In case you're not following the seasonal shift that's about to happen, we are heading into winter tomorrow - Tuesday, December 21st - at 11:38pm Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Here in Southern Ontario, we are minus 5 hours relative to UTC, so our solstice occurs at 6:38 pm.
I always like to think about solstice in terms of the earth's elliptical orbit around the sun. Here is an excellent illustration from Ivan3Man, who posted it on this Discover online Bad Astronomy article. (Ivan, if you want me to take this down, let me know. If I can give you proper thanks / credit somehow, I'd be happy to!)
See where December 21st is? We are turning a corner here, moving into the long, flattish part of the earth's orbit where the Northern hemisphere starts to tilt toward the sun again (Australia, I hope you're enjoying your late spring / early summer).
This year, I don't know about you, but it's beginning to feel to me like we're screeching around that corner, stomping on the brakes while applying the gas in an oversized vehicle with under-inflated tires.
On top of the solstice, we've got a full moon on the night of the 21st. And, sometime in the wee hours, starting at about 1:30 in the morning, a full lunar eclipse.
Apparently, the last time a lunar eclipse coincided with winter solstice was 456 years ago, in 1554, according to Red Orbit. You might have noticed that a lot has changed since then.
I attended a wonderful seasonal meditation at Carol Glenn's last night, one theme of which was "buckle your seatbelts."
In the world of trees, there's a great preparation going on. Tomorrow, the trees will finish sending their energies and consciousness - along with our good wishes - into Mother Earth. Physically, the trees are at rest throughout the winter, which means that this is among the most peaceful and calming times of year to be out in the woods. If you're like me and you sometimes find the Christmas rush to be overwhelming, it's a great idea to throw on your boots and get outside for a little tree therapy this time of year.
If you choose to tap into a tree's energy and get some communication going, be forewarned. This is the trippiest time of year to try and talk to a tree, as I found out when I began an intensive program of communicating with trees this time last year.
Imagine my surprise when I found that although the trees withdraw from their physical locations throughout the winter, they don't just sit in the tree equivalent of an inner cave all winter. They join and meld with a collective consciousness that goes back millions of years. They join with the consciousness of trees in other dimensions of reality, or other planets (honestly, I'm not totally clear on which it is, or if those two things are the same thing).
They're still attached to their physicality to some degree, so you can still talk to them. For a fun adventure, ask a tree, "Where are you?" any time in the next three months. Wait for imagery to come to you. Through trees, I've seen dimensions where trees can walk and interact with the world just like we do; I've seen tropical forests here on earth; I've seen the ancient world, where humans clustered in vast numbers under the branches of the giant World Tree to ask for help and guidance.
It gets really interesting in the world of trees in the winter season. What are you waiting for? Get out there.
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