Tools for navigating the dark night of winter solstice. For years now I’ve been practicing slowing down to honor the winter solstice, and still I have to remind myself that it’s OK to do so amidst a culture that wants us to constantly be on our game.
When I was in the very beginning of my “spiritual” path, I spent 3 years doing weekly dreamwork. Both of my parents were trained in the art, so I wasn’t a total stranger – but this was the first time I made a practice of writing down my dreams and working with them in a group.
I was 22 when I had my first mystical experiences. One came to me in a dream: I dream I am in this small, black room, and I see no way out. But suddenly, out of nowhere, a cloaked woman appears. She beckons towards the wall…
…it is okay to go into the winter deep, to rest, and to fully give ourselves **time** for the practice of emptying, clearing, refining. The light will return when it does ~ please don’t force it prematurely. The bud must stay closed until it is ripe, and now is the time to root down, finding nourishment in the dark of the hard winter soil, trusting it’s okay to leave the skeletal branches of our lives bare and exposed to the reality of the cold world.
Ariana Saraha is a singer & musician from the wilds of the West with a passion for primordial beauty and the more-than-human world. Whether writing, singing, or drumming, her mission is to invite us to remember our place beyond the trappings of civilization and the accepted meanderings of the mundane mind. She and her band have just released From the Wild, and are working on their next album while continuing to find wonder and inspiration even in the everyday.