In honour of this spinning earth that tilts towards the light and then away, here is a sacred image from the high summer of European culture, when men and women lived among the trees.
Sacred Celtic Serpent, Yach, Black Forest

Yach, by the way, is pronounced the Celtic way: Eich (eye-kh, in a rough English transcription).  I doubt it’s an accident that that happens to be the name of the sacred German oaks.

Now it is the dark solstice, but even so the old gods still move with us through the story of the world.

Stag at Dusk, Okanagan Landing

The same earth, but the light is so different now.

The ways of living on and with the earth are not far. They are as close to us as breath. As we approach the celebration of the birth of a child both man and god in the darkness, I thank you for walking with me this past year, into the light and back to the world.