On Not Lighting a Solstice Bonfire (Starhawk)

Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year. The time of the year when darkness reigns and light seems a weak challenger. When the sun appears to stand still, and time stops. A time for letting go, for cleansing and release.

For decades now, the Reclaiming community of Pagans here in San Francisco has celebrated the Solstice at the beach, with a plunge into the ocean and a dance around the bonfire. The shock of cold, the trail of gold on the water, the exhilaration, the wild wind all carry away the last scraps of meanness and whining and disappointment left from the year. And the bonfire with its leaping flames offers warmth and light and community.

A simple ritual, its power carried by the elements themselves. It doesn’t depend on profound thinking, or poetic trance, or eloquent words, which you can’t hear anyway at the beach. Just the ocean, the fire, and the community.

But this year we won’t have a fire. Some years ago, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area banned fires on the beach.

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