From the Dark into the Light
As we come upon the Winter Solstice holiday, we take time to ponder how we feel about the light and the dark.
After all, Yule celebrates both the longest night of the year, AND the birth of the Sun God to the Mother Goddess. In many cultures, especially those to the North, beacons are lit on Yule night to chase away the confusion and soon to be obscurity of darkness and encourage the return of the Sun.
There is feasting and celebration. Gifts are exchanged in there hopes that bonds will be strengthened between friends and family. The bright, joyful colors of green, gold and red abound, and there is laughing and merriment. Many will stay up the whole night, sitting round bonfires that are lit to welcome back the sun with the dawn of the solstice day.
For me, DAGAZ expresses this perfectly. This is the dawn/day rune. It looks like an X with lines drawn in on the sides, or two sideways triangles facing in with tips touching, like a mirror image. In the Northern European/Scandinavian countries, the days were very short, and the darkness very long during the late Fall through the Winter season. It was a time to stay close to the village, close to the home, hunker down and stay warm, leaving only to hunt, gather any winter foods, and visit neighbors nearby, doing only those things that could be done in the safety of the daylight hours.
The darkness was a scary time, but the hope that the solstice brought, with its promise of growing light, was a time of celebration. For everyone understood that the long nights of darkness would now give way to the daylight when the Sun was reborn. They looked forward to the new and growing days that would give clarity and renewal, as well as the anticipation of opportunities yet to be revealed.
So despite that those who read this are of various belief systems, we all look forward to the same thing, the return of the Sun and light.
May you, as the light grows, be yourself a light to others, and a beacon.
May you see the opportunities that await you, and grasp them.
May your obstacles be overcome, each as they are revealed in the growing light.
Finally, may you find balance between the darkness and the light within you. For we cannot exist without embracing and acknowledging both.
Happy Holidays to you all!
After all, Yule celebrates both the longest night of the year, AND the birth of the Sun God to the Mother Goddess. In many cultures, especially those to the North, beacons are lit on Yule night to chase away the confusion and soon to be obscurity of darkness and encourage the return of the Sun.
There is feasting and celebration. Gifts are exchanged in there hopes that bonds will be strengthened between friends and family. The bright, joyful colors of green, gold and red abound, and there is laughing and merriment. Many will stay up the whole night, sitting round bonfires that are lit to welcome back the sun with the dawn of the solstice day.
For me, DAGAZ expresses this perfectly. This is the dawn/day rune. It looks like an X with lines drawn in on the sides, or two sideways triangles facing in with tips touching, like a mirror image. In the Northern European/Scandinavian countries, the days were very short, and the darkness very long during the late Fall through the Winter season. It was a time to stay close to the village, close to the home, hunker down and stay warm, leaving only to hunt, gather any winter foods, and visit neighbors nearby, doing only those things that could be done in the safety of the daylight hours.
The darkness was a scary time, but the hope that the solstice brought, with its promise of growing light, was a time of celebration. For everyone understood that the long nights of darkness would now give way to the daylight when the Sun was reborn. They looked forward to the new and growing days that would give clarity and renewal, as well as the anticipation of opportunities yet to be revealed.
So despite that those who read this are of various belief systems, we all look forward to the same thing, the return of the Sun and light.
May you, as the light grows, be yourself a light to others, and a beacon.
May you see the opportunities that await you, and grasp them.
May your obstacles be overcome, each as they are revealed in the growing light.
Finally, may you find balance between the darkness and the light within you. For we cannot exist without embracing and acknowledging both.
Happy Holidays to you all!
Comments
Post a Comment