Happy solstice! I’ve released a video for it, about the ancient spiritual meaning of the winter solstice.
I talk about the ancient sites, traditions, and myths of the winter solstice to uncover their deeper spiritual meaning and relevance today.
It’s amazing to realize that the winter solstice was the largest religious occasion in ancient times, and still is now. Many ancient cultures throughout the world venerated the sun at the winter solstice. Millions still honor it according to their ancient traditions, and billions celebrate Christmas at the time of winter solstice. So why is the winter solstice such an important event and what is its spiritual meaning?
To answer this, I delve into the celebration of the winter solstice throughout history. I give many examples of ancient sites aligned to the solstice, exploring the symbolism contained in some of prehistory’s most enigmatic examples, including Karnak in Egypt – the world’s largest temple complex – as well as Newgrange in Ireland, Glastonbury Tor in England, and Tiwanaku in Bolivia.
I talk about its relationship to the cycles of nature, and how its celebration was an integral part of an ancient religion of the sun that spread to different parts of the world in prehistory. I also look at the deeper spiritual meaning of Christmas, the world’s biggest celebration held at the winter solstice.
* * * * * * *
It’s been a long time between videos. Mark and I have been working on books during this time. Our next upcoming book is finally now ready for formatting, and should be available sometime between February – March 2024.
I’ll be taking a week’s break after the long stretch of finishing the book, and will then be getting back into more videos in the new year.
Thank you to those of you who made this video possible. Thank you to the team at the publisher for all their work in finding and buying images and footage (and to those who pitched in and helped), to Dara for the thumbnail, and to Jon for editing it all together. Thank you also to those of you who’ve been supporting us and the publisher.
I wish everyone a lovely solstice time and holiday break. I hope you enjoy it, and that it’s full of profound meaning and inspiration.
I think there is still a lot of mysteries waiting to be discovered regarding the Religion of The Sun in East Asia. Signs of it maybe more apparent in China and Japan, but really not as much when it comes to places like the Korean pennisula or Mongolia in that sense. From statistics on the religious population 0f South Korea today, it appears that many parts of the country have been penetrated by Christianity, which is clearly not native to this region. Not much information can be found about North Korea for obvious reasons. As the case for Mongolia, nowadays more than half of its population are Buddhists, and the native religion of Mongolia appears to be Tengrism, which is a form of shamanism that worships a supreme deity known as Tengri. I have found very shallow evidence that this type of worship is connected to the worshipping of the sun in anyway. Far back in history shamanism also appeared to be Korea’s indigenous religion. But I found it hard to research into this kind of stuffs because shamanism is not known to have well-documented written texts and their oral traditions are not well-studied by outsiders. I think there are still many missing pieces of the puzzle when it comes to East Asia. There are bits and pieces of evidence popped up here and there,but deifnitely more studies need to be done. Like how the esoteric aspects of the Religion of The Sun appears to have been lost in Japan,whereas in China esoteric knowledge are being better preserved in Taoism, but not as much with the external form of sun worship. I definitely wouldn’t say that the worshipping of the solar deity is central to the practices of spiritual sects within the Middle Kingdom,although celebrations of Solstices and Equinoxes still remain as essential parts of the culture. And I think I’ve said this before,but later practices of Taoism seem to have been influenced by Buddhism where the understanding of the ultimate reality seem to have changed in some schools of Taoism, where they people that when one becomes united with the Tao he/she would lose all senses of individuality,likely an influence of the Buddhist concept of emptiness,some Taoist practitioners also started to adopt celibacy as their way of spiritual practices. What we’re dealing with here are really traditions with fragmented knowledge, with aspects of it may have been lost in time due to a variety of reasons, and trying to reconstruct the whole thing from scraps can come with great difficulty. But rediscovering what have been lost can definitely be really meaningful, and that is almost certain going to be an on-going process.
Hey Emily, if you’re looking into Korea, you might be interested in the huge number of dolmens that are there: https://asianews.network/south-korea-is-the-dolmen-capital-of-the-world Perhaps there are some leads in that article for you.
Awhile back I visited a site in the UK called Lanyon Quoit (a fairly well-known dolmen in Cornwall) and I ran into a family from South Korea who were visiting it on holiday. I got talking to the father of the family, and he said that “there are thousands” of dolmens in South Korea and showed me some photos. I looked it up later, and apparently there over 40,000 dolmens there, some with capstones weighing up to 300 tonnes!
I’ve visited quite a lot of quoits / dolmens in the UK and Europe, and they are very strongly connected to the Religion of the Sun as far as I can tell. Very many of the dolmens I’ve visited have either solstice or equinox alignments. There are some that don’t have obvious sun alignments (or not where you’d expect them to be) but they seem to be the odd ones out.
