All About the Winter Solstice
On darkness, deviance and balance
The darkest day of the year is upon us: Dec. 21 marks the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere experiences minimal sunlight, right before the days start to get longer. The solstice coincides with the launch of Capricorn season, the official astrological dawn of winter, and has had corresponding celebrations in just about every culture from time immemorial. But what exactly goes down on this long night of dark and shadow, and how should you honor it?
In the planetary dance around the sun, some characters move in perfect step, while a few have a way of missing the beat. Take the earth, which orbits the sun at a slight tilt, its poles veering towards or away from it. Come the winter solstice, the North Pole is at its furthest tilt from the sun’s light, with the South Pole basking in all the heat. Over the next few months, the Northern Hemisphere will slowly tilt back towards the sun in the lead-up to spring. For now, we have arrived at peak darkness, when the days are at their shortest, before the sun slowly reclaims its time.
Before the advent of Bagel Bites and industrial agriculture, January to April were thought of as famine season, when food would be scarce and long-term planning was necessary. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the master and governor, and the sign’s penchant for organization was essential for surviving the winter to come.
Capricorn’s Tarot correspondence is the devil, the dark deviant within us, the desire which threatens to tear through the matrix. Not coincidentally, the winter solstice goes down during the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, a week of reversals in which enslaved people would be served by their masters, work would be suspended, and revelry was indulged. Because of the literal polarity of this moment, the solstice is meant to bring us into contact with extremes; in the case of Saturnalia, the Romans understood the necessity of letting the devil have his day before rolling up their sleeves and getting back to the grind.
More from me:
New Year’s readings and gift cards are available here!
How Avatar: The Last Airbender turned me into an Astrologer, for NYLON
Ever,
David Odyssey