As we come forward into this vibration, I, Albion, come so that we might share some thoughts with yourselves…thoughts that concern the winter solstice, the beginning of the winter season and the New Year. In the past we have spoken about the seasons. We have spoken about spring as being a time of new beginnings, rebirth, and new life. We have spoken about the summer as being a time when one is compelled to nourish one’s self and one’s life…to seek enrichment in one’s life and, of course, the continuation of the various and valuable experiences that come in the course of daily living. The fall is the time of harvest when one reaps what one has sown, a time to enjoy the bounties of life. Now we wish to speak again about the winter solstice. We think that it is appropriate to reaffirm the meaning of the winter solstice, and to allow us the opportunity to offer some suggestions about things that you might do to honor this time, things that are appropriate to your purposes and that can assist in your spiritual growth.
When the winter comes, we remind you all that it is a “sleeping time” for Mother Earth. It is a time when all is quiet and still, a time when many animals and plants are at rest and sleeping. This is not so much due to the coldness for the temperature has little to do with the nature of the season. Rather, it is also a time when one’s life should be “at rest”, so to speak. It is not a time, for example, to start new projects. Nor is it a time to continue projects that have already been started unless to stall the project(s) would spoil the project entirely, or to engage in a lot of vigorous activity. Winter is a time of reflection; a time to look back over the year to reminisce about what you have accomplished, to evaluate what your objectives and priorities have been. In this reflection that one should be judgmental of one’s self, for nothing is to be gained by such reflection. However, by reflecting, one can see the growth that has occurred. One can also see where stagnation or even failures that may have been experienced during the course of the year. Most people, when hearing the word “failure” automatically think of something that they did wrong to cause things to go wrong. Not at all! In fact, were there no failures in life there would be no appreciation or even recognition of achievements, which would not be a positive attitude in and of itself. So, if one can neglect the tendency to make judgments of one’s self, then one is more likely to grow from one’s mistakes and to forgive one’s mistakes so that one can move forward through the winter season when one can prepare one’s self for the next season of spring. Spring brings new people into one’s life, and new experiences, and new knowledge that can be gained. Only by looking back can one see what one has learned and by this determine what one wish and needs yet to learn. It is a very wise person who can recognize the difference between the desire to gain knowledge of a particular subject and the need for knowledge. Need and desire are of course two different things. Again we say that the true spiritual seeker who wants to gain the fullest possible from life will have both needs and desires for knowledge. The need for knowledge is the conscious recognition of what one does not know, but also that one will grow and flourish when knowledge that is still needed is acquired. The same is true that when one has the desire for certain knowledge, then one is inspired by knowing that there is knowledge that one is privy to acquire. Keep in mind that desire is a tremendously positive motivating force. Without desire, stagnation can and does occur. Without desire life can be unfulfilling. Without desire there one cannot manifest their fullest expression and potential.
As one reflects, one will not only gain from looking back over one’s experiences of the past year, but it is also an opportunity to look inside one’s own self. This we feel is most important and necessary because looking within it is like looking in a mirror and asking how you have changed during the year. More often than not, it can be difficult for one to see the changes in the personality, perhaps change in one’s health and/or environment that one’s experiences have brought about. Have the changes been for better or for worse? Only reflection will provide answers to such questions. In other words, looking within self is the only thing that will reveal what one’s experiences have taught. You may say that some of the changes that have happened are not good. Maybe you have cultivated a more negative attitude than ever before. Or perhaps you have engaged in behavior that has done harm to your health on some level. Recognizing such changes is again a way of recognizing and owning the changes that you have undergone. If one reflects upon one’s self and sees no changes is one who is looking with blinders on! Remember, the only constant in the universe is change. One cannot possibly be honest if one thinks they are the same, that they have not changed for better or for worse…”I am the same”. If this is what you see in yourself, we must stress that self-honesty is a must in such an evaluation. Change, even if it is negative, is change that puts you in the position of realizing that you have created circumstances for yourself that lessons can be learned. Thus, we feel that self-evaluation is very important and of tremendous value if and when it is done honestly.
As the animal kingdom, including birds, reptiles and insects, enter into the wintertime, they too enter into a time of rest. Sometimes that rest takes the form of hibernation or simply a time of much lowered activity. The consciousness of the animals is directed and influenced by Nature, and Nature sends her message via the seasons. Winter’s message is one of the needs for rest and recuperation. The animals that do remain reasonably active during the winter are still well aware that they are moving through a time when there is a need for the body and the mind to rest. Certainly each species of life, including humans, have their own way of resting.
