The full moon rising in the distance with my Christmas lights in the foreground.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere it is the winter solstice on 21st December. It is the shortest day of the year and a reminder that the dark nights are leaving us. From now the days will start becoming lighter again and we are reminded of our own LIGHT and the light of the world.

As it is nearing the end of the year, the winter solstice is an ideal time to review the year we have had. To let 2016 go with love, to express gratitude for the joy it has brought us and start looking forward to 2017 and the lighter days ahead.

I’m looking forward to doing this solstice ritual myself. 2016 has been a big, fiery year and there will be a lot to review and to let go of. But as with any year there will be pockets or buckets of joy. I know that the summer months were full of bliss for me and my trip to Barcelona will always have a special place in my heart.

The Process: I start with the memorable parts of the year – both the joyous and the challenging ones. Once I have done some reflection on these, I then review my diary month by month. It is always interesting for me to notice the things which had seemed so important and big at the time, but months later they are not as significant and not the first in my mind.

I also go through the journal which I use for my tarot readings. I do a weekly tarot reading every Sunday and post this on my instagram feed: Bindi’s Instagram – I like to read through these and see how the year unfolded according to my readings and journalling.

The Prompts: I have some prompts to aid you as you review your year:

What did you discover about yourself in 2016?

What lessons did you learn during the year?

What are you grateful for?

What made you happy?

What dreams started to emerge in 2016?

What challenging experiences are you know learning from?

As you review your year allow yourself to reflect fully – even when it feels sad. This exercise can be very healing and allow a new energy to come in for 2017. Remind yourself to be gentle. We often would do differently and better in hindsight – but please remember that at the time, you did the best you could with all the information you had.

Once you have reflected, there will be parts you want to let go of. This could mean letting go of the energy of how you feel about the experience – letting go of the fear, the regret, the guilt, the blame. All of these negative emotions which left unchecked will fester and do further harm to your mental well-being.

Write everything you wish to release and let go of on a piece of paper. Then you can do a letting go ritual of burning the paper – if this is safe for you to do so – or tearing the paper up. I have a saucepan I keep aside for burning outside.

Expressing Gratitude – on a separate piece of paper write down everything you were grateful for in 2016. The more in gratitude and joy you can be, the more light can come in. This also allows you to be in a more positive energy as you start looking forward to 2017.

So dear soul, let me know in the comments if you followed this ritual and how you found it. Or perhaps you have your own solstice ritual you do. I would love to hear more about this.

Much love at this magical time of the year, Bindi x