Nature's Seasons  |  Winter Solstice 2001  |  Summer Solstice 2002  |  The Way Home  |  Equinox 2008 |

 

The longest night, the shortest day - a turning point. The winter solstice holds the sun on a still point on the horizon. From this day on it will reverse its course and move toward that farthest stopping point on the horizon where it will rise on the Summer Solstice.

Hope returns - each day will grow lighter, longer. In County Mayo, Ireland the sun rose a bright orange fire ball above our river Glore. I wondered about those gathered miles away in the dark tomb of Newgrange, Ireland waiting for that first light ray as it entered a small slit of stone.

That famous slit, an opening with a monumental green mound built around it. What did each person bring to that dark place to be illuminated? People of privilege and position chosen to stand bathed in the golden glow of the longest night. What can they or anyone know of ancient mystery?

 

The day continued bright and clear. We drove up to a lake, one of many in the region. It was as smooth as a mirror. Each monolithic rock and small island duplicated itself perfectly in its own reflection. The opposite shore and mountain horizon could clearly be seen, an unbroken line of far away beach. The mountain peaks reached flatly into the lake as they touched the sky. Time on that lake was frozen on the unbroken surface of the water.

If there was an Avalon in Ireland, where the veil is lifted and the two worlds of myth become one, then it was at the lake that day of the Winter Solstice.