In your home, as winter progresses, you would do well to be aware of the energy that is generated within the home. When the weather is cold and snowy, people are more confined than usual, so the people within the home spend more time together. This brings about more frequent interaction with each other tempers can become short and patience quite thin. It is the right thing to take the feelings and moods of others into consideration. Keeping peace and harmony is the welcome result. A “closeness” with the others in the home is another result, as well as serving as a reminder of the love and respect you have for one another.
The plant kingdom is no different from animals or humans. They withdraw within themselves. The trees’ appearance is changed due to them losing their leaves. Some plants go to seed, and others retreat deep within the earth for warmth and protection. Thus plants also rest. For those plants whose life cycle ends at the onset of winter, they make for more abundant life in the spring. The mineral kingdom, which is the body of Mother Earth, also needs rest in the winter. Her body puts on a cloak of white in the winter to protect herself. When there are times when not only rain or snow will come to protect the earth, but there will also be ice. This should not be alarming for when the ice spirits come they come to freeze, literally, moments of time, time when people are confined, when all is in a state of lowered activity, a time of quiet and stillness that one can appreciate if one has a mind to. When it is blustery and cold and wet in the winter, people are prone to complain and not recognize that the earth’s body is cleansing itself and blanketing itself with a cloak of protection. In the northern hemisphere, winter abounds, while in the southern hemisphere there is warmth and life abounds. This is balance…the earth’s method of balance in her body. One part is active and in the state of growth and change, while the other part is at rest.
There are three specific kinds of spirits that awaken at the time of the winter solstice and that continue to thrive until the time of the spring equinox. All are integral parts of Mother Nature herself. One we will call the snow spirits. These are protectors; spirits that bring themselves to bear upon certain places that not only need protecting for various reasons that may be social, political, environmental, or otherwise, and it is in such places where the snow spirits will alight, sometimes in abundance. Then there are the ice spirits that are like little “jack frost spirits.” They are spirits that are akin to the rain spirits, and thus have the task of “cleansing.” Sometimes these spirits cleanse the atmosphere, sometimes a community or an entire territory. But the cleansing is always necessary with Mother Earth as surely as it is necessary for all forms of life.
Winter is a cleansing time. If this cleansing is recognized, then one can tune into the snow, rain, and ice spirits, but also a third kind of winter spirit, that being the spirits of the evergreens. Is it not interesting that all would appear to be introverted in the winter, when all seems dead, that there are those spirits that reside within the bodies of the evergreens. The evergreens…the pines, junipers, cedars…all the evergreens, have a message and that message is one that is not often recognized in the other seasons when all is green. The evergreens’ message is one of continuity, immortality, and being healthy during dire conditions. Thus the evergreens’ message is one of healing, of strength, and of life. When boughs of evergreen are brought into your homes, it will remind you that life is not gone, that all is not dead. And so, we suggest that all through the wintertime that you either bring in some branches from an evergreen, with the tree’s permission of course. Or, perhaps you will want to purchase a small evergreen and keep it inside during the winter. Each time you nourish that little tree with water, each time you view the “greenness” of life, you will be reminded that there is life within you, and that this life is looking forward to the spring when all will be green again. When spring comes, take the little tree and plant it in the ground and allow it to take its place in nature. As it grows, you will be reminded of your own growth. Whether you recognize it consciously or not, you are always growing in every moment of every day you are growing in some way and to some degree. And so as winter approaches, remember that it is a time of rest, a time when the home is warm and comfortable and inviting, and that you must take measures to assure that it remains that way. During this winter season, we wish you all rest and peace. God bless yourselves.
Originally published 12/7/07.
(C) Copyright Page Bryant, 2007 & 2012. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Fotolia.com.
As one reflects, one will not only gain from looking back over one’s experiences of the past year, but it is also an opportunity to look inside one’s own self. This we feel is most important and necessary because looking within it is like looking in a mirror and asking how you have changed during the year. More often than not, it can be difficult for one to see the changes in the personality, perhaps change in one’s health and/or environment that one’s experiences have brought about. Have the changes been for better or for worse? Only reflection will provide answers to such questions. In other words, looking within self is the only thing that will reveal what one’s experiences have taught. You may say that some of the changes that have happened are not good. Maybe you have cultivated a more negative attitude than ever before. Or perhaps you have engaged in behavior that has done harm to your health on some level. Recognizing such changes is again a way of recognizing and owning the changes that you have undergone. If one reflects upon one’s self and sees no changes is one who is looking with blinders on! Remember, the only constant in the universe is change. One cannot possibly be honest if one thinks they are the same, that they have not changed for better or for worse…”I am the same”. If this is what you see in yourself, we must stress that self-honesty is a must in such an evaluation. Change, even if it is negative, is change that puts you in the position of realizing that you have created circumstances for yourself that lessons can be learned. Thus, we feel that self-evaluation is very important and of tremendous value if and when it is done honestly.
