The Winter Solstice: Darkness & The Eternal Light of Rebirth

The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Torre Journey. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.

When the etchings of frost have lingered onto the fields after harvest, twinkling stars will turn to pale fire in the cold worn skies of night and the lively creatures of the wood will have respired to their dens-Among the snowy air, the world awaits the coming of winter. With its dawning, winter brings the traditions of introspection, time, and renewal to us. It teaches us that the shedding of the light is like the shedding of the physical and spiritual body. When you shed all you see in the light for what is left, a new radiance grows in that darkness.

Ancient Traditions

Traditions all over the world are rich with celebrations, rites, and stories of winter. We are familiar with Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus (and the obvious, underlying Pagan themes) but, among the birth of Jesus, are other events such as the birth of Sol Invictus the Roman sun god (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti), the German holiday of Yule, and the Irish holiday of Grianstad. Almost all correlating sun gods are associated with December 25th as the celebration of the rebirth of light in the world; Jesus, Sol Invictus, Apollo, Mithra, Horus, Ameratasu, and many more from around the world. These examples, among many more, help create a larger canvas for viewing how the mythology of the sun’s life and death throughout the year teaches us how to grow and transform in accordance with nature.

Each of these divine beings, not only represents light, but they also experience a rebirth. They teach us that everything that happens in the light is subject to change and death. Yet, all death begets the next chapter. Death, Therefore, is only the relinquishing of the old as a sacrifice for what is yet to come. We know that the sun’s light begins to grow from the point of the winter solstice until it is equal with the darkness during the Spring Equinox. From the Vernal Equinox until the Summer Solstice, the sun is waxing and becoming brighter each day. Yet, this ‘life’ of the sun begins its descent (Waning) from that solstice until once again equal with darkness during the Autumnal Equinox. This phase shows us darkness winning over light once more until the death and rebirth of the sun on the Winter Solstice. The Sun’s rebirth is mythologically depicted as having lasted through eternity in this ongoing cycle of death and rebirth, time and eternity, & light and darkness.

The Pattern of Renewal

Finally, on a more mythological note, this lesson of life and light may be rooted in the soul’s growth. In this case the soul, being the undeniable force within known as you, experiences light as movement through time. Thus, time governs life. In following the same pattern of the sun, we learn that we can shed our old lives, and with it, the weight of grief, burden, doubt, and fear that time has helped us cultivate. In honor of the sun, the forces of time and life allow that version of us that no longer serves to be relinquished from all it has accomplished and endured. So, in the cold of winter under the dazzling lights of celebration, new and radiant life is reborn from us in the honorable death of releasing the old ways and our soul can carry forward through eternity a little bit lighter.

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Krampusnacht, Blessed Yuletide, Heri Za Kwanzaa, Ramadan Mubarak, and blessings of renewal to you all!