Soul-stice Fires Reverend Susan Frederick-Gray December 22, 2014

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1 Soul-stice Fires Reverend Susan Frederick-Gray December 22, 2014 Reading: One Small Face by Margaret Starkey With mounds of greenery, the brightest ornaments, we bring high summer to our rooms, as if to spite the somberness of winter come. In time of want, when life is boarding up against the next uncertain spring, we celebrate and give of what we have away. All creatures bend to rules, even the stars constrained. There is a blessed madness in the human need to go against the grain of cold and scarcity. We make a holiday, the rituals as varied as the hopes of humanity, The reasons as obscure as ancient solar festivals, as clear as joy on one small face. Sermon: In the darkness, we walk with light. (Elise Witt) We make a holiday, the rituals as varied as the hopes of humanity, The reasons as obscure as ancient solar festivals, as clear as joy on one small face. (Margaret Starkey) Six winters I have spent in Phoenix and there is still a part of me that marvels that this is winter. Of course, travel just a few hours north and you ll find snow and freezing temperatures. At times I miss the cold and snow of winter. One of the things I miss about winters in the midwest of my birth is those nights when the sky is clear and there is a thick layer of snow on the ground and the moon is full. On those nights it can be brighter at night than it is during the day, for most of the days are Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 1

2 cloudy and gray. But on a clear night with a full moon, the light reflects off the snow with such brilliance, it is breathtaking. I also miss -- and thinking about it I can still hear -- the crunch of snow under my boots. I loved how -- my husband, a Texas boy, never understood this -- but I loved how, particularly the first few snowfalls of the winter, out on the driveway, shoveling away the snow, in the cold and the dark, bundled up, how my heart and my spirit could be so full, so bright, so warm. It was an amazing feeling of joy, as if my heart felt warmer if only because of the contrast between it and the outside air and the rest of the earth withdrawing. We human beings are not ones to hibernate; perhaps it would be easier if we could just sleep away the winter and wake again in spring. But it is not in our constitution, at least not full hibernation. Unlike the trees and the bears, we have to find our own restless way through the winter s cold and darkness. Rev. Linda Lawrence, our Assistant Minister, shared with me one of her favorite quotations. It s from the writer Albert Camus from his book The Stranger. He writes, In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there s something stronger -- something better, pushing right back. Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 2

3 I too love this image of an invincible summer within us, pushing back against the harshness of our world. This is not just true for Camus, but true for humanity. Humanity has an inherent, an essential, a fundamental ability to nurture and feel the presence of hope and power even in face of enormous difficulty. This is not to say that we do not experience despair and depression and sorrow, for certainly we do. And some of us honestly struggle more deeply with this than others. But as a whole, not as individuals but collectively, there is so much evidence for the drive to hope. We see it in the way that people push back against oppression, even when it has been imposed for generations. We see it as people emerge from terrible grief with a passion to help others. And we see it in the ancient celebrations of the mid winter solstice -- traditions all across the globe, all across the earth, of people creating rituals of fire and light, joy and giving, in response to the harshness of winter. In this darkest time of year, we see inside of us a drive to kindle lights, to create our own forms of warmth, to push against the pull of winter, to create our own warmth in this time of winter s cold. For many ancient winter solstice celebrations, it was believed that without the intervention of humanity, without rituals to praise the sun and lure the sun god or goddess back with joyous singing and dancing and gifts, the sun would continue to rise lower in the horizon every day until one day it might not rise at all. Near the tip of South America, the Atacama people had a festival of noise to call the sun back to the earth. In Peru, the Inca constructed a tower to tie the sun. The tower was built Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 3

