The Winter Solstice is celebrated with great enthusiasm on the North American continent, but in much of the Old World, it is a time of dark and cold. The year is coming to its end and the new year will begin. The day is gloomy and raw, the landscape bleak and barren.
As the last day of the year approaches, the world begins to change. And the change begins with the Great Mother herself. She begins to abandon her human form and transform into something else. The spirits of themens short silk robes land and the forest take the power of the sun from her.
The changes are subtle. First, the trees begin to lose their leaves. As the sun goes down, the leaves will fall. At a certain point in the Fall, the leaves will begin to decompose and fall, releasing their nutrients into the soil.
The days and nights begin to get longer. The days will continue to get longer until the Winter Solstice arrives. The night will be the longest night of the year. It will be darker, colder and more dreary than the rest of the year.
The Winter Solstice is the day the spirit of the land takes over. The spirits of the land will make the trees grow and produce more food for us. But as the year draws to an end, the spirit of the land will no longer need the sun.
The time has come for the spirit of the land to leave the body. On the Winter Solstice, the spirit leaves the human body. The spirit is called the World Spirit.
The Great Mother is giving birth to something else. Something that will become the new spirit of the land. This other spirit will take over the body of the Great Mother.
There are many spirits in the land and the earth. The spirits of the animals, the spirits of the mountains, the forests mens short silk robes and the sky are all present. The spirits of the forests, the mountains, the winds and the animals are the spirits of the land.
The spirits are not separate. The spirits of the land are no different than the spirits of the trees, the forests, the sky and the animals. In the time before we were created, there was only the Great Mother. She gave birth to the spirits of the land. They have been present in the same way since the beginning of time.