12/21/2021
Alban Arthan (Winter Solstice) Blessings ✨🖤
The Winter Solstice ceremony of the Druid Tradition is known as Alban Arthan, “The Light of Arthur”. Arthur is equated with the Sun-God who dies and is reborn as the Celtic “Son of Light” - the Mabon - at the Winter Solstice.
The apparent death of the sun is mourned and then as the fire is lit at the time of the Solstice, the rebirth of the Sun is celebrated.
The whole ceremony is a moment of time, the turning between the years darkness and it’s new light - the time of nadir and rebirth. It thus marks both a beginning and a completion.
The seed of light is born in the dark womb of midwinter, the time we know as the Winter Solstice. Solstice means “standstill” and every year around December 21st in the Northern hemisphere and June 21st in the Southern Hemisphere, the sun appears to rise and set in the same place for a few days.
It is a time of the longest night, when Earth’s very breath seems to falter in the face of the overpowering dark. Then, barely noticeable at first, the sun begins its long journey towards the opposite pole and all creation begins to exhale. A cycle of new life can begin once again.
The essential features of Alban Arthan are the mourning and letting go of that which is finished and dying, a period of inner darkness, and then the recognition of the reality of rebirth within the soul. The importance of mourning lies in the fact that rebirth can only occur once we have fully mourned the passing of the old. Once we have done this we can let go and open ourselves to the new dawn.
The time from the Solstice to the New Year can sometimes evoke our shadow. Remember that this time is one in which we indeed furthest from the sun, while allowing ourselves to be aware of the Mabon (Sun-Child) within our hearts even though it may still be difficult, dark and cold outside.