4 so that the sun rose aligned to it on the midwinter solstice (which of course in the southern hemisphere is in June). In Germany, people burned the Yule log; an entire tree that would burn all night long, homes were decorated with evergreen and people would join in singing and dancing to please the Sun God and lure her back to the earth. All of these reflect a refusal to give into the sun dying in the sky. They reflect a belief that humanity, through festivals and rituals, could turn things around. Even now, so many thousands of years later, while we understand the rotation of the earth, and the reasons for the solstice, we still refuse to withdraw into the cold and dark of the season. At a time when nature grows inhospitable in much of the northern hemisphere, a precarious time of scarcity and want, we respond with celebrations of light and generosity, gathering together in singing and joy, as if to spite the somberness of winter come. As Margaret Starkey writes In time of want... we celebrate and give of what we have away. We make a festival to bring joy and rekindle the warmth of human community. In this month, here at UUCP, we have been spending time reflecting on what it means to live a life of soulfulness. I have been thinking about the relationship between sol (s-o-l), the Latin word for sun, and soul (s-o-u-l). The ancient Greeks used the same word for alive as for ensouled meaning they believed that the soul was what gave the body life. Is that not what our own bright star, the sun, does for the earth? It gives life. The sun is food to the plants and warmth that allows life to thrive on earth. No wonder solar Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 4

5 rituals continue today all over the world, and often form the basis of many religious holidays. Solstice means literally standing still sun. Sol, s-o-l, meaning sun. The mid winter solstice marks the day when the sun rises at its lowest place in the horizon. For about 12 days it will rise in almost the exact same place, and then, even though there is much winter ahead, after 12 days it will begin each day to rise higher in the sky and result in longer days. Of course, none of this has anything to do with the sun s movement. Now we understand that it has everything to do with the fact that the earth tilts on an axis, so that half the year the northern hemisphere points toward the sun, bringing us summer, and the other half of the year, we have winter, while the southern hemisphere points toward the sun. The Latin word for sun -- sol -- is a homophone; it sounds the same as s-o-u-l, soul. Even the etymological roots of these words sound the same, saewel for sun, and sawol for soul. Sol with a capital S, is the sun personified, the name given to both the female Sun God of Old Norse traditions and the Roman Sun God, Sol Invictus, which means Unconquered Sun. I d like to believe there a reason for their similar sound, a connection between the light and power of the sun and an internal source of joy and energy in a person. A connection between Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, and the invincible summer of Camus. Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 5

6 The Romans celebrated the birthday of Sol Invictus on December 25th as part of a great festival. And virtually all scholars understand that this is why the celebration of Jesus s birthday was set as December 25th. It was an intentional effort to blend Christianity into the long held pagan celebrations of the Romans. Camus writes that his invincible summer within makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there s something stronger something better, pushing right back. The celebrations of the birthday of Sol Invictus pushed back against the harshness of the world. The celebration, which lasted several days, was a way of turning the world upside down. There was music and merrymaking and the giving of gifts. But also, the typical social order was turned upside down. Kings and lords ate with their slaves, common people dressed as royalty and poked fun at them. (Eventually this was outlawed.) But it was a way of pushing back against the structures of class and caste, even if only for a short time. I find this time of year, even in the warmth of this desert valley, a difficult time. While the weather might not be harsh, I live with a dissonance between the religious calls to joy, to generosity, to compassion, to love, to the notions of hope being born in to the world, and the world s realities, seeing every day the stories of families in need, of children hungry is this richest country in the world, of the growing hardships from natural Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 6

7 disasters and the precarious nature of our lives. I find this pessimism creeps into my heart this time of year. But right along side it is this unmistakable summer, this force willing to push against the tide, to push against despair and keep me committed to doing whatever good I can, continuing to find strength each day to push for something better. At this time of year, this is just what these solstice fires are for. We human beings are not made for isolation. And we are not made for hibernation. So, while the earth withdraws into rest, we gather to be together, to eat together, to sing together. And as the solstice fire is lit it reminds us all, even when we may not feel the power and light, of that invincible summer. The candles we light in our own homes, the chalice we light each week, the lights we put up in or on our homes -- they are there to help rekindle the light, the sun, the summer in our own soul. The external flames are a reminder of our own internal strength and power. We may no longer believe that our efforts are needed to affect the movements of our earth, but this we know: our efforts are needed to bring warmth, to bring food, to bring comfort, compassion, hope and love to our lives and to others. Our efforts are needed to bring and share joy. In this time of winter, when the sun feels far way, when loneliness can be as much a factor in our lives as festivities, let us remember that how we live, what we give, and how we treat one another makes all the difference in our lives -- it is as clear as joy on one small face. Soul-stice Fires Dec. 22, 2014 page 7

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