Winter Solstice Healing

Winter is a time of dramatic transformation and alchemy. The growing season over, the temperatures drop, there are fewer hours of daylight and the trees are bare. In many places in the world plants wither and die back, and the earth is blanketed in a thick cover of snow. It is a time for outward stillness and dormancy. Sound bleak?

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julie Andrews

Not bleak I think, but deep. Deep inside the earth – perhaps under that blanket of snow – and inside trees, preparations are underway for the coming spring, and the season of rebirth. Winter is deep also in the sense of introspection. Like the earth we need time for quiet and introspection. The long dark nights are an opportunity to reflect on how we have grown over the past year - what we have received and what we have given of ourselves. Doing so, we prepare for our rebirth – for the year ahead. 

Winter sets the tone for whatever is next: new ideas, inspiration and experiences, and to also let go of what does not fit for us. Does it mean that Winter is the only time that we can do this work? No, it simply means that the cycles of nature provide us with a natural opportunity to do this work.

At this time of year, so close to the year’s end - we naturally review and evaluate the past year, and makes resolutions for the coming one. Add Hopes and Dreams to the description of Winter. Although there are several months of winter and the dark time of year left, we begin to set the seeds in late December and early January.The more in tune we become to the cycles of nature, the more natural the work becomes, and it can be very healing. 

Through feng shui, you can enhance this time of reflection and hope by making appropriate changes in your home. Add symbols that support your growth, hopes and dreams, and remove others that detract from them. Catch up on those things you have been putting off so that you do not carry the heaviness of them while you are ‘seeding’ the coming year.

© Deborah Redfern, 2011. All rights reserved.