Winter Threshold Ritual

Sit With the Changing Light

Begin 15 minutes before sunset, wherever you are.
This ritual lives in the hinge, not quite day, not yet night.

You’ll need

• One simple candle

• A place to sit where natural light can fade around you

• A blanket

• Perhaps a cup of something warm to hold if you like

Enter the room without turning on any lights

Let the dimness greet you.
Winter begins in the place where you stop fixing the room and start feeling it..

Sit down and just arrive.

Let the shadows organize themselves.

Notice what in the room catches the last of the day.

Place the candle but don’t light it yet..

Keep it near you.
Feel the presence of the unlit flame… the possibility of warmth.

Perhaps you wrap the blanket around your shoulders.
Let your body know
we are entering a season where warmth can always be found inside ourselves.

Sit with the shifting light

Close your eyes for three breaths.
When you open them, look at the room as if it is slowly exhaling.

Watch the light change, however subtly.
Let it wash over your face, your chest, your hands.

Just allowing yourself to witness the passing.

This is winter’s first teaching:
let things dim without interfering.

Light the candle at the exact moment you feel the day fall away

Not the clock time.
The felt time… the small click in your awareness when the world shifts.

As the flame rises, place your hands over it (not too close), letting the warmth brush your palms.

Breathe in gently through the nose, out through the mouth.

On the next exhale, bring your warmed hands to your chest. One over the heart, one over the solar plexus.

This is your interior hearth.

Ask the question

Without forcing an answer…

“Where in my life am I being called to winter?”

Let the question drop and feel where it lands in your body, not your mind.

Does your chest feel heavier?
Your throat soften?
Your belly hollow or warm?
Your back lean for support?

The body will point toward the place that wants slowness, darkness, rest, incubation, growth..

No need to interpret, just begin to notice.

Sit in candlelight for a few minutes

Let the presence of the flame be enough.

No goals.
No visions.
Just the exchange between your body and the light.

Winter is the season of inward drift…let yourself soak in that in-between state.

Stay until you feel the internal shift:
the moment your body says I’m here now.

Closing

Blow out the candle with intention.

And as the smoke clears you may say to yourself..

“I enter the dark season with my inner light intact.”