Advent
There in the wintry forest the wind blows
a flock of snowflakes like a shephard,
and many a fir-tree guesses how soon
it will be pious with Holy Lights,
and listens. Toward the white path
it stretches out its branches, ready,
and braving the wind and growing toward
that One Night of Glory.
-Reiner Maria Rilke
“We come from the land of the ice and snow … from the Midnight Michigan Sun where the hot springs flow…”
The Winter Solstice arrived in the early Monday morning darkness, the time when winter descends and light pales. I’ve enjoyed winters here since my return to Michigan almost ten years ago now, and even more appreciate the teaching that I learned out West, to remember that Winter for our ancestors was in many ways a time of scarcity, a hungry time, a dangerous time, so much so that people counted their age not by years but by how many winters they survived. People wintered in small groups, spreading out the demand on the land. “In wintertime, all life is on that knife’s edge between life and death,” noted Dr. Robin Kimmerer, the Director for the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the SUNY college of environmental science and Forestry. “Winter is a teacher of vulnerability.” As we face the next few months, with so much seeming darkness on the surface of the world brought out by the pandemic, perhaps we can take on the challenge in a Good Way, and face it like the unbuffered winters of our ancestors.
The great irony of Winter of course is that the moment darkness is greatest is also the moment light is about to return. Each year the solstice comes with the promise the next day will be brighter. And in a year that stripped life for so many os us to bare fundamentals, the natural world became our shared story, and here an ever-unfolding story of success and safety as well as healing, for many. The seasons, especially the brutally stark and majestic ones, offer us the rare reminder that the world moves on, that as mortal creatures of the earth we need food and shelter and a renewed sense of community. However you handled Monday’s Winter ritual of darkness, maybe you were like members of a family of old who would get together and share the warmth of the wisdom and knowledge gathered for hundreds of thousands of years and retold in the darkness of Winter. Or perhaps you, too, looked to the clear, cold Winter sky, this year taking in the rare, 800-year Christmas star conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Apparently the last "observable" time the two planets lit up the night sky as a light this bright was almost 800 years ago, in 1226, when Genghis Khan was taking over parts of Russia and the 5th Crusade was trying to capture land in Egypt.
We didn’t offer a Winter Solstice Event or Annual Aho Ho Ho Down this year given the times, but did gather for Ceremony in December. Here’s what Elise had to say regarding her weekend stay: “I recently visited Higher Haven for the Way of the Contrary Retreat. It was an overnight meditation retreat with Inipi Ceremony, and it was an impactful reset for me that was exactly what I was in need of. Higher Haven lodging and grounds are beautiful and comfortable. The food was delicious and I could sense the thoughtfulness in each part of the experience. Paul was an inspiring and positive guide who imparted his wisdom and held space in a very open and inviting way. My connection to his teachings, the nature I was surrounded by and the sense of re-connection to myself left me feeling energized and invigorated. I will definitely be back.” We’ll be back as well, in late February, with our Winter Noble Silence Meditation Retreat Weekend, with this retreat already half-full, like the proverbial glass, and more 2021 retreats and Ceremonial offerings up at the start of January. Until then, look for some upcoming Holiday posts and several notes from The Road. Toksha
“Well they blew the horns… and The Walls Came Down… they’d all been warned… then the walls came down…”
We’re closing out the 2020 late Fall retreat season this weekend and preparing to head into Winter. For folks in need of little respite from the normal Holiday pressures as well as some of the abnormal oddness of the year, you can join us for Ceremony this weekend as we’d love to have you. Then, as always, from Christmas through sometime around the Lunar New Year or Tet in February we’ll be away on Winter Break, but back for the 2021 Retreat season with our Winter Noble Silence Meditation Retreat the weekend of February 26th-February28th. Then you’ll gain a better understand of some of the colorful hieroglyphics on the board above, logographic script, some in pictographic form and in a way reminiscent of Egyptian and other ancient writing systems, basically pointing the way to purified, unconditional human happiness.
But please don’t just take our word for it; consider what Emily had to say about taking part in our recent Ceremonial overnight. And look for the time in your own life for a visit, visits so many report as extremely peaceful and rejuvenating during such trying external times. We’ll be here, continuing to sharpen and offer psycho-spiritual tools for connecting to oneself, fostering one’s inner spirit and connecting to the collective consciousness. “Being a part of the Ceremony weekend was truly a great experience. From forming new friendships, practicing meditation and taking in Paul’s drumming and singing, I am forever grateful. I went into the sweat lodge with uncertainty and a little fear. I came out of the sweat lodge on a path to healing and self-worth. I look forward to the next time at Higher Haven. Mitakuye O’yasin! -E.F.
