This is an exclusive excerpt from Winter Solstice: Celebrating the Longest Night by Jessie Lehson.
Solstice spirals are mostly a Waldorf tradition which is sometimes connected to Advent and sometimes not. We love them as a concrete way to show the growth of light and a time to be quiet and reflective. Participants first move inward to the center of the spiral, symbolizing the dark winter and introspection. Then in the center they release their burdens from the year, leaving them free to move back outward as the light begins to grow.
Making your Winter Solstice Spiral
Materials:
- greenery and natural materials for the spiral
- stump (or something else of your choosing)
- rocks and minerals
- signs of animals (chewed nuts, seed, or snacks)
- a lantern for the center (we always use an ice lantern)
Method:
Gather some materials to make your spiral. You can use evergreen boughs, garland, sticks, rocks– whatever you have enough of. I usually use mostly ivy because it’s invasive, evergreen and grows all over our yard. I don’t feel at all bad about yanking it out because it’s bad for our ecosystem anyway. (Important note– it’s invasive in the US, not the UK.) I use that as my base and add some evergreen and holly and interesting sticks and rocks that the kids find. I like to use a stump in the center to define the space and to make an easy place to leave candles.
Find a big flat area in your yard and clear it of any tripping hazards (there are many tripping hazards in my yard!) Make a large spiral with your materials on the ground that has enough room to walk into the center. Place your stump at the center point. Adjust your spiral until it’s reasonably even. (It’s honestly harder than it sounds.)
Decorate your spiral with evergreens, pinecones, anything that is special and grabs your eye. It’s traditional to represent the plant, animal and mineral kingdoms in some way– we obviously have plants well represented, but you can add some holly or something showier for the plant kingdom, some rocks or crystals for the mineral kingdom, and rather than using little animal figurines or the like, I prefer to include both signs of animals, like chewed up nuts and tracks and to invite animals in by leaving seed and some little animal snacks around the outside. I considered adding fungi because they are actually a separate kingdom in modern science, but then there are several other less interesting groups that would be added. I think I might add just fungi this year, though. (Sorry, Kingdom Monera and Kingdom Protista!!) You can have a perfectly fine Solstice Spiral without the kingdoms step, but it’s a nice addition if you are able.
Using your Winter Solstice Spiral
Materials:
- A candle for each participant (we use LED candles so we don’t need to worry about littles starting fires)
- Resin (optional)
Method:
We do this on the evening of Winter Solstice, December 21st. Others do this every weekend in December as a connection to Advent. You certainly could use it several times over the month without making any connection to the Christian holidays as well.
Each participant gets a candle (see note above) and one at a time, starting with the youngest, walk into the center of the spiral alone. Everyone is quiet. In the center think about the past year and symbolically release anything that is burdening you. If you use real candles, you could write it on paper or a bay leaf and light it in the flame, but until my kids are older, we just think about it in our heads. Set the candle down in the center of the spiral (on the stump if you used one) and then walk back out feeling lighter.
If you have a fire going you can throw a piece of resin in the fire as thanks after you leave the spiral.
As each participant leaves the spiral, the light in the center grows brighter, much like the sun grows brighter after the Winter Solstice.