"Lighting one candle
from another -
Winter night"
~ Buson

~*~

We've walked the labyrinth of time from Samhain (Halloween) to now...it is the month of the Winter Solstice, that joyous celebration and reclamation of light, where we throw back our arms and embrace the skies of winter, knowing with absolute and utter certainty that snow will fall, that the white will come, but that spring will come again, too.

Now, more than any other time of the year, there is that desire for community. We feel all of the others who have gone before us, calling out to the sun...there is a long line behind our shoulders, connected not by blood, but by time and hope and faith. Thousands of years ago, it was a frightening thing to have winter descend. Who knew that spring would come at all, that all animals would not die...that you, yourself, would have enough to feed the family for the daunting months ahead? It was with faith that you approached each day, each moment, watching the sun tread over the sky, watching the snow shine like treasure. You simply believed, because there was nothing else you could do. We're not that far removed. Now, Yule has been transformed into Christmas, evolved from those old traditions into something new, wrapped in cellophane and closed up with a too-tight bow. But the base wants and needs of community, the treasured memories and wishes...they're still the same, they're still here. Pagan, Christian, Jewish...no matter the faith, we want to gather together and celebrate, give thanks, pray, make ritual of the ordinary and dive deeper into the darkness of each cold winter's night so that we might come out, whole, upon the other side.

I have so many plans for this month, so many bright secrets, happy jubilees and quiet moments all squirreled away in my heart, ecstatic and hardly able to wait to experience them. I'm the child at Christmas, all over again, turning over each day to a higher number, waiting, waiting, waiting, utterly impatient.

This is the first time that Buffalo will experience a Winter Solstice Spiral Dance, put on by the same lovely lady who does the annual Goddess conferences in the Allegany mountains each year. The Dragon Ritual Drummers and Kellianna are going to be performing a concert before the ritual. I have had the utter pleasure to see both of these perform (in the case of the Dragon Ritual Drummers, several times!) at the Spoutwood Fairie Festival. The energy that flows through their music is phenomenal, heart stopping, hip moving and soul dancing, in and of itself. Pair that with a local artisans craft fair, and the fact that it's in Asbury Hall, and I'm literally in heaven~ (A few years ago, my best friend and I attended the Masaru Emoto seminar there...the seminar itself was wonderful, but the space is pure magic. Trust Ani DiFranco to turn something into treasure~ :)

But the main part of the evening that has me in the deepest whirl of anticipation is the Winter Solstice ritual and Spiral Dance that is the focus of the evening. Gathering together with the good people of Buffalo, Pagan or Pagan-friendly alike, to link hands and hearts and move the rhythm of the earth, right down through our bones as we swirl and swirl and swirl...making magic in such a sacred space, calling out a hallelujah to the Sun. This is the spirit of Yule, this is the spirit of community, on a personal, global, universal scale...one of joy and reverence, peace and deep, bountiful gratitude, spinning our thanks to the sun and everything after.

I can not wait for the Gathering.


by Chris Wild