Life-Death-Rebirth: 2008 Is Nearly Here

The winter solstice is many things to us. It is a time for reflection and renewal. The stars align in the sky. The solstice is sun's ebbing presence in the sky so varying ideas of life-death-birth, new beginnings, or the rebirth of the sun gods have been observed and celebrated for as long as man has been on this planet. Maybe this is why those of us who feel so truly connected to the earth and the stars and living creatures have that crazy need to have things at peace in our minds as well as to have our living spaces clean, organized, and re-energized. I can really feel it. Can you? Are you connected?

"Mid-winter celebrations have been observed all over the world since ancient times. In Egypt, Osiris is said to have died and been reborn on Winter Solstice. In Greece, the winter solstice rites were called Lenaea, in which Dionysos was torn apart and then reborn. The Incas had their Festival of the Sun and the Pueblos and Hopis, as well as many other Native Americans, observed Winter Solstice with sun-centered rituals. The Romans had their Saturnalia and in fact there were so many different Sun deities connected with Winter Solstice that the Roman emperor Aurelian (@270 AD) officially rolled them all into one single festival and proclaimed December 25 "The Birthday of the Sun". Lighting fires to encourage the return of the sun on the longest night has been a universal tradition since prehistoric times."