Hi Friend,

The dark is coming.

Shadows lengthen. Regardless of our individual preparation, it is coming: the long nights and the short days.

I am, of course, talking about the coming of winter.

Did you, perhaps for a second, think I might be referring to the results of last week's election?

I wouldn't blame you if you did. Over the past week, my email inbox has been filled with reassurances, assurances, platitudes, keen observations, early-stage analysis, pontifications, and reminders.

These reminders include: to breath, to feel all my feelings, to be curious, to have very strong opinions, to grieve and lament and wail; to be afraid, to not be afraid; to sing (someone sent a very nice lullaby); to plan my escape route, to reach out to my neighbors, to bash (fill in the blank); to resist, to fight, to take a stand, to let go, to build bridges, to understand the other side; to listen, to prepare for a lot of Bad Things; to read the works by Inspirational People, to not believe the B.S. (presumably of the Other Side); to let myself experience desparation and anger but, also, to not stay there, to not get caught in it; to deepen into what is true and right and good; to open myself to the unknown. To get on the next call and to create plans. To double down on what I believe in. To expand into some new beliefs and different kinds of allegiances. To be shocked and horrified. To be utterly unsurprised (do I not teach on the histories of misogyny and racism and colonization?) To see this as the end of an era; to see this as the beginning of the end of a system that has long, long needed some serious change. To donate. To donate some more.

Ah: to live within and between paradoxes and dynamic questions and contradictions and uncertainties.

So this is what is before us: a 'new' political reality which is also not new at all.

To move into the next phase of hospicing modernity.

For sure: some of the lines in the sand are shifting.

Something that resembles a paradox keeps coming to me -

1) The importance of protection. It's well worth thinking deeply about the many things that 'protection' might mean for you, for your sacred places, for your communities.

2) To go deeper. Into... what? Into the roots. (aka: to be more radical.) The beckoning call of Spirit - a call that can be meshed with community, with magic, with listening, with practices that do not center fear/build courage. With connecting and going deeper into Earth. Enmeshed with this is the search for truth.

And:

I anticipate greater chaos. I don't necessarily mean "good" or "bad" chaos here. (For example: Many old patterns of organizing probably won't work as well. That could lead to some really incredible new things emerging. ) Possibly - the ongoing rise of the absurd.

In the midst of chaos, humans lean towards simple narratives and short-time horizons. So I am mulling over how to hold open spaces for complex truths and non-binary approaches to living-in-place-and-time in the midst of the temptations of overly-simplistic-thinking. I'm giving myself time to keep forming my own analysis, to not assume I know right now what will be most "helpful". Already, I am shifting how I see some things, asking deeper questions; tweaking upcoming programming (so that our annual circular time of will have some new questions this year); I expect that will continue. That includes listening to you! do feel free to write to me what kind of offerings might be supportive for you in the months to come.

We as humans have inherited many capacities from multiple long histories. Not just the capacity for suffering. Or meanness. But also: falling apart and coming together again; letting parts of ourselves release and die and shape shift; shifting perspectives; being resilient; creating radically cool societies; connecting across differences.

As winter comes, let us not project doom onto darkness. As my friend Rev.Rhetta Morgan said (I did a sweet podcast with her a few years ago), "let us return innocence to the dark."

The coming, predictable, rhthymic darkness - winter solstice comes quickly! - can be a much-needed time for greater quiet, for preparation, for dreaming. For gathering close to the hearth (in some of the old Greek myths, the first offering and prayer was always to the elder sister of the gods, Hestea, keeper of the hearth, who made all else possible).

And yes, I am well aware that "dreaming" can include having nightmares. (And if you have been having nightmares, you are not alone! It is part of the connection between the individual and the collective.)

Still: still, again, as always, beyond and above and in between: we can welcome the coming of winter and what so often seems like a "rebirth" of Sun.

Last year, my friends Rev. Rhetta Morgan and Amy Kietizman and I put together a four week program that we nick-named "Advent for the Winter Solstice" in which we attend to the wintering patterns of birds and animals in the northeast/midwest as the sun sets (in the eastern part of Turtle Island). It was the best program I've co-created or been a part of as a way of entering winter.

It proved a powerful way of entering into deeper relationship with the more-than-human world.

What a blessing.

So we are offering it again. It is both light and deep and gentle and celebratory of the darkness: the place to which the light returns and is born again.

Connecting to winter is always an important part of our journeys as spiritual-ecological beings. Right now, that feels particularly powerful - to re-orient our relationship to darkness in community.

Perhaps you might find yourself inclined to join us.

We start soon! - less than 2 weeks - on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. (This means we are de-centering Thanksgiving.) We meet for the four Tuesdays before Winter Solstice, and engage with the beautiful book, (sometimes thought of as a childrens book), All Creation Waits.

We hope to see you there - at sunset, which in many traditions is the beginning of the day.

And so the snake eats her tail ... and might the people remember how to dance alongside the coming of the darkness?

Blessings -

Sara Jolena

PS - We've had a lot of recognition of the value of the historical work we do to help people to interpret and engage more fully in the times we are in. So we are offering more Informational Webinars - both in November and in December - as we create our next cohort.