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Ever wondered how the winter solstice and other solar festivals can spark a personal transformation within you? On this captivating journey of Cosmic Scene with Jill Jardine, we delve into the powerful pagan rituals that mark these celestial events. We'll reveal the potent symbolism of the four cross quarter days, especially Imbolc and Beltane, and their association with goddess Brigid and fertility. As we approach the Winter Solstice, I'll guide you through the Great Invocation - an ancient prayer that summons spiritual light to our planet during this mystical time.
The word Solstice comes from the Latin words “Sol stetit” which mean literally: “the Sun stood still.” Did you know that the equinoxes and solstices happen at the same moment around the world? Even though we all have different time zones, this is an astronomical event, based on our planet’s orbit around the Sun and tilt on its axis.
The custom of lighting bonfires at the Solstice was not exclusive to Europe, it also occurred in other locations around the world including North Africa and the Americas. The sanctioned and coordinated release of procreative energy served two important functions: 1) I strengthened the bonds within the community and 2) served to stimulate and revitalize the land.
The Solstices were celebrated by our ancestors for many reasons, notably as a license for sexual proclivities encouraged at this time to bless the fertility and abundance of the earth. The solstices were a time of honoring the forces or order and light, the divine feminine and masculine, paying tribute to Mother Earth and Father Sun. Solstices were times to celebrate the polarities of bringing people of the planet in sync with the cycles of nature. The Solstice and equinoxes (solar festivals), as well as the full moon (lunar festivals) were celebrated for bringing orderly rhythms to Earth, allowing her people an opportunity to harmonize these rhythms through ritual, dance and festivity.
The Winter Solstice has always been a time to pray for the return of order and light, while the Summer Solstice is a time to celebrate and give thanks for abundance. The Ancients knew that human beings exist in much larger ecological and cosmic systems and must abide by the rules of those systems if we are to survive. The Solstices are ideal times to acknowledge and celebrate our responsibilities to these greater realms of Being.
We still have remnants from the European Winter Solstice with our updated version of the ancient visitation of the Solstice Shaman who we’ve renamed “Santa Claus.”
In this episode we explore how these solar celebrations serve as catalysts for personal renewal. As we chant the Great Invocation, we'll collectively call forth divine love and light to guide us and restore Earth's balance. With your active participation, we can bring more light into our lives and the planet. Always remember, at Cosmic Scene with Jill Jardine, we're all about spreading positive energy across the quantum field.
Welcome to Cosmic Scene with Jill Jardine. I'm your host, jill Jardine, longtime astrologer, psychic healer, yogi masters in counseling psychology. This episode I'm going to talk about the importance of the winter solstice. Stay tuned till the end of the episode when I teach you the great invocation bringing in spiritual light to the planet. So stay tuned.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the episode on the winter solstice. I'm going to discuss the importance of the winter solstice, also mentioned some of the other pagan or solar festivals during the year, and stay tuned till the end when I teach the great invocation, which is a prayer to bring in more light from higher sources to the planet, which is very important at the winter solstice. So the winter solstice occurs annually when the sun transits into the sign Capricorn. So this can be at the 20th of December or the 21st, 22nd, and the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, marking the return of the sun in the northern hemisphere. Down there with you, aussies and Kiwis in Australian New Zealand, december 21st, or the sun's ingress into Capricorn, marks the time of your summer solstice. So the ancients and native cultures have always celebrated these solar festivals as powerful times that were worthy of ceremony. Others were lit to honor the winter and summer solstices. Thus the tradition of lighting the U-log derives from our pagan ancestors. Theosophical teachings which emerged in the late 19th century, derived from the Vedic wisdom of India, predicted the increasing importance of honoring the full moon, new moon, equinoxes and solstice cycles during the coming Aquarian Age. Well, as you know from listening to my podcast, we are now in the Aquarian Age and any ceremony or ritual, prayer or mantra that we perform during the winter solstice in December, where the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere has power, here in the northern hemisphere at midwinter, when the sun is low in the sky, the innate energies of the planet have been driven underground.
Speaker 1:
It is important to have rituals to bring out the inner light. Fires are great representatives, symbolic of the solar light. So having fire ceremonies or just being by a fire in the coldness of midwinter at the solstice, helps to rekindle the soul's urge to new growth that will take root in the spring. There is a primal urge in humankind to be rekindled, rebirth and renewed at these seasonal solar festivals, which include the two solstices winter and summer, two equinoxes autumnal and vernal and cross quarter days. So I'll explain what the four cross quarter days are.