There seem to be a few different types, some that act as arrows or pointers to alignments, others that act as a kind of “sun gate” that the setting or rising sun can be viewed through on important dates, some are more enclosed and feel more like they could have been used as some type of meditation room (but still incorporate alignments). Many times they will have more than one alignment, sometimes built into the sites in very clever ways, that are consistent with the ways alignments are created at other ancient sites like sacred circles. For example, incorporating a stone that has a right angle or cleft cut out of it that the sun either sets into or rises out of.
The dolmens in South Korea seem to be focused in a few major areas, I’d love to be able to visit them some time in the future!
PS: Still not much insights on the spiritual practices in Japan unfortunately；（ I feel that there are still so many things left undiscovered about the Religion of The Sun in East Asia. Shintoism is clearly another offshoot of it in this region aside of Taoism in China,with the sun deity still being center of the Shinto religion today and the long line of emperors that are said to have descended from the Sun. But there are still obstacles which I come across when I tried to research it,I’m also interested in the Korean pennisula but haven’t found much information there except something about North Korean leader being compared to the sun,which was weird. I wonder if the Atwoods have any insight around this area,since I think it would be very interesting to find out about more about this part of the world.
A friend just let me know that the spring equinox is a public holiday in Japan. I didn’t have time to include it in the video I made, but I looked very briefly to see it was based on an ancient Shinto celebration, which seems to have celebrated the lineage of ancient sun emperors. I wonder if somehow it was based on ideas of their spiritual resurrection like in Egypt and Central America.
I haven’t had a chance to research Japan. One of the problems is the language and cultural barrier that can make research in English difficult. I’ve found it’s hard to work out the real history of a place from superficial sources in English – I need to find a scholar who has already researched the ancient traditions and sites of Japan in depth with an open mind.
Hi Emily, your experience of the sunrise on the winter solstice sounds like a really beautiful and personal one. It is great that your life seems to be taking on a more positive note now, hope your friend Lingling is also doing good!
It definitely sounds like a lot could be discovered in Asia regarding the Religion of the Sun, as this religion seems to have thrived there in the past, so it may just be a question of time when the evidence starts coming to the surface. What Lara mentioned about the work of academics being a good way forward makes sense, as there must be so many scholars discovering so many solid and objective things about the past. When I looked into the Tibet some time ago, the best resources I found were the academic ones, I was actually surprised how much was there, fortunately in English. So it may just be a matter of English translations being available, which, with the different automatic translation softwares available today may not even take that long.
Hi Everyone,
This video has been really informative and thank you Lara so much for making it! I am so so sorry for being late in the comments but a lot have happened in the past few months. A lot of the issues that I had been dealing with my life for such a long time(job,health,family,etc) are finally being resolved! I felt a great sense of renewal on the last winter solstice,I had this really enpowering experience watching the sun rise as the day started,and at that moment I really got a personal understanding of the Spiritual Sun “being born from the dark”,and combined with what I had been going through in my life,I feel that now I have a really “in-depth” understanding of the spiritual meaning of the Solstice. And just recently I was finally able to take a trip to see the artifacts of Sanxingdui,as I walked through the display room in the museum I could feel this energy surrounding me as I walked close to those artifacts. I don’t really know how to describe it,but it definitely felt like the spiritual energy from the ancient wisdom of a long-lost civilization which made these amazing artifacts. There is still to this very day no reports of any written record about the people who built it being discovered at the site(at least not acknowledged anyway) But from a vision I had about the site a few years ago,and a few visions that some of my friends have had,the fall of Sanxingdui was likely due to the invasion or conflicts with some unknown tribes from up north. The people of Sanxingdui mysteiously disappeared from the surface of the planet and there is no known historical record available in China about this civilization,that’s why there are still many mysteries surrounding it. I,as well as a few friends of mine, specuate that the destruction of the historical records regarding Sanxingdui maybe related to a figure in Chinese history known as Qin Shi Huang. He was mostly known for founding the Qin dynasty which supposedly unified China,but in order to secure his power,he also did something that was kinda brutal. Known as Fen Shu Keng Ru in Chinese,he had many books burned around the country at that time which he considered threatening to his rule. And he was somewhat of a person who was into the esoteric,had an obsession for the legendary elixir of immortality,even sent people to unknown lands to find the ingredients for it! There are some fringe theories circulating in China that he is still somehow alive today because he found it,and since he had an interest in the elixir of immortality which has to do with esoteric knowledge,is it possible that he,did not want this information to be in the hands of the common people and written records about Sanxingdui also contained the knowledge of the esoteric and elixir of immortality? I think that is an interesting theory to be considered. Also there are more and more people discovering the similarities between medieval European alchemy as well as some of the practices of Taoism. Tales about Taoist practitioners similar to Nicholas Flammel who eventually found the Philosopher’s Stone/Golden Elixir are not unheard of in China throughout history. People who are intersted in mysticism are definitely making the connection. However some Chinese cultural-supremacists take this as evidence that Lao Tzu went to the West and brought Taoism there,and Taoism in Europe evolved into what was known as alchemy in Europe. I personally disagree with this theory since there is hardly any evidence for this. The spiritual knowledge that exist in different parts of the world are likely to have sprung from a common source,taught to the people of ancient times by the Wisdom Bringers,but saying it all originated from one particular place in the world seem too irrational. But people are making the connection between the East and the West. It’s also interesting to note that the symbol of the Golden Sun Bird appeared on the opening ceremony of the latest Asian Games which took place last year,and that is also something since it shows even the Chinese officials are taking Sanxingdui seriously, and they want more people to know about it(although being part of the communist regime they obviously are more willing to take on the non-supernatural explanations of it). But I felt the trip to see Sanxingdui artifacts has been really enpowering to me,and it could be considered a pilgrimage of some sort. To followers of the Religion of the Sun,visiting ancient sites and monuments with connections to the Spiritual Sun should be no different from Muslims going to Mecca,and Christians to Jerusalem. There are so many places in the world which are aligned to the Sun on specific days,as well as places that contain remnants of civilizations in the past who revered the sun as supreme. I really wonder if pilgrimages to the sacred sites around the world should be encouraged,since I believe that can be an uplifting and empowering experience for anyone who visits those sites.
