Here is a new video I've just made entitled "Vassilissa the Beautiful: A Russian Folk-Tale for Us Today."
Growing up, I loved the Russian Folk-Tales (or Fairy Tales, as my book of Russian Folk-Tales called them).
Today, I would like to read the story of Vassilissa (sometimes spelled Vasilisa or Vasilissa) and add some commentary on the ancient wisdom preserved in this tale.
You can find an older version of this same story beginning on page 109 of this collection of Russian Folk-Tales published in 1915 and reprinted in 1916.
The point of December Solstice has now passed -- and now we enter the momentous "Three-Day Pause" before the Sun's journey back towards the north is really appreciable, and during which all the world seems to hang in the balance, awaiting the great rebirth of the annual cycle.
If you have not yet gone back to re-read my earlier post entitled "The Three-Day Pause," the next few days might be an opportune time to do so.
In that post from 2016, I wrote in part:
[. . .] there is a kind of "hang time" at each of the solstices, as the sun is "reversing its course" from proceeding "downwards" (lower in the sky, and further and further south in its rising and setting points) to proceeding "upwards" (higher in the sky, and further and further north in its rising and setting points).It is a kind of "pregnant pause" -- full of anticipation -- when the sun's azimuthal rising direction barely changes at all (as opposed to the equinoxes, when the direction to the sun's rising point on the horizon is changing by a full degree every couple of days [. . .]
But the December solstice yields a harvest as bountiful as that of the equinox and the horizon. It shows soul at the nadir of its dip into matter, and all its implications bear immediately and weightily upon the human situation. [. . .] At equinoxes light and dark are equal in quantity and sovereignty. But at the solstice the two powers are stabilized for the period, albeit in unequal relation. [. . .] Heraclitus adds a most pertinent observation: "The harmonious structure of the world depends upon opposite tension, like that of the bow and the lyre." Stability is gained only by the mutual annulment of two opposite forces. The planets swing in fixed orbits because of the exact counterbalance of centrifugal and centripetal energies.
The significance of the solstice (the word meaning "sun standing still") lies in the fact that for the time both light and darkness stand still in relation to each other. The basic feature is motionlessness. Neither is losing or gaining. They are stabilized. [. . .] So the Christ was born in a stable. 475 - 477.
These days of "standing still" anticipate the moment of midnight after the third day of pause, when the Sun is at its metaphorical "lowest point" -- because at midnight, the Sun can be seen to be completely entombed and obscured by the entire bulk of our Earth, which is entirely between our point on the globe (wherever we are) and our solar star.
It is at that point -- midnight on the night of the third day in the Three-Day Pause -- at which the Sun is esoterically figured to begin its motion back towards the "upper half" of the year. It is at this moment, in some cultures, that the oldest daughter in the family places the effigy of the Christ Child in the manger scene: at midnight on December 24.
This point esoterically marks the return or arrival of Self -- Self who is so often hidden and suppressed due to alienation, but to whom we all have access.
And thus this Three-Day Pause is an opportune interval for us to pursue that appearance and return of Self from whom we become so easily estranged, and to resolve to enjoy that presence of Self more and more during the year ahead!
We are rapidly approaching the moment of December Solstice for the year 2021!
Earth will reach that specific relationship with the Sun when our southern pole is pointed "most directly" towards the Sun about eight hours from now (as this is being published), at 7:58 in the morning on 21 December (Pacific Time), which is 10:58 in the morning on 21 December (Eastern Time in North America), which is which is 1558 Greenwich Time on 21 December.
The four great stations of the two solstices and two equinoxes frame the annual cycle of our Earth's relationship to our Sun -- and they also form the structural frame of the system of celestial metaphor for the world's ancient myths and sacred stories, including the stories in the Bible but also the myths and sacred stories of cultures around the globe.
The December Solstice holds particular significance within this great esoteric framework, because it was associated with the "second birth" -- the spiritual birth -- and the re-awakening to Higher Self, from whom we so easily become estranged and alienated during the life in this world.
Above is a short excerpt from a much longer and more detailed conversation on this very subject, a conversation which took place between myself and Kesenya of Guiding Star Astrology on December 4th of this year.
This excerpt contains some discussion of the importance of the December Solstice, when the sun's path reaches its lowest point, from the perspective of an observer in the Northern Hemisphere -- as well as some discussion about why the birth of figures representative of Higher Self in myth are sometimes associated with the point of midnight, three days after the day of December Solstice.
Here is the link to the short excerpt above, and here is the link to the entire conversation with Kesenya from earlier this month.
Here is a link to an earlier blog post entitled "The Three-Day Pause," which I published in 2016 and which is pertinent to the subjects discussed in both the shorter and longer video selections above.
The theme of recovery of and reconnection with Self runs through the world's ancient myths -- and is closely associated with this very specific point of the December Solstice in the annual cycle.
I sincerely hope that this December Solstice of 2021 will be a joyous and a meaningful one for you, and thank you for your interest in the work I am doing exploring these ancient treasures given to us for our blessing today -- and every day.
An Ash I know standing It is called Yggdrasil
A high tree sprinkled with shining drops
From there come the dews which in the dales fall
It stands ever green above the Well of Urd (or "Above the Well of Weird")
images: Wikimedia Commons (top image, bottom image).
Is Yggdrasil an Ash, or a Yew?
The debate continues to this day, but I am quite sure that the mighty World Tree is found in the Invisible Realm and is seen in the celestial realm, rather than the terrestrial.
Above are two descriptions of Yggdrasil from the Poetic Edda, one from the Voluspa and one from the Grimnismal.
