Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice

At a deep midwinter gathering, the Wood Sisters marked the longest night with an honouring of the dark in which we often long for light. As we each made a contribution to the wisdom pot in the opening circle, many women took the chance to look back over the calendar year of 2011 and mark its lows and highs, everybody recognising that the dark times, hard as they are, bring transformation and change.

We plunged into the ancient Sumerian story of Inanna, starting with her girlhood rescue of a huluppu tree, which she planted and tended but which was invaded by a snake, a bird and the dark maid Lilith and finally produced the strong wood for her throne and bed, carved by Gilgamesh himself. Inanna then visited her grandfather Enki, the God of Wisdom and Water and during a fabulous feast in which he consumed cup after cup of beer, he offered to her the seven Me, the seven divine powers, which she accepted and took back, through trial and tribulation, to her home city of Uruk, where they grew to encompass the divine arts of women and music.

As Sue told the story, Abigail wove her exquisite and expressive harp music into the words and we heard briefly of Inanna’s sensual courtship of Dumuzid the Shepherd god which nonetheless arose out of her initial antagonism to the idea. Having gained her power and a King for her bed, Inanna, bears two sons, brings them up and then”sets her mind and opens her ear to the underworld,” ruled by her dark sister Ereshkigala. Inanna’s descent to the underworld, for which she dresses in the seven Me, only to have them removed at every gateway of the underworld until she is naked on the ground, is a powerful ancient myth of all that we lose and all that changes when we descend to the darkness.

The ascent from the underworld is even more complex, involving the compassion of two tiny creatures fashioned from dirt and the substitution of another for Inanna in the underworld. Finally, after Dumuzid’s own journey of transformation and his sister’s loving sacrifice for him, balance is restored to the world. These deep psychic images were taken into meditation as we clothed ourselves in the powers associated with each chakra and then abandoned them to face the darkness. Sam led us back out from meditation to the light and out into nature, or reflection, after which we shared what we had left behind and what gifts we had received. It was a powerful exercise.

After a wondrous three-course Wood Sisters bring-and-share lunch we rolled beeswax tree candles and made wishing boat candles from walnut shells. Some of us went for a long walk in the rain and the mud and the dark down to the river Dart to float the little boats of hope on the wide river. It was an invigorating and beautiful walk into the dark night with a tiny flame of hope bobbing out into the current and away.

After another feast for supper we lit candles on the Christmas tree, sang songs, heard poems and plain chant, including a powerfully personal and eloquent poem from Abigail, and we spoke of our heartfelt wishes for the present moment. We were treated to three marvellous seasonal stories from Hilda (Babushka), Ronnie (a Liberian fairy tale in honour of the two female Nobel prize winners) and Lisa (elvish mischief in the chimney!)

It was a day for deep, quiet, rich reflection but also for challenging, difficult, dark struggles to be named and for laughter, sharing, soul-friendship and fabulous food. It marked the deep midwinter moment of pivot from the dark to the light, in the company of dear sisters, and with eyes wide open to our personal journeys into the underworld and back again in a profound, moving, delicate and empowering way.

Since our beginnings in September 2010, the Wood Sisters have become a circle of wisdom woven from trust, (which was very much a theme of this gathering), collaboration, and compassion (a key theme of the Inanna story) and there is now an atmosphere of relaxed friendship into which any new Wood Sisters can walk with ease (several have commented how relaxed it feels). We have brewed our teas, brewed our thoughts in the cauldron of the wisdom pot and brewed a women’s mystery school together.

In 2012 we branch out into a Winter Storytelling Festival open to all (men, families) in Dartington on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February as part of National Storytelling Week and showcasing the work of women in arts, crafts and spirit. We hope to see lots of you there – it promises to be an unique and inspiring event with women from near and far offering a stunning range of contributions for all ages. Do visit the website for more details – the draft programme is now available.

Wishing you all a merry midwinter and blessings for the New Year; may  you find time to take rosy-cheeked journeys into the natural world and replenishing and reflective journeys into your inner world.

Sue and Sam