The deep dark grows and the sun acquiesces his power to the mystery and possibility of the long nights of the season of Samhain. The primal elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth join the dance of the ancient rhythms. And so may we.
In Ireland and the other Celtic lands, the winds rage without while candlelight illuminates the dark nights within. Our ancestors have gathered around the hearth fire to while away the long nights with stories and whiskey and bottomless pots of strong tea. The feminine aspects of Water and Earth are venerated as the moon claims the night with her watery luminescence exulted. The Earth spirals inward with the wisdom to rest and to be, holding seeds of light within her womb.
The Winter Solstice, falling on or around December 21 (the exact day determined by the day that the sun moves into the sign of Capricorn), is an astrological event recognizing the longest night and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. During this time the sun’s journey is closest to the horizon and rises from the extreme southeastern part of the sky. Alternatively, the moon rises from its most northeastern point. The sun and the moon actually dance through the solstices together, of course: where the sun rises on Summer Solstice is where the moon rises on Winter Solstice.
Solstice means “standstill” and to our ancestors, who lived very intimately with the movements of the sun and the moon, it appeared that they both raised and set in the same location for the three days surrounding the both the Winter and Summer Solstice. This may not mean to us urban dwellers or mid-landers. Although to the northern Europeans, in rural places without the interference of light pollution, you know yourself in relationship to the place that the sun and moon rise and set each day.
The Winter Solstice was celebrated prior to the Celtic fire festivals which are represented on the Wheel of the Year as agricultural and seasonal markers called Samhain (winter), Imbolc (spring), Beltaine (summer) and Lughnasa (autumn). The solstices and the equinoxes were honored by the pre-Celtic people of indigenous Europe (and other indigenous peoples worldwide) during the Neolithic era, a time of the sky religions of astronomy and astrology. These astrological events, the equinoxes and solstices, were so important that they were later integrated by the Celtic people and each fall about halfway between each of the fire festivals on the Wheel of the Year.
The Neolithic people, our pre-Celtic ancestors of Europe, lived in rhythm with the sky movements, the stars and the sun and the moon. They built megalithic monuments to honor the significance of this time and these still stand strong, dotted over the Celtic landscapes in the form of stone circles, dolmens, tumuli (cairns) and other megaliths (immense standing stones). To this day it is a mystery how these stones were moved and positioned, thousands of years ago. The most well know Neolithic sites are Stonehenge in England which aligns to the sunrise of Summer Solstice and Newgrange in Ireland which aligns to the Winter Solstice sunrise.
Newgrange is a tumulus, a cairn or a mound, built with astounding astrological and engineering expertise, which has stood overlooking the Boyne River near the east coast of Ireland, just north of present-day Dublin, for over 5,000 years. Built in a very ancient cruciform style with a main chamber surrounded by three smaller areas, Newgrange’s entry faces the east where the sun rises on Winter Solstice morning. The sun’s rays enter through a roof-box constructed in the cairn and down a pathway to illuminate the main chamber on the days surrounding Winter Solstice. This is the only time that the sun enters this chamber, as it has done for over 5,000 years. Symbolically, the sun’s entry is the masculine principle, entering the womb of the Earth, the feminine.
The sun penetrates, illuminates, the main chamber of Newgrange which rises about 15 in height with a dry-set stone corbeled ceiling that is still standing after thousands of years. This center chamber, the womb of the Earth, receives the sun and through this the fertile potential of the year is reborn. She receives him and gives him life. This theme, of the feminine empowering the masculine, is represented again and again in Celtic and pre-Celtic mythology. Newgrange is a physical representation of this magical event. Equally as magical, in rain-ridden Ireland this inner chamber, this womb of the Earth, has never drawn the damp of the Elements, it was so expertly conceived and built. A true honoring of the joining of the sun (the light) and the earth (the dark) for the continuation of life, the rebirth of potential.
Winter Solstice celebrates the return of the sun, reborn through the darkest of night. The sun that has been relinquishing his power since Summer Solstice will begin to grow once again. It is no coincidence that the Christian holiday of Christmas aligns with this symbolic time.
The Age of Brighid
In pre-Christian Ireland Brighid was a goddess of light, a goddess of the Tuatha de Danaan, who tends to the sacred flame and protects the holy waters, tends to the Earth. She is a triple goddess of healing (midwifery), smithcraft (the forge) and the poetry (inspiration). She is a triple goddess of maiden, mother and crone, represented through the seasons of the Wheel of the Year. In the 21st century, we still honor her, dance with her, devote our works and vocation to her. We are her aide women.
When the Celtic people arrived in Ireland in the years before the turn of the last millenia they claimed Brighid in their pantheon. Additionally, she was so important to the people of Ireland that she manifested in human form and is one of the three patron saints of Ireland, to this day. She is syncretisized, from the pre-Christian tradition into Christianity. She is known as Mary of the Gael as well as midwife to Mary and foster mother of Jesus. She is Mary, she is Brighid. She is Exalted One. Brighid’s sacred fire pierces the darkest of nights and even to this day her flame, held on a white candle in the window of the cottage, illumines the path for the sun’s return.
