Winter Solstice: The Literal & Metaphorical Rebirth of the Sun

The rising of the sun on the morning of winter solstice comes after the longest night and shortest day of the year. The pendulum swing hits its furthest point, stands still (solstice literally means, stand still) and then begins its swing back the other direction, and the ceaseless cycling of the seasons continues. This moment has been marked by mankind for centuries.

The meaning of the winter solstice operates on a number of levels. At its core is the rebirth of the sun—both literally and metaphorically. Winter solstice is a celebration of being “born again” for the sun, and for us.

This acknowledgment is a fundamental part of experiencing unity with the wheel of life as it moves from birth to fertility to death to rebirth. Just like the yin/yang symbol, every darkness holds light at its center, and every light has its dark. It is the circular path of both the seasons and our individual existences.

This historical relationship between solstice and the sun is the reason the ancient Egyptians aligned their Temple of Karnak, the largest temple in the world, to the winter solstice sunrise and dedicated it to their supreme creator god Amun. The temple was designed according to the Fibonacci sequence, which is a mathematical principle found in the growth and expansion of life.

To many cultures throughout history, the sun that exists to us in the physical plane that we see with our eyes, also exists in a higher realm.. often seen as the source of life. This is why people throughout history have worshiped the sun—they understood its supreme, spiritual significance.

Ancient sacred texts from around the globe held the spiritual sun as the highest source of all creation. All creation follows universal principles and the birth of the sun also represents the birth of the spiritual sun within us, the evolution of enlightenment. It is born into the time of most darkness—as the physical sun gives life to the planet; the spiritual sun gives spiritual life to the individual.

Winter is a powerful time, symbolizing both life and death, the cycle of death and rebirth, of disintegration and renewal that controls all life on earth.. including me and including you. It is the time that although motion ceases… at the same moment, life begins to stir again. Animals go into hibernation and seeds sleep deep beneath the snow. They will not move until the spring, but deep within them a process has completed itself. There is an infinite contraction of energy that the long nights and cold days reflect. This energy reaches its limit, and the cycle reverses itself. From that moment on, even though the winter will continue to gather strength and unfold as it must… the spring has been born. And with the birth of spring… the seeds of summer are sown, and the harvests of the summer with it.

This can be a dark and trying season… It is a season that is repeated in your life again and again. Each tragedy, loss, failure, and humiliation reaches its inmost movement, spends its energy, and from that long journey another begins—a journey towards warmth…and a journey towards light… One season will always follow the other…. they do not exist apart.

These seasons of the year, and seasons of your life, come and go, complete themselves and give way to each other whether you are aware of the dynamics that controls them or not. If you are not, the seasons appear to have lives of their own and you forget they are each part of a cycle—a cycle that you have encountered many times before and will encounter many times again. Your life is built on this cycle of seasons — and on the continual repetition of them. The arrival of winter, and the coming of darkness and death, initiates the coming of light and life. This cycle controls the unfolding of your life and all within it.

When you are aware of this cycle, you can participate in it… You cannot stop the death that comes in the winter… but you can determine in the winter what will be born in the spring. You can contribute your intelligence and wisdom and will… to the intelligence and movement of a dynamic larger than you. You can plant the seed that will sprout in the spring that will lay the foundation for a different winter to come after the summer that has yet to arrive. You can only do this for yourself.

This is the power of the deep winter…. It challenges you, confronts you, and shows you what you can and must change in yourself. It is a holy and precious season… and it illuminates your holy and precious life. It is your potential beckoning to you… disguised as stress, obstacles, frustrations, an adversary, a tragedy, or a disaster. Will the adversary shape your experience, or will you shape your experience of it? Will your fears overwhelm you, or will they show you new and different ways to respond to them?

It’s always darkest just before the dawn, isn’t it? It is a turning point — the day that marks the return of your sun.