Happy Winter Solstice to you

Happy Holidays from Harmony Acres!

I hope you are enjoying these wintery quiet days and have some time to slow down amidst the hustle and bustle.

We are quite enjoying our new home and can't believe it's only been a year since we moved in! Life moves fast when you have a baby but also feels much slower. It's a weird thing that only a parent would understand. Maybe it's caused by sleep deprivation!

We just celebrated Winter Solstice this past Sunday 12/21 with a small group of friends and family members and I wanted to share some insights with you from our experience.

What is Winter Solstice?

Winter Solstice is the time of year when the Sun is at it's lowest point in the horizon, this means we experience the darkest days or longest nights of the year.
It is also the turning point of when the days continually get longer up until the Summer Solstice in June, which is the longest day of the year. The Spring Equinox in March is the balance point of equal daylight/ nighttime during a 24 hour period.

Why burn a Yule Log?

The Yule log burning is symbolic of gathering around light on the darkest day to welcome the return of the Sun. It symbolizes hope, blessings of warmth and light, and renewal.
The log is traditionally harvested from a tree on the property, and brought inside to be decorated with evergreen branches which symbolize eternal life. It is decorated with red berries, dried citrus fruit, holly, cedar, and much more. Many of the Celtic herbs associated with Winter Solstice are Solar in nature. In Alchemy we learn that every plant or mushroom has major and minor planetary correspondences. Many of the herbs around Winter Solstice are solar to strengthen that return of the Sun.

Mistletoe was gathered in midsummer and dried in the home, and put out to hang for Winter Solstice where two may gather underneath and exchange a kiss.

Chamomile is a Sun herb which can be used for purification. Frankincense was favored by the Sun God Ra and can be used in rites to purify, protect, and accelerate spiritual growth. Holly was used by the Celtic druids to welcome friendly Nature Spirits into a home on the cold winter days. Pine is used as the contemporary Christmas tree, but was originally a Yule or Solstice tree, and is used during this time because evergreens symbolize eternal life. It can also be burned in the home to return a spell back to its sender.

Cedar, another evergreen, was used in smudges to enhance psychic powers. The Ash tree, thought by some to be the tree of Yggdrasil, is a Solar tree as well and often time was used as the yule log. Unfortunately here in Pennsylvania many of the Ash trees have been killed by the Emerald Ash bore beetle.

So you can see there are many herbs to work with on the Winter Solstice. The cool thing is you can make it your own celebration! If you are gathering with friends and family and sharing a cheery time, you are doing it right!

How we celebrated the Solstice
I started by bringing in a hemlock log from a tree I needed to cut on our property. It was split in half and I drilled three 2 inch wide holes in it for votive candles and their glass jars (they fit perfectly).

Because I have a baby under one year old, I waited til guests were about to arrive to decorate the log... well I didn't get around to it of course! So I had the first two guests Anthony and Izzy do it for me, and as you can see they did a phenomenal job far better than I could have done.

We adorned the log with various tree clippings from all the friends houses: cedar, pine, spruce, holly, we sprinkled frankincense and dried mushrooms all over it too.

Winter Solstice is a time to reflect and think about the past year, and the future year. It is that liminal dead space where everything goes to sleep for the year.

I was guided to suggest three prompts for my guests. Each prompt represented the past, present, and future, and I would light each candle as we answered the prompts. After we all answered the prompts, we rolled up our papers and tucked them in the the Yule log. We went outside to our ceremonial area, and burn the log in a fire after we did a Tobacco offering and a Four directions prayer.

If you can find some quiet time today or any time this week I encourage you to answer these prompts.

Prompt #1 The present: What are you calling in this Winter? Could be a new skill, hobby, habit, relationship or something else.

Prompt #2 The past: What is something you wish to release? It could be a regret, words spoken, wrong-doings, grudges or something else.

Prompt #3 The Future: Imagine you are on your deathbed. You are about to take your last breath. Nothing else matters. What would you say to your self right now from that perspective?

Take some time to answer each of these. If you feel inspired to, light a candle, and take it outside and light this piece of paper you wrote on on fire. Send these words, the prayers, these intentions up to the sky, the Creator, and let them be held by hands greater than your own.

Enjoy this precious time to slow down, drink a cup of tea, gather with friends, keep your phone on Do Not Disturb and enjoy the stillness.
The world can wait, the text can wait, the notification can wait. This is time for you to be present with yourself and your loved ones.

What else is new?

Maria and I are having our second child within a month, baby girl Freya Rose, so we are all ready and settled in to hermit with our little babies this winter.

I have been keeping Pen pals and really enjoying snail mail. If you'd like to be a pen pal, reply to this email and I can send you our mailing address. It would be fun to have some more people to write to.

Well we are receiving a large shipment of grade A Amanita pantherina soon, we are still currently back ordered on that but will ship orders in the order they are received.

Introducing Subscribe & Thrive!

We now have a subscription option available! If you're like me, you may run out of a supplement and forget to restock, well not with subscribe and thrive! We will automatically ship your product at whatever weekly interval you desire. You can also save up to 30% off a product depending on your frequency of deliveries. So definitely take advantage of that! You can find it on any product below the add to cart button.

That's all I have for now, thanks for being a part of the Harmony Acres family.
I wish you the happiest of holidays.
Thank you and BE BLESSED!
-Michael
Harmony Acres