Emily, so nice to hear from you, and glad that you have finally resolved and got through what you needed to, ready for whatever comes next! Amazing you were able to visit the Sanxingdui site; somehow it feels like an important step in the rekindling of the religion of the sun in China, and the light of its lost knowledge.
I agree that pilgrimages to ancient sites in the religion of the sun are very empowering. I know there are a few people here who could definitely speak to that. It’s one thing to hear about how big the religion of the sun was, but to actually see it is something else. I would definitely encourage it as long as it is safe to go to a site (not worth the risk if it isn’t).
Hi Lara,
You are definitely right about the fact that pilgrimages to sacred sites should be encouraged. I have also recently talked to a researcher who knows more things about Sanxingdui than me. She said that it’s clear more could be discovered about the site, but the excavation of the site has been in a halt for years likely because “if more about the site was discovered,it could rewrite the entirety of history.” If someone were to organize a personal dig of the site without approval from the Communist officials,that’s a huge no-no(the reality is that private excavations of the site were almost never approved) So when it comes to this site I think it can be a little complicated because there are many interesting facts to take into consideration when it comes to research,but there are also certain limitations as to what information I can find due to certain restrictions. Nevertheless I always try to do what I can,and I have discovered that there are other places around the country with alignments to the sun that are similar to those found in other parts of the world,which are open to personal expeditions,but I haven’t planned for any sort of trip to there yet,maybe sometime in the future.
I have thought more about what you said Emily, about “pilgrimaging” to the ancient sites of the Religion of the Sun. I think its a beautiful concept to take a visit to these sites as a pilgrimage, it never occurred to me before. Especially, to take it as a pilgrimage to the place where your religion may have started….
From this point of view, I would absolutely love to visit Egypt, to feel the atmosphere and the sacred areas of the Ancient Religion of the Sun, to visualise and imagine how the life and spirituality would have been there so many thousands years ago, and then try to astral project to the temples at night in order to learn more. I really liked the feeling I got from reading some stories in Kolbrin, the spirituality described there felt tangible somehow, in some cases it felt as if the narrator was a wise old friend talking to me. Visiting the Pyramids in Giza, walking from Karnak to the Luxor temple via the avenue of the sphinxes, or seeing the beautiful wall and ceiling paintings of Dendera temple would be a really beautiful spiritual pilgrimage for me, and if I had enough money, I would make this pilgrimage each year, focusing on some sites in more depth, as there is so much to soak in there. 🌞
Hi Lucia,
I think I would love to visit these sites too. But I haven’t planned for any trips to any of the sacred sites in the world aside of Sanxingdui lately. I have things in my personal life to take care of,and I found that I had to balance the Spiritual and the Material in my life on a regular basis. There are unfortunately individuals in my life who are not very supportive of my Spiritual quest,and I run into conflicts with them every now and then. Dealing with such unrespectful people is also something that tends to get in my way unfortunately:( But I have learned to deal with them overtime. I still haven’t been able to successfully astral-project for some reason but I have made some efforts in terms of lucid dreaming. I guess I still need to improve when it comes to those practices;) Wish you all the best on your spiritual journey towards the Sacred Sun;)
Thank you very much for your wishes Emily. Dealing with family members can be tough, because of our connections and responsibilities towards them, so it is great to hear that you are finding your way around it somehow… I have been fortunate that my mom is interested in the Religion of the Sun, even though just as an observer for now. :-) Recently, she painted some beautiful Slavic altar images for my friend, so I am happy she can be involved a bit in this way. Maybe your family members would be interested in just a historical aspect of the Religion of the Sun? Sometimes people are more open and positive if it is just communicated from a more pragmatic point of view, especially if they are not religious or spiritual people… But I don’t know your situation of course, and I understand that sometimes people just prefer to be negative, no matter what. :-O Wishing you a lot of spiritual strength and Divine guidance in your actions.
