Opening Words
from Black Elk Speaks  (by Black Elk)

Everything the Power of the World does is in a circle.  The Sky is round and I have heard that the Earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The Wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles , the Sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The Moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons are a great circle in their changing, and always come back to where they were.

Welcome to this celebration of the winter solstice. We have gathered here together in this space, set apart from the world, to contemplate the cycle of time and the seasons, and the cycles of our lives.

Those before us viewed time as cyclical, not linear.  The past and future were seen as secondary and embedded in a luminous Now. That realm, that luminous timelessness and the deep connection with the natural world that produces it, is the very basis of magic, and everything around us is imbued with it if we are only able to perceive it.  Magic is a way of engaging with the world, not of imposing your will upon it, but of dancing with it.

Please join us in reading aloud the prayer by Starhawk in the hymnal, number 524.

Earth mother, star mother,
You who are called by
a thousand names,
May all remember
we are cells in your body
and dance together.

You are the grain and the loaf
that sustains us each day,
And as you are patient
with our struggles to learn
So shall we be patient
with ourselves and each other.
We are radiant light
and sacred dark - the balance-
You are the embrace that heartens
And the freedom beyond fear.

Within you we are born,
we grow, live and die-
You bring us around the circle to rebirth,
Within us you dance
Forever.

Winter leads inevitably to spring, summer to fall in a spiraling pattern that is always changing, and always the same.  In the natural world, the spiral is seen everywhere: in the unfurling bud of a new rose, the whorled lines of a seashell, even in the great spiral arms of galaxies.  The spiral image appears in the sacred art of many cultures.  Native American shamanic tradition holds concentric circles to be “passageways between the natural and supernatural world”,  and mandalas are sacred symbols used for meditation in Eastern religions, which often use spiral motifs.

In pagan belief, a spiral symbolizes change and recurrence, the endless pattern of birth, growth, death and rebirth, the waxing and waning of energy. 

In her book The Spiral Dance, Starhawk says:

The turning of the Wheel of time is a circle, as the year is a circular journey we make around the sun. We begin in the dark of the year, when present, past and future meet. The Child of the Year is conceived as the spirit of possibility, offering us a new beginning.

On the winter solstice the child of promise awakens within us, reminding us that we can be more than we are. The sun-child is the embodiment of innocence and joy, of a childlike delight in all things.

The Unitarian anthropologist Ashley Montagu writes in his book "Growing Young" that the habit of thinking in terms of stages of development leads us to the false belief that we must leave each stage behind as we grow older. In fact, he says, growth is a continuous process. We are designed not to grow out of but to continue to grow with the traits that we develop early in life.

He says "we are designed always to remain in a state of development, a prolonged childhood in which the gaining of knowledge continues throughout life and the sense of wonder at life is not lost."

Montagu lists several qualities that children possess, including curiosity, wonder, imagination, creativity and empathy. He says that this empathy should be extended toward the whole of nature, to inanimate nature as well as to other living creatures. For this, he says that children are especially suited; "Children are natural animists, for they endow all things with living qualities." This is essentially the magical world view, that the universe is a living thing and that everything is interconnected.

Unitarian author and poet e.e. cummings understood the magical innocence of children and often captured it in his writing. Look at the lovely poem written out on your handout, which describes the mystical world seen through the eyes of two children

2 little whos
(he and she)
under are this
wonderful tree

smiling stand
(all realms of where
and when beyond)
now and here

(far from a grown
–up i & you–
ful world of known)
who and who

(2 little ams
and over them this
aflame with dreams
incredible is)

And Starhawk says:

The  energy of the universe is in constant motion, changing and forever changeless. Energy flows in spirals, its motion is circular, cyclical, wavelike. This spiral motion is revealed in the shape of galaxies, seashells, whirlpools and the structure of DNA molecules.  Sound and light travel in waves, and waves themselves are spirals seen in a flat plane.

The moon waxes and wanes, drawing the tides with it.  We also are drawn by the forces of nature that surround us, whether or not we fully realize it.

As we come to the end of another year, the time of waning light that precedes another beginning, take time to consider where you are in your own life's unfolding pattern.  At this point in the service you are invited to come forward to light a candle and place it in the bowl of ocean water on the altar. You may want to light your candle in honor of something that has sustained you through this past year, or to mark the light of a new beginning.  Celebrate the child within you that still sees the mystery and wonder of life.

Reading

To the New Year  by W.S. Merwin

With what stillness at last you appear in the valley,
your first sunlight reaching down to touch
the tips of a few high leaves that do not stir,
as though they had not noticed,
and did not know you at all.

Then, the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning.

So this is the sound of you
here and now, whether or not
anyone hears it. This is
where we have come with our age,
our knowledge, such as it is,
and our hopes, such as they are,
invisible before us,
untouched and still possible.           

Closing Words

May the Light of Your Soul Guide You  by John O'Donohue

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do, the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
who work with you, and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you;
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.