Embracing Death: Preparing for the Winter Solstice

Today I went to a baptism. Sat in a full Catholic mass, as I've done many times before, but in a church that was new to me. Returning to my Catholic roots brings on many muddy emotions. One that always astonishes me is a vague familiarity.

In the middles of the mass, the boastful priest took one of the testaments and brought the story to life. A story of death and reckoning, making it about love. Saying that this was a time to prepare for the ending of life as we knew it and to love each other without limits. That, if their world were to end tomorrow, let it be with one less regret.

Yes, we should love without limits. Love our families, each other, and our faiths. But we too must love death, as witches, we rely on it.

The air is frigid and dry, trees have become barren, as leaves coat the ground, shriveled and brown from exposure, soaked in the glistening snow that blankets the earth.

In life, we too go through these cycles. Our trees, desolate. Snow falls from our skies. Our days turn cold and gray. But for what? What can be forged from struggle and suffering?

While the winter solstice does not begin until Dec. 21, like the earth we should embrace death. Shedding all that no longer serves us, so we can once again embrace new growth.

As the frigid air kisses your skin, embrace its lips and ask where you go from here:
What lessons have you learned? What have you earned? What has left you spurned? What is better left burned?
What a more perfect time to ask these questions than under the full Beaver Moon, Nov. 23., to focus on clarity and illumination.

Perhaps, think ahead, to the new moon, Dec. 7. What weeds should be pulled from your garden? What seeds will you plant? Will expand your crop or is it time for a new harvest?

​As a planner, these questions keep buzzing in my busy brain. But I am ready to release my burdens, humbled at my accomplishment thus far, and ready to take on another year.

​Author: MermyWitch of Silfren Circle

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