Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.
This is a quote from the great philosopher Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter.
And I think that it's a wonderful way to begin this guided practice for the winter solstice and the new moon in Capricorn.
If you're listening to this in the Northern Hemisphere,
Then the winter solstice is in the early morning hours of Sunday the 22nd of December this year.
And depending on where you are in the Northern Hemisphere,
The new moon in Capricorn is either on Christmas Day or in the very early hours of Boxing Day morning.
Here in the UK it will be around 5am on Boxing Day morning.
This is a time of year when we are more than ever connected to nature and to the cycles of nature.
The winter solstice is our shortest day and our longest night of the year.
And we really feel that.
We connect with that energy.
This is a time of year when many of us are very,
Very busy.
We have family arriving for the holidays,
We have gifts to buy,
Meals to cook.
And it can be overwhelming.
And the solstice is a wonderful opportunity for us to sit back and to rest.
The solstice encourages us to lean in to darkness.
The phrase dark night of the soul has never been more appropriate.
And as we sit in that long dark night,
In the dark phase of the moon,
We can allow all of our innermost feelings and desires to become present.
Because when we sit in darkness there are no distractions,
There is no numbing out.
Our feelings are ever present.
So for this practice,
Which is very interactive,
I would like for us to really tap in to that energy of the solstice with a ritual that we will do together.
There will be some contemplation,
There will be space to write things down and journal,
So do have a pen and paper handy.
And if you would like to,
We also celebrate the returning of the light at the solstice.
So you can light a candle at the end of this ritual if you wish.
In our workshops,
When we have done this ritual together in person as a group,
We have used silver and gold candles.
But a white one or any colour that you have will do just as well.
If you need to,
You can pause now to go away and find something to write with,
To find a candle.
And then let's come back and sit together in the darkness so that we may celebrate the return of the light.
When we begin our intention setting for the new year and the new decade in 2020,
It's important for us to really understand the process behind intention setting.
Intentions come from a desire to feel a certain way.
Everything that we strive towards is a feeling underneath every goal that we set.
So as we sit together in the darkness of the solstice,
Let us use that darkness to let our deepest desires be heard and listened to.
You can take the time over the next few minutes to sit in your quiet contemplation or you can write down your answers.
And the only question to contemplate for the moment is how do you want to feel?
Ask yourself this question and either write down everything that comes to mind or use the space to contemplate all the feelings that come up and feel them in the body as they do so.
And these will become the foundation for our vision for 2020.
I'll keep an eye on the time for you and I'll come back to you in two minutes.
You have one minute remaining.
You have one minute remaining.
You have one minute remaining.
If you're writing it's time to step back now.
And you can look over all of the words that you wrote down,
All of the words that came to you,
All of the feelings that you felt.
And these are going to become the foundations to our intentions.
In the depths of winter and in the darkest night,
It's sometimes so difficult for us to remember that the light will return.
The word solstice simply means sun still.
And it can feel to us like the light will never come back.
But every day after the solstice,
The light begins to creep back in.
Just by a minute or a few minutes every day,
Sunrise gets earlier,
Sunset gets later,
And the earth starts to wake up again.
And as we move towards spring and the spring equinox,
We start to see the stirrings of nature.
And with them,
We begin to stir too.
These dark nights in winter are wonderful for lighting a fire underneath anything that we want to bring to life in spring as the light returns.
So now that we have identified the ways that we want to feel,
Let's take some time to think about what it is that we have been cultivating,
That we have been keeping a light under throughout this darkness that we're going to bring to light in spring.
Because now is the time that we can start to take steps towards those.
I'll keep an eye on the time.
And again,
This is either an exercise in contemplation and visualization and sitting with what comes up.
Or if you prefer to,
You can write them down.
I'll come back to you in two minutes.
You have one minute left.
Now that we have embraced the darkness,
It's time to turn our attention towards the light.
So it's time to think now about what we will do to feel the way that we want to feel.
We've identified what those deep desires are inside us.
We've thought about what we wish to bring to life as the light returns.
And now it's time to set some intentions.
The most powerful affirmation to use for intentions is I am.
So let's turn these feelings,
Let's turn these creative ideas into positive statements.
I am.
I will.
I release.
I am free of.
I take on.
I take in.
All of these words,
Use the feelings that we've identified.
Use the ideas that you've kept a fire burning under through the winter and write your positive statements.
If you're using a candle,
Now is the time to light it.
And as you light it,
You can begin first of all with a thank you and gratitudes for the year past.
And also an intention statement that you will,
With the light,
Put all of these intentions out to be manifested in 2020.
I'll keep an eye on the time.
You have two minutes to write.
Thank you.
You have one minute left.
Thank you.
Now that you've written your intentions,
Leave your candle to burn down if you can.
If you can't,
Snuff it out rather than blow it out.
You can sit in the darkness with your candle and hold on to your intentions and the returning of the light.
And remember that happiness can always be found even in the darkest of times if we only remember to turn it on.
If you'd like to finish with an affirmation,
You can repeat silently or out loud.
I give thanks to the universe for all of these intentions fully manifesting in perfect alignment with my highest good and for the highest good of all involved.
It is done.
Thank you so much for being with me on the longest and darkest night of the year.
I hope very much to speak to you all very soon and see you in 2020.
Much love.
Thank you.
