As the Earth tilts into darkness, Solstice invites us to do the same – to pause, reflect, and dream into being.

The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, where the Earth's axis reaches it's maximum tilt away from the sun. In the southern hemisphere, the solstice usually falls around June 21. It’s a cosmic pause – as the outer world stills, the inner world begins to stir.

Winter Solstice is the original New Year. Long before calendar years and midnight fireworks, communities gathered in the dark to reflect and light candles for what was yet to come.

It marks a turning point: when the Earth seems to pause in the dark, before beginning her slow return toward the light. In the silence and stillness of this moment, we’re invited to do the same. To reflect. To recalibrate. To rest. A sacred pause to honour the dark, and hibernate, before we begin again.

Hibernation is not just a slowing down, it’s an invitation to dream. As the world quiets, your imagination stirs. In the absence of light, visions grow vivid. Winter is the season of the unseen: what is imagined, remembered, and longed for. It's a time to let your subconscious speak, through symbols, stories, memories, dreams and desire.

In stillness, dreams are incubated. This is the time to tend to the invisible seeds—the ones planted not in soil but in spirit. Hibernation is a wombspace, a chrysalis, a creative sanctuary. As animals retreat into their burrows, we too are invited to nest within ourselves. The solstice portal asks: what are you dreaming into existence? What would it feel like to let your imagination lead?

Where summer asks us to shine, winter asks us to shed. To let go of what no longer belongs. To rest and receive before we reemerge.

This is a season where your nervous system naturally wants to slow down. When we listen to that pull inward, we return to ourselves.

In Japan, the winter solstice – or 冬至 (Tōji) – is a time to return to the roots. Traditionally, people take 柚子風呂 (yuzu baths (yuzu-buro)) to cleanse the body and protect against colds, and eat nourishing foods like pumpkin to bring luck and vitality.

These everyday acts, or little rituals, are magic in action. There’s a quiet reverence for these seasonal shifts, and with it, a recognition that the natural world moves in cycles, not straight lines... just like us.

Rituals for Winter Solstice

Rituals remind us that magic doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s in the way we stir the pot, light the candle, set the table. When repeated with intention, simple acts become portals.

Here are a few ways to honour the solstice energy in your everyday life:

• Prepare a solstice feast with seasonal produce – think root vegetables, hearty grains, and warm miso (spiced with Sea Moss Powder) – and share it with loved ones. Food is a spell, and gathering is sacred.
• Make mulled wine, chai or hot yuzu tea, and whisper a wish into your cup before sipping. Head to your local Asian grocers and grab a jar of Korean yuzu jam, add hot water, and thank me later.
• Keep an altar with seasonal elements like dried citrus, pine, obsidian, goblets, candles. Let your intuition and innate creativity guide you, or see this guide for gentle direction.
• Draw a tarot or oracle card and reflect on its symbolism. What does it want you to know in the quiet of this season?
• Take a long bath with warming herbs or citrus peels, just like the Japanese tradition. Let the water hold you as you let go. Remain in the bath as it drains, and imagine the water washing away anything you want to release.
• Write a letter to your future self, or to the version of you who made it through the darkest season. Burn it, bury it, or tuck it into your altar.

Rituals aren’t about producing a result. Your presence, attention and intention are what is most important.

Try this ritual on the night of the solstice (or anytime you crave a reset):

1. Light a candle. Set the scene with the fire element — as a symbol of clarity in the dark.
2. Reflect in a mirror. Gaze softly at yourself. Ask: What am I ready to release? What part of me is returning? Who meets you in your reflection?
3. Journal freely. Let the answers rise. Try these prompts:
   𖦹 What has this season been teaching me?
   𖦹 Where have I dimmed my own light?
   𖦹 What does my next version need from me?
   𖦹 What needs to be forgiven?
   𖦹 What am I cultivating in the dark?
   𖦹 What does rest feel like in my body?
   𖦹 What would it mean to trust my timing?
   
4. Seal it with sound and movement. Play a piece of music that accompanies the mood of this moment in time. Let your body move as it wants to. Dance, stretch, sway...

This ritual is a reclamation. A soft remembering.

Go deeper into the Dark

Solstice reminds us that change is slow, but certain. That light always returns, first as a flicker, then as a flame. Let this season be one of restoration. Of trusting the dark and the unseen. Of remembering that your magic is cyclical, not linear.

After all we are made of earth and even she must go through seasons.

You don’t have to bloom all year. Sometimes, being still is enough. Sometimes, being still is everything. I’ve created a Winter Magic Edition of the Mind Magic Manual. It includes seasonal rituals, and gentle questions designed to help you integrate the solstice energy into your everyday life.

Let yourself hibernate. Let your dreams dream. Let your roots deepen in the silence. The next version of you is growing quietly, beneath the surface.Tend to yourself with devotion. Feed your imagination. Speak gently to the flickers inside you. And when the time comes to reemerge, you’ll carry more than just light. You’ll carry truth. Beauty. Intention.

Happy Solstice x