a particular missed or suffering person by saying their name aloud, others doing so silently.
“At its deepest level, I think the Christmas gospels tell the story of God’s entrance into this world from the underside. And when all of us gather there together, and the marginalized are in the center — that’s the promise of Christmas.”