Letter from Cressida Pryor
December 16, 2024

FOI Winter Solstice Letter
Dear FOI Friends,
As ever it seems but a eye blink since writing the last letter at Samhain were it not for the many extraordinary events that have happened since then...
I was honoured to be asked to give the third reading at the annual candlelit carol service in Hailes's medieval Church last night. There is no power there except that from the divine so the congregation know to be well wrapped up against the bitter cold...and yet the warm light and raised voices somehow balance the reduced temperature to lift hearts and hope in these bleak times.
I was reading the passage in Luke's gospel telling of the holy couple's journey to be enrolled in Bethlehem...this was a ruling from the governor of Syria...as I spoke this country's name out loud, I could feel people look up and almost hold their breath.
This name is also of our times.
It is in the news most days and now feels balanced between the possibility of a hopeful, democratic and peaceful future or maybe slide into being a place of cruelty, fear and something akin to what it was, until so recently...or maybe a mix of both...
It will take huge strength of heart and determination not to seek ongoing revenge and retribution for the crimes that have been committed in the past decades...I don't know how a path beyond the immediate times can be navigated but I do find hope in the words of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes:
"In a world that is often heart-stopping in horror and breath-taking in beauty...the Blessed Mother is so unspeakably gracious with brilliant inspirations...
In Blessed Mother's view, all are lovable, all soul's accepted, all carry a sweetness of heart, are beautiful to the eyes, worthy of consciousness, of being inspired, being helped, being comforted and protected..."
So holding this in our hearts may allow some form of justice and reconciliation...not only in the middle east but also closer to home.
We have in the UK recently been able to listen to the annual 'Reith Lectures' on the BBC's Radio 4...these are given by an expert in a particular field. This year Dr Gwen Adshead, an experienced forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist has been talking about the nature of evil and those who commit homicide. She stresses that, despite having worked with perpetrators of extreme acts of violence she still uses the term 'evil states of mind' rather than 'evil people'. This provides that essential possibility that there might still be the discovery of a kernel of lovability buried deep in the soul however dark it seems...
Perhaps a reminder that the Solstice also gives us...and the birth in Nazareth...that when it feels there is no room and despite all the shut doors, the long nights and storms, there will be light again.
May the Divine Mother hold our hope when ours feels gone or far away
May we relish the returning light, nurture it with kind words, warm deeds and an open heart
And until we meet again may the Goddess hold us all in the hollow of her hands...
Cressida, FOI Steward