Cosy jumpers, fluffy slippers, open fires, candles, hot baths, and star gazing whilst wrapped up in a big coat watching your cool breath as you look up high and in awe of the majesty of our stellar universe.
Feeling crushed by the day as it gets dark at 4 pm in the northern hemisphere, a feeling of claustrophobia washing over you and the dark draining your light as you feel the heaviness of the night overtaking your day. Which one of the above feels like you?
As the days become shorter and the nights become longer in the northern hemisphere, there is a natural retreat to stillness and quietness, within. The darkness calls in a myriad of possibilities where something is available to you in that inner quiet space. The invitation is to be present and listen, perhaps in a way you have never listened before.
It’s November and we are in the midst of autumn heading swiftly and steadfastly to the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. One of the powerful dates of the year – opposite the height of summer which is the summer solstice around the 23rd June each year.
What do these ‘crossing’ points mean and why did the ancients celebrate them so much?
The key is to do the with the changing of the seasons, the stepping from autumn to winter or spring to summer marked by the solstices. In a world where we are living on our machines, our circadian rhythms are becoming affected by not knowing where we are in regards to the balance of the seasons. Now we just keep going: day, night, summer, winter, ploughing through our schedules, work and daily routines. We have forgotten to listen to the seasons. We have forgotten to listen to the inner compass of living within the cycles.
Eating seasonally, hibernating and going within during the winter months. Like the trees who bear their soul for the winter months, dancing in the breeze as they let go of what no longer serves them.
Now, I’m not suggesting you retreat to a cave and don’t come out till spring. However, imagine yourself like a tree turning your beautiful leaves into a flaming burst of gorgeous reds and crimsons as the last dance to your lover before dropping your leaves to the floor to be eaten and consumed by the frost and snow and recycled by mother nature for the winter. Retreating before the next season will lead to new growth and the first new beautiful buds will begin to appear and grow as the next cycle of spring starts to emerge. Yes that’s you: you are an alchemist and you have this magic within you.
We are cyclical beings and it’s a good time to start thinking of your energy, vibration, and overall lifestyle as cyclical. Of course, we do this with the seasons and in a more circadian sense with day and night but as we are starting to incorporate these frequencies into our lives more, we become far more resonate with the seasonal transitions.
The sacred day of December 21st 2021 is the longest night and the shortest day of the year. It is a time for re-birth, a time to celebrate as we return to the light. Also called Yule by the pagans, they would say that this potent moment of the winter solstice was the time of year when the Queen of Heaven or the Great Mother gave birth to the Son of Light.
It is for this reason that we celebrate lighting fires: to capture the light and encourage the power of the sun and rejoice the light over the darkness. This year, I encourage you to take a moment, to capture the light on the night of winter solstice and seize this sparkle of light into your life and celebrate this return to the light with the darkness retreating a little day by day.
Join Tracie Storey for a live Winter Solstice meditation: head here to sign up.
Tracie Storey has a full spectrum approach to sound; DJ/Producer, Sound Designer, Vibrational Sound Practitioner, Teacher and Speaker. She trained as a Vibrational Sound Practitioner exploring the transformational therapeutic properties of Bio Resonance, Sound Meditation and also teaches Qi Gong as part of her practice.
Today she combines all these tools as the founder of her company Elemental Resonance – a platform for restorative vibrational sound & movement therapy www.elementalresonance.com. As a practitioner, her sessions are instinctively tuned to the individual client, as a teacher and workshop lead her skills stretch beyond the treatment room to include immersive group sound harmonisations and meditation sessions.
Tracie released a sound meditation album called ‘Elemental Resonance’ on Celestial Being Records which is designed to work with or without affirmations on the different energy centres/chakra’s of the body. Check out her albums the Elemental Resonance Vol. 1 and Elemental Resonance Vol. 1 (Instrumental)