The Winter Solstice and Nourishment of the Soul
Wisdom exists in the context of stories, in the context of storytelling, in the context of songs. And all of that is what we’ve lost and what we have to try and bring back.
Amitav Ghosh
Throughout history, many cultures have closely observed the movement of the sun through the year. Those observations were the basis of the rhythmic timing of the various activities of life. People knew when to plant, forage, or hunt based on the seasons which were in turn based on sun position and the changing energies as they moved through the year. These observations provided guidance regarding physical needs, and the nourishment of the soul was woven in with celebrations and ritual that followed the calendar. In this way, humans lived in harmony with the rhythms of Life as part of the whole from the beginning.
Here in Maine, the changing seasons and their cyclic energies are more obvious than they are further south. The energetic of a season is something you are familiar with even though you may not have thought about it in this way. In the same way that you cannot see wind itself, but you see and feel its effects, you can come to know about energetics of a season by what is happening in nature and observing how you are feeling and responding in that season.
Picture the types of activities you enjoy in the summer versus what feels good in the winter. Can you imagine eating pumpkin pie in June? No! it’s definitely strawberry rhubarb. Beef stew for the 4th of July anyone? Not so appealing. Watermelon at Christmas? I’d prefer a baked apple. Here, where the sun rises at 4:30 a.m. in June, I am up and out in the garden early in the day and enjoy a walk after dinner. In December, when it is cold and dark on the coast, it is hard to push myself out the door for a walk in the morning and when the sun sets by 4:00 p.m. I’m ready to cozy up with a book after supper and go to be early. This is because I am resonating with and responding to the energetics of the season as much as any other being in nature, be it plant or animal. It is not the same as weather because these changes also happen in places where it is not freezing outside in winter. Our bodies and minds are responding to the energetics of the seasonal journey of the earth around the sun just as certainly as migrating animals do.
With modern technology such as electric lights, refrigeration, central heating, and a global food market, the seasons have less impact on our external lives. But in the way that birds know by the sun when to fly south, we too respond to the changing energetics of the seasons. By being attentive to the energetic movements, and having our foods, activities, and rest cycles change accordingly, we can connect to the movement of Life in a powerful and nourishing way. By aligning ourselves with these bigger energies, we can begin to feel ourselves in connection and communication with Nature and the Earth and get the tiniest glimpse of how human beings fit in the web of life for millennia.
We know our ancestors thought that it was very important to know exactly when the sun reached the solstices and equinoxes because of the amazing structures still standing today that tracked them.
Chichen Itza was built by Mayan people over 1,000 years ago and at the spring and fall equinox, shadows in the shape of a serpent are cast.
There are lots of examples of these extraordinary works by ancient peoples that I find awe inspiring not only in trying to imagine how they were physically built with very simple tools, or that people had the sophistication and astronomical skills to do it, but also in the question of why? The resources of a community over the years it took to build some of these observatories were not insignificant. What did ancient peoples know about the importance of the movement of the earth around the sun that we have lost?
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In New Grange Ireland, in 3200 B.C., people built this structure where at dawn on the winter solstice, an interior chamber is lit by the sun for 17 minutes. That’s 5,200 years ago!
Ancient peoples clearly had a very sophisticated understanding of astronomy, so it seems reasonable that they would also know a lot about the other aspects of the natural world around them. Recently, modern science has discovered that trees communicate with each other to support the community as a whole. They alert their fellow community members to diseases or pests and they collectively change their chemistry to protect themselves. Also, older trees, who are blocking the sunlight, provide nourishment to the younger ones until they are tall enough to reach it. It would seem reasonable to assume that if trees are in communication for the benefit of the whole that other species of plant and animals are in on it. In fact, I am guessing that modern human beings are probably the only species that have cut themselves out of the loop. People lived in harmony with the natural world for hundreds of thousands of years. And yet, in the recent 500 or so years, backed by “modern” science, we have impacted the natural world so drastically that we have brought about a new geological era, the Anthropocene with its destruction of eco systems, cultures, languages, and species. Healing the Earth and her non-human beings will require that we humbly begin to relearn how to be in relationship with, and taught by the non-human world. From our experience of being in relationships with other humans, we wouldn’t think of exploiting our loved ones or treating them as a resource for our exclusive benefit. We need to relearn to see the natural world as our loved ones.
Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Lovell, Wyoming was built 300-800 years ago by the Plains Indians, on a site where archeological evidence dates the site being utilized 7,000 years ago by Native Americans. This Medicine Wheel tracks the solstices and the dawning of several stars.
How do we begin? Consider for a moment that the solstices and equinoxes are experienced globally, at the exact same moment. Although we are in different time zones, the solstices and equinoxes are based on the earth’s orbit around the sun and the tilt of its axis, so no matter where we are on earth, there is a moment that every being on earth shares, and it happens four times a year.
If I let myself feel into that idea of a shared moment for all beings, it is a feeling of vast quiet stillness. I wonder if that is part of why ancient peoples needed to know the exact time? Because all beings on earth share those moments, perhaps they are something like a reset, a time the energies come into alignment for the proper unfolding of the next three months. Our ancestors would have to know the exact timing so they could be especially attentive at those moments connecting to the heavens through ceremony along with every other living being on the planet. It feels like the power in that connection to nourish the soul is momentous, and I wonder if pausing for a moment, to light a candle and to feel gratitude in our hearts for the return of the sun and our connection to all life on earth might just do the world some good.
This year, the winter solstice happens Tuesday, December 21, 2021 at 10:59 a.m. EST.
Stonehenge on the Winter Solstice. Built 5,000 years ago.
Here is an interview I came across recently. If you are not familiar with Emergence Magazine, you are in for a treat. For your listening pleasure:
An Interview with Amitav Ghosh
Beings Seen and Unseen
An interview with Amitav Ghosh
November 30, 2021
In this wide-ranging conversation, Amitav Ghosh calls on storytellers to lead us in the necessary work of collective reimagining: decentering human narratives and re-centering stories of the land. Emergence Magazine: Your new book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, takes you on a remarkably deep journey into our collective past exploring the root causes of climate change and the ecocide and how climate change is intimately linked to colonialism, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the structures of organized violence that you describe as being foundational in forming the modern geopolitical order. And you take us on this journey through the story of the nutmeg, the spice that originated in the Banda Islands in Indonesia. The nutmeg really becomes the lens through which you explore so much in this book…..
