On Silent Wings: A Solstice Oracle and Ritual for Families

On the night of the last full moon, I dreamed I walked into my childhood bedroom and found a wounded owl on the ground. They had dark brown or black feathers, and stared at me with enormous intelligent eyes. They quickly scooted to hide out of the way under my bunkbed. I woke up feeling disconcerted, feeling like I was being given a message, but hadn’t quite grasped it.

Solstice Fire 2018

Over the days since then, as I drop into meditation, I have felt an immediate opening in the back of my heart. It grows as a widening stretch, wingspans left and right. I’ve been asking the Owl what I need to know, and I’ll see myself gliding through a forest at night. This morning what pulled at my awareness was the silence: watch and listen and wait, on silent wings. Don’t meddle. Watch and listen.

I talked through the dream later with my spiritual director and the pieces began to click. As I considered the various challenges and changes I am facing in life right now through the eyes of the Owl, I realized the invitation before me. The Warrior in me is often wanting a clear and direct plan of action—a way to problem solve, to check things off a list, to say aloud exactly what I want to say for the sake of “honesty” and “self-expression.” To be sure, these have been important modes of working in the world, especially conditioned as a woman to be malleable and voiceless.

However, as I fit the pieces together, what felt true is that the work for me right now is of a much more indirect nature. It is subtle work, shadow work, under the cover of darkness and tree branches and dream-states. It is not much that anyone will see or validate for me. It is quiet work, inner work, presence and watching and gathering data and refraining from jumping into every one else’s business.

As I pan out, this feels aligned with this particular season. Solstice approaches, darkness gathers. And though we are often quick to bemoan the shorten days and dropping temperatures, there are tremendous gifts of the darkness. These are womb times, generative in all unseen ways. These are dying times, where layers organic matter deteriorate into sodden strata that will become next season’s nourishment. And though our culture amps up with activity, festivity, and (over)consumption, the natural world (in the northern hemisphere) has long been winding down and entering the innerworld/underworld. Here seeds and babies and dreams gestate in the dark ocean of potentiality, the nothing and everything undoing into itself.

As you move into these darkening days, watch your dreams and gifts coming to you from the shadows.

If you have little ones or a community you gather with, consider doing the simple family solstice ritual included below.

I’ll leave you with this blessing by a great visionary and oracle:

Only in silence the word
Only in dark the light
Only in dying life
Bright the hawk’s path
On the empty sky

—Ursula K. Le Guin, The Creation of Éa

With love from the Shadows, Kate

A Family Winter Solstice Ritual: Honoring Darkness, Rebirth of the Light

You will need:

• Dish/baggies of rose/flower petals or dried herbs

• Dish/baggie of seeds/popcorn

• A bell or drum

• Optional alter space, which might include: alter cloth, candle, seasonal flowers or produce, any kind of greenery/pinecones that can be easily gathered; tokens of the year past; tokens of your dreams for the coming year

   

1. Tuning In —Ring bell or drum to invite everyone to settle. Take 3-5 big belly breaths. You can invite kiddos to imagine a balloon in their belly that they fill and empty.

2. Grounding—For older kids, you might have everyone close their eyes and imagine being a tree with roots dropping to the center of the earth. For younger kids, practice a simple grounding by identifying one thing they notice with each of the five senses.

3. Song—Consider singing “Entering the Void” (listen to the recording here) or any of your family’s favorite winter songs (“O Come O Come Emmanuel” is one of my favorites!)

4. Ritual—If possible, go outside and gathers around a tree. If this is not possible, consider having a dish of earth on your alter to do the following ritual. If outside, you can stand or hold hands around the tree. At the base of a tree, each family member can:
   —sprinkle rose petals or herbs while sharing gratitudes from the past year
   —sprinkle seeds while sharing your dreams for the coming year.
   —After each person shares, or after everyone has shared, say/sing together the following blessing:
   
   Our thanks for days past
   Our dreams birthed at night
   We honor the darkness
   We beckon the light
   
   5. Closing—Conclude with the song once more and/or ringing the bell or drum once more and taking 5 more breaths together. It’s nice to follow up with a tasty warm drink!
   
   If you try this with your family, or have other practices or resources you use with your family, please let me know! I am working on developing more user-friendly material for families and I’d love to know what is useful for you!