Hi Lara,
This is a very inspiring video. Thank you to you and Mark.
Thanks so much Jason, glad to hear you liked it.
Perihelion is also Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas.
The day when Earth was freed from Eden and had to accept day and night oceans and megadeaths.
This video with it’s incredible list of examples brings about a great yearning to return to these magical times. I really hope that we all can bring about enough internal change to be worthy of divine guidance from these ancient sages.
Thank you for all your hard work to produce such amazing resources.
Hi all,
Just wanted to share this beautiful winter solstice alignment I accidentally stumbled upon a few days ago. Maybe the guys here already know about it, but I didn’t see it before, and it stunned me how it is exactly like the first sunrise over the “mound of creation” that Mark talks about in his book in relation to the Winter solstice and the birth of the Sun: https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2023-12-18/fort-ancient-first-winter-solstice-unesco-world-heritage-site
The site is called “Fort Ancient”, and is an ancient earthworks site in South-western Ohio, and even though the earthworks got a bushy vegetation, in winter, when the trees don’t have any leaves, this spectacular alignment can still be seen. The site is now also a part of the Unesco World Heritage. You can also see a nice youtube video about it here (starting at 0:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frfqZK-xkZY
I also found a beautiful painting depicting a possible ancient ceremony at this site, which reminded me of all those nice re-enactment images in Lara’s last video: https://marylouiseholt.com/gallery/winter-solstice-celebration/
The author of the painting is a contemporary American painter Mary Louise Holt who focuses on the paintings of nature and natural history, whose short bio can be seen here (I thought it was nice that on the photograph there, she is standing right next to this painting of the winter solstice ceremony 😊 ) :
https://www.artistsforconservation.org/artists/1377/about/biography
Fort Ancient is amazing – I and several others I know have visited. It’s huge, and you could easily spend a whole day exploring it. There are many other sites in the area that appear to be of the same culture.
You can see that painting you linked in the museum there.
Unfortunately the grounds are closed when sunrise and sunset occurs, and apparently they weren’t holding events for the solstices or equinoxes (I think they did for a time but stopped due to conflict among native groups) – although I checked now and it looks like they’re holding something for the summer solstice sunrise this year.
It’s a shame it’s otherwise closed at sunrise and sunset as like other sites that have such a strong connection to the sun, people are unable to be part of the legacy the ancient builders left. At other sites in the US that may be accessible at the right times, vegetation often currently grows that blocks the sunrise or sunset alignments.
Thankfully there are some that are ok though.
Hi Jon, that’s nice you guys managed to visit it, it sounds like a special area for sure, and how cool they have that painting in the museum there! 😊 It is encouraging to see how these places are starting to be recognised for what they were – sacred places for ceremonies, and not just some forts for defence, village enclosures, or so on…
I also checked Google Maps, and it looks like the famous Serpent Mound is just over 1 hour away by car, which made me think if this whole bigger area in Ohio was not one big sacred natural space in the ancient times, especially as it looks like everything used to be much more connected back then, and not as fragmented into little cultures as it became the case later. They are both being dated to something from 500 BC to 200 AD, but the artefacts were found there dating even to 5000 BC.
Also what a shame they were not opening the grounds during sunrises or sunsets! From the article in the first link I posted, it seems like this may be changing though, as the pictures published there are from this last winter solstice sunrise in December 2023, and they say they had the double number of people they used to get before. Maybe the Unesco World Heritage status will help the place to be more open to the visitors. As one of the visitors said “I just hope they get the sense of community; that we really are a part of this whole human race that all experiences these amazing things.”
Hi Lucia,
There seems to be an increase in cases around the world where the Sun is being venerated/celebrated more openly. I wonder if people around the world are beginning to align themselves with ancient/old practices such as solstices/equinoxes, or if it is being reported more and more on the internet? Was there always a large number of people around the world who celebrated such occasions (reminiscent of times gone by), or are people (from various cultural groups) returning to their grass roots and therefore making it more popular to venerate the Sun? Perhaps it is a bit of each of these…
There’s a place in Australia known as Glen Innes (on the tablelands/highlands of NSW,) which has been openly declaring itself as Celtic country and even holds a Celtic festival each year – in May. Here is the website: http://www.gleninneshighlands.com/winter-summer-solstice-celebrations.
For years it has been focusing on acknowledging the tradition of celebrating solstices, based on the cultural groups from Scotland, Ireland, Britain, Wales and so on. It alludes to a time when these cultural groups use to celebrate Solstices/Equinoxes collectively.
They have even created a replica of Stonehenge at the site where the festival is held each year. This replica, known as The Standing Stones, has embedded into its design various alignment points with astrological accuracy. The stones are positioned to align with the Winter and Summer solstices in Australia. but also mark the alignment of the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. There are a total of 24 stones to signify the 24 hours in a day, and stones positioned in such a way as to form the Southern Cross constellation – a hallmark of the Standing Stones being in Australia. There is even a sun dial to tell the time!
