Winter Solstice Ceremony & Drum Journey | Brussels | Inner Spark

Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels · Winter Solstice Ceremony

At the Heart of Darkness, the Light Awakens

A winter solstice ceremony and a shamanic drum journey to plant the seed of your coming year. Sunday 20 December, 17:00 to 21:00.

Date & TimeSun 20 Dec · 17:00

WhereWoluwe-Saint-Pierre

Group10 places only

Price€50

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The turning point nobody notices

Four Days Before Christmas, Something Happens in the Sky

Every year, a few days before Christmas, the sun stops.

It is the longest night of the year. The light falls to its lowest point, and then, from that exact moment, it starts to come back.

For thousands of years this was one of the most important nights of the year. Not for presents or dinners, but for what people did with it: they stopped, they gathered, they looked honestly at what the year had been, and they decided what they were going to carry into the next one.

We prepare Christmas very well. We buy, we cook, we travel, we plan the days. And we almost never prepare ourselves for the year we are about to walk into.

That is the part that decides how the year goes. What you carry in, and what you leave behind.

What Happens During the Evening

A circle gathered on the floor of the ashram

The sacred circle

We open the circle and look at the real meaning of this night: why the darkest point is also the beginning.

A frame drum held among snow-covered trees

The four suns

The four phases of a cycle, and the honest question: where are you in yours, what is closing, what are you still carrying?

Candles on the floor during the ceremony

The candle ceremony

You plant the seed of your coming year. One intention, spoken in the circle, and a candle lit for it.

The drum journey

An hour of shamanic drum meditation to travel through the darkness and come back with your own answer.

From darkness

You Cannot Skip the Dark Part

There is a way of doing this that avoids everything uncomfortable. You name a nice intention, you feel good for an evening, and nothing changes.

That is not what we are doing.

The solstice does not skip the darkness. It goes to the exact point where the darkness is complete, and only there does the direction change.

If you want a different year, you have to look at what kept the last one repeating. The fear you obey. The loyalty to an old story. The pattern you defend because it is familiar.

The four suns give us a map for that. Not a theory: four phases you can recognise in your own life, so you can see where you actually are instead of where you would like to be.

When you can name what has ended, you stop feeding it. That is when the energy comes back.

A circle lit by firelight in a dark room

Towards the light

The Seed You Plant Now Grows with the Light

After the looking comes the planting.

In the old understanding, what you awaken at the turning of the year does not stay the same size. It grows with the light. Small now, in the dark, in a circle, in one sentence you say out loud. Then the days get longer, and what you planted starts to take up more space in your life.

This is why we do it in December and not in January. In January you are already running. In December you can still stop.

The candle ceremony is simple. You will not be asked to perform anything. You will be asked to be honest about one thing you want to bring into the year, and to let the circle witness it.

Then the drum takes you the rest of the way.

The sun is already turning back.

The question is what you are ready to awaken in yourself before it does.