On this first weekend of December, I am reminded that the Winter Solstice always ushers in something I’m not expecting or requesting. It is a gift. A gift that is sacred, wise, and holy. And always—always—it is a surprise.

Even though I know this is a sacred time of rebirth as we await the return of the light at Solstice, each year as December breaks, I find myself called once more to re-remember just how sacred and potent this period of darkness and stillness really is.

My job is simply to prepare. Prepare and then stay open to receive December's strange, mysterious, magical gifts.

Something will happen this Solstice. I know not what. But I know it will come.

• On Winter Solstice night in 2017, I was awakened with a shocking assignment: Sophia’s Voice. I didn’t know it but prayer artist was on the way.
• On Winter Solstice 2018, I publicly embraced my calling as a prayer artist by opening my new website all about prayer, including my radical new definitions of prayer.
• Last December, I received "The Queen’s Love," a prayer that announced in no uncertain terms that I can—and must—write and share my deepest mystical prayers.

I have no idea what this Solstice will bring—and it’s important to note that I do not try to manage the process. I just prepare.

To prepare for the gifts of December, I return to a book I’ve treasured for years: The Path of the Spiritual Sun: Celebrating the Solstices & Equinoxes by Belsebuub (Mark Pritchard) and read once more the chapter on “The Spiritual Meaning of the Winter Solstice.”

I love to read this book during the first week of December, wrapped in a warm blanket, journal on my lap, thermos of coffee beside me.

As with all true mystical companions, something happens every time I read this book. An idea, an awareness, an image flies off the page and lands in my heart, opening me to receive and integrate a divine truth.

One of the big revelations in this chapter is that the story of incarnation, a story I was taught as a child is a uniquely Christian story, is both ancient and universal.

The birth of a sacred child of light is in all traditions because it is the long mystical story of all humanity.

That’s why every tradition celebrates the light at this time of year. There are 29 different celebrations spanning religions ancient and new around the globe. That’s not an accident. That’s a visceral communal response to a celestial event that tells the ancient sacred story of who we are.

Read this passage from The Path of the Spiritual Sun and see what it awakens in you.

“The birth of a divine child at the winter solstice has formed a central part of spiritual beliefs throughout the world since the beginning of history—in ancient Egypt as the birth of Horus, the birth of Mithras in Persia, the birth of Jesus at Christmas, the birth of the divine Son at Alban Arthan of the Druids, etc. These celebrations have tapped into a universal spiritual principle that is just as relevant now as it was then.

They speak to us of a mysterious and universal understanding of spiritual transformation. All things which come into being must first be born. Even as creation was borne by the great Mother of the universe, so too must we be born of the spirit to become spirit. The winter solstice is a celebration of being ‘born again’—not of flesh, but of the spirit. It’s a celebration of the birth of the spiritual Son, the Christ, within a person’s consciousness in the process of awakening.”

These two paragraphs send me into deep soul writing with huge, expansive questions. This year more than any other. Because this year has been unlike any other.

If we’ve learned anything in 2020, it is that we are not separate from one another.

• If I get sick, the people around me get sick. And not just physically.
• If I spew hate, shards of pain and suffering pierce the hearts and bodies of everyone I touch.
• And if I live my gifts and share my sacred purpose, everyone around me receives “shards” of love and hope, whether they know it or not.

So as we approach Winter Solstice (Summer Solstice down under), I offer you a few deep soul writing questions to ponder and explore.

Plus, I also offer you a short gentle winter gathering with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone where you can gather with a global soul community to complete the story of 2020. And invite 2021 to come on angel wings bearing gifts unseen and unknown.

Some questions to ponder before the Solstice:

• What has been stirring in me throughout this strange year of pandemic and quarantine?
• What possibility is quietly resting in me, waiting for the return of the light?
• Who or what is my divine child—my sacred gift to help heal our wounded world?
• What is my sacred story? How does my story marry darkness and light, sorrow and joy?

You do not have to know the answers to these questions. You can’t really. Because the story will continue to unfold throughout next year and beyond. Often, you don’t know what a year has been about until it’s well over and you sit in a warm chair and look back at it with newly opened eyes.

And the best way to do that is in community.

Gathering in community reinforces that deep knowing that we are not separate.

Rabbi Tirzah Firestone and I invite you to join a global soul community gathering on Wednesday, December 16 to prepare the way for the rebirth of the light, as this year that has held so much darkness gives way to a new light, a new birth, a new story.

The gathering is called Exhale!

Special guest, Emma Kupu Mitchell, will be joining us to share the wisdom of the stars on this most sacred of nights.

Rabbi Tirzah will lead us in prayers of healing and release. And help us develop a personal ritual for Solstice night so we are ready to participate in the rebirth of holy Light. And then, we come together December 23rd to share our Solstice experiences and join virtual hands to welcome 2021.

Because Exhale! is such an unusual event, Tirzah and I thought the registration should be too. Read the description on the page.

It’s based on the Hebrew numeric vibration of the word LIFE—the number 18. And you get to choose your contribution.

Exhale! A Sacred Pause to Release the Year and Seed Your Dreams 
to ushering in the Light together!  

Janet