The Final Sun Day Before Solstice: Candle Four

All the Earth waits for the chorus of our voices.
All the rocks and trees shudder with the song of life.
All the plants and those that live under the roots hum.
Angela Magara, from Psalm 114, Earth Psalms

This is the fourth and final Sun Day before Winter Solstice, and it is the third Sunday of Christian advent.

If you are joining our global prayer circle for the first time (it’s never too late, until after the final lighting!), or if you wish to refresh your memory as to the general steps of this Sun Wheel celebration, please visit here.

If you are counting down to Christmas only, this is the third candle and it represents (in most churches) Joy. Many Christian advent wreaths feature this Sunday’s candle as a special rose pink one, or else a royal blue.

This represents a shift from the purple of penitence to the lighter color of anticipation and joy for the Divine Birth.

Hail and Welcome, Guardians of the North

Many of us celebrating Solstice are using our candles to represent the Elements and Directions in our Solstice Sunwheel. If so, then tonight we light the fourth candle, which, for many, will stand for the North, for the element of Earth.

Prior to lighting it, consider the aspects that are related to the Earth, or Love, that need our attention.

What fears, scarcities, illusions, and avarice have contaminated our holy Mother Earth, and our relationships with Her? In the spirit of our Card of the Week this week, ask yourself — what is your definition of wealth, scarcity, and sufficiency?

How do we, ourselves, treat our planet? While it is lovely to appreciate all the beauty, bounty, and treasure She offers us, how do our daily decisions actually affect Her?

For instance, what kinds of labor conditions, financial structures, and wealth (or lack of it) do my daily purchases support? Where do my electronics, cosmetics, jewelry, furniture, and clothing come from?

And where does my stuff go when I no longer want it? Of course, I don’t toss garbage out my car window, or litter the streets of our city. But I am still half-responsible for the trip we make to the Durham County Solid Waste and Recycling site every three or so weeks (we don’t have access to city trash services).

How much do I know about the stewardship practices of the merchants that I support with my money? Do they acquire their resources in responsible ways? How do they dispose of their wastes and by-products?

The convulsions in our economy; the growing impact of hunger, disease, and ecological collapse; the uncertain backing behind our money; our response to natural disasters; the contamination and genetic modification of our food; and the very future of a habitable planet are all Earth issues have reached a crisis point.

Yes. Pretty heavy stuff.

But we have a candle before us. We can bring the light.

Tonight’s Gift

So listen. Reach out with all your ways of knowing. Feel all of us around our dear planet, as one by one we reach back to you. Sense as thousands of us touch our flames to our wicks. One, two, three, and, for many, now the fourth.

Feel in your bones the gift of the Temple of the North — the truth that is cosmic Law, for this is the gift of our Ancestors: Love is the law.

Isn’t it divine that for all of us together, we are celebrating Joy to the World? Let us wish one another the Joy of the Earth.

For we are creatures of the Holy Mother Earth, and our bodies and our spirits remember this. We feel what our Mother Earth feels, and when our chattering minds and noisy toys are silent, we can hear Her singing in the rush of our blood.

Who can help but celebrate the sumptuous taste of Her fruit and the scent of Her sweet fertile body?

Now, as we make the final descent into the darkest moments of the year, every cell of our physical being and our souls’ ancient awareness knows and remembers that the Wheel is turning, and we wait.

We are on the cusp of the Ages, and the moment of the great rebirth is nearly upon us.

Thus we illuminate for the first time our fourth (or third) candle together.

Tonight, we honor bone and stone, seed and flower. From darkest caves to the highest mountaintops, we give thanks for the blessed Earth. We invoke Her power, Her strength, Her great cycles.

Silent Guardian of the North, we stand now on the final threshold, ready to enter your sacred time of Winter. Keeper of the deep places in the Earth, the roots that are beyond knowing, You are also the North Star that guides our way home. Without fail.

And in harmony with the third candle of our Christian friends, let us also call in the unfolding rose of Joy.

Let us all join together tonight in our global circle, my dear ones. Let our prayers and magic empower us, as we assist this great birthing.

Let us call forth the very joy of the Earth. May She come now — in Her laughter and splendor, reminding us that we are all Her beloved, precious children.

Join us tonight, heart to heart, across the Earth, lighting the candles on our wreaths. Together, across time and geography, may the Earth sing to us of Her Divine promise.

Rejoice, rejoice! The birth is at hand.