As the animal kingdom, including birds, reptiles and insects, enter into the wintertime, they too enter into a time of rest. Sometimes that rest takes the form of hibernation or simply a time of much lowered activity. The consciousness of the animals is directed and influenced by Nature, and Nature sends her message via the seasons. Winter’s message is one of the needs for rest and recuperation. The animals that do remain reasonably active during the winter are still well aware that they are moving through a time when there is a need for the body and the mind to rest. Certainly each species of life, including humans, have their own way of resting.
In your home, as winter progresses, you would do well to be aware of the energy that is generated within the home. When the weather is cold and snowy, people are more confined than usual, so the people within the home spend more time together. This brings about more frequent interaction with each other tempers can become short and patience quite thin. It is the right thing to take the feelings and moods of others into consideration. Keeping peace and harmony is the welcome result. A “closeness” with the others in the home is another result, as well as serving as a reminder of the love and respect you have for one another.
The plant kingdom is no different from animals or humans. They withdraw within themselves. The trees’ appearance is changed due to them losing their leaves. Some plants go to seed, and others retreat deep within the earth for warmth and protection. Thus plants also rest. For those plants whose life cycle ends at the onset of winter, they make for more abundant life in the spring. The mineral kingdom, which is the body of Mother Earth, also needs rest in the winter. Her body puts on a cloak of white in the winter to protect herself. When there are times when not only rain or snow will come to protect the earth, but there will also be ice. This should not be alarming for when the ice spirits come they come to freeze, literally, moments of time, time when people are confined, when all is in a state of lowered activity, a time of quiet and stillness that one can appreciate if one has a mind to. When it is blustery and cold and wet in the winter, people are prone to complain and not recognize that the earth’s body is cleansing itself and blanketing itself with a cloak of protection. In the northern hemisphere, winter abounds, while in the southern hemisphere there is warmth and life abounds. This is balance…the earth’s method of balance in her body. One part is active and in the state of growth and change, while the other part is at rest.
There are three specific kinds of spirits that awaken at the time of the winter solstice and that continue to thrive until the time of the spring equinox. All are integral parts of Mother Nature herself. One we will call the snow spirits. These are protectors; spirits that bring themselves to bear upon certain places that not only need protecting for various reasons that may be social, political, environmental, or otherwise, and it is in such places where the snow spirits will alight, sometimes in abundance. Then there are the ice spirits that are like little “jack frost spirits.” They are spirits that are akin to the rain spirits, and thus have the task of “cleansing.” Sometimes these spirits cleanse the atmosphere, sometimes a community or an entire territory. But the cleansing is always necessary with Mother Earth as surely as it is necessary for all forms of life.
Winter is a cleansing time. If this cleansing is recognized, then one can tune into the snow, rain, and ice spirits, but also a third kind of winter spirit, that being the spirits of the evergreens. Is it not interesting that all would appear to be introverted in the winter, when all seems dead, that there are those spirits that reside within the bodies of the evergreens. The evergreens…the pines, junipers, cedars…all the evergreens, have a message and that message is one that is not often recognized in the other seasons when all is green. The evergreens’ message is one of continuity, immortality, and being healthy during dire conditions. Thus the evergreens’ message is one of healing, of strength, and of life. When boughs of evergreen are brought into your homes, it will remind you that life is not gone, that all is not dead. And so, we suggest that all through the wintertime that you either bring in some branches from an evergreen, with the tree’s permission of course. Or, perhaps you will want to purchase a small evergreen and keep it inside during the winter. Each time you nourish that little tree with water, each time you view the “greenness” of life, you will be reminded that there is life within you, and that this life is looking forward to the spring when all will be green again. When spring comes, take the little tree and plant it in the ground and allow it to take its place in nature. As it grows, you will be reminded of your own growth. Whether you recognize it consciously or not, you are always growing in every moment of every day you are growing in some way and to some degree. And so as winter approaches, remember that it is a time of rest, a time when the home is warm and comfortable and inviting, and that you must take measures to assure that it remains that way. During this winter season, we wish you all rest and peace. God bless yourselves.
Originally published 12/7/07.
(C) Copyright Page Bryant, 2007 & 2012. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Fotolia.com.