Earth enters the Season of Solstice at this time in Her orbit around our Mother Sun – one of two Solstices for the year.
As the Southern Hemisphere enters the fullness of the dark part of the annual cycle, towards Winter Solstice when it will turn/ return to the growing light, the Northern Hemisphere enters the fullness of the light part of the annual cycle, towards Summer Solstice when it will turn/return to the growing dark.
For the Southern Hemisphere, the dark part of the day will be at its longest, yet it turns. It is a Moment for celebrating the birth of the new and long awaited, and indeed, the birth of all being, of all manifest form: it is the renewed promise of ongoing Creativity – life will rise again.
For the Northern Hemisphere, the light part of the day will be at its longest, yet it turns. It is a Moment for celebrating the ripe fullness of being, a fulfillment of purpose, and the pouring forth of it, a radiant giving away: it is the remembering of larger self, the purpose of Creativity and change.
The actual Moment of June Solstice @ EarthGaia this year is the 21st 2:42 UTC: that’s 12:42 EST Australia where I am. For all global times see archaeoastronomy.com
The two Solstices occurring co-incidentally as they do, mirror each other, in the wholeness of this planetary moment. The Winter peaking of dark celebrating the Origins/Womb of all, which is at the same time a Flaring Forth of being, a radiance. The Summer peaking of light celebrating a Radiance, the shining forth of all that a being is, which is at the same time a dissolving of self into the Source/Origins of all. It is complete reciprocity.
The Solstices – both Winter and Summer, may celebrate an essential Cosmic mystery of sacred interchange, a reciprocity at the heart of life, the relational quality of existence, that “to be is to be related”.[i] To be is to be in deep communion, whether conscious of it or not. Mother Sun may be a primary model for this deep communion, and generosity of being, as She pours forth freely everyday, generating every thought and action on our Planet. This essential quality of reciprocity has been named by Australian Indigenous peoples as “ngapartji-ngapartji”:[ii] it is a primordial Maternal quality, understood by all Indigenous cultures, and Earth-based religious traditions. It is She in Her universal creative quality of Mother, who may be particularly celebrated at the interchange of Solstice – Winter and Summer: Her burgeoning fullness as dark birthing womb – the Alpha, and Her burgeoning fullness as light pouring forth – the Omega, respectively.
Winter Solstice may be a remembering of the Space/Void/Night out of which all arises: Her dark Womb from which existence springs forth in every moment and in which we are always immersed: that is, in an ongoing miracle of manifestation, in every moment, in every day.
Summer Solstice may be a remembering of the purpose/destiny of the fullness of being to return to the Space/Void/Night out of which all arises, the re-union of this form we so love with All-That-Is. We may shine forth as Mother Sun does, be radiant. The small selves that we are may shine forth, giving our essence and our passions to the ongoing Creativity of the Cosmos in every moment, in every day.
For Winter Solstice poetic video: PaGaian Winter Solstice 2009
For Summer Solstice poetic video: PaGaian Summer Solstice 2009
If you are celebrating Winter Solstice, The Birthplace of the Universe may be an inspiring contemplation of our Origins, the Womb in which we are. And whichever Solstice it is that you may be celebrating, these short clips of Brian Swimme’s DVD’s may be nurturant of that spirit: Radiance and Generosity of the Sun.
Here in East Coast Australia, we will gather with a small community for Winter Solstice ceremony on the Moment, and I invite others in my hemisphere in this way:
At this time when the Dark part of day is longest, as Earth leans us away from Sun to the furthest point,
You are invited to celebrate
WINTER SOLSTICE
Darkness reaches Her fullness, and yet …
She turns, and the seed of Light is born.
This is the season for the lighting of candles,
and receiving the Gift of Birth.
The story of Old tells us that on this night,
the Great Mother gives birth
to the Divine Child
– the New Young One within all.
We celebrate Her eternal Cosmogenesis,
and the Miracle of Being.
O Holy Night
… oOo…
PaGaian Cosmology blogs for Winter Solstice/Yule
PaGaian Cosmology blogs for Summer Solstice/Litha
Some Winter and Summer Solstice story, and offered ceremonial scripts may be found in Chapter 5 and 9 of my new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos respectively, and also in Appendix F of PaGaian Cosmology. These Seasonal Moments in relationship to the whole Wheel of the Year may be found in Chapter 2 of A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos, and also Chapter 5 of PaGaian Cosmology.
There are Seasonal Ceremonial videos for Winter and Summer Solstice on the pagaian YouTube channel. The purpose of these videos is for ceremony, and space is made for viewer-participants to add their part. They are also a documentation of traditional PaGaian Cosmology ceremonial scripts for each season Moment.
To be on the PaGaian Cosmology Seasonal list (for both hemsipheres) please contact me.
NOTES:
[i] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.77.
[ii] for more on this term see PaGaian Cosmology Chapter 8, p. 256, or this essay: https://pagaian.org/articles/ngapartji-ngapartji-the-magic-of-togaianess-by-glenys-livingstone-ph-d/
REFERENCES:
Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Bergen: Girl God Books, 2023.
Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005.
Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999.
Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Image of Tiamat 4000-3500 B.C.E. Babylon (Ur, Iraq) Adele Getty Goddess : Mother of Living Nature p.33
PaGaian Cosmology 