Winter Solstice Gathering
December Message: The Love That Unites
Dec. 21, 2025
WINTER SOLSTICE GATHERING |🕯️TENDING THE INNER FLAME 🕯️
CENTRAL MESSAGE:
Our central message this month is The Love that Unites. In our first gathering this month, we explored the golden thread of love that unites us all – across species, across continents, across generations, and across traditions. This golden thread is our interconnectedness, interbeing, and interdependence. The presence of this golden thread is felt within - it is not readily accessible to us through our five physical senses – it relies on something deeper within us. An intuition, a knowing.
When we choose to remember this golden thread, it is what spurs us toward oneness, toward true community both locally and globally.
To have the strength to remember amidst our busy lives, it is important to tend to our own inner flame – and that is what the Winter Solstice ceremony was all about.
Winter has officially arrived – as of 9:03 am on December 21st. This is the shortest day of the year, and the day many of our ancestors marked the return of the light…each day will grow longer from now until June 21st. This period of Yule from 12/20 – 12/23 is a sacred time to pause, reflect, and illuminate our intentions.
In many Earth-based traditions, the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of Winter - three months of rest and renewal as we close out the year. The new year begins in the Spring. When we lived much closer to nature, we didn’t have much of a choice – we were immersed in winter, we were out walking amongst the trees searching for food like almost all of our animal relatives. We were observing evergreens, winter birds, frost patterns, and the quiet of the landscape. Resisting winter was futile, and escaping to Mexico - not an option. So instead, we accepted it, as best we could, and allowed the slow rhythm of nature in winter to sink in to our minds, our hearts, our bones. In this sacred slowing, this stillness, we would begin to reflect on what we learned from the previous year, and set intentions for what we hope to carry forward into the coming year. Intentions were set to align with the returning light, and we held ceremonies, gathering in circle around the fire to call our intentions into form.
We then began with the guided meditation, called the Wisdom of Winter. Since we could not be in the park, listening and learning from nature as teacher, we chose to travel there in our imagination and connect to our own inner wisdom in the stillness. Here we opened the gates of reflection, travelled across the bridge of the heart, and began looking inward for what is seeking to come through, and what we hope to carry forward as the light returns and begins to heat the soils and create the conditions to germinate the dormant seeds we have planted.
After our meditation, we gathered in circle and lit candles while we spoke our intentions into the world of form, one at a time.
GUIDED MEDITATION:
✧ The Wisdom of Winter
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE:
✧ Candle Ceremony: Illuminate the intention you wish to carry forward into the returning of the light.
We stood together, forming a wide circle, and one at a time, we each lit our candle to symbolize tending to our inner flame and tending to the guidance that came forward for us. After we lit our candle, we spoke one word about our intention into the circle, and then we lit the candle of the person next to us, until all candles were lit. We raised our voices in song and then blew out our candles.
✧ PERENNIAL WISDOM SOURCES:
✧ Christian Mysticism - A Course in Miracles
“The power of one mind can shine into another, because all the lamps {of Source, of The Creator} of God were lit by the same spark.”
✧ Buddhism - Attributed to the Buddha
"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
WINTER SOLSTICE REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
✧ In the quiet of the solstice, what whispers are beginning to rise from within?
✧ As the light slowly returns, which dormant seeds may be ready to begin to break through the soil?
✧ What golden threads of joy and wisdom do you want to tend to and carry forward?
✧ How will you build an intentional practice to honor what you want to carry forward?
COMMUNITY BLESSING:
✧ The heart knows. We go into the heart to remember, we go together, and we belong.
SPIRITUAL INVITATION FOR DECEMBER
✧ Reflect on the statement “I am held, I am guided, I am loved.” Contemplate what that truly means to you. Do you know this to be true, and if so, how? Write about the time that you first realized that you are held, guided, and loved. Tell the story of how the knowing came to you.
We would love to hear your story. Send an email to contact@ancienthearts.org with your story if you are interested in sharing it at an upcoming gathering.
NEXT GATHERING
✧ Sunday, Jan. 4th: 10:00 - 11:45 am | Atria Hall | 14 W Fulton Street, Edgerton
✧ MONTHLY COMMUNITY EVENT | One Heart: Sacred Listening Circles
Date/Time: 1/22, 5:30 - 7:00 pm
Location: Atria Hall | 14 W. Fulton St. Edgerton
Register here: https://givebutter.com/1heart
Each of us has a unique story to tell, and we each long to tell our stories - to bring them out into the light to be seen and heard.
Yet, too often, we keep our stories inside, and we miss our chance to speak our truth and share our authentic selves. Not just because life moves quickly, but also because it's not easy to find others we feel comfortable sharing our story with.
💗 That's why we created One Heart: Sacred Listening Circles for Ancient Hearts Collective community members.
One Heart circles are a form of group spiritual companionship where we get to practice "walking each other home," as Ram Dass once shared. These monthly circles are an opportunity for deeper, authentic connection with others in the community and companionship on your spiritual path.
🪶 Facilitator: Jen Carew, Certified Interspiritual/Interfaith Spiritual Director
🪶 Frequency: One Heart Circles will be offered once a month. Attend every month or when you can.
🪶 Open Seats: Max registration is 18 people.
🪶To Register*: Please donate between $5 - 20 (sliding scale- pay what you can) to reserve your spot here: https://givebutter.com/1heart
* To ensure this experience is open to all AHC community members, no one will be turned away for lack of funds - simply send an email to contact@ancienthearts.org. to reserve your spot.
