Finding Peace Between Christian Tradition, Celtic Rituals and Natures Rhythms

This Christmas season, I was struck with a new awareness: that I could celebrate and honor the traditions of Christianity, Celtic celebrations and the natural rhythms of the seasons and solstice.  

What a revelation: to be able to celebrate and honor various traditions in the returning of the light, both the physical, natural light of the sun and days getting longer.  And, the celebration of the Christ Light that was emulated through Jesus.  

What do you think?  How do you celebrate this time of year?  What's special and sacred about it all for you?

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Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

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Hey everyone, Sarah here. Just to let you know, sometimes I do use swear words in these episodes, and we may at times discuss adult content. In case you happen to be listening around little ones or people that won't appreciate that. Thanks so much for listening, and let's get right into it. Hi, and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God. Today I want to talk about a winter solstice Christmas revelation that I had this past Christmas and winter solstice season. I have been struggling with my religious upbringing and the Celtic tradition of the winter solstice. I love both of those. And a part of me from my upbringing feels like bad, wrong, blasphemous, you know, you're going to hell kind of thing if I celebrate the winter solstice and not like focus on Jesus' birth as the celebration of Christmas. And then another part of me feels uncomfortable when I'm like just focusing on Christmas as both cultural Christmas, you know, the trees, the gifts, the lights, all the fun cookie baking and all that stuff, and then the spiritual, religious Christmas, the symbolization of or the symbol of Jesus' birth, um, the birth of the light. You know, I feel like I'm missing out on something when I don't honor the solstice as well. So this year I celebrated both, and I got something very special that I want to share with you, which is that, you know, the winter solstice is nature. It's natural, it happens every year. And back in the day, um, I was listening to uh I was on a solstice call with Alexander John Shaya from the Four Gospel Journey and Quadratos, and he was talking about how, you know, way back in the day, I mean, thousands of years ago, people felt that they had to do certain rituals and things to bring the light back on the winter solstice. Um, they felt they had to do these certain practices so that the light would return. Because what I've learned the past two years is that once the winter solstice comes, it's the shortest day of the year, and the light stays the same for three days. So we're in that darkness for three days. I never knew that until I was listening to Owen from the um Tourist Denom group out of Ireland. And he told us that on one of the calls last year, and I thought that was really fascinating. I had never heard that before. And so I loved this concept, this not concept, this truth, this fact, this scientific fact that the light stays the same for three days once the wince winter solstice happens. And then the light starts coming back, and it happens every year. And eventually humans realized oh, this just happens. We don't have to do any particular rituals to make this happen. This is just a natural occurrence, it's a natural cycle, it's a natural rhythm. And I love that the ear like the early Christians I don't know the history on this fully, but I'm I'm thinking, you know, they um created the celebration of Christ's birth around the winter solstice because it is symbolic and it does make sense if we're thinking about Jesus as the light and the return of this light to the world, that they would make this celebration around a time when we're celebrating and and people had been celebrating for millennia the birth or the return of the light back to the earth. So that was one realization that they go together, that I don't have to separate them out. And and I I still feel it within me. There's still something a little unresolved there, like, eh, I don't know, you know, like did Christianity co-opt this? Like, is it bad and wrong to celebrate Celtic traditions? I'm not Ira Irish and of Irish descent, but I do really love these natural seasonal rhythms and shifts that are celebrated in the Celtic tradition. I just love that. And and I know now there's nothing wrong with celebrating those. There's nothing wrong with celebrating that. And um, you know, I know people um believe like they have like pagan beliefs or they pagan religions. I don't know really much about that at all, but um I do know that there is something beautiful about these cultural rituals that celebrate these phases through the time through the year and these these special times, these doorways and portals into the next stages of the year. I remember when I was watching Anne with an E, I was inspired by her celebration. I think it was of Beltane, and she got her friends together and they went outside in the dark in their beautiful white nightgowns and they were dancing around. And I just had this insight. This is several years ago, but it was like there is nothing wrong with celebrating these rituals. They're sacred, they're celebratory, they're cultural, they're connecting