I had started treating winter solstice as New Year, as we were as far away from the Sun as we were going to be. It seemed like a natural starting point, working with the Sun, and not that far from the calendar new year. However, the pagans who worked very much with the Sun and seasons, treated Samhain as the start of the new year. Yule, or the winter solstice, is the rebirth of the Sun. It is as dark as it is going to get and the days are going to become longer again.
After the releasing and clearing of Samhain as the nights shortened, I think the rebirth of the Sun is a good time to set intentions. Seeds start in the dark, and an intention is a seed.
The setting of intentions is different from the making of resolutions, that in my case rarely make it past the 2nd January. It is also different from the commercial hype of new year new you. I don’t think we become new with the change of a season, we evolve and grow over time with consistent work. I don’t think we can always get to decide that this is the year x, y or z will happen. Sometimes life has other ideas. But we can take stock of where we are.
A dear friend who is grieving told me how much she is dreading new year and all the hype, as for her it will be the start of the first year without her partner. It can’t always be a happy time and no-one can tell another person how to feel in any situation. I remember the first new year after losing my baby. It was a different type of grief, and the previous new year had been so much happier and hopeful. I’d had no idea what that year had in store, just as well! If I had known, I certainly wouldn’t have celebrated the year’s arrival and the new year after felt empty and cold. Certainly not any type of new start.
So how do we approach the setting of intentions when we are in the midst of a dark night of the soul?
I remember once when I was in a low ebb. It was near the end of my “reproductive” years and the hope of a family becoming harder to credibly hold alive. There was a feeling of blackness around me, and in a meditation I decided to stop fighting the dark and allow myself to go into it. When I did this, the image of black gave way to freshly dug soil, and then a snowdrop. I think my subconscious was telling me, that our dark moments can be fertile ground, and even after long winters spring comes, and the snowdrop is often the first flower to appear (before the daffodils went doolally and starting appearing whenever!).
At a different time, years earlier, at a get together with friends, we were playing with goddess cards. I drew the goddess Isis, and the writing on the card, which was my message, said that legend had it that the river Nile was formed by Isis’s tears as she cried for her lost child. A bit poignant given my experience of that. But it went on to say that through her pain Isis grew wise and strong. And it has been true, while we would never choose to have our losses, in time (and it really does take time) they can become sources of wisdom and growth.
Intentions do not need to be active and yang. They do not need to be to achieve this or do that great thing, or be this mythical so much better person. Indeed, given that winter is a very yin and passive part of the year, the setting of intentions can also be yin, if that seems more appropriate. It could be the intention to allow yourself to rest, and just be where you are for now.
I work with tarot. I don’t read professionally, though I can highly recommend some-one who does. I use the cards for self reflection and insight rather than divination. Where am I at, and what should I do. And right now for what I should do, I have the hanged man. This is not a full steam ahead card, and with this card, the intention has to be to stand still and take stock. It is a card of surrender, of being with what is for now and also reviewing one’s perspective.
So in the long dark nights we can be with what is. And we can set the intentions that feel right for the time. If that is to think big, think big, but if it to be gentle and kind to yourself as you navigate the dark that is completely fine too.
Namaste and Yuletide blessings
💝
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