HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!***UPDATE:Meteor Shower tonight.

Is that avatar a pic of you. You look like a very sexxxy hot woman.

It's summer solstice in the southern hemisphere.

I found this story beautiful...




A Winter Solstice Tale


This is a tale that has been told by the women of my family for generations; it is always told before an open fire on the darkest day of the year.
It is a story about a gift that Spirit bestows on all of us, regardless of whether we deserve it or not. It is an unexpected gift of Love, and we need to learn to recognize it and be thankful for it.



>>>>> Once upon a time, there was a land shrouded in darkness. This was not always so; at one time, it had been a land of great Light and depth and beauty.

Until the darkness appeared. And strange things began to happen.

At first, the darkness was just a vague impression on the periphery of sight, an uneasiness that tickled awareness, then fled. Over time, the tickle turned into a shiver as the darkness sent out tendrils like premonitions. People were not afraid, however, for one reason: it made the Light in the land even more beautiful and radiant. The darkness became a riddle that called out for an answer. And as time went on and the riddle went unanswered, people forgot to notice and give thanks for the Light, for they were fascinated by the darkness. And slowly, over time, the darkness spread and the Light became dimmer and dimmer, though the people didn't even notice that the Light had changed. You see, their eyes became accustomed to the dimness and they could see just as well as ever, or so they thought.

But not all the people forgot the beauty of the Light that used to cover the land. Sometimes they read about it in old books; oftentimes they dreamt about it; and some passed the knowledge of it down within their families from generation to generation. And in not forgetting the Light, it turned out that it lived on in their imaginations so brightly that it filled their eyes with its very own clarity, and they could see things that other people could not see. But the ones who remembered were only a few compared to the others, and if they talked about what they could see, they were most often ignored and sometimes reviled.

Eventually the land grew so dark that more people began to acknowledge that they really couldn't see very well at all! But since there were so many others still stumbling around in the dark, everything became even more chaotic and frantic. In short, things got even worse!

And the darkness deepened.

One day, a woman sat watching her children at play. This woman was neither young nor yet very old, and her children were not babes nor yet were they grown. And because she was one of those who loved the memory of the Light, and had imagined it and longed for it until it shone in her eyes, she was seeing something that no one else saw. She saw her children, who had been filled with a sense of her own inner Light, growing dimmer and dimmer with each passing day, for the full weight of the darkness around them was too hard to fight off.

Gradually a resolve grew in that mother, until finally one night before she put her children to bed, she told them that she was leaving on a journey. Since she did not know how long she would be gone, she wanted them to take care of each other, to love each other, and to remember her own love for them every day. She promised she would come back to them.

The woman set out that very night, determined to travel to the source of the Light which used to cover the land, and entreat it to come back with her. Although she had no idea where to begin her search, she walked through the cold lonely winter night with great joy in her heart, despite her anguish over leaving her children. For she rejoiced in the thought of seeing the Light at last, the Light she had loved and imagined all her life. She soon found herself singing to the Light in the dark of the night. And although their own light was very much dimmed in that land, still the stars and the moon in heaven heard that mother's song, and they sang back to her of the glory she was seeking.

In the morning, the woman came to the outskirts of a village. But something was terribly wrong! Trees had been uprooted and left to rot, the fields had been dug up in piles of dirt, while all the animals in the fields looked as if no one had taken them back to the barn for weeks! In the village, it was even worse. People scurried around like ants in a disturbed anthill. They were so focused on looking for something, they completely ignored the woman, even when she called out to them. She had never seen such chaos. They were dismantling their homes, turning up the streets, peering into dark places. When she finally managed get someone to stop and speak to her, she was told that there was a great treasure of gold hidden somewhere within the village, and whoever found it would be rich beyond imagining. Then before she could ask another question, he rushed off to continue his search.

