Tag: spirituality

Solstice and Meditation Pearls

This year the winter solstice is also World Meditation Day, thanks to the United Nations. Both events hold a reverence for our place in the Universe.

The solstice honors Earth’s axis slanting away from Sun, delivering the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (reversed in the Southern Hemisphere) on December 21st. It is a long-celebrated event around the world. While the earliest solstice celebration is unknown, archeologists Peter Biehl and Francois Bertemes made a fascinating discovery in Germany in 2002. They excavated a 7,000-year-old enclosed circle near the Halle-Wittenberg University, finding that the Goseck Henge has two “gates.” These openings line up with the start of the summer and winter solstices. Might this be the world’s first solar observatory?

Other places are better known as solstice subscribers as they have impressive structures that frame Sun as it rises: Ireland’s Newgrange, England’s Stonehenge (on the same latitude as Goseck and nearly the same longitude), and Mexico’s Chichén Itzá. Each bears witness to how observant early people were about Earth’s rhythm of changing seasons. Celebrating winter solstice may have begun as a gratefulness for completed harvest time, making time for rest and reflection. Feasts often accompany solstice festivals.

Ancient Rome celebrated Saturnalia to honor the sun god Saturn with offerings and gift-giving. By the 1st century BCE this celebration morphed into week-long partying. Many believe that Saturnalia festivals set the stage for modern-day Christmas traditions of feasting, candle-lighting, and exchanging gifts.

Indigenous people in the U.S. also had early celebrations on winter solstice. Hopi Native People celebrated Kachina Season with ritual ceremonies and dancing. Kachina figures have been found on rock art from 1350 CE. There is a reverence for kachinas, symbolic protective spirits. Kachina dolls, symbolizing prayer wishes, are given as gifts to young girls.

World Meditation Day links with solstice traditions in terms of reverence for and celebration of life. This United-Nations-recognized global event received unanimous adoption in the General Assembly on 12-06-24. The 2025 theme embraces all people’s traditions and faiths: “Inner Peace, Global Harmony.” There is an emphasis on an individual’s stillness and mindfulness as ingredients that lead to compassion, mental wellness, and peaceful actions. Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to what is happening in the moment rather than focusing on fixing the past or fantasizing futures.

As a star-gazing fan, I applaud those who mindfully watched seasonal changes set to solstice times. And I embrace the global emphasis of World Meditation Day. As a daily meditator, I’d like to see meditation taught in our schools. Rather than waiting for behavior problems to crop up on the playground and in school hallways, why not be proactive and teach mindfulness practices to children and adolescents? Meditation, journaling, and focused mindfulness practices can transcend many differences among individuals.  

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

456. What does winter solstice mean to you?

457. How might you engage in mindfulness practices and create more inner peace for yourself?

Big-picture Peace

Under the Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai (1769-1849)

The United Nations International Day of Peace, annually set for September 21st, has a request: a 24-hour ceasefire of all hostilities on the planet. This year’s theme, “Cultivating a Culture of Peace,” calls for teaching the values of dialogue (see blog, “Mend Differences through Dialogue,” 8-19-24) and mutual respect to the 1.2 billion youth worldwide. Have we given up on adults knowing how to use dialogue and mutual respect in resolving conflicts?

It seems that adult problem-solving efforts to create peace on earth are like the tiny boats facing the looming giant wave in Katsushika Hokusai’s color woodblock print, Under the Wave off  Kanagawa. I must admit that the first time I saw this captivating image in Chicago’s Art Institute years ago, I was so focused on the wave action that initially I did not see the boats! Due to being on paper, the print is only on view for 3-4 months every 5 years. This original gem has re-surfaced from protective storage and again is on display (September 5, 2024–January 6, 2025) in the Art Institute’s Ando Gallery, my favorite room in the entire museum. This time, I knew to look for the boats. What if we are looking for world peace in all the wrong places?

Most museum visitors never see the Tadao Ando Gallery, or Gallery 109, as it sits in an innermost corner of the Art Institute’s Japanese collections. It is a compact space compared to many roomy galleries in other sections of the museum. Also, it is one of the few darkened spaces.

Ando was a self-taught architect. His haunting 16 free-standing wood columns in the womb-like environment compel one to slow down, take deeper breaths, and realize that this is a bodymind immersion into a different sense of time and space. Walking through the “forest” of oak pillars creates an atmosphere of peaceful reverence; the message is to refocus your gaze and get ready to look for what is beyond this “forest” grove.

We have English writer John Heywood to thank for his catchy proverb from 1546: “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” It seems to apply to many situations today, but especially to country leaders who lack the capacity to grasp the disastrous consequences of continuing wars. While dwelling solely on certain details, the big picture is often far from sightlines. Combating inequality, advocating for human rights, and championing climate actions for our planet are factors that lie beyond the immediate details of our international conflicts.

Re-look at Hokusai’s masterpiece. Mount Fuji holds still beyond the crashing wave. Again, we almost miss seeing beyond first details. This mountain is considered a spiritual place. How might we look for big-picture peace and create an interfaith spiritual culture for world dialogues? Isn’t peace first within a baby’s heart?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz 

327. When have you caught yourself missing some big-picture viewpoint?

328. How often do you refocus your gaze in looking for solutions to your personal sense of peace?