Theresa Crater

Happy New Year everyone.

This time of year is always special to me, because of childhood memories of beeswax candles and Moravian Advent stars, carols and choir rehearsals, putting up the tree, Moravian ginger spice cookies.

Then there’s Solstice, the darkest night, the longest, when the sun is rekindled in the womb of the Dark Mother. Always the deepest darkness regenerates us, even though we fight to avoid it. But once we surrender, we too are renewed.

At Solstice, the sun stops sinking low in the sky and pauses. For three days it stays still. Then on Christmas Day, it begins to climb higher again.

Solstice and Christmas bring many things, but the thing I prize the most is the stillness. In stillness and silence, all can be found.

I’m honored to have a story included in the anthology Ride the Moon from the new Canadian science fiction/fantasy press Tyche Books, Ltd. Just look at this list of great writers.

My story is “White Moon,” based on the story of the Mayan Goddess Ixchel. Ixchel is a moon goddess, the consort of the sun god, mother of the four jaguar priests. And it’s the name of the mystery crystal skull that was revealed at the 11.11.11 conference in L.A where my own consort, Stephen Mehler, was a guest speaker. The story includes Mayan mythology, magic, crystal skulls and sound healing.

In her myth cycle, Ixchel marries Itzamna, the sun, but grows tired of his hot temper. When she leaves him, she goes to her island, Cozumel, where she lives among women as a midwife and healer. I took this theme of the ebb and flow of relationships, and the ebb and flow of human consciousness.

A special note:  if you find that you resemble a character in this story, remember not to read too much into it. This is not really you, but a character in a story written for fun.

Winter Solstice was celebrated in the British Isles in a very special way. Many of the great monuments were built to track the sun. Many of the mounds are oriented so that the sun enters their long entrance ways and illuminates their inner chamber on the solstice. The Winter Solstice represents the rebirth or rekindling of the light, the sun. This process reminds me of the conception of the Solar Hero, the Christ.

Here’s a site that shows the beginning of this process at Newgrange on December 18th.