The Nudge | Winter Solstice

 “Winter Solstice is the death or passing away of the old pattern of the year, the old pattern of the sun, old habits, old structures…. and the coming of the new patterns, the new sun, the new possibilities. If you relive the myth at this time you tend to forget your profane condition - the habituations and narrowing of everyday life - and enter for a while into a much larger universe, a larger and truer ecology of being.”

 

Jean Heuston

The Search for the Beloved,

Journeys in Mythology and Sacred Psychology

 

Táimid ar bís — we are excited to share our seasonal care package The Nudge with you as we enter the Winter Solstice. 

 Share the Nudge with a friend

 

Táimid ar bís — we are excited to share our seasonal care package The Nudge with you on this day of the Winter Solstice here in the northern hemisphere.

As I write these words, I realise when you read them I will be completely off-grid here in Ireland. I’ve chosen to retreat into the wilderness, to step out of the everyday and as Jean Houston writes, “enter for a while into a much larger universe.”

With the Winter Solstice approaching, I find myself reflecting on the great cycles of deep time. Darkness and light, death and rebirth, rest and renewal, womb and tomb — the dance of opposites so beautifully woven into one living whole.

 

 

The Ancients of this land held a life-affirming way of seeing and living life. They were attuned to the forces of Nature and magic, to rhythm and pattern and to the teachings revealed through the wild world. They lived in close relationship with the land, the cosmos and the mystery.

At midwinter, fires were lit to welcome the return of the light. This was a great act of faith. The Winter Solstice arrived at the height of uncertainty, when starvation, disease and death were common companions through the cold, barren months.

We find ourselves living in a time of great uncertainty now. There is much talk about the years ahead. Whether we are moving through a quantum shift or an evolutionary leap, our friend Bayo Akomolafe offers a necessary reminder, drawn from an African saying:

“These times are urgent. Let us slow down.”

As the year turns, I’m holding deep gratitude, especially for our beloved community at The Trailblazery. Guided by the cycles and seasons of the Earth, Sun and Moon we shared a powerful conversation on film with Manchán and Michael D. Higgins, initiated The Weave as a communal dwelling place for women to root, rest and rise, welcomed a global family to unlearn and relearn our teanga dhúchais at Scoil Scairte, created a rewilding Homecoming retreat on the Beara Peninsula and gathered in song with our sister Leah Song at The Fumbally.

The bog shaman philosopher John Moriarty once wrote:

“Healing in our cultural present will come as a consequence of healing in our cultural past… To do this, we need people who can live in our cultural Dreamtime — people who go walkabout creatively within the old myths, people who go walkabout into the unknown.”

The Solstice marks a threshold pregnant with possibility and invites us to consider the part we might play in our cultural Dreamtime.

And so, for now, I am slowing right down to go walkabout into the unknown.
This is my great act of faith. 

See you on the other side.

Beir bua — with victory,

May the force be with us.

Kathy

 

About Winter Solstice:

 

Winter Solstice arrives quietly. There is no sudden shift, just a deep settling and a subtle turn. It is the moment when the year exhales, when the dark has done its work and something begins, almost imperceptibly, to stir.

This is not a season for pushing forward. It is a time our ancestors understood as one of tending and trust, of gathering close and listening to what wants to be carried through the winter. The light does not rush back in. It returns slowly, asking for patience and care.

In this pause, the inner landscape comes into view. What has been growing beneath the surface? What needs shelter or simply time? Winter Solstice reminds us that rest is not passive, it is part of the cycle of creation itself.

This point of the Wheel of the Year invites us to honour the quiet work of becoming, to stay with the dark a little longer and to welcome the returning light not as a call to action but as a gentle promise unfolding in its own time.

 

 

3 journal prompts to inspire you:

 

❄️ How are you embracing this time of darkness within and without? How are you meeting the practice of pausing, stillness, hibernation and rest?

❄️ What are you noticing in your body and emotions as the season changes with your internal clock and biorhythms?

❄️ Imagine the seeds of new life, ideas, and projects taking root during the "dream time" of winter. What dreams and aspirations are quietly germinating within you?

 

What's coming up at The Trailblazery:

 

As the Great Wheel turns, we are invited to pause and remember what we have travelled through together. We are excited to let you know what the future holds for our community here at The Trailblazery.

 

 

Scoil Scairte: In Your Own Time

 

As we move into the darker half of the year, many of us are stepping into a slower rhythm of resting and reflecting. It’s in this quieter space that Scoil Scairte: Self-Paced really comes into its own.

This is not about pressure or perfection. It’s an invitation to begin (or return to) Irish in a way that feels nourishing and alive. With over 22 hours of beautifully curated teaching, music and ritual, you can move through the programme gently, in your own time, letting the language meet you where you are.

If you’re feeling the pull to start the year rooted in something meaningful, without rushing or force, Scoil Scairte: Self Paced offers a place to land and a path to walk when you’re ready.

For more info and to sign up, visit our website here.

 

3 curated resources to mind your life and nourish your senses in the days ahead:

 

♪ Listen: For your ears

We’re sharing a podcast conversation that feels especially resonant for this season of slowing, recalibration and truth-telling. Kathy recently joined Tanishka (The Moon Woman) and Clare Dubois, founder of Tree Sisters, for an open and deeply human dialogue exploring what happens when midlife reshapes our sense of purpose.

Together, they speak candidly about devotion to meaningful work and the quiet wisdom of returning to the body, the Earth and what truly sustains us. It’s an honest, generous conversation between women who have walked long paths of service and a gentle invitation to soften and realign.

 

✯ Watch: For your eyes

In Hamnet – Maggie O'Farrell's eloquent 2020 novel and the deeply moving new film based on it – Shakespeare's wife, Agnes, is a herbalist who has a knowledge of medical potions and an almost supernatural ability to sense the future.

But she cannot save her young son from the plague, a death that leads the boy's father to write one of the greatest plays in all of literature, Hamlet. And almost none of that is true in any verifiable way. On the page and on screen, Hamnet is a work of inspired imagination, a rich exploration of grief spun out of the barest of facts.

 

♥ Read: For your heart 

 

 

We’d like to share a course that feels deeply aligned with the questions many of us are sitting with right now. A Course on the Imaginal: Cultivating the Visionary Self, led by our dear friend Alixa García is a live online journey exploring imagination as a bodily, creative and relational practice.

Rooted in somatics and decolonial inquiry, this course invites participants to reconnect with imagination through the body, as a way of restoring wholeness, strengthening nervous system resilience and tending to both ancestral and future generations. It’s a rich and beautifully held offering for those called to deepen their creative and inner work during uncertain times. You can check it out here.

 

Thank you for walking this path with us,

Beannachtaí,

Kathy and all at The Trailblazery