Shaken by what she was seeing, the woman came upon the village green - a small patch of undisturbed grass with one bare-branched birch tree. As she walked over to rest under the tree, she saw the most beautiful golden glow (like the glow of a summer sunrise in our world!). When she stood under the tree, she saw that within the golden light was a carved wooden chest full of gold coins. There, right in the midst of the village, was the gold in plain sight! Yet obviously, no one had seen it. As a matter of fact, she now began to notice that people's eyes would glaze over as they looked in the direction of the green, as if they couldn't even see the tree - as if they saw nothing at all! Then they would quickly turn their gaze away and begin seriously squinting at the ground they had already gone over. The woman watched this for a while and then sighed, and silently turned to go. It was not for her to take the gold, even if she could have carried it away.

At the edge of the green she stopped, for she noticed a young man building a house. As she watched him, she saw that he had the eyes of a dreamer, and that there was some Light in him. So she went to him and brought him to the tree, and asked if he could see the chest of gold. Well, he couldn't see the chest, but he did imagine that there was a hazy golden something in the air. So he asked the woman to describe the gold to him and perhaps he could imagine what it looked like. Well, the woman did, and before very long, the young man could see the skillful workmanship of the carved chest, and the abundance and goldenness of the coins. Then the woman told him to take the gold and use it to help the villagers rebuild their homes after the madness of the search had passed. And the young man promised willingly.

When night fell, the woman was deep in the woods, near to an ash tree on a knoll. Pulling her cloak tightly around her, she lay down under the tree, planning to rest for a few hours before continuing on her way. As she slept, she dreamt that a round, luminous moon came down out of the heavens and sank into the earth beneath the tree. She got up to search for it and started digging up the earth around the tree, until she came upon a pearl-like crystal, which shed its milky light upon the tree. The light grew brighter and her heart filled with hope that she had finally found what she sought. But suddenly, the villagers were there and when they saw the light-giving crystal, they took out their pick-axes and hammers and began chipping away at the stone, until all the light disappeared and there were only shards of crystal left scattered on the ground.

The woman awoke crying.

She peered desperately into the darkness of the surrounding forest, fearful of the villagers, but there were only the animals and birds of that place, making little adjustments in their dens and nests. She looked at the knoll beneath the tree, and without thinking, began digging up the earth. Very soon she came upon the shining stone of her dream, and with an anguished cry, she stopped. She didn't want to expose the light, but it was her only clue to finding the Light. What should she do? What should she do?

She sat there, waiting . . .waiting for an answer. And before long it came. She heard a gentle voice telling her to Come In. But come in where? Why into the stone, of course! And once again without thinking, the woman stretched out her hand to the stone and suddenly felt herself slipping into its' pearly light.

Once inside the light, she immediately felt a sweet warmth such as she had known as a child when her grandmother had rocked her to sleep. In truth, she felt as if she were being held within a woman's arms, all safe and snug and listening to a lullaby about the beauty of the Light that used to shine upon the land. Then she remembered her quest. And with this memory came a voice that bade her go on, on through the luminescence in search of the source of the Light. She felt a gentle shove on her back and started walking, even though she could discern no path for her feet to follow.

Quite unexpectedly, she found herself in darkness again, but this time a very warm, almost cozy darkness. Before long, she realized that she could see what was around her, because unlike the upper world, this lower world's darkness was very alive! She could see all the flower bulbs tucked into the earth for the winter, just as snug as her own children in their beds at night. She could see the roots of the trees stretching down into the earth, just as their branches reached up to the heavens above. There were rivers and streams of pure water, flowing through crystal rocks, as well as solid rivers of gold, silver and copper veining the ledge. The stones themselves were so colourful, they rivaled our most beautiful sunsets, and there were jemstones that twinkled like the stars in heaven! She walked past all these wonders until she came to the center of the earth, and in that dark cavern, beyond a pool of azure water, she saw a glorious Light.

