The winter solstice
The Winter Solstice is at our door. This year this celebration will take place on 21st December at 22:23. The following day, ie the 22nd of December, it is a full moon which is also called ”cold moon” according to Nordic Folklore.
In the Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice occurs when the sun is at its lowest poinr in the sky, when it has its smallest declination during the year. This usually takes place around 21-23 December and when the Sun is in Zenit, the Tropic of Capricornus, and it is also the shortest day of the year.
Winter solstice has always been important in different cultures, subcultures, religious orientations and magical traditions. From the Roman worship of agricultural gods (Saturnus / Saturnalia), the celebration of Christianity of the birth of Jesus to the Judaism’s Tekufot, and the Yule of the pagans, where the winter and the Sun God’s rebirth are celebrated.
Within the Outer Hermetic and Magical Tradition, like The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the celebrating the Winter Solstice is a little different depending on several aspects. This is often highly cultural and geographical. Within the Hermetic Order of the Nascent Aurora (which is an authentic linage of the above-mentioned Order) this celebration is celebrated in the flavor of our Nordic, cultural and pagan origin. It is a time when the sun god is not yet born again and the darkness still prevails. The vegetation and life of nature have since the summer solstice and the autumn equinox slowly began to fade away to finally die. We, as part of nature, follow the same principle in a longer and shorter perspective. However, we are not afraid of the Darkness or death. Instead we are grateful for the time that has been. It is a time of silence, cold, calm and lack of activity. It is a time when silence gives room for contemplation of the Self and the Ego, of our past, present and future. But above all, it’s a time for transformation of ourselves because the void prepares for the sun god for his return.
The keyword within the Hermetic Tradition is Transformation. What is death for an occultist / magician / alchemist if not a transition or transformation of what has been, to something else and more complete? Like the return of the Sun, it is certain that after our symbolic or literal death, we will be reborn. We see it annually in nature, daily in the ups and downs of the sun and in ourselves through the days, the years, the experiences we undergo and the experiences that we conquer. We are not the same person as we were 10 years ago. Something has happened and we discover that our old personality is not the same as the one we have now. A transformation has taken place.
With these words we of the Hermetic Order of the Nascent Aurora wishes you all a nice Winter Solstice!
Hermetiska Orden av Den Gryende Morgonrodnaden 