HoroscopoDiario
The Earth is steadfast and holds all that I need in Her open hand.
I am glad to wait in the silent breath of the Earth.
She is courage and love
She, comfort and support.
The Earth is joy and my source of strength.
Psalm 27,Earth Psalms by the late Angela Magara
Today is the fourth and final Sun Day before Winter Solstice and Christmas. Chanukah begins now (Chag Urim Sameach, y’all!), and Kwanzaa will commence in a week and a day. One and all are invited to join once again (or for the first time) this evening in our Yule/Advent ritual. Suggestions for lots of different traditions are listed here.
In particular, though, if you are celebrating this rite from a Pagan perspective, the fourth candle may represent the direction of North, or the element of Earth. It is associated with Winter, midnight, and cosmic Law.
In most Christian traditions, the fourth candle on the Advent wreath symbolizes Love.
Isn’t it divine, how these two meanings — the Earth, and Love, which are the bedrock of our two traditions — are so beautifully intertwined?
So tonight, gather with your beloveds, or in your quiet solitude, knowing in either case, you are not alone. There are great numbers of us circling the planet, with over 1,600 people in our Facebook group alone. And of course, many of you do not go there at all.
We are all gathering as darkness falls, which depends as much on longitude and Earth positioning as on clock time or time zone.
The full explanation can be found here, but briefly —
Turn out the lights where you are, and have your wreath, candles and lighter ready. Then, ground yourself, find your center, and create sacred space in whatever way is right for your practice.
In the twilight, consider again (as you did during the first lighting on Nov. 27) the fears that might be associated with Hope and Expectations (in many Christian traditions) or else the Element of Air: knowledge, information, Life, understanding, communication. Light this candle and see, know and forgive the ways those types of distortion exist. Celebrate all the wondrous gifts you would associate with this correspondence.
Then, move to the next candle that you lit Dec. 4 – the candle that represents the Element of Fire, Summer, Light, and the direction of South. For our Christian friends, this candle frequently represents the Bible, the principle of knowledge, or the manger in Bethlehem.
In what ways do the matters associated with this candle, when out of balance, create difficulty in our world? In what ways do you offer your prayers for it to be healed? And what are some of the many components that make this sacred gift so glorious?
As you send out your gratitude and hopes for blessings, light this candle.
This brings us now to the third candle, which we lit last week. In the Christian church, this candle is typically pink, and represents Joy. For Witches, Pagans, and other Earth paths, I’ve suggested that it might be for West, the Element of Water. Pagans know that Water is the Guardian of our emotions, intuition, empathy, and compassion. It is our direction of reciprocity and Love, and is sacred to Autumn and the setting Sun.
In what ways do fear, selfishness, distortion, and misunderstanding pollute the waters of our emotions, as well as the literal, life-giving waters of our world? How has joy gone missing from some of the ways that Christianity is being represented in this fractious world?
As you light your candle, use your energy, words, and prayer to dispel and send healing to those roiling waves of anger, hate, and despair that threaten to drown us all.
Then turn your focus to what is best, when the gifts of our human emotions, dreams, and joys are in alignment with the good. Celebrate with gratitude the beauty that comes into your life from all the light that this candle represents to you.
Tonight’s Candle
Now, we come to the last candle before the holiday itself. Before lighting the fourth candle for tonight, consider the aspects that are related to the Earth, or Love, that need healing.
How has “love” become confused in our culture with greed, need, control, and selfishness? How have delusions, commoditization, and avarice contaminated our holy Mother Earth, and our relationships with Her? What is our definition of wealth, scarcity, and sufficiency?
How do we, ourselves, treat our planet? While it is lovely to appreciate all the beauty, bounty, and treasure She offers us, how do our daily decisions actually affect Her?
For instance, when I buy groceries, do I know anything about the lives of the people, the corporations, the farming, the packaging, and the transport that enabled those products to be served at my table?
What kinds of labor conditions, financial structures, and wealth (or lack of it) do my daily purchases support? Where do my electronics, cosmetics, jewelry, furniture, and clothing come from?
And where does my stuff go when I no longer want it? Of course, I don’t throw garbage out my car window, or litter the streets of our city. But I am still half-responsible for the trip we have to make to the Durham County Solid Waste site every few weeks (we don’t have access to city trash services).
How much do I know about the stewardship practices of the stores, restaurants, hotels, and other commercial enterprises that I support with my money? Do they acquire their resources in responsible ways? How do they dispose of their wastes and by-products?
The ongoing debacle of our financial institutions; the fears around hunger, disease, and climate emergency; the shaky backing behind our money; the response to natural disasters; the contamination and genetic modification of our food; and the very future of a habitable planet are all Earth issues have reached a crisis point.
Yes. Pretty heavy stuff.
But we have a candle before us. When we understand what is shadowed, we can bring the light.
Blessings to the Dark; Welcome Bringer of the Light
So I invite you to first give thanks for the dark, for the blessed Earth.
Silent Guardian of the North, we stand on your threshold of Winter. Keeper of the deep places in the planet, the roots that are beyond knowing, we now light our fourth candle together, celebrating the great Love we all share with one another, and with this beautiful, divine Creation of which we are a part.
We see in this light that we are not, never were, never will be separate from the One who gives us life. So we now summon our best, most powerful magics and blessings.
As you prepare to light your candle, feel in your body the turning. Know with your skin the change that heralds a more healthful, balanced, right relation with all that lives here with us on our Mother Earth.
Understand in your gut, in your heart, in your mind, and sweet animal body how intelligent, benevolent, loving exchange brings wealth to all.
We can learn how to take only what we need and to be generous with each other. It is time to end forever the blight of obscene material excess, which creates the impoverishment of the many. Enough is enough.
Know in your body, feel in the soles of your feet how everything is already changing. Despite the ugly death throes of the patriarchy of conquest, domination, and war, our love, our work, our hand-to-hand, spirit-to-spirit creation of community and cultures of sustainability, beauty, and comfort are all coming alive within and around us.
Just as the One of Light gives us Love unending, we can send the light and the love of our intention out to join with the light from others everywhere.
This is why we came here.
See. Listen. Know.
At this most quiet moment of the deepest dark, lit now by your ring of bright candles, see, sense and receive the holiest gifts of hope and joy given to you, and the abiding, eternal Love that supports you, always.
Rest yourself in the Grace that never falters and always holds you; fill yourself with the shining Love that is All.
After a period of meditation, song, stories, and/or affirmations, extinguish each candle in reverse order, from tonight’s to last week’s to the second, and then the first one.
So may our words and desires be fulfilled for the good of all.
After tonight, there is only one candle left to go. It is the one that shall accompany the birth of the Child of Promise, the great turning that marks the beginning of the Beginning.
Blessed be!
