Solstice Magic

Ritual, Ancestors, and Winter Demons

Shhh… Can you hear that? You are deep in the heart of the forest. The trees wear gossamer dresses of snow. All around you is silent. All around you is still.

The winter solstice has just passed. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are in the heart of the long nights. A liminal time when the veil is thin.

I spent the solstice in ritual. First by watching the live broadcast of the sunrise at Newgrange in Ireland. Newgrange is a passage tomb, a prehistoric monument from the Neolithic Period that dates back to around 3100 B.C. On the morning of the winter solstice, the sunrise aligns perfectly sending a beam of light through the passage.

I then virtually gathered with two dear friends to talk about our creative dreams for the new year, our blocks, and our gratitude for how far we’ve come on our journeys.

I attended a saining workshop to learn about the ancient Celtic folkloric practice of expelling energy that no longer serves you from an object or room and imbuing the object or room with energy that is needed at this time. This practice can be used for protection, energy, cleansing, confidence, etc. Typically you use smoke and fire for strength, protection, action, and energy and you use water for renewal and blessing. I sained a silver crow’s foot talisman which I then used in my next ritual - the 13 Magical Nights.

On small pieces of paper I wrote 13 things I would like to manifest in my life in the year ahead, folded them up, and mixed them around in a bowl. Taking my crow’s foot talisman on its necklace chain in one hand and the bowl in the other I circled the bowl 3 times clockwise asking my ancestors for encouragement and confidence, the two energies I feel I need at the moment.

I then closed my eyes and asked my ancestors to guide me in choosing one of the pieces of paper which, without reading it, I then placed into the fire of my wood stove burning it and sending its energy into the world believing that with the help of my ancestors it will return to me when the time is right.

I will continue this ritual every night until I am left with one piece of paper which I will finally open and read. This will be the task I will pour my soul into at this time, taking action to bring this dream to life.

I spent the remainder of the evening engrossed in my current read: The Dead of Winter: The Demons, Witches, and Ghosts of Christmas by Sarah Clegg. It’s an enchanting journey into the darkness that lurks under the glittering joviality of this season and is a wonderfully researched history of where these stories came from and how they were transformed through time.

And so, I will leave you off with one of my versions of those demons, Krampus.

Wishing you a beautiful Solstice and New Year.