Letter from Cressida Pryor
December 19, 2023

As twilight descends now close to 4 o’clock in the afternoon I welcome the approaching Solstice in the knowing that there will soon be a slow increase in day light again...

Hooray!

Praying as light grows that there will be a softening of hearts to reduce the human suffering in the many war and conflict blighted regions of the world...

I recently heard Carol Ann Duffy’s poem the ‘light gatherer’ written on the birth of her daughter which describes with such delicacy the translucent skin of new life:

‘When you were small, your cupped palms each held a candleworth under the skin, enough light to begin’…

And this is how it feels for me at the Solstice...a knowing that the pendulum swing of time is slowly shifting, two minutes at a time towards longer days and more growing time...sometimes it’s hard to notice the increase with grey rain filled clouds blocking any light we do have. Despite this we do perhaps have to remind ourselves that there is ‘enough light to begin’...

We have apocalyptic scenes on the daily news and I know many who find watching these has become too much and they guiltily switch off or over...how can we remain sensitive and attuned and yet not become cynical and so world weary we no longer care? I would suggest one way is to turn to new life and the innocence of youngsters to keep our hearts open.

I am blessed, Goddess willing, with a new grandchild to be born in the next weeks.

This is hugely humbling...

Every new baby is a miracle and deserves so much wherever they make their first dive into the next decades of air living from their watery beginning...

I have recently read how most of the major world faiths start the earthly life of their prophet protagonist in humble and unexpected circumstances...this new life then witnessed by outsiders, heralded by even more ancient whisperings of ‘great things to come’...

Divine Mother at this time of the Winter Solstice

May all the new lives we welcome into the world be heralded with open arms and a candleworth of light...

May we treasure and protect their parents and guardians with the awe they deserve.

May our lives too be blessed as the returning flame glimmers to make us peace makers and shape shifters so we can adapt with agility to our ever changing world and its demands with justice, generosity and creativity in our hearts. So may it be. Amen.