(Spirit Rock Meditation Center) After setting the context of the Winter Solstice, in terms of the earth and the history of many varied cultures which have had rituals and ceremonies at this time, we explore, through teachings, stories, and poems, five ways that we open to the dark:

(1) We stop and become still, like the earth.

(2) We learn to be more able to be skillfully with difficulties and challenges..

(3) We become more comfortable and skillful in conditions of not knowing, as we open to the unknown, the mystery, and shadow areas, both individual and collective.

(4) We come to experience darkness as generative and fertile, creative and dynamic.

(5) We come to experience darkness as luminous, as generating light, as opening us to the light.