Yule tide meditations 1 – Solstice

12/21/10

Light… and darkness. Dark and Light. From space, a blaze of lights, extending in networks of sparkling lights, like spiderwebs jeweled with dewdrops caught by the rising sun. Networks of light, brighter still at this season when every house is lit. Lights everywhere, a festival of lights, defying the cold and the darkness. In the world’s darkness we kindle our lights, build up our fires, proclaim hope and dedication, endurance and perseverance. We are here, we live, we celebrate the light.

Was the world born of ice and fire or from dark and light? Without light, the darkness of space is absolute, the cold, the lack of movement, the inability to change. Darkness is the endless frozen stasis of interstellar space. The stars are suns, brave fires that melt ice, awaken the potential for life. Combustion, energy, destruction and creation, change…

Heat and cold, dark and light, meet and part in an endless dance. From their interactions comes all movement, all potential. The moments when dark or light reach their apogee are times of danger. What if the process does not stop? What if this time, cold and darkness increase until earth is a lifeless ball of ice rolling through space? Or what if light and heat intensify until earth becomes a dessicated husk that finally bursts into flame?

The moment of the turning, when the planet tilts back and light or dark begin to grow or diminish once more, is the promise that change is possible. The stability of perfect balance may be fleeting as well, but the moment when everything shifts is a promise that “nothing too much” is a law of nature as well as a dictum of humankind. The earth tilts, the pendulum begins its long slow swing back until the other point is reached, and turned, and it all begins again.

Rejoice in the light, but do not curse the darkness. Rest in the darkness, but do not flee the light. Move back and forth, in dynamic equilibrium, appreciating each day for the challenges it brings. Blessed be rest and motion, ice and fire, darkness and light.