It's winter now, our giant home has just a few minutes ago passed its maximum axial tilt. We're now slowly tipping back, our little hideout is now facing the sun a bit longer and the sun is a bit higher each day, the big picture. There have been December celebrations in almost all northern hemispheric cultures down through history to mark this auspicious day.
The Mesopotamians were likely first, with a 12-day festival of renewal, designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more year. The Stone Age 'Newgrange' monument in Ireland dates to around 3200 B.C., making it 500 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and a thousand years older than England's Stonehenge. Almost every ancient culture built their greatest architectures - tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories - so that they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes.
Reading about the ancient myths associated with the winter solstice today led me to realize that the return of the sun was and is part of each culture's creation myth. Winter was a very difficult time for people in the northern latitudes in pre-historic times. On the winter solstice they would have had reason to celebrate as they saw the sun rising and strengthening once more. Although many months of cold weather remained before spring, they took heart that the return of the warm season was inevitable. The concept of birth and or death/rebirth became associated with the winter solstice.
Here in coastal BC we missed the full eclipse of the moon last night, it was raining, imagine that. And today must be near 10C, so mild i think my dog is starting to shed-again. This kinda weather can stick around all winter in my opinion. The winter solstice another turn in the procession of the spheres.
The rising of the sun
The running of the deer,
The playing of the drum,
Sweet music to the ear.
