Hello and Happy Winter Solstice! 

As we slip into the longest night of the year, we are reminded that this day is a turning point. While we sleep, the sun will be reborn (metaphorically) and tomorrow our lives will be filled with more light! The winter solstice has inspired many mystical celebrations throughout time and it has been celebrated as a time for hope, change, new beginnings and turning points. Engaging in rituals during significant energetic times (like today) have been done throughout the ages, and for good reason- your intentions will be supercharged! I hope this ritual will inspire you to celebrate change and help set intentions for new beginnings that are filled with light.

If you have any questions about this ritual, meditation, or just want to chat, feel free to contact me!

Happy Winter Solstice and enjoy this powerful energetic time!

With Gratitude,

Jacqueline 

MY WINTER SOLSTICE RITUAL:
Here is the Winter Solstice Ritual that I will be doing today. It includes some elements of meditation, manifesting, intention setting and releasing. You can do this ritual in about ten minutes but you can also take as long as you would like! 

HERE’S WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• candle
• lighter or matches
• palo santo (optional)
• crystals or crystal jewelry (optional) 
• a quiet location for 10 min or so
• paper and a pen or pencil 

WINTER SOLSTICE RITUAL:

Get a candle and light it. 

You can also light some palo santo and/or gather some crystals or crystal jewelry to hold during this exercise to super charge it a bit. This is especially good if you have been working with your crystal jewelry from our ritual kit and it has a specific intention. 

Place a pen and paper next to you for after the exercise. 

Begin by finding a quiet place to sit, you will need ten minuets or so (un-interrupted) to complete this exercise. You do not need to sit in any particular posture, you can lay down, just don’t fall asleep! 

Close your eyes, going into the darkness, going inward.

Take three deep diaphragmatic (belly) breaths.

With each breath relax your body more and more, allowing yourself to settle into the darkness. 

Do not try to control your thoughts in any way, just allow them to come up and make a mental note, is your mind busy and rushing with ideas? Is there a lot of mental chatter? Are you feeling exhausted? Are you sad or anxious? Do you feel invigorated? Are you bursting with joy? Just take a metal note of any thoughts, feelings and sensations that come up over the next minute or so. 

Begin to contemplate this past year, what changes have occurred in your life or that have impacted you? What are you appreciative of? What goals have you achieved? What do you want to improve? Really check in with yourself. 

Now conjure up feelings of gratitude for all of these experiences (good or bad) since they have all brought you to this point and act as lessons on your journey. Thank them, and get specific. 

Now think about how you can bring more light (joy, happiness, feeling of filling up) into your life. Set a few tangible goals that you can do to achieve this. An example could be, “I am going to begin a gratitude practice every day, spend more time doing self care, drink my morning coffee in silence, treat myself more often, volunteer more, work on cultivating positive and encouraging thoughts about myself, spend more quality time with loved ones etc.” 

Now redirect your attention back to your breath, and imagine a bright white light entering through the top of your head and trickling down through your body pouring out through the bottoms of your feet. Fill each crevice of your body with the white light, pushing out any damp, stagnant or stuck energy. If you have had any health (physical or emotional) issues over this past year, spend some extra time concentrating on sending the white light to the places that have been effected. Visualize the light coming down from above (you can think of it as heaven, the universe, the energy matrix, whatever you connect with) and picture any other lower vibration energies leaving your body through your feet and going down deep into the earth, where it will be broken down and reborn. 

Once you feel you have fully saturated your body with this healing light, take three deep intentional breaths with the intention to hold the light and close the transaction of energy, send love and gratitude to the white light and the earth. 

When you are ready, open your eyes, blow out the candle and immediately grab the paper and pen.

At the very top of your page, write down anything that stuck out from the meditation. Feelings, sensations, stories, names, goals…anything!

Then divide the remainder of the page into two parts, fold or draw a line to split the page in one section write, THINGS I NEED TO RELASE:

and on the second half of the page write, THINGS THAT WILL BRING MORE LIGHT INTO MY LIFE: 

Jot down any of the things that came up during the meditation, whatever stuck with you. 

The paper is symbolic of you as a whole, your feelings, thoughts, emotions, what you want to bring forward and what you want to release. 

Next, tear the page in half, diving the sides of what you want to release and what you want to move forward with. 

Take the side containing the things you want to release and either burn it in a fire safe plate (carefully, please!!) or bury it outside. If you do not have access to fire or earth, simply tear the paper up and run some water over it. You want to connect these words and this energy with the elements in some way. 

For the side of things that will bring more light into your life, place it somewhere that you will see everyday. Place a quartz crystal next to it to charge and help amplify these intentions. Happy Manifesting!