Return of the Light –
Winter Solstice Blessings

In times past, the clearing and blessing of the fireplace and relighting the fire occurred at the Winter Solstice. After all, the longest night of the year occurred on Winter Solstice, and the light of the fireplace brought warmth, nourishing food, and illumination to people’s homes during the long winter nights. Since under ordinary circumstances fires never went out and were relit by the embers of the fire from the night before, Winter Solstice was the time when fires were lit completely from scratch.

Cleaning, Decorating, and Blessing Your Hearth

Cleaning, decorating, and blessing your fireplace and lighting a new fire even now are a good metaphor for preparing and welcoming the returning light into your home. This fire ceremony is easy to prepare. I sweep the ashes out of the fireplace and finish with a cinnamon broom. Since my plants love ashes in their beds, I sprinkle them into the flower beds with the intention of blessing the plants. Then, I clean the mantle and brickwork. Decorating is lots of fun. Since Solstice and Christmas coincide, pine boughs, holly, Christmas lights, and other decorations are perfect. Blessing the fire can be as simple as adding winter herbs with prayerful intentions or sprinkling holy water on the hearth before you put the logs in. The most important aspect of the blessing the fire is keeping in mind that with this blessing you are welcoming warmth, nourishment, and illumination into your home.

Christ Light

As we continue to realign, our bodies will receive more and more of our non-physical. The Christ is reawakening within all of us, and if we approach this return in a sacred way, the beauty and ease of this process is magnified. Why not include an invitation to the Christ Within to continue to easily and effortlessly reawaken in every call of your body, as you bless your Winter Solstice fire?