to each other as humans, to the earth, to nature, and they can be to God as well. They don't have to be separate from God, from the one true source. And that was a big revelation for me. Um, because I did grow up with a ton of messaging around like, you're going to hell if you do this, you're going to hell if you do that, you're going to hell if you don't believe this. Like Christianity just shoved down my throat. And I did not, I did not take that well. And I rebelled very strongly against that because it didn't feel good. It didn't feel like God to me. It felt bad and wrong. And um, but I can see how how that programming and that messaging has been in me. And so it's it's nice to see this spiritual maturation happening within myself, that things are evolving, they're clearing out, they're unwinding and untangling so that I can see these messages, these beliefs more clearly that were shared with me or passed down to me or tried to be given to me or shoved down my throat, which it is what it felt like. I don't think, you know, my parents or anybody intended for that, but that's how how it feels sometimes still. Um, but just a celebration that, oh, I can celebrate both, and they're one and the same. And I'm talking about the winter solstice and Christmas, and I know some people might not share that same belief, but for me, what I realized is how intrically connected we are, everything as one with the one true source of it all, and how intrically connected the winter solstice and Christmas are. They're not separate. I mean, it makes so much sense to me now why Christmas is so short. It's just this little magical few days of the darkness and then the birth of the light again on December 25th. And then we move on. And it's so funny because I've always wondered like, why does it feel so bad that like it's just like this magic feels gone now? You know, this little sacred time period of this essence of Christmas is done now. I don't understand this. And what I understand now is it's supposed to be this way. And it's nature, actually. Like nature is a part of this magic that nature literally gives us. You know, we go down into the darkness, the deep darkness from the summer solstice, the three days after the summer solstice, and we start going down into the darkness. And by the time November hits, we're really going in. And then December, we're being asked to rest and slow down and get quiet and discern God's guidance and connect deeply with the presence of the Holy One, whatever we perceive this to be, so that we are prepared for the birth of the light, which is coming. It's surety, it is coming. And we know this now. And it's both symbolic and natural. It's a part of nature. We know the light is coming back in nature, and we know the light is we're celebrating that return of the light through Jesus, through whatever you celebrate. Um, Hanukkah has its own traditions about the light. Um, then we have other traditions in other religions as well. I'm sure I don't know specifically, but that celebrate times of the light, like Diwali. I don't know anything about Diwali really, but I know that has something to do with the light and lighting candles and things like that. So, you know, this is in different traditions at different times of the year. But I just love that essence that it's connected, you know, Christianity, the celebrating of Christmas with the birth of the light in nature again and this sacred, this sacred holding of this little time, this these few days right before Christmas, and then the birth of the light, and then we're meant to move on into the rest of the winter and continue listening and discerning, cultivating and preparing ourselves for the spring to come up and out, right? Like the plants do. They're they're preparing right now, even though the ground may be frozen in parts of the world, they're preparing to come up and they may even be moving towards the surface of the soil now, even though we're in January and uh in the northern hemisphere at least. So I just find this fascinating, and I'm curious what you think. What do you think about all of this? What does Christmas and the winter solstice mean to you, especially if you're a Christian? Um what does that mean to you? And how do you celebrate this time of year and honor those sacred few days, magical sacred few days before the light returns, and we are asked to move into the light again and start preparing for coming out of the darkness into the springtime, which is surely coming in a few months from now. So, yeah, enjoy this inquiry and I will see you on the next episode. Hey everyone, Sarah Haeckel here from Welcoming God, a podcast for spiritual seekers. This is a legal disclaimer to say that this podcast is not a substitute for therapy or professional help. I am not a trained therapist. I also have not studied theology in a formal setting. This podcast is purely for educational, inspirational purposes, to share the goodness of welcoming God back into my life and all of the things that I'm learning on this journey. So thank you for joining me here, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks for joining me on another episode of Welcoming God. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen, and consider leaving us a review as it helps more people find and benefit from this show. Music by Song Channel Music. You can listen and hear more at Songchannel Music.