The whole structure aims to produce a sense of awe in the visitor and to spark a sense of curiosity about the grandness and size of the real Stonehenge. It is a modern day attempt to capture the greatness and reverence of a time we have come to know (from the work and discovery of Sakro Sawel) as the Lost Civilization of the Sun. Despite it’s grandness and effort to replicate Stonehenge, I don’t think the site is used to celebrate the actual solstice and equinox times, which in my view, strays from the original purpose of such structures being built.
Hi Dimi,
Thank you for the information on this site. It kind of makes sense to me, as such a big percentage of Australians have British ancestry, and therefore Celtic as well (even though I understand not every Brit is necessarily a Celt haha). So it makes sense that the people there yearned for some of those majestic stone monuments that one can find in Britain, and ended up building one. 🙂 I think it is a nice beginning, and hopefully in the future, with the information on the spiritual significance of the solstices and equinoxes that Mark and Lara make available, people will start using these monuments in a fashion more similar to how they were once used. As you said, it really strays from the original purpose of these structures to not celebrate solstices or equinoxes there, especially if the stones were built with those alignments!
Also, regarding your question whether there were always people interested in the ancient sacred sites, celebrating solstices and equinoxes, etc., my own personal feeling is that it was not as prevalent as it is today. It feels almost like a Divine intervention to me, that in the darkness of this world, people start feeling more and more the need to return to their roots, nature, and simple life. With that comes also rediscovering their spiritual roots and ancient heritage. I also found it interesting to read that these Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes were built on the beginning of 90-ties, which is also the time when the Slavic revival started in Slovakia in a more intensive and organised way (as well as the Neopaganism or Rodnovery in Russia, etc). So it would seem to me like this is a global movement, which, if done properly, could really start a more beautiful and spiritual era on the planet Earth (or at least let’s hope so 😉)
HI Lucia,
I agree with you – there is definitely a re-alignment or a ‘re-igniting’ effect going on.
And, as you say, who knows, it is a beginning point – in the future, Glen Innes may move towards solstice/equinox celebrations as well as their usual cultural celebration in May. I know more and more people are turning up for the event, so it might spark further interest to celebrate solstices/ equinoxes too.
Hi Dimi & Lucia,
That’s interesting about the Stonehenge replica in New South Wales. You might also be interested in another life sized replica in Western Australia, which is aligned to the solstices and holds celebrations on these occasions: https://esperancestonehenge.com.au/
They also follow the solar year according to the Southern Hemisphere, so the celebrations are actually in harmony with the seasons in Australia, with the winter solstice coming up next in June, rather than following the European equivalent, like with Christmas and Easter.
Some of the stones are up to 50 tonnes and 8 metres high and despite the modern technology available for its construction, it’s still an impressive achievement to build a realistic life sized replica and is encouraging that there are people who have sufficient interest in these ancient sites to make the effort to build their own.
Hi Michael,
that is an amazing replica of Stonehenge too. What a great find! They seem to celebrate winter and summer solstice times with public access on those corresponding days. That is more aligned with the actual purpose of the structure and it’s spiritual connection. The one in Glen Innes seems to be in honour of Stonehenge (but not aligned with its spiritual purpose) and holds a cultural festival for the public instead of solstice/equinox festivities. But, I agree with Lucia, it is a starting point. More and more people may begin to align with solstice/equinox celebrations or festivities in the future, reigniting a stronger spiritual connection to venerating the Sun.
Hi Lara,
I was just wondering, if you can say, if there will be a set structure (or suggested one) to the practices offered. Like a sequence which can help build toward results/experiences. Or will they be divided by subject for example and up to anyone to create their exercise program with them.
Thinking as well just now, that if you’ll do videos presenting the ancient practices then that might be a good time to really try them.!
Anyone can create their own schedule with them, with general suggestions on how to.
I will be doing videos with guided ancient practices fairly soon. Really looking forward to those.
Thanks. The videos that are there are amazing. Because I know that for me it took some time to feel the link between myself and the ancient cultures, and I can imagine it’s the same for others. The videos excite that inspiration which helps to start that connection, and then the ancients don’t feel as far.
I see there are lot of things going on in the daily lives of people around me which draw attention ‘left and right’ (plus all the things that need to be done of course), and a lack of something sound to focus on. And it’s a challenge to maintain and build a practice and focus, oneself or together with others, so I’m also looking forward to these ancient practice videos hope they can do the same to give that inspiring lift off boost to spiritual exercises in our lives. 🔥✨
Hi Lara and Sakro Sawel team,
indeed, what a great video – giving a well-researched overview of the meaning of the Winter Solstice and its connections with various cultures and timeframes in our history. The message is clear and powerful – the connection of modern day Christmas to a time of Winter celebrations on a global scale, both signifying the ‘birth time” of a son God.
The way we celebrate has changed a great deal over time, and the significance has perhaps diminished too, but the correlation and parallels are made so vividly clear in this video.