Gazing across the watery depths, she suddenly found herself standing before the source of that Light. There, in the heart of a shining halo, was a Child, a most wondrous and beautiful Child. And just as mothers always do, she couldn't help but smile with love at the sight of the tiny child enfolded in the Light. And the Child smiled back at the woman and she seemed to hear a Child's voice say to her, "I have waited for you so long! How glad I am you have finally come." With these words, the woman's heart grew large with love and she bent over and, picking up the Child, cradled it in her arms. She wrapped the baby inside her cloak and turning, left the cavern. She made her way back to the pearly chamber, and as she passed through it, she felt a feather-light kiss upon her brow and knew that she was loved just as surely as she loved the small baby in her arms.

She could not say for sure when she finally left the luminous light behind and emerged into the wintry night, because the pearly light and the first snowflakes blended into each other. As she hurried home with her precious burden, the snowflakes drifted down faster and faster from the night sky, and she had to go slower and slower. But a Light came from within her cloak where the Child lay next to her heart, and as she went on, the animals of the forest and the winged ones of the air saw the Light and followed after her.

She passed silently through the village, now quiet and cozy under its blanket of snow. As she passed, the young dreamer suddenly awoke in his chair next to the hearth, and with a cry of delight, joyously ran out into the snowy night. Then the children of the village awoke from their sleep and ran to the windows and saw a Light filling the night with splendour, and they called to their parents to Come out! Come out! And see the great wonder.

As the woman approached her own village, followed by a great crowd of humans and animals, she was so intent on getting home to her own children, she didn’t see them and her neighbors hurrying down the road to meet her, for the Light now flew before her and filled the night.

When the woman saw her children standing there in the snowy night, she cried out with joy and stumbled through the snow to embrace them. Then, gently unclasping her cloak, she bent to show them the baby. A great glory shone from the Child, and all the creatures there that night imagined that they each sheltered the baby from the storm. Everyone felt their hearts open and they smiled, just as anyone would smile at the sight of a beautiful newborn baby, and the Child smiled contentedly back.

No one could quite remember when the Child and the Light began to fade away with the storm, except the mother who heard the silent farewell in her heart. The stars glittered brightly in the cold dark sky and the moon sent down her blessing. Feeling filled with Grace, the people felt a great peace and joy descend upon them, and the Light lived in their eyes. The animals and the birds sang out their own joy, and there was great rejoicing all around. And in the days that followed, a peace was made between humans and animals which exists to this day.

And from that night, the Light and the image of the Child lived on in their hearts, and it spread from heart to heart, until the Light was as bright as it had once been in the land. Now, all people could see and love the Light, but they did not reject the darkness either, for they had finally solved the riddle. They knew that the darkness had a beauty all its own. For it was in the darkness that the light of the stars and the moon brought to mind the Child and the Light that had come back to them on that cold and snowy winter's night.

Everything you need to know: winter solstice


Late dawn. Early sunset. Short day. Long night. For us in the northern hemisphere, the December solstice marks the longest night and shortest day of the year.

If you live in this hemisphere, it’s your signal to celebrate. The shortest day is here! After this, the days will get longer, and the nights shorter.


The solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth.


What is a solstice?


The earliest humans knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year. They built monuments, such as Stonehenge, to follow the sun’s yearly progress.

But we today see the solstice differently. We can picture it from the vantage point of space. Today, we know that the solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis, and its motion in orbit around the sun.

Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23–and–a–half degrees, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly. That’s what causes winter and summer.


:wintsol3:

At the December solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the North Pole is leaning 23–and–a–half degrees away from the sun. As seen from Earth, the sun is directly overhead at noon 23–and–a–half degrees south of the equator, at an imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Capricorn. This is as far south as the sun ever gets. All locations south of the equator have day lengths greater than 12 hours at the December solstice. Meanwhile, all locations north of the equator have day lengths less than 12 hours.

Where should I look to see signs of the solstice in nature?

Everywhere.

For all of Earth’s creatures, nothing is so fundamental as the length of daylight. After all, the sun is the ultimate source of all light and warmth on Earth.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, you can notice the late dawns and early sunsets, and the low arc of the sun across the sky each day. You might notice how low the sun appears in the sky at local noon. And be sure to look at your noontime shadow. Around the time of the December solstice, it’s your longest noontime shadow of the year.

