Gaming

Winter Solstice – The Northern Initiation Castle

Winter is the time to turn within to heal, rejuvenate and be reborn as the Celtic Wheel of the Year turns to its northernmost point. Even so, the Solstice itself celebrates the return of light. Arianrhod, as Goddess of the moon, sea and stars, reborns the sun each year and takes us back to the womb, and our seasonal resting place in her Northern Castle of Initiation.

Like the eight branches of yoga that grow from the rooted tree trunk, the Celtic Wheel of the Year, also known as the wheel of life, has eight seasonal spokes that originate from a central hub or well of sovereignty. Often represented by triple goddess iconography, each turn of the wheel guides us through the seasons, their energies and symbolism.

Whether that movement is measured in annual or daily time cycles; by the internal rhythms of our relationship with known and unknown forces; or with the four winds of the galactic superposition; each cycle builds on the first, encouraging us to grow in our sense of embodied spirit. We are holograms of the divine and its elemental origins are imprinted in our cells; With intention and practice, we reach the spiritual threshold, a place of wholeness with a view to autonomy and oneness with the divine within. This is what the yogis called samadhi and what the Celts embraced as the descending energy of the divine.

“Look up to the northeastern winter sky at Corona Borealis;

There you will see the Crown of the Goddess.

Beyond this jeweled arch to the underworld lies

The North Castle of Initiation, Caer Sidi.

Deep within a sea of ​​brilliant lights lies the Northern Lights;

There you will find Arianrhod,

Queen of the moon, the sea and the stars.

As his silver wheel turns the midworld past the solstice point,

Arianrhod guides our souls to the upper world.”

In times of ascension information overload and outer world chaos, go within, to your sovereign center, calling forth the energies of the Goddess through the eight spokes of the Celtic Wheel of Life.

Winter solstice: myths and stories

During the season of Samhain, we begin the long journey back to our origins, returning to a time before birth where we nestled in the womb of the Mother. We celebrate this return to the Mother in the middle of winter, the time of greatest darkness and least light. Winter is a time for inner world magic, dreams, healing, vision, birth, death, and rebirth. It is a time when light is born again.

At this point of the Solstice, or Yule, we pause for a moment, enjoying the Sun’s last fading light and expanding first light. From here we move further inward, gathering patience and courage to go deeper into stillness for a timely respite.

Within the great matrix of all earthly life, we experience feelings of security, the murmurs of sleepers, and the smells of damp, musty earth, our earthen bones. In this container we are enveloped by darkness, accompanied only by our inner vision and our desire to grow. This is the place and time we rest, restore and heal for a time, before returning to the light, little by little, as inspiration calls us and wakes us up again in Imbolc on Brighid’s Day.

Si an Bhru: Newgrange, County Meath, Ireland

Along the River Boyne (Brugh na Boinne) in Ireland, the ancients built Newgrange long before the Celts came to Ireland. On the shortest day of the year, the tribes of the time celebrated when the light was reborn each winter solstice, shining on the burial mound where they hibernated and dreamed, waiting for illumination and the return of spring.

Arianrhod: Goddess of the Winter Solstice and Queen of the Castle of Initiation

Like Sophia, Arianrhod is a mother of god. A Welsh Celtic goddess of the moon, stars and sky, her name means “Silver Wheel” or “Silver Circle”. Arianrhod is the goddess of the wheel of the year, the full moon, destiny, fertility, female power, birth, death, and reincarnation. She is the daughter of Don, whose Irish counterpart is Danu from the Tuatha De Danann. Known as a triple goddess, she has triune relationships with Blodeuwedd & Morrigu; Blodeuwedd and Cerridwen.

Some of her other identities are “white virgin goddess of birth, initiation, death and rebirth” and the “silver wheel that descends into the sea”. His is the “Silver Wheel Castle”, a northern spinning castle, sometimes referred to as the great spinning island surrounded by the sea in the sky.

Astronomically speaking, Caer Arianrhod is sometimes known as the Pole Star, seen only and always in the northern skies of the Milky Way. It can be found at the tip of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper. Some say that her castle is the Aurora Borealis or the Milky Way and thus the heavens swirl around her castle. Others say that Caer Arianrhod is the constellation, Corona Borealis, or its Greek counterpart, Ariadne’s Crown.

She is also the mother of the Sun and Moon, the maternal aspect of a triad of goddesses with the maiden Blodeuwedd and the crone Cerridwen, and is said to be one of the five goddesses originating from the Isle of Avalon. The other four are Blodeuwedd, Cerridwen, Branwen, and Rhiannon. Arianrhod is one of many goddesses whose stories, symbology, and related summoning rituals have been lost to time. Much of what we know about her now originates from the medieval Welsh myths of “The Mabinogion”.

As the Celtic goddess of time, her Silver Wheel represents life and karma as it embodies the turning of the year on the Celtic Wheel of Life. Some of her other symbols are the cauldron, a symbol of female power; the white sow that means connection with the underworld; the North Pole Star and the upper world where she reigns in Caer Arianrhod, which is also known as Caer Sidi. She is specifically associated with the winter season because the Sun is reborn every year at the Solstice.

Caer Sidi is known as the initiation tower of another world, a place between time, where souls reside after death before their next incarnation. In some myths, Arianrhod is said to transport a boat known as a Rowing Wheel, which carries the souls of dead warriors to Emania, or Land of the Moon, where they will reside until reincarnated.

Summon Arianrhod

“Hail Arianrhod, we call you now!

Your silver wheel of light is our pole star at night. We know you are there, as we can see your crown of stars, even from our place in earthly life.

Guide us to your castle of initiation, to the heavens to float like the moon and stars of the upper world.

Make room for us, Mother, in the blessed warmth of your cauldron, as we pause for a season to restore and heal, to learn and resurrect with you, as you reborn the Sun each year.

Hail Ariarhod, we call you now!

We wade through the fiery winds and rains of time to find the portal to your castle in the sky.

Take us on your boat, singing us home as we listen to the sound of your oars skimming the surface of the waves.

You gracefully move the ship through the gentle seas that hover in the sky, back to the Land of the Moon, where you reign mightily.

Hail, Ariarhod, we call you now!

Your gifts are wings to fly, and we silently make our way through the darkness of the season, grateful as we welcome the expanding light once again.

We honor your knowledge of the upper world, the underworld and all other worlds.

Your purpose is clear and we follow you home to the realms of Caer Sidi, Caer Arianrhod, the castle of initiation and rebirth.

Hail, Arianrhod, we call you now!

Hail Arianrhod! We have found our way home!

Hail Arianrhod! We can stay now!

Hail Arianrhod! We lie still until the time comes to part the veils of winter!

Hail Arianrhod! We are restored!

Hail Arianrhod! We have remembered the magic of the Goddess within ourselves!”

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