Solstice Ritual & Celebration
with Shannon Willis
DECEMBER 21, 2024
12PM LA | 3PM NYC | 21:00 Madrid
90 MINUTES
Our Invitation
Join us for a special Solstice celebration as we honor (in the North) the longest night and welcome the returning light! This 90-minute animist ritual is an opportunity to reflect, release, and reconnect with nature’s cycles. Together, we’ll celebrate the turning of the seasons with offerings, guided practice, song, and gratitude. This gathering is free and open to all — whether you’re new to ritual practice or a seasoned practitioner. Let’s embrace winter’s quiet beauty and kindle the light within. Enter your name and email address and we’ll send you the link and info to join virtually.
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What To Bring
A journal
Drum or rattle
Incense
A candle
A small natural object
An offering of nuts
Water
You’re welcome to join even if you don’t have some or any of the items listed. Bringing yourself is most pertinent.
Your small object should be biodegradable (stone or bone, for example). We will release it to the Earth. Your offering of nuts may also include seeds, berries, or grains.
About the Solstice
In the North, the winter solstice marks the longest night of the year and the gradual return of light. For centuries, this time has been honored with rituals around renewal and reflection as a moment for reflection and contemplation.
In the Tarot, winter aligns with the suit of swords with a focus on mental clarity and truth-seeking. Traditions honoring the northern orientation of the cardinal directions often associate with winter, wisdom, introspection, and endurance. In traditions the world over, the season invites a deep connection to the spiritual and mental levels of existence. It’s a time that encourages patience and the gathering of strength amidst stillness.
At Ancestral Medicine, we seek to honor animist traditions and practice Earth-based rituals as did all of our ancestors at one time in the long history of humans. In a world facing constant upheaval—cultural, personal, political, environmental—celebrating the Solstice in community can be grounding and nourishing, support awareness of the enduring cycles of nature, and anchor us to the unknowable. It’s a reassurance that the light will return.
Shannon Willis
Shannon is a dedicated ritualist working at the intersection of dream midwifery, psychopomp, ancestral and oracular practices. She is the Ritual Director here at Ancestral Medicine and the Founder of Red Earth Healing. She holds a Masters in Leadership and Professional Counseling and has more than four decades of experience leading individuals, groups, and organizations through consultation and ritual. She is an initiate of Ọbàtálá and Ọ̀ṣun in the lineage of Olúwo Fálolú Adésànyà Awoyadé, and a devoted student of Jhankri shamanism through the 27th generational lineage of Bhola Nath Banstola. She is a descendant of settler-colonists from the British Isles, Belgium, France, freed peoples of West Africa, and indigenous Cherokee and Kaskaskia/Illini nations.