Many people have an unfavorable response to this time of short days and long nights. Some people try special lighting. Others take vacations to more southerly latitudes.

Why doesn’t the earliest sunset come on the shortest day?

The December solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and longest day in the southern hemisphere. But the earliest sunset – or earliest sunrise if you’re south of the equator – seems to defy logic when it happens before the solstice.

How does this happen?

The key to understanding it is not to focus on the time of sunset or sunrise. The key is to focus on what is called true solar noon: the time of day that the sun reaches its highest point, in its journey across your sky.

In early December, true solar noon comes several minutes earlier by the clock than it does at the solstice around December 21. With true noon coming later on the solstice, so will the sunrise and sunset times.

It’s this discrepancy between clock time and sun time that causes the earliest sunset and the earliest sunrise to precede the December solstice.

The discrepancy occurs because Earth’s orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle, and because, when we’re closest to the sun, our world moves fastest in orbit. Our closest point to the sun – or perihelion – comes in early January. So we are moving fastest in orbit around now, slightly faster than our average speed of 18 miles per second.

The precise date of the earliest sunset depends on your latitude. At mid northern latitudes, it comes in early December each year. At northern temperate latitudes farther north – such as in Canada and Alaska – the year’s earliest sunset comes around mid–December. Close to the Arctic Circle, the earliest sunset and the December solstice occur on or near the same day.

By the way, the latest sunrise doesn’t come on the solstice either. From mid–northern latitudes, the latest sunrise comes in early January.

The exact dates vary, but the sequence is always the same: earliest sunset in early December, shortest day on the solstice around December 21, latest sunrise in early January.

And so the cycle continues...........

yup

The history of the winter solstice is an interesting one.

Winter Solstice observance started about 5000 years ago when the ancient Babylonians befor the time of Egypt, origionating with Nimrod and Safira, would set up an asteroth pole to measure the shadow of the sun. When the shadow hit a certain spot, they would call it the death of the sun god. When the shadow would start to come back from the furthest place of the earth's tilted axis during the winter solstice, they would celebrate the "rebirth" of the sun god, and thus, many customs and traditions have arisen out of the death and rebirth of the sun god.

I write you this because although Christians mistakenly celebrate the birth of Jesus during this time, Jesus has nothing to do with Christmas and this is what leads knowledgeable people to doubt the claims of Christ and the eternal life he has to give to all who would follow him.

Christmas was developed by the romans during the 4th century AD, when the empire could no longer martyr the many christians that were popping up everywhere, due to grassroots spread of the faith and God working many signs and wonders among the early believers, so the empire had to adapt and engraph the faith and pagan religion into one religion, so it is, today we have xmas, easter, rosary, idiols, saint worship formerly pagan gods they just gave new biblical names to, along with other pagan/christian merges the empire sanctioned, btu the true faith of Jesus was not so at it's start and 300 years after.

So, enjoy the winter solstice time and realize, it's origine is but a vein tradition started by pagans and their false sun god worship.
Today, it is but a time set aside to enjoy some family time and to give gifts to show how much you love them.....it is nothing more.....at least in God's eyes.

that is an av only...myself is insider..

WINTER SOLSTICE - DECEMBER 21


:sols334444:


In astronomy, the winter solstice is the moment when the earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most inclined away from the sun. This causes the sun to appear at its farthest below the celestial equator when viewed from earth. Solstice is a Latin borrowing and means "sun stand", referring to the appearance that the sun's noontime elevation change stops its progress, either northerly or southerly. The day of the winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice usually falls on December 21/December 22, which is the southern hemisphere's summer solstice. At this time, the sun appears over the Tropic of Capricorn, roughly 23.5 degrees South of the earth's equator. In the southern hemisphere, winter solstice falls on June 21/June 22, which is the northern hemisphere's summer solstice. At this time, the sun appears over the Tropic of Cancer.

