Looking for a Solstice Practice?

From now until the first week of January, Rooted will be in a period of deep rest.  

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Deep rest to honor the time of year in the Northern Hemisphere of the longest night.  We truly cherish the fallow periods and times like these to go deep within and underground - into the womb of the earth where rebirth begins.

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To honor this time, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere (and another kind of solstice in the Southern Hemisphere!), we’d like to share an offering from our dear friend and facilitation team member, Liz Deligio:

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Every June  and December we have a solstice. The sun appears to be at its highest and lowest point relative to earth. This closeness or distance marks the beginning of summer or winter depending on where you live.

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The Sun is inextricably linked to life. This magnificent star’s proximity or distance shifts rain into snow, planting into harvest, and long days into long nights. Solstice celebrations highlight the powerful gift of the loving, life sustaining dance between This Star and This Planet.

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Solstice is a threshold moment. It is the rebirth of light in the deepest dark; the rebirth of life after a season of lying fallow. It points us to the ancestral, psychological, and spiritual processes of trusting that what appears to be missing will return.

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Solstice is celebrated in many different ways around the world. At Rooted we want to offer a few ritual practices as an opportunity for an embodied exploration. We invite you to celebrate with us the light in the dark; honoring the patterns of lumination that shape our seasons and the patterns of transformation that shape our lives.

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Honor The Sun

When working with the Sun you can honor its gifts by lighting modest fires such as candles, Yule logs, fireplaces, etc. Around your little ring of fire you can place symbols of the Sun: yellow or gold cloth, your plant babies, flowers, fruit, etc.  A traditional Solstice Sun Gift is to take an orange (light) and stick it all over with cloves (protection). You can place this in your ring of fire or let it be transformed in a simmering pot of water releasing one of the best smells in the world. At any altar or site of offering, recognizing those who have gone before you is important. If honoring personal ancestral lines is not in your scope of practice - that is okay. You can recognize the Ancestors and Lineage of all Life- plants, animals, earth - what or who ever has held you.

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Honor the Threshold

Once you have created your place of light/fire you can enter into the second stage of this celebration - Crossing a Threshold. Solstice asks us, in summer or winter, to clear the fields to prepare for the arrival of new life. The threshold we cross is a shedding, a releasing of what no longer serves us toward what will bring us life. You can do this through storytelling with Loved Ones about this year or cycle. You can write down on slips of paper things you are grateful for and things you wish to release and burn them. You can Dance It Out and not use any words at all. This is personal and may feel heavy or joyous or impossible. Whatever shedding releases in you - the Sun has your back - she will rise and set as you go on your journey.

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Honor the End

Once you have talked or written or danced it out - it is time to say thank you. Thank you for everything from your own sacred body to the walls that you call home to the people who made the candles you burned. Go big and lush and thank the Visible and Invisible, Past and Present, Know and Unknown. This is when your love becomes the light in the dark; when you embody the endless generosity of the Sun that gives abundantly and freely to all life.

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We at Rooted thank you for the gift of your presence with us and we wish you all the very best wherever you find yourself at this threshold moment.

Rooted's membership will be opening its doors next in January 2024.... and we'll be inviting in a rich year of EDGE PLAY. If you'd like to be first to know when we open the doors, join our waitlist.