November, historically, is a time to remember our ancestors and to engage with any healing our relationship with them needs.
Families carry histories, traumas, cultural ideas; they carry stories of joys and fears, of what is correct and what is taboo. We are born into already created worlds and sometimes need to sift through the ancestral influences to come home more fully to ourselves.
Positive or negative, ancestral influences can impact our lives deeply.
They may give us a sense of belonging, of being held by a long line of people who walked this earth before us and thus increase our sense of self-worth here and now. In other words, they gift us with something enduring and healing.
Or, there may be injuries and hurts, in the family lineage, that have not been healed, and that still impacts who we are. The need to heal the apparently ‘negative’ impact from ancestral injuries can be a gift from our ancestors. Through working with and through these events we can gather our power. By fully ‘digesting’ whatever we have been born into, by healing it so that it doesn’t pass on to others, we can become more completely ourselves, no longer caught by unresolved ancestral or cultural energies and supported by our family line.
In this circle, we will journey to whatever ancestral or cultural event is most in need of our attention and is ready to heal.
In the Northern hemisphere, many festivals celebrate the returning light around the time of the winter solstice. These celebratory traditions have a long history. The Neolithic peoples of Europe built monuments that were aligned with the Sun at the Winter Solstice. Later, during festivities at the winter solstice, fires were lit to symbolize the heat, light- and life-giving properties of the returning sun. Christians also chose to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, the light of the world, around the time of the returning sun, on December 25th. The rebirth of light, whether spiritual or temporal, is an active energy at this time of year and can brighten the way forward for each of us during this festive season.
On December 21, we will journey to our own inner light, to re-kindle it in ourselves for the coming year. For many of us, this year has been a year darkened by Covid-19, by lockdowns, illnesses, and the resultant uncertainties that at times, made our social, political, and even home life, insecure.
In this circle, we will take the time to journey to meet with the light that sustains us, the unique brightness that is ours. We will explore
– what needs to be healed
– what smaller fires need to be lit within in order to call back our inner sun
– what needs to be born, nurtured and welcomed, like the Christ-child was
– what needs to be tended to so as to allow our inner light to return to its fullest brightness.
– what needs to be celebrated in our selves