Since the winter solstice, summer solstice, vernal equinox, and autumnal equinox were probably observed for the first time by people in the northern hemisphere, these naming conventions originally corresponded to the northern hemisphere's seasons. In most reckonings, the winter solstice is midwinter. In Ireland's calendar, the solstices and equinoxes all occur at about midpoint in each season. For example, winter begins on November 1, and ends on January 31.

No one is really sure how long ago humans recognized the winter solstice and began heralding it as a turning point -- the day that marks the return of the sun to the northern hemisphere.

Many cultures the world over perform solstice ceremonies. At their root -- an ancient fear that the failing light would never return unless humans intervened with anxious vigil or antic celebration.

There's much new scholarship about Neolithic peoples and their amazing culture. For example, it now looks as though writing is much more ancient than we earlier thought -- as much as 10,000 years old. Neolithic peoples were the first farmers. Their lives were intimately tied to the seasons and the cycle of harvest - which would mean that they were attuned to the movement of celestial objects and seasons. Scholars have not as yet found proof, though, that these peoples had the skill to pinpoint a celestial event like a solstice. Earliest markers of time, found from these ancient peoples are notches carved into bone that appear to count the cycles of the moon. But perhaps they watched the movement of the sun as well as the moon, and perhaps they celebrated it -- with fertility rites, with fire festivals, with offerings and prayers to their gods and goddesses.

An utterly astounding array of ancient cultures built their greatest architectures -- tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories -- so that they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes.


Stonehenge is a perfect marker of the summer and winter solstices.

Newgrange


The passage and chamber of Newgrange are illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the entrance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes at dawn from the 19th to the 23rd of December. The light illuminates a stone basin below intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar discs. Although not much is known about how Newgrange was used by its builders, marking the solstice was obviously of tremendous spiritual importance to them.



Maeshowe, on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland, shares a similar trait, admitting the winter solstice setting sun. It is hailed as one of the greatest architectural achievements of the prehistoric peoples of Scotland.

Hundreds of other megalithic structures throughout Europe are oriented to the solstices and the equinoxes. The blossoming field of archaeoastronomy studies such sacred sites in the Americas, Asia, Indonesia, and the Middle East.

Interesting link... [link to www.crystalinks.com]

As Above, So Below

:solst344:

Awesome post Gaia - Thank you.

yay happy WS back to you! thanks for the info1

YAY!!!!!

I love smilies! and colors! and stories! and fables!

You are very welcome!..:niceflow99:

yay!!

Cycles...it's all about cycles.

yup...

happy-sad-happy-sad-happy-sad-happy-sad...


up-down-up-down-up-down-up-down...


good luck-bad luck-good luck-bad luck.....


dark-light-dark-light-dark....



ETC...ETC...

We could've fill the whole page....so the wheel is turning and turning and turning around....

I want to end this thread with this awesome video...silent lucidity

that is the best news i have heard in awhile, i just got up and looked out the window and we got a lot of snow last night. i will have to shovel to get my truck out, so i can go work out and go to work. there is to much work in my life,, lol

yee ha, a little more light each day, and soon spring will be here, this is great news!

Thank you for this wonderful post. Happy Yule! :)

I cant imagine myself living in a place surrounded by snow and with too cold winters.
I spent a short vacations in South America, a couple of years ago, in a sky resort called Bariloche.
Was in the middle of the winter...even the landscapes were awesome I cant forget that I was shocked by the cold.
Winters in Israel are really nice...sunny and a bit warm during the day ( I can wear only a t-shirt)and colder at nights...

Thanks Gaia.

Personally, I'm just looking forward to longer days & a little more sunshine.

there is sun? what is this?

we can go a month with no sun, which is why i am sitting in front of my "happy lite" right now :)

i do not want to go outside, the wind is blowing and i can hardly see because there is so much snow

We have snow on the ground, but it's sunny and 43 degrees here. We'll have about 8 hours of daylight today.

I know I shouldn't complain, but that's just how I am.

dec 21 2006 was the days i received the light of god,to my right a wtness taking pictures of great mountian in sky,djed pillars=bars that rise from great mountian in sky,peace

The light is reborn and we begin anew.