Tomorrow is the new moon. The last one of Autumn. The moon cycle that starts tomorrow will move us on the wheel of the year from the north west corner to due north. That happens when the sun is the furthest from earth on the Winter Solstice, December 21, the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere.

When we move north on the wheel of the year, it is the season of winter. The element is earth and the stage is death, rest, and renewal. Earth teaches us again and again the seasons of growth and decrease. Of gain, and letting go. Of life and death, followed always by more life because of the season of rest.

The Winter Solstice is the metaphoric new moon for the year, as well.

This year, the Winter Solstice occurs on a full moon.

An incredibly meaningful spiritual time, the Solstice marks entryway to rest and renewal. We celebrate that after the longest night, the light begins to wax, or grow, again.

To have a full moon on the longest night of the year is special, too. It reminds me of a sacred and fun practice a sister and I have kept in years past. To try and stay awake all night long :0) The full moon is a way to honor that no matter the dark, there is a light in the center of everything. This year you can celebrate that, that night, just by honoring the alchemy of longest night with brightest bright, all the way through.

Tonight though, we celebrate the times in the dark with no light. We honor the medicine of trusting in what we cannot see.

Here’s a poem from my dark moon medicine circle outside today. Happy New Moon!

instructions, during dark moon, right before winter.

1.
ask her connection to come alive in you again

give this time, the response.

2.
trust her. show up, enough. without rushing. trust her to come thru

be as gentle in your return to her as you would be with your self
be as gentle with you as you are when you find yourself returned again, to her

it is the time of year you wear the outside inside with you, a thin cold sheet that lives for minutes still on your skin and hair when first you get indoors

she is here

go to her. anyway, in spite of cold: outside. know the right layers to wear and wear them. to the place where you can hear your self.

once there say thanks. then listen. listen for the loud. the loudest you. the noisiest part. listen until your noise is all the way out. listen for the subtle. the deepest and most in solitude. the most far away. say thanks for this, too.

stay long enough there for you to calm. calm to such quiet that you no longer need to be heard. now stay longer, til you hear the outside. til the outside is as big as it truly is.

far bigger than you

explore. let your senses guide you, be led to explore by how you feel

remember, you are the world in which you exist, you co-create

deprogram from any unconscious rhythms caused by being away from the world too long. expand.

let yourself be refilled by her intuitive space

you’ve found each other, again, after being lost a minute. celebrate that a minute felt so long: it is a big deal to know what is missing, and how to return…

return. again. return to your body, on hers. circle, circles, circles and in the center, always, the heart. the choice to love, to love her, to love you, your body, your outside, your within. to love the return, again

in the dark, at the darkest corner on the wheel of the year.

cherish this: in the dark we are forced to surrender.

in the dark, we rest and reset. we get turned under to renew. to begin, again.

may the letting go be an act of having faith in the part of the process you can’t see.

may what you can’t see be held by a dream of love that hasn’t happened, yet

may it be~