The Dark Heart of Winter Solstice

In pagan circles, we talk a lot about how contemporary Northern culture doesn’t hibernate for winter. The lack of restorative rest contributes to our already stressed lives, leaving us spent from the holidays, and most definitely not replenished for spring. In the latest cast for The Weekly Rune I discuss how that state is merely a contemporary manifestation of seasonal stress.

That winter is stressful is an old truth. Indeed many of us don’t have to fend off harsh winter with threat of limited resources or quality shelter in the way that our ancestors did. It’s also likely that we still carry coded vestiges of that distress as compact intergenerational trauma, which might show up in our unconscious periphery. However another aspect of ancient stress that we actively experience, feel, and unconsciously act out is lack of skills for coping with darkness — emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.

Animism in the Dark

For over 70,000 years humans thrived as animists, which means not only were we soulfully in sync with the world around us, but we were seasonally astute to how to take care of ourselves in the flow of Nature because of it.[1] We would have known that the activity of the growing season would eventually give way to passive pursuits that kept us more indoors, secluded, and most likely contemplative. Were we happy about that fact…