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I am finding that I love Winter. I have shifted my thinking from the idea of it being a cold, dreary, sad time of year to a time of going inward, to heal, repair, replant and to feel my own light. The below writing was received via email from a Meetup Group I follow and was written by the organizer, Neal Bertelsen. I thought it was a poignant time to share these thoughts with the Winter Solstice coming up on the 21st.

Here is to seeing our own darkness as a place of rejuvenation!

Did you know that there is a Spiritual Reason for winter’s cold?

Perhaps you have heard this before, but I felt impressed to invite you to really FEEL this. Go ahead and feel the effect of the Cold this year.

Let winter soak into you.

Do not be afraid of it. Do not be averse to it.

There is a reason why you are living in a place on this Earth which experiences a cold, snowy Season of Winter. There is a lesson which Nature is longing to teach you, and which on some level, your soul wants to learn — else you would not be here.

There is something stirring underneath the Snow. Just beyond the veil of white, something very powerful is happening.

An ancient and timeless magic is cast.

The Soul of the Earth is being renewed.

When we approach the Cold of Winter with a calm, brave, steady curiosity — when we have the faith to realize that it cannot extinguish our Heart or our Soul’s flame, it embraces us.

The effect of this cold is the same on us as it is on all the Earth. It bites, stings, and tingles, slowly and chillingly turning off our outward senses, and arresting the flow of energy which is ever expelling itself from our core.

After the numbness of external sense becomes complete, we realize there is something much subtler, but infinitely more powerful happening just beneath the surface of our normal consciousness. Something which is literally creating all that we see around us. Something that, if it were taken away, would take all the World with it.

When we catch a sense of this something stirring within the numbness, our interest is piqued, and we naturally turn our focus and our forces within.

With more of our energy, attention, and focus flowing in an inward direction — instead of in the normal outward go-go, do-do, produce-produce direction — we join with the Earth in a yearly holy rite. Together, we confront a magic process which can only happen under such conditions: Rejuvenation.

The Earth is literally rejuvenated and renewed because of this shift in the flow of its attention and living energies. It covers itself in a white veil, and performs a work underneath its surface which can only be described as miraculous and intense.

There is no man-priest or woman-witch, no guru or master to preside over this holy rite. There never will be. Only the Cold guides the Earth and all those who fancy to follow Her into the Inner Temple of their own Being.

*******

Take advantage of this time, of this Season, of the currents of Outer Nature all around you right now. It gets colder. The Moon’s Light wanes. The Sun’s Days shorten. This is the most intense time of the year to attune to these energies, to jump into this River which is flowing, pouring, RUSHING in the INWARD direction.

Indeed, you need not really do anything to be carried away in this current. It will happen naturally. But if you are aware of it, you will see the magic, and enjoy the marvel.

Let the Universe and all around you, carry you within.

Once you find yourself there, you need not do anything. The Doing was for the Spring and Summer. All you need to do is simply release, be carried within, and see what you find.

This process will calm you. Your Outer Nature will become still and soft, clear and white.

If you can hold yourself here until the Spring returns, by that time you will know what to do with your life. You will know how you’d like to proceed, what seeds you like to plant and feed.

But for now, simply submit to the Cold of Winter. It will not extinguish you. The Secret is, it will do just the opposite.

*******

I wish you all the warmth at the core of my being. There is a deep stillness inside of all of us, which resides and waits for us. Winter is the time to touch that stillness and shiver with its power. That stillness is the same source of each of us. When we touch it, we touch our Common Union, our Deepest Source. Just remember that although the Winds of Winter may blow snow on snow, deep, deep underneath it all is the Warmth which makes the World go round.
Written by Neal Bertelsen

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