As I’ve watched it, I have reflected on its content with various knowledge or information that I have been exposed to in my lifetime. For example, I was most intrigued by the information about the name Matrona. I have previously come across information about this name having a spiritual meaning but I hadn’t heard of this name being connected to the Celtic tradition to mean Divine Mother. I wonder if it also extends to the name Madonna? (which we equate to being Mary, mother of Jesus in Catholic traditions but also means Divine Lady).
I also know that the name Matrona has spread broader than the Celtic tradition, to other lands and cultural groups. I say this, because the name Matrona has existed in my family for over 100 years (and perhaps longer). From what I know, my heritage comes mainly from Mediterranean regions and Asia Minor, with traces of Eastern Europe/Russia. From what I have been able to determine there is no connection to the Celts, not the ones from Ireland, but if there were migratory groups that went to Eastern Europe, or to the Mediterranean regions, there may be a possibility for the name Matrona to have extended into those regions.
As a point of interest, the name Matrona has survived in Orthodox tradition – Russian, Greek, Romanian, etc – as a saintly figure and is venerated at different times of the year by these traditions. It is said that 2 or 3 women with the name Matrona have achieved saintly status and are thus venerated as being spiritual influencers of their time.
So, perhaps the name Matrona has gone beyond the Celtic tradition, and has survived into other cultural groups along our history. To me, this confirms the content of this video (and the content of other videos produced by Lara and Sakro Sawel), that our humanity has been more connected in the past, it has been moving and migrating more than we realise and has been more spiritually focused that our current time.
I look forward to more videos and the new books too.
Thank you for your wishes and comments all. We’re back from our week’s break, and are now going to finalize everything with the book ready for print, which I’m literally just about to get started on. Thanks to your support we were able to have a much needed rest, ready for the enormous task that lies ahead.
Dear Lara, its nice to hear you and Mark were able to rest a bit. I guess we will only see the whole scope of your work once the book and videos are published, and at that point you guys will already be continuing on the new ones! I wish you both a good health and strength to do everything you have set out to do, and a continued support from the people and Divine. Also, let’s hope this year won’t be too crazy the world-situation-wise! :-O
What a beautiful and insightful video. So much to understand and unpack. Thank you Lara and all the people involved and to all the supporters here 🙏 I will have to watch this many times.
Such a wonderful presentation Lara, great job to you and everyone involved! It’s so wonderful that you are continuing to find and share new research into these solar events with the world – it’s like nectar. Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone here, I hope we all find a renewed strength and connection to the light. I love the Christmas period! Maybe it’s because in the north you finally get to slow down and hibernate and match nature at this time, and that can bring with it peace and contemplation and with it, spiritual connection, but it always seems to be this deeply special, magical time with surprise gifts of spiritual sustenance. Your video has been a part of that for me – thank you!
Thank you for such a wonderful video in time for the winter solstice. It’s really nice to see you back making videos. My only plea for further videos is that you localize your pronounciation of place names, for example a place such as Bryn Celli Ddu is actually pronounced Bryn Ketli Di. Also, I can’t help but ask whether the background is a mud wall – it is beautiful.
Wishing you and Mark, and everyone here a wonderful solstice too, and a lovely restful time to take in the inspiring qualities it brings.
I just wanted to also say that I really appreciate the wisdom and knowledge brought forth in the Ancient Solstices book, it’s been inspirational and helpful to understand how life ebbs and flows through the current of the great milky ocean of life. The cycles of the twelve around the Sun/Son, and the Sun’s journey through them seems to me to reflect aspects of that knowledge that Mark writes about, which has helped me to see that the story of the Hero’s/ Heru’s journey is eternally etched in the heavens through the cosmic movements of the heavenly bodies, and I wonder if the Magi were part of the story of birth of the Christ/ Spiritual Son for that reason?
Thanks for the video Lara, I hope it inspires understanding and connection.
Wishing everyone a warm and loving Christmas! 🌲🌞🎄
Hard not to really feel the symbolism of the event hit home when waiting for sun to appear on the coldest morning of the year yet! Great to see the video made it out in time and looking forward to the upcoming book releases. Best wishes to all who celebrate at this time.
Thanks Lara for putting together this video and thanks to all involved in its production. It’s a very useful introduction to the winter solstice for anyone interested in celebrating it. I wish you all a peaceful solstice time and a happy Christmas to those in the Northern hemisphere.
Thank you Lara for this beautiful video, such powerful visual reimaginings of ancient practices and cultures venerating the sun and light! An excellent recap of the spiritual meaning of the Winter Solstice as we get ready for the cold and frosty sunrise. Really looking forward to the upcoming book and soaking up the wisdom, love and care that went into its creation.
Happy Solstice to all! May this special time help us unravel its mysteries, no matter how small or subtle, and be moved upward and forward.
Happy solstice Lara, Mark and everyone!
