Happy solstice and new year ahead.

Happy solstice!

Yule is a pre-Christian holiday celebrated n the winter solstice.  It is the true new year both astronomically and spiritually. At Yule the new God comes to earth, bringing hope and light.

Yule is the time to begin to think about what you want to accomplish in the months to come.  It is the time to outline the goals you wish to work towards. So the attention now is inward to allow your higher self, your spiritual side then time to clarify what needs to be done and which goals to set.

Yoga can certainly offer you with the space and awareness and indeed clarity to know where best to focus your energy and attention - to create an intention then - and there is of course great power in this.

Happy solstice everyone, happy new year ahead.  Here is a beautiful new year blessing that I would like to share with you:

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

("Bennacht For Rosie" from Benedictus by John O'Donohue).