On the first of December, in my little town, we celebrated the December sky and the encroaching Dark. Working with Fact, Story, and Music, we discovered stars, watched a grandfather assume the responsibility of being a revolving earth while a little one embodied the Sun with so much dignity and finesse. We learned how to find the North Star and wondered if it would help us find our way home. We heard the Gong whisper the night sounds of winter as together, we formed a tree and became a connected living entity that slowly transformed into a festival of lights.
The glittering sky was, in that moment, all the holiday we needed and everyone was invited.
I designed that ritual and it did everything I wanted it to do and more. I found an astronomer who would explain the facts of the night sky and knew the musician who would pull the music and the night from his gongs. The young dancer who led us into tree formation and transformed the littles into excited starfairies is a sweet friend.
Me? I told stories about the stories that would have been told and why. I wove tales that wove our histories with our ancestors and to the Great Mother Earth, floating like a blue ball in space with her Northern Hemisphere tipped away from the Sun.
I was privileged to celebrate with my little village the season of Winter and all her Cold, Dark, Silent Mystery. We all stood together, having the same experience, a joint experience few, if any of us, have celebrated. This is our Earth in Winter, and we were together in “the Dark, Sacred Night.*”
With luck we will continue to celebrate the seasons.
Enjoy the Beauty, my Friends, Winter’s glories are fleeting!!!
Salaam, Shalom, Peace. Blessed be.
*Wikipedia: “What a Wonderful World” was written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released in 1967 as a single. It topped the pop chart in the United Kingdom, but performed poorly in the United States because Larry Newton, the president of ABC Records, disliked the song and refused to promote it.