Stand Still

Stand Still

We are truly in the Yuletide season. The darkness seems never so close as these days leading up to the longest night, and this year that darkness is particularly heavy. 

Solstice comes from the roman word ‘solstitium’ meaning ‘sun standing still’. I welcome it, this opportunity to be still. I want to wrap the night around me like a cloak and sit with it. It’s a rare moment of slowness where we can think back to the year that has passed, grieve for what we have lost and recharge for what lies ahead. 

The Hermit’s Lesson

Yesterday I pulled the Hermit card. This is a perfect card for this time in the Northern Hemisphere. It speaks to our need for quiet and peace in order to hear the inner lessons that are waiting for us. This deep listening requires solitude and inaction. For many of us this is hard in itself, and for many of us we meet with trepidation the things we must learn. As The Little Red Tarot tells us: It’s intimidating, this kind of solitude. This kind of silence. It requires a huge amount of bravery and a resourceful spirit. It takes guts to be willing to face the chaos most of us carry inside us, and attempt to sort through it and make some kind of sense of it all. 

But face it we must. As the Charge of the Goddess states  for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without. 

Take moment to breathe, go on a walk, go to bed a little earlier and meditate for a few minutes, pull and oracle or tarot card, take a bath or find something that forces you to unplug and slow down. And listen. 

I look forward to sharing in the new year what is next for Open Coven.

Brightest Blessings to all of you.