“This magnificent refuge is inside you.

Enter.

Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway.

Be bold. Be humble.

Put away the incense and forget the incantations they taught you.

Ask no permission from the authorities.

Close your eyes and follow your breath.

To the still place that leads to the

Invisible path that leads you home.”

-St Theresa of Avila

Today across Scandinavia, it is Santa Lucia day, a festival of light celebrated during the darkest time of the year. Growing up, we celebrated this day not only because my mother is Finnish, but also because Santa Lucia day is the day before her birthday, December 14th. In the tradition of this day, we would light white candles and place them in window sills. We would bake saffron buns, make hot tea and glogg (mulled wine) and revel in the winter gifts of silence and stillness.

My mother would marvel at the beauty of the grey, bare trees outside and at the magical light as it poured in through the forest. Her awareness and appreciation for this less obvious and more solemn kind of beauty taught us how to cultivate peace and joy through winter rituals of music, fire and stillness.

Rather than resisting the discomfort of the cold or merely holding our breaths and waiting for the season to pass, we were taught to embrace the darkness, to stoke our internal fires and to seek the light inside. In this way, we learned to transform darkness into light and discomfort into strength, to bundle up, to go outside and to seek the deep and delicious magic of the season.

Winter is the yin season and so embodies qualities of darkness, magic, cold, stillness and the feminine. During this time when we are less distracted by the bright, busy, yang action of summer, we gain introspection and clarity. Now is a time to rest, to exhale, to slowly sip our tea and to recalibrate our awareness to the unseen—the subtle and powerful energy all around us.

These five rituals for the Winter Solstice, December 21st, will help you harness the energy of the season and drop deeper into yourself and the wisdom of nature. With this attunement, you will receive clear vision for the coming year so that you can plant viable seeds that will sprout in the spring and grow to fruition.

Five Winter Rituals

1. Shadow Work: This is profoundly powerful and transformational work and there is no better time to do it than right now when our inner light is so illuminated!

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” -Carl Jung

The idea behind shadow work is that when we acknowledge and embrace the darker sides of ourselves- the shame, the fear, the parts that we would prefer to keep hidden in the shadows, we become whole. When we fall in love with our whole selves, good and bad, we send a message to our subconscious that we are good and worthy. This light disempowers the shadow and creates profound shifts in one's life. It transforms darkness into light and fear into love.

Read:

Falling in Love With Darkness: Overcoming the Fear of Darkness and Discovering its Qualities of Rest, Relaxation, and Profound Peace by OSHO
Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power by Carolyn Elliott

Journal prompts:

If there were no consequences, no rules and no societal judgement, how would you change your life?
If there was nothing that you had to do, what would you do?

2. Candle Meditation (Trataka): There is something primal, raw and deeply satisfying about staring mindlessly at a flame. This practice will improve your memory, enhance your ability to focus and amplify your spiritual awareness.

In this meditation:

Sit as you would for a seated meditation.
Light a candle and focus your attention solely on the flame.
Start with 5 minutes, continually returning your attention to the flame when your mind begins to wander or tire.
When you are finished, sit or recline with eyes closed for a few minutes to integrate the practice.

3. Deep Rest: Deep rest is the most healing medicine that you can give your body. To access the deep, recalibrating kind of rest that we need in this season:

Take an evening hot salt bath (add essential oils of cedarwood, lavender, sandalwood
Drink an herbal tea for deep rest (look for lemon verbena, catmint, hops, valerian, skullcap, milky oats, vervain, lemon balm, chamomile, linden and roses)
Go to sleep early (try 8 or 9 PM)
Attend a sound bath or play your ownTibetan Singing bowl before bed
Book a Reiki session (In Nashville I can heartily vouch for both Sarah Chatley at Organic Skin Den and Carlisle Hodges at Osho Collective).

4. Sacred Silence: I once attended a 10 day silent retreat and learned how much my ego protrudes into my life and my conversations and how much more I am able to receive when I am not constantly exerting my self, ideas, words and thoughts.

By talking less, you receive energy in rather than continually pushing it out. In this way, you receive expanded awareness, wisdom and self knowledge. Practice silence by talking less, listening more and carving out times of the day, week or month for moments, hours or days of silence.

5. Shou Puerh Tea Ritual: Shou (“ripe”) puerh is a warming and grounding type of fermented tea from Yunnan, China, the birthplace of tea. It is dark, rich and mellow and has a cult following around the world because of the medicine in the leaf and the meditative state it can induce.

Light a candle, steep a clean and vibrant aged Shou Puerh and sip your tea slowly.
Watch the steam dance in the air and the surface of the cup glisten with essential oils previously locked in the leaves.
Take in the aroma, notice the effervescence on your tongue and in your mouth.
Feel the warmth then move throughout your body and open your heart as you drop into a deeper awareness of the magic within you and around you.

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Ritual: Five Rituals for the Winter Solstice: Finding Light in the Darkness