The Winter Solstice has more meaning for me each year. It all began when I started to understand the relationship between Christmas and the Solstice. It expanded greatly as I understood the underlying significance. I was a Catholic until 21 and then a "born again" Evangelical. I became a real Bible student and memorized a great deal from it. I taught adult Sunday School and was really into it all. In 1963 I got my PhD in Physiology at the University of Chicago and went to Israel for my postdoc. When I came back in 1965 it was because I opposed the Vietnam War having learned about it through foreign news sources rather than American propaganda. My then father-in-law was a staunch right wing Evangelical and I was invited to the National Association of Evangelicals convention in Chicago that year. The keynote speaker was the anti-communist Herbert Philbrick. What really woke me up was the President of the NAE who introduced Philbrick. He said he risked his life to bring Philbrick there that day. The attempt on his life was really devious. Someone loosened all the bolts on his riding lawnmower! Yes I was naive even though my academic work was really top level stuff. Read on below and I'll talk about how this all unfolded an then came together for me with regard to the Solstice/Christmas relationship and the war on nature.
I had fun at one time imagining what a primitive humanoid was able to fathom at the time of the Solstice. I suspect religion was born back then and has evolved along with human consciousness.
Here's the fantasy: The sun is lower and lower, the days are shorter and it looks bad. What to do? Sacrifices and primitive versions of prayer? Then lo and behold they work for the sun stands still on that one day and then begins to return. The day becomes special and is celebrated.
The celebration of the Winter Solstice goes back a long long way. I suspect even much further back than the record. It is a special kind of celebration and here is the point: It revolves around nature and natural happenings. The structures at Stonehenge and other places give us some insight about the ancient significance of the Winter solstice
The solstice itself may have been a special moment of the annual cycle of the year even during neolithic times. Astronomical events, which during ancient times controlled the mating of animals, sowing of crops and metering of winter reserves between harvests, show how various cultural mythologies and traditions have arisen. This is attested by physical remains in the layouts of late Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge in Britain and Newgrange in Ireland. The primary axes of both of these monuments seem to have been carefully aligned on a sight-line pointing to the winter solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and the winter solstice sunset (Stonehenge). Significant in respect of Stonehenge is the fact that the Great Trilithon was erected outwards from the centre of the monument, i.e., its smooth flat face was turned towards the midwinter Sun
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Contrast this with what is celebrated by Christians at Christmas. The birth of their god/man. The focus is entirely different. The human dominates and nature fades into the background.
The real story of the war on nature is in the moving of Christ's birth:If Jesus Christ was supposedly born in late spring why do you celebrate Christmas in December?
I think the early church moved many religious holidays in an attempt to overshadow pagan holidays of old times. Some examples:
Christmas was moved to cover up old winter festivals.
Easter was moved to cover up spring festival which celebrated rebirth and fertility - hence bunnies and baby chicks.
All Hallows day aka All Saints day was unsuccessfully meant to cover up the pagan or occult gatherings around that time of year during which time they believed they could talk with the dead. Halloween (hallow-eve) is still celebrated the night before.
I won't link you to all the documentation (speculation?) about this for it seems to be well established. It certainly makes sense in the context of my thesis here which is also not new even though the details may be.
The Biblical story of creation has in it the seeds for this war against nature. One good source for this idea is in God is Red: A Native View of Religion by Vine DeLoria
this classic work reminds us to learn "that we are a part of nature, not a transcendent species with no responsibilities to the natural world." It is time again to listen to Vine Deloria Jr.'s powerful voice, telling us about religious life that is independent from Christianity and that reveres the inter-connectedness of all living things.
In my book with Jim Coffman,
Global Insanity: How Homo sapiens Lost Touch with Reality while Transforming the World we establish these ideas in some detail. We trace this evolution of human thought back to the origins of western culture and relate it to some interesting observations about the evolution of left brain dominance.
The focus on human activity is not misplaced if we are looking for the impact of our actions on nature. The cultural evolution of what Christmas is really all about is economic and exemplifies the glutenous consumption that drives the economy. In all this is the abuse of science as a servant of the drive for capital and wealth rather than human good.
This are not choices in reality but the natural outcome of our evolution in the broadest sense. We focus on biological evolution but that is a misleading reduction for it is nested in a systemic evolution of a very complex whole. Human thought is central in more than one way. The worship of technology and wealth is a driving force. There is nothing that guarantees that such evolution will have a good end and at this point in time it looks like it won't.
One look at our own national politics bears this out. We are constantly held back from any real progress by the myths and superstitions that dominate so much of human thinking. This is in spite of our magnificent achievements in science and technology. The ability to fragment information and to compartmentalize it is almost total.
So the real war is symbolized and embodied in the victory of Christmas over the Solstice. Human superstition that places humans in the center of everything dominating over nature.
As I approach the end of my existence I find this season one that has deep meaning. It's meaning is one I can share with very few others.