Winter Solstice December 2010

Picture courtesy of Space.com

As we celebrate the time of Yule and Christmas, the power of the Winter Solstice is upon us. And this year, 2010, the power is magnified by the presence of a lunar eclipse of the moon on the solstice. The astronomists tell us that this total lunar eclipse is the only one in the last 372 years to coincide with the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Monday night, on this Winter Solstice, the earth passed between the sun and the moon, revealing the astonishing image of a blood red moon. Many witnessed the image of a blood red moon suspended in the dark sky on the darkest night of the year and were moved by it. As we are reminded of the cycles of time before us, we remember the long breath and the long body of the ancient ones. Perhaps it is in echoes of the ancient ones from times before us that we will find the understanding of what lies before us now.

In Ireland, Newgrange in County Meath became a site of historic importance because of the lunar eclipse and Winter Solstice coinciding. Newgrange is a prehistoric passage tomb built over 5,200 years ago making it older than the Pyramids in Egypt. Above the entrance to the passage at Newgrange there is an opening called a roof-box allowing sunlight to penetrate the passage and chamber at sunrise on the Winter Solstice. A beam of sunlight penetrates the roof-box reaching the floor of the chamber and gradually extends to the rear of the passage. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within minutes and illuminates the chamber. After a few minutes, the light disappears entirely from the chamber as the sun rises. On this Winter Solstice, the sunlight and glow of the blood red moon filled the ancient chamber. And we are reminded of the echoes of the ancient ones from times before us as we experience these events as they did in the long body and long breath of our earth.