21/06/2024
Yule Blessings ✨🕯️🩵
Today in the Southern Hemisphere we welcome the Winter Solstice ❄️
The Winter Solstice is when the Earth’s axis tilts away from the sun. The sun reaches its lowest point in the sky around the 21st of June, resulting in the shortest daylight hours and longest period of darkness for the year. This is the point in the sun’s cycle in which daylight gradually increases, as we have now reached the peak of winter and move towards Spring. ⛄️🌞🌏🌱
On the Wheel of the Year, the Winter Solstice, or Yule, is the midway point between Samhain and Imbolc - it is a metaphoric time of death and rebirth. 🖤🤍
Although the trees have shed their leaves, the seeds have fallen to the Earth and everything has stopped growing, those seeds now lie dormant under the soil, gestating, and the roots begin to grow as they wait for the light to return. 🌱☀️💫
The cycle starts again. Birth, growth, bloom, harvest, decay, death, rebirth. ⭕️✨
The midpoint of Winter is a time to embrace the darkness. It is a time for deep contemplation and reflection, to look back on the first 6 months of the year and celebrate how far you have come, or perhaps release and let go of what is no longer serving you, as you move into the second half of the year. 🌌🤲🏻
It is a time for rest, slowing down, stillness and an inner hibernation, and we must honour this integral part of the cycle.
Yule is also a time for communities to come together, to celebrate ancestral traditions and experience connection during the darkest days of the year. Here in the Southern Hemisphere, you may have even celebrated Yule as “Christmas in July”. 🎄❄️🎁
Yule is deeply rooted in nature, celebrating the cycles of the seasons and the interconnectedness of all living beings.
Yule serves as a reminder to embrace the darkness and to kindle the flame of hope, warmth and love, as the Wheel of the Year turns towards brighter days. 🔥🌹♥️