It’s wonderful to see the real meaning of the winter solstice, and its connection to the ancient Religion of the Sun, explained so well. Thank you Lara and all involved for your hard work in putting this together. A great effort.
Most of us here have known about this information for some time now—from the books and, before that, the blogs—but I think videos like this have the potential to reach and inspire a lot more people than ever before. Hopefully a number of them will want to check out the books and look further into this.
It also hit me in a different way, watching it all explained so clearly with all the beautiful sacred sites and imagery. The immensity of it all.
Also a big thank you to Mark and yourself for your ongoing work writing and researching the books that provide the essential knowledge underpinning everything.
I wish everyone an uplifting solstice and a revitalising time this Christmas period. May we all feel the light shining on us internally whatever the external weather may be!
What a beautiful video, with some spectacular pictures and composite images. Thank you for this stretch Lara! (as some people mentioned, you managed to pull this out in addition to your hard work on the book).
Regarding the scene of annunciation from the Luxor temple (15:46), that one caught my attention just some days ago, when I was reading again the chapter of the spiritual meaning of the winter solstice in the Ancient Solstice book. I thought how incredible it was to see the birth of the Divine son depicted on the walls of this ancient temple, and also how it comes over a “birthing brick” – an allusion to the philosophers stone? The adoration of this newborn child by the Gods is also noteworthy, it clearly shows that this process of Divine birth and adoration is something universal and cosmic. Like every year, I have also re-watched that procession from Karnak to Luxor temple in the Opening of the Sphinx avenue video, and still felt so emotional about it. :-)
Wishing everyone a beautiful solstice and Christmas (for those in the North hemisphere).
Very clear presentation, and incredible info. Thank you Lara 🙏🏼
In modern city life it takes an effort to try to tune in and sense the feelings of the change of season, like hints. A more hands-on with agriculture/rural life of the past made one naturally be closer to those feelings.
Nice work on producing this video amidst the busyness of the book. Saw a few things new to me in the video as well.
Wishing everyone a refreshing solstice ☀️, making something of it and a beautiful Christmas time.
Very beautiful and inspiring! Thanks so much and wishing everyone an uplifting solstice.
What a beautiful video Lara. Everything one needs to know about the winter solstice at a glance, gracefully presented and wrapped together. Not sure how you managed it among all the work you’ve been doing on the new book!
In the north the sun is so low now. It takes an hour for it to rise just barely above the trees in the horizon, and it stays there just a few hours. The light is so bright and golden on the snow, and the dusk takes two hours to fade. They don’t get clear skies here often anyway, and you really get the sense of its lack of strength at this time of deepest darkness. Unluckily, it looks like it will be snowing all throughout the solstice and Christmas and I won’t be able to see the first sunrise. But I will attempt to honour it nevertheless.
Thank you for the light. Happy Solstice!
Happy solstice all! Wishing clear skies and a beautiful and meaningful sunrise and solstice time for everyone.
Really excited about the new book coming out next year and the new series of videos.
At the place where I’m staying currently there’s a wide-screen TV. I’ve only ever watched the Sakro Sawel videos on my laptop before – getting to watch this one in hi-def was quite the experience :)
Hope you have a very refreshing, well-deserved break Lara.
Thank you David, and thank you for all your help in finding the images and footage for it (and the team of people who pulled together at the last minute to find them too).
Hey David, just wanted to say I have the same sentiment this year – to watch Lara’s videos, as well as some other inspiring things on a big TV screen… It feels like somehow I crave immersing myself completely in the beauty and power of the images and scenes… Our friends living near-by have such a huge screen TV at home, and I really hope I can inspire them to watch some things with me. ;-) (they are interested in the religion of the Sun too!) When I watched that re-creation of the Opet festival yesterday on my computer, I thought how spectacular that would look on the big screen too.
Such a beautiful video. It’s given me even more inspiration and longing for the coming of the winter solstice, the return of the light, and the celebration of it.
Wishing everyone a happy solstice!
Thank you Jenny and Jon for your work on it. Jon did a great job with the editing.
The video is very beautiful and is a valuable resource to return to whenever the wheel turns.
Although it’s summer in S. America, where I’m visiting family, this video is timely for me. I came across a cave I visited once or twice as a boy, and seeing it with fresh eyes, I got out my compass, and was unsurprised to find it pointing to the winter solstice sunrise. The local indigenous culture venerates the sun, particularly at the winter solstice, and the entire peninsula is part of sacred land that they’ve recently reclaimed.
I examined the cave and asked it what I could learn from it. My attention was drawn to a small cavity at the back of the cave, about the size of my head, and I felt the cave invite me to put my head inside.
I did so, noticing how the sound died off suddenly.
“hm, very womblike” I thought quickly, turning around to go.
“What’s the rush?” The cave seemed to ask.
I turned around, knowing I missed something important, and put my head back in.
“All the way”
But the rock is sharp, it’s uncomfortable, my shoulders don’t fit, and it’s claustrophobic!
I realized right away that my internal complaints were something to be sacrificed if I wanted to find something of value.
