Listed below are some of the full ritual outlines we've participated in as well as ritual ideas that pertain to Winter Solstice. Clicking on the title will take you to a document with the complete ritual, or you can click on one of the components that is in bold.
2017 Winter Solstice Ritual Outline: Theme: "What is it you need to grant yourself permission to do this year? We explored (through 3 wishes): What is ending? What is beginning? What is our intention for the coming year?" We began by connecting with each other through a spiral dance. Then, we were led through a visualization (sinking down into warm water) to flow deep into our unconscious. (I don't have the visualization.) We wrote in our journals. Then, we lit candles and stated our intentions for the coming year.
2016 Winter Solstice Ritual Outline: Theme-Peace within us, peace among us, peace beyond us. Activities: Dinner Blessings (before and after) / Enter the Circle Blessing / Calling in the Directions / Songs: Snatam Kaur-Lontime Sun, (Lyrics) / "Peace I Leave to You", (Lyrics) / "Deep Peace" , (Lyrics) / Stories and Poems ---Besides feeling embraced in peace, this ritual focused on the strength that comes from healing. There were stories/metaphors that led us to creating a collage bowl.
Winter Solstice Questions - 2014 (click on the title to go to full text)
These questions were attached to the flyer to prepare us for the ritual.
1. What new idea has seeded it’s self this winter, and how can I best nurture it to fruition, as the earth nurtures her seeds?
2. What am I...
These questions were attached to the flyer to prepare us for the ritual.
1. What new idea has seeded it’s self this winter, and how can I best nurture it to fruition, as the earth nurtures her seeds?
2. What am I...
Winter Solstice 2013 Outline: Theme: Initiation, and creating ritual around a meal
(Introduction or leading of each "*" activity was rotated between the 4 facilitators)
*Blessed in foyer, “As the earth grows colder…” and enter living room. (Link to Blessing)
*Circle up in living room. Do visualization.
*Welcome new women with tiaras. Read to them the circles poem.
*Sing Circle song.
*Walk around the circle with...
Yule 2009 Ritual Outline: This is a very brief outline. We made our own magic wands during the celebration.
2004 Winter Solstice Outline (pdf): Snuggled in a blanket, women are led into the dark, into the womb, (through a visualization). Within this protected space a spark is born which forms into a gift.
2003 Yule Outline (pdf): Only the key points of the celebration are listed in this outline. It includes: entering the circle through the vagina (a hoola-hoop), a visualization of the planet and our role with it, and tarot cards?
2002 Yule Outline (pdf): This is a relatively complete outline. It includes a visualization from the story "She Unnames Them", by Ursula Le Guin. Also, there is drumming, a spiral dance, and choosing a goddess name for yourself.
1998 Winter Solstice Outline (pdf): There's a notation at the top of this outline that says "The ceremony that never was." At some point in our evolution, we discovered that come snow, sleet or rain, the celebration must continue. Even if we meet without the all the beautiful adornments, we must meet. It provides a continuity to the year. This ritual focused on the gifts the year brought you and included a gift swap game.
1992 Winter Solstice Outline (pdf): I love putting this outline here because it is one of the earliest outlines we have. It is so simple and yet sparked 24 more years of celebrations. Evidently we experienced a birth canal, a dormant seed/germinating seed visualization, and using magazines, we created something that expressed what we draw our strength and inspiration from.
Releasing/Letting Go Ritual: (Using a cauldron with a fire if possible-women have written what they want to release on a piece of paper.) "This is the night of Solstice, the longest night of the year. Now darkness triumphs; and yet..."
Ritual-Bringing in the Light: Normally done after a release has been done of what is no longer needed in your life.
A live tree is set up in the room and paper circles or pieces of paper for a chain are passed to women...
This is a link to the song sung in this ritual: "I Will Be Gentle With Myself" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LaBT03yRs
A live tree is set up in the room and paper circles or pieces of paper for a chain are passed to women...
This is a link to the song sung in this ritual: "I Will Be Gentle With Myself" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LaBT03yRs
Winter Solstice Article and Ritual by Diane Stein (I think): This is one of the first articles that ended up in our ritual binder. Part of it includes creating a nest. Each woman enters the nest and talks of her own life's creations, her hopes, her projects. "When each has experienced this brooding before birth, this gestating of her life, she goes to the circle and lies down, curling herself into a fetal position, waiting for hatching and the birth of her hopes..."