Winter Solstice: Celebration of the Powers of Fire by Sara Wright

I have a problem with the belief that Winter Solstice is primarily about celebrating ‘the coming of the light.’ This one – sided thinking negates the cross-cultural reality that this is a festival during which candles are lit to light up the night and roaring fires blaze inside and out bringing warmth to all. Winter Solstice is above all else a Festival of Fire.

Fire is an ambiguous element (as all the elements are) carrying both a positive and negative charge. On one level fire brings warmth and light on cold winter nights. On the other hand, fire also incinerates, destroying everything it touches. Approaching a Festival that celebrates the Element of Fire should be done with consciousness and caution.

 I am not sure where this obsession around celebrating light at both winter and summer solstices originated but I think it’s primarily a new age phenomenon. As a culture we seem to be obsessed by the need for light all year long. Could this be because our Personal and Collective shadows are so dark?

 In older European cultures Winter Solstice is celebrated with a Yule Log and blazing winter fires, raucous revelry sometimes to excess, and the wearing of masks.

Masks protect the identities of those who wear them from dark spirits, yet also allow personal shadow qualities to be expressed in healthy ways through tricker’s antics – a “both and” if there ever was one…

My scientist and naturalist friend, a member of one of the seven Indigenous Sioux tribes, states that Winter Solstice is a dangerous time, one of the reasons in that everyone is masked while acting out winter solstice stories in the old European way. The tales may vary in content, but all have the same root: Shadow is on the move. Masks protect the people; the risk of exposure to danger is minimized in this way. 

All cultures that celebrate the wheel of the year note that Winter Solstice is both a process and an event. Although the wheel turns on the darkest night, we are also moving into the depths of winter even as the sun begins his imperceptible northern journey. Two cold dark months will pass before “First Light” will begin to manifest around February first or second when the sun’s warmth can first be felt, and the days are noticeably longer.

Solemn winter goddesses like the Celtic Cailleach (the Veiled One) reflect this cyclic descent into the darkness, snow, and winter cold.

When I lived in New Mexico I was privileged to attend the Pueblo Winter Dances which began around this time with blazing outdoor fires and masked figures carrying whips that struck the ground quite viciously as they circumnavigated the circle of participants. These frightening figures were then chased back into the mountains for another year.

There is something so healthy about this kind of recognition and acceptance of the reality of dark powers. Witnessing and Giving Shadow Space to Be gives people the permission to be human, acknowledge personal faults and limitations and not act out destructively. Acknowledgement of shadow qualities doesn’t mean giving into them!

I remember two winter solstices in particular that were trying to teach me what this celebration was all about. In the first I was sitting by the fireplace lighting candles in honor of the ‘coming light’ when suddenly massive gusts of wind blew down the chimney extinguishing the candles and filling the entire house with smoke. I remember my deep distress because I sensed that I was being given a message but couldn’t fathom what it was. At that time, I had just begun to celebrate the Winter Solstice and believed what I had been told by others, namely that this celebration was about the coming of the light. It did not include the negative aspects of fire or a descent into darkness. In fact, the element of fire didn’t enter the story at all except as an adjunct to light.

 I had to wait many years for yet another more personal solstice lesson. About five years ago I was invited to a solstice celebration at the edge of a river. When I arrived, bizarre hooting and discordant drumming split the night and the location of this party had mysteriously shifted without my knowledge. When I finally found the others, the party was in full swing, and there was some kind of dark energy in the air that was palpable … I felt betrayed. But afterwards I finally got it. Trickster was out and about and the dark energy I experienced was the one aspect of this Fire Festival that I was still resisting.

Winter Solstice is a perfect time to celebrate alone or with friends and family (though the latter can be a double – edged sword) but it is also an opportunity to examine how our personal shadows are affecting our lives consciously and unconsciously. Owning our dark sides, making peace with them allows us to become fully human.

 This festival also highlights the importance of internalizing the Collective Shadow that is looming over all humans even as we continue to destroy the planet we call home. Few have been untouched by global events that are escalating in the most horrifying ways.

I wonder if recognizing that this Festival of Fire includes the presence of Shadow and the Trickster at the darkest time of the year may offer us a more realistic and balanced perspective that might help us create a healthier culture, one that can own its Shadow, even as the wheel begins to turn…

Goddess knows we could use Her help.