I put my head all the way in, contorted my shoulders, and rested in the cave. I felt dead, held, comforted, in the underworld, yet in my mother’s arms, the metallic smell of the earth filled my nostrils and reinforced the sense of being in a womb. I understood something about death, the mother, earth, and the underworld, something I can’t really put into words.
It was a beautiful thing to experience the things you’ve written about in this way, and to be able to understand a little bit about what people might have been feeling at the solstice sunrise in a cave 24,000 years ago, or emerging from a cave at Machu Picchu. This opening to the meaning and significance of nature is so powerful, and I’m very grateful that you’ve set me in this direction.
As I left the cave, I wondered about how abnormal such an experience seems in modern society, and how truly abnormal THAT is.
That sounds like a comforting but also revealing experience Julian. Thanks for sharing it and I wish you a peaceful solstice time.
Your experience reminds me of something similar in Slovenia. At that place, the cave opening was to the north, not aligned to any solstice or equinox. I happened to visit once on summer solstice midday, and found out that at this time of year, at midday, the sun just happens to be high enough in the sky to shine over the cliff face and hit a large rock in front of the opening. Light rays from the rock reflected into the cave creating a beautiful sparkle effect on its walls, where normally no direct sunlight enters.
At the same cave, on another occassion a friend and I went as deep as we could in order to feel what it was like to be within a womb (or tomb). We managed to find a relatively narrow entryway between rock faces that we slid through, and at the end of which we came to a pool of water. It was completey dark ,with no sense or sound of the outside. Staying a bit of time there touched me somewhat. I can no longer remember appropriate words to describe it, but it was to do with leaving the world behind. Coming back out was like coming into a world of life and beauty. We did not go there on the summer solstice, so I don’t know what it would have been like to come out seeing the light show I mentioned above.
Those both sound like memorable experiences Alex, with the light reflecting inside the cave and then the feeling of emerging from the womb after being immersed within the darkness of the cave. Thanks for sharing those and I hope you’ll be able to find more moments to experience this kind of spiritual connection.
Thanks so much for posting this video, Lara. And thanks to the whole team and to Jon and Dara. With all that work on the books and the video, you’ve definitely earned at least a week’s rest!
The message and information are profound on their own, but the video and the images are truly a work of art. Seeing those images really brought the information to life and left me in a sense of awe.
I was struck by how far back evidence exists for worship at the time of the winter solstice, including the ice age cave art in France (and the Pyramids, of course!). The Luxor Temple is so interesting with its proportions of the human body. What a profound teaching is hidden in that.
I really liked the perspective of how it takes around 3 days to see the sun move/ascend, thus corresponding to the roughly 3 days from the solstice to the celebration of Christmas. It makes a lot of sense.
“Even in the darkest night, the sun rises again.” — A beautiful reminder of what’s possible with this spiritual/psychological work.
“This knowledge is now returning as we piece it back together.” — I’m looking forward to learning/seeing more!
Happy Solstice to you, Lara, to Mark, and to everyone in this community. Wishing peace and divine wisdom to everyone!
Hi Lara
I’m so glad to hear this update on where things are at and about the upcoming book. It is received at a timely reminder, especially when the xmas rush tends to take over.
All the best to you and Mark.
Regards
Sof
Thank you Lara and everyone involved – the video was very inspiring to watch and rich in information, so I will watch it again to better comprehend all of the information. Lots of great images and photographs as well. The ones of the rising Sun at Karnak temple and sunlight entering the Newgrange at sunrise on winter solstice really stood out for me, as well as the symbology of damsel in distress rescued from the dragon which enslaves her.
Wishing everyone an inspiring solstice, be it winter or summer, to find willpower to strive to be kinder to all people and the whole of creation, and to increase in inner light.
Hello Lara,
Thank you for the update about the books 📚
We’re thrilled to check them – 2024 will be a good year 😊
Thank you and the team for the video !!!
Happy solstice everyone ☀️
I’ve just watched the video, and it’s amazing how it lines up in a sequence of events to remind me and strengthen my own inner work. It is great to be out in the world as it creates a special kind of energy waive into the whole of the existence. Thanks for all that you do and I wish you and everyone a very powerful and blessed solstice!
It’s wonderful to see a new video – thank you so much for putting it together.
Wishing a happy solstice filled with peace and hope to you, Mark, and everyone.
Thank you very much for your continuous efforts in making this great knowledge and wisdom available!
The work that you do is like the light of the Sun in the world, really looking forward to more books and videos. While being already familiar with your work, I start to think that I understand it, but then watching another video like this one brings “wow only now I think I really know what is it all about.” :)
Have a good rest whenever possible and wishing happy solstice to you and Mark and every sincere soul.
Hi Lara,
So happy to watch your new video and share with us such a profound spiritual meaning again. Your work is the candle of hope and love in the world. Have a lovely holiday break and solstice time, everyone!
Thank you Lara and Mark