December
December is an invitation to connect to the energies of Love and Magic, as we come together and take a pause to reflect on our journey. Diving deep into the Wisdom of our hearts will provide a much needed amnesty of peace and power, where we can tap into to the root of our wild beauty and recover the source to our unique offerings to the world.
December with all its fairy tale magic and festive traditions and rituals is an invitation to dwell in cocoons and pauses with our loved ones and connect to the Winter Energy through story and magic. This is the time to ignite your inner stars through play through the power of awe and the wild child that still lives inside all of us.
As we enter the first month of Winter, it’s time for us to nurture our inner light and take care of our inner world more softly. December is a great time to reflect upon the year, that has gone by with all its trials an tribulations and start healthy habits for the coming year, that promises to be a transformative one.
Finding the stars within
Astrologically, we are entering a mysterious energy of Sagittarius Season, that invites us on a quest for truth, meaning, and knowledge. It is a time, that challenges us to live more authentically, get radically honest, and deepen the connection with our natural and spontaneous self. Sagittarius inspires us to peel back layers of conditioning and recover contact with our undomesticated selves to find the root of our wild and strange beauty.
The arrival of Sagittarius season brings a much needed boost of optimism and a breath of fresh air after the intensity of Scorpio season through November. Scorpio guided us through a journey into darkness, into our unconscious, in order to become more intimate with our shadow and get a deeper awareness of our psychological and emotional nature, and the hidden motivations and intentions that affect our choices and behaviors. It offered us an invitation to deepen our relationships with both ourselves and others and challenged us to let go of our attachment to what and who had lost purpose and meaning in our lives.
After an intense period of soul searching, Sagittarius season now allows us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sagittarius encourages us to celebrate life and reminds us to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. This time of the year reminds us that after death, loss and endings comes a rebirth and a new beginning. Sagittarius invites us to find the lesson and the higher meaning of our experiences and inspires us to approach challenges with confidence, courage and awareness. It reminds us to see crises as opportunities and to use obstacles we might encounter to fuel our motivation rather than truths to hold us back.
The sign of Sagittarius is the the archer that aims his arrow towards the future. Sagittarius season is all about opening the doors for us to connect to the stars within us in order to find what lights us up and ignite our personal star qualities. Shining like a star will be central to the overall theme of next year, 2024, and December opens this chapter slowly for us to get a sneak peek into our own glow.
Light up your Inner Sun
December also marks a turning point in the Wheel of the year with the winter solstice, the time of the longest night and shortest day of the year. Seen from the northern hemisphere, this is the day, the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon. When the sun stands in the sign of Sagittarius, it traces a low arc across the sky, never rising high enough to brighten our days or warm the earth. As the dark time of the year approaches, a mood of mystery pervades all. This is the season when the outer sun of the natural world has faded, and the inner sun can grow strong within us.
Since ancient times, mystery schools have spoken of the “outer sun” and the “inner sun.” The outer sun is at its peak when the sun stands in Gemini at the summer solstice. It teaches us the outer mysteries of creation by filling us with the bounty of sense impressions from the outside world. The inner sun of the winter speaks to us from depths of our soul, teaching us the inner mystery of creation through the awakening of our inner life. In traversing the cycle of the year again and again, we learn how the inner and the outer are actually two sides of the same, divine mystery of creation. In the midst of winter, we can truly tap into our own creative powers and plant mental seeds for the coming year.
As the outer brilliance fades, we have a new opportunity to pay attention to the power of our heart and mind. Especially as we turn away from the pressing demands of the holiday season and create a conscious journey for the inner self, we may choose to spend more time doing inner work. In contemplation and quiet meditation, our dreams may become richer, and our experiences thereby more subtle.
a Quest for Truth and Meaning
In the midst of celebration and festive days, December also opens personal doors for us, if we carve out moments to reflect on our relationship to our beliefs, our life philosophy, and our quest for the meaning of life. During this time of the year, we are supported in casting a light on what is true for us, what is meaningful to us, and what is life all about. As you go through the month, you can reflect upon questions like What do O believe in? Where have I fallen prey to illusions? What are the true sources of my life force and joy?
The period between Christmas and Epiphany – know as the Twelve Holy Nights – is an important time of year. It provides a time for reflection and re-connection with our spiritual selves, where we sow the seeds for the next 12 months. You can read more about the the Twelve Holy Nights in a later post in December.
For now, open your mind to the perfect landscape through December to ask questions, seek answers, challenge existing beliefs, as we sit together with the darkness and allow for the mysterious magic of receiving all the answers from within.
Find your ritual below to navigate through this magic month and make it your own personal fairy tale.
December Love,
December Rituals
Plant new (mental) seeds.
December is a time for gestation. For dreaming up, what you want to manifest in the coming year. Any seed that needs to grow, needs the the dark to start sprouting. The darkness is an elemental part of new life. The womb, the soil, the winter time are all places, where seed start to dream about their new life. Use the time of the winter darkness to start dreaming up the things and creations that you wish to see in the world - or your own life.
Reflect
Being the last month of the year, December calls for reflection. Spend some time going through your old notebooks, images, notes and things that remind you of your journey this year. Note all the places you have grown, everything, you have learned. Practice gratitude for everything that has arrived and the teachings and things, that left your life this year. The double power of journaling comes in, when we set the time to re-read our thoughts and reflections. This is where we truly can see, what has changed, what has shifted, what we have learned. And how much we have grown.
Rewrite
As we approach the New Year, December is a great time to dive into a writing practice. Whether you are into journaling, drawing, walking, meditation or maybe something entirely different, this is the time to start getting a practice together. 2024 holds immense opportunity to rewrite the inner scripts we live by and investigate where they are coming from. To ask ourselves where our belief systems are coming from, and take action to re-write them, if they are not for our highest good. Walking and writing are my own favourite tools for insight, and my first book A Winter Journey was written as a medicine walk, where insights from both nature, ancestors and life itself gave me clues and messages for my own path forward. You can read more about the art of the Medicine Walk here.
New MOON in Sagittarius
Hang on hun, you’re almost there. This New Moon asks you step out of the shadows by daring to set your arrow towards your boldest, biggest life.
Full COLD Moon
The December Cold Moon is the longest full moon of the year appearing almost full for three day, as if the creator had meant for us to see light in the darkest days of the year around the winter solstice.