Speaker 1:
The first one occurs on February 2nd it's called embolk candle-ness. Embolk in the Celtic seasonal calendar marks the beginning of the lambing season and signals the beginning of spring and the stirrings of new life. It is feila brida, the quickening of the year. The original word embolk means in the belly. All is pregnant and expected and only just visible, if at all. It is the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of earth awakening and life force stirring. Here is hope, the growth of returning light and rebirth. So it is a time to let go of the past and look to the future, clearing out the old, making both outer and inner space for new beginnings. And, interesting enough, it happens during the time when the sun is in Aquarius, which is also when the lunar new year begins. Anywhere from January 21st through February 19th is the lunar new year. So February 1st 2nd the time of Imbulk, can sometimes coincide with the lunar new year, which in 2022 it will Imbulk and the lunar new year occur on February 1st 2022. So this is a great time for spring cleaning. Spring cleaning was originally a nature ritual. It's time to let your mind and heart open, to allow inspiration for the new cycle. It is a good time for setting intentions or dedicating yourself to a new discipline in your life. It really is the beginning of the new year.
Speaker 1:
Unlike the Gregorian calendar random date of January 1st, imbulk is traditionally the great festival and honoring a Brigitte also known as Brigitte Bride. Brigitte, a loved pagan goddess, and her worship was woven into the Christian Catholic Church of St Brigitte. She is a goddess of healing, poetry and fire. She's a goddess of fire, of the sun and of the earth, sort of like the goddess Vesta in the Roman mythology. Brigitte brings fertility to the land and its people. She is the triple goddess, but at Imbulk she is in her maiden aspect, and so it's a good time to honor the goddess.
Speaker 1:
In Ireland they make Brigitte crosses out of reeds. My engineer Tom gifted me with a Brigitte cross when he returned from Ireland in the fall, so I received it in time for Sawain or Halloween, another pagan festival. So as we move forward in the solar year, then comes the spring equinox on March 21st. The next cross quarter day is May 1st, also known as May Day or Beltane, a spring fertility festival. Beltane is a fire festival. The word Beltane originates from the Celtic god Bell, meaning the bright one, and the Gaelic word tain, meaning fire. Together they mean bright fire or goodly fire, and traditionally bonfires were lit to honor the sun and encourage the support of Bell and the sun's light to nurture the emerging future harvest. Traditionally, fires were burned all over and a special fire was kindled for Beltane. But what Beltane is really known for is fertility. Couples would jump to the fire together and pledge themselves to each other. It was also a very powerful time for weddings, or pagan weddings that were called handfastings. It was a traditional betrothal for a year and a day, so it was also honored as a wedding of the god and the goddess. There were also handfasting ceremonies, which included exchange of vows and rings and the tying of hands with a red cord or ribbon to symbolize. Then there was the real pagan activity of the young men chasing the women into the woods to have their way with them, thus being a fertility festival.
Speaker 1:
Then, as we go forward, we come to the summer solstice, june 21st. Then we get to the next cross-quarter day, called Lamis or Lugnasa. It's in August 1st or 2nd. It's high summer. It's the union of the sun and earth, of the god and goddess. The starvus is coming to fruition.
Speaker 1:
La mes or l'ugnazah is the celebration of the first grain. It's a time of gathering and giving thanks for abundance. It's the great festival of Lü, who was the great Celtic son, god, king of light. August is his sacred month, when he initiated great festivities in honor of his mother, the goddess. Interestingly, it coincides with the son being in the sign of Leo the time of the son. So not only is there an honoring of the Celtic son, god Lü, but also there is an honoring of the goddess. Again, august was considered an auspicious month for handfastings and weddings, and the goddess at Lamas is the grain, mother harvest, mother harvest, queen earth, mother also known as Ceres and Demeter.
Speaker 1:
Ceres in the Roman mythology, demeter in the Greek and the myth in Greek mythology is Demeter's daughter, persephone, representing the grain, the seed, which drops back into the earth and will appear in the spring as new growth. And we also see astrological significance with Demeter, persephone and Pluto. Pluto is the lord of the underworld who kidnaps Persephone when she's planting her seeds and takes her to the underworld and keeps her throughout the dark months of the fall and winter, and she gets to reemerge and connect with her mother, demeter, in the spring and the summer. Then we have the autumnal equinox around the 21st of September in the northern hemisphere and the cross quarter day that follows. That is one that's very well known. It is Sáwayn, or Halloween, and All Souls Day, which occurs October 31st and November 1st.
