Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox is a festival of balance, as day and night are equal (but after this the days get longer). It’s also the time when the coming of Spring is really becoming apparent.

According to Bede, the ancient Germanic pagans honoured a goddess called Eostre or Ostara who was associated with hares and the Moon and eggs; however there is no reference to this goddess in any other text.

Although Spring Equinox is about the balance between darkness and light, with the light in the ascendancy, an important point about Pagan symbolism is that darkness is not seen as negative, but as a time of rest and renewal and refreshment before the return of daylight. Some people use darkness as a metaphor for ignorance and evil. That symbolism has no place in Pagan ritual.

In Wicca, darkness does not symbolise evil. The darkness is necessary for rest, growth, and regeneration. Death is not evil, but a necessary adjunct to life. If there was no death and dissolution, there could be no change or growth. The cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth is part of the interaction of the polarities. Suffering is also part of the process of growth; just as a tree is shaped by the wind, we are shaped by our experiences. It is only by experiencing suffering that we acquire sufficient depth to know the fullness of joy. It is then that the full light of consciousness dawns in us, and we achieve mystical communion with the divine.

Spring Equinox can be celebrated by a tug-of-war between two teams representing the darkness and the light, or by Easter-egg hunts, or by painting eggs.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, and remember, it's the spirituality and values of the event that are the most important aspects, not its literal truth.

What is true for me is that, in the peeling away of all the layers of history and pageantry and holy wars … and all the rest, peeling away until we’re back to the message Jesus brought, and seeing Jesus there with those he loved, the hungry, the poor, those in prison, the weak, those who were persecuted, and we catch sight of something of the hope they must have felt. Jesus burst into this world like a flash of hope. That is why we sing this month. That is why we light candles. This is what a Unitarian Universalist does with Christmas, does at Christmas. We sing. We light candles. We hope for a better world.

~ First UU, Concord

Unitarians were calling for the public observance of Christmas by about 1800. They did so in full knowledge that it was not a biblically sanctioned holiday, and that December 25 was probably not the day on which Jesus was born. They wished to celebrate the holiday not because God had ordered them to do so but because they themselves wished to.

~ Stephen Nissenbaum

Be ready at all times to give those you love the simply abundant gifts of Spirit. If you do, they’ll give you Christmas gifts you’ll never forget: happy smiles and contented hearts. And you won’t want to exchange them.

~ Meister Eckhart

“All religious stories are mythological stories, where asking ʻDid it happen?ʼ, ʻWhen did it happen?ʼ, or ʻWhere did it happen?ʼ, is completely irrelevant. They are stories to help you understand what life is all about”.

~ Father David Paterson of the Sea of Faith, speaking on Channel Fourʼs History of Christianity series.

Christmas is not so much a matter of explanation and interpretation, as it is a mood and a feeling. It is a time in the cycle of the year set apart by hope and fellowship and generosity. Christmas is the season of the heart.

~ Gordon B McKeenan

The Wicked Fairy At The Manger by U.A. Fanthorpe

My gift for the child:
No wife, kids, home;
No money sense. Unemployable.
Friends, yes. But the wrong sort –
The workshy, women, wimps,
Petty infringers of the law, persons
With notifiable diseases,
Poll tax collectors, tarts;
The bottom rung.
His end?
I think we’ll make it
Public, prolonged, painful.
Right, said the baby. That was roughly
What we had in mind.

Bridge of Light

a celebration of the full equality and dignity of all people

Location: Global event
Start Date: 26 December, 2010
Finish Date: 1 January 2011

Welcome in the new year with Bridge of Light, a new holiday honouring LGBT culture and spirituality.

People celebrate Bridge of Light by lighting seven candles, one for each color of the LGBT rainbow flag, on New Year’s Eve -- or from 26 December to 1 January, one candle per day.

Each candle stands for a universal principle and its expression in the lives and history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people:

Red - The Root of Spirit (Community)
Orange - The Fire of Spirit (Eros)
Yellow - The Core of Spirit (Self-Esteem)
Green - The Heart of Spirit (Love)
Blue - The Voice of Spirit (Self-Expression and Justice)
Purple - The Eye of Spirit (Wisdom)
All Candles - The Crown of Spirit (Spirituality)


The candles are intended to provide a starting point for individual and group meditations on the meaning of spirituality in our lives.

Kittredge Cherry worked with Joe Perez, the founder of Bridge of Light, to revise the principles to include the chakras. You can read their discussions at the Gay Spirituality Blog. They’re open to future revisions, so let them know what you think!

Bridge of Light resources

Jesus in Love blog: Bridge of Light

Gay Spirituality: Bridge of Light

Joe Perez: Bridge of Light

Dance of the elements: words of inclusive love (a prayer and benediction for Bridge of Light)

Winter Solstice

Yes, Virginia, axial tilt is the reason for the season... and the perpetual mystery of the light being born from the darkness. The light of the sun, the darkness of night; the light of the divine spark in each one of us, born from the joyous mystery of flesh; the light of consciousness welling up from the dark waters of the unconscious.

One of the reasons why the celebration of the solstice runs so deep in the human psyche is that people feared, deep down, that the light of the sun might not return. It's also a moment of jollity and colour in the midst of the wet, cold, dark winter.

The winter solstice occurs exactly when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Just about every culture has a festival around the winter solstice.

One of my favourite sites about the winter solstice is Candlegrove, which has reflections on Solstice, Sacaea and Saturnalia, Yule and celebrating the solstice today.

"Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom? There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something very beautiful, something which compels our understanding."

--Earl W. Count, 4,000 Years of Christmas