Amanda Sophia Spiritual healing on the Winter Solstice

POSITIVE HOME sacred ground

WINTER SOLSTICE BECKONS.

by Amanda Sophia

The Winter Solstice is a powerful time of deep spiritual healing. It is also the longest night of the year and marks the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. This transformative rite of passage presents us with a great opportunity to release, create, and embrace the healing power of darkness. It is our natural inclination to reach for the warm, life-giving energy of the light, especially if we have been immersed in a period of darkness. However, leaning into this season of darkness creates an openness in our soul to receive joy, wholeness, and dynamic healing. At the Winter Solstice, the sun changes course and begins to move in a new direction. It’s a perfect time to think about the course of your life and decide whether you, too, are ready to change direction. We will prime ourselves with healing rest by tuning our body patterns to the longer days of deep winter. This meaningful healing will boost our energy all winter and prepare us for Spring’s abundant energy. As a Celtic Priestess, I have discovered that my intention to seek holistic healing through nature has proven invaluable. The Celtic Wheel of the Year is a beautiful guide and invitation to align our internal and external rhythms with Mother Nature’s. We learn that time is cyclical, and therefore includes death and rebirth. Each festival on the Celtic Wheel is a point that encourages us to look to nature and pay attention to its teachings. When we work with these natural pauses, we have a chance to consider our lives and choices in a way that syncs with the energies of the earth.

The Goddess of the Winter Solstice is the Cailleach.

Cailleach means “the veiled one.” Cailleach is the Gaelic word for a hag or crone. Cailleach appears as a crone who brings winter with her and who wields incredible power over life and death. She is the personification of land and nature. Invite Cailleach into this sacred time of the Winter Solstice and see what wisdom she has to share with you.

Winter Solstice Questions To Reflect Upon

Here are some powerful questions for self-discovery to guide you during this transitional time of the Winter Solstice:

• What things beyond your physical senses have been surfacing, asking to be seen and heard? • How can I commit to being still to listen? • In what area can I extend forgiveness to myself? How can I explore the need to forgive others? • What are some of the best decisions I made this year? • How is my body yearning for rest, and how can I honour those needs?

“What things beyond your physical senses have been surfacing, asking to be seen and heard?”

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Winter Solstice Ritual

Beloved, the following ritual will guide you into an intentional moment of reflection. Take time to complete this exercise, unrushed and uninterrupted. You will need: • shawl | candle | lighter

For those that live in Ireland, we are blessed to have sacred sites that align with the Winter Solstice. I highly recommend taking some time to visit:

• Newgrange, Co. Meath • Drombeg Stone Circle, Co Cork • Ballynoe Stone Circle, Co Down.

If you cannot make it in person, you can energetically tune into the energy, do your meditation or ceremony, and see what guidance you receive. Beloved, there is hope on the horizon. What will you do with the return of the sun and the longer days to come? What will you do with your new light?

• During the Winter Solstice, sit outside wrapped in your shawl for nourishment. • Light the candle. See the light continue to shine in the darkness. • Take deep cleansing breaths. • Connect with the sacredness of this time that your ancestors deemed holy for thousands of years. • Softly gaze at the flame to acknowledge the sun’s rebirth. • Offer blessings to your ancestors and generations to come. • Ask that you may shine brightly, be filled with strength, peace, integrity, and sovereignty.