Speaker 1:
It's also known as All Souls Night, feast of the Dead, festival of Remembrance, feast of the Apples, and Sáwayn is one of the major festivals in the solar calendar. For many pagans it was the most important festival of all. It's the final harvest festival of nuts and berries and a fire festival. It is the end of the cycle of birth and growth. It now comes to the point of death in the solar year. The seeds of the harvest have fallen deep into the earth. They are unseen, dormant and lifeless. The goddess, the crone, mourns the sun king until his rebirth at Yule or the winter solstice. Traditionally, the veils between the worlds are at thinnest at Sowing and Alsols, boundaries are dissolved and all is laid bare. It is time to honor the ancestors.
Speaker 1:
At Sowing, the dark half of the year begins, which goes until Bailtein on May 1st. It's a magical time of year. Death is always followed by rebirth and this is the end of the solar year. But the new year is coming at the winter solstice, when the sun starts taking over the darkness, to be reborn again in the spring. Now let's talk about the winter solstice.
Speaker 1:
The solstices were celebrated by our pagan ancestors, but what happened when Christianity came into Europe? The Christians commandeered these dates and overlaid some of the Christian festivals, and of course, the one we all know about is Christmas, which occurs around the winter solstice. Christmas, the most popular Christian holiday, was deliberately timed to coincide with the winter solstice. This is because the winter solstice and Christmas are both times to celebrate the birth of light and to affirm our hope for the renewal of the world. So, at this very powerful time of the year, it's a good time to honor the return of the sun for the next six months and have your own ritual or discipline or practice that you do to bring in the light and to light the fire of the soul. And so what I can share and suggest is to do a prayer called the Great Invocation.
Speaker 1:
The Great Invocation is a world prayer, translated into over 80 languages and dialects. It was given to Alice Bailey in April 1945 in a message of all people of good will. Its beauty and strength lies in its simplicity and in the expression of certain central truths the truth of the existence of a basic intelligence to whom we vaguely give the name of God. The truth that, behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is love. The truth that a great individuality, called by Christians the Christ, came to earth and embodied that love so we could understand. The truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the will of God. And, finally, the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the divine plan work out. So, again, this is a very powerful invocation to do at the solstices and these special times of year, as is the Gayatri mantra, which will be shared in another podcast.
Speaker 1:
The Great Invocation is a universal prayer which was given to Alice Bailey through the ascended master Dwal Kool, as an instrument to help the divine plan fulfill here on earth. Regular practice of this prayer is also believed to be a great act of service to humanity. The philosophy is that through invocation and meditation, divine energies can be released and brought into activity to spiritualize and strengthen the world. This means that people, if united in focus, have the power to affect world events. And the great invocation in this case is a simple yet powerful invocation which, if scientifically applied, can be one of the great libering forces with humanity. So what better time to do this than at the winter solstice.
Speaker 1:
The return of light. In the show notes I will share the words of the great invocation, but please join me in chanting it now. The Great Invocation From the point of light within the mind of God, let light stream forth into the minds of men. Let light descend on earth From the point of love within the heart of God. Let love stream forth into the hearts of men. May Christ return to earth From the center where the will of God is known. Let purpose guide the little wills of men, the purpose which the masters know and serve From the center which we call the race of men. Let the plan of love and light work out and may it seal the door we evil dwells. Let light and love and power restore the plan on earth.
Speaker 1:
From the point of light within the mind of God, let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Speaker 1:
Let light descend on earth From the point of love within the heart of God. Let love stream forth into the hearts of men. May Christ return to earth From the center where the will of God is known. Let purpose guide the little wills of men, the purpose which the masters know and serve From the center which we call the race of men. Let the plan of love and light work out and may it seal the door we evil dwells. Let light and love and power restore the plan on earth From the point of light within the mind of God. Let light stream forth into the minds of men. Let light descend on earth From the point of love within the heart of God. Let love stream forth into the hearts of men. May Christ return to earth From the center where the will of God is known. Let purpose guide the little wills of men, the purpose which the masters know and serve From the center which we call the race of men. Let the plan of love and light work out and may it seal the door we evil dwells. Let light and love and power restore the plan on earth.
Speaker 1:
I hope you enjoyed this episode on the winter solstice and the other solar festival, as well as the great invocation. Make sure you chant and say this great invocation and bring more light to yourself and the planet. Please remember to download, subscribe, share and give us a 5 star review. This is Cosmic Scene with Jill Jardine signing out, sending healing solstice vibrations through the quantum field.