An Asatru Experience at Sunrise on the Winter Solstice

As we revive our ancestral faith of Asatru, we need to be open to experiences that give us new insights and nourish our souls.

I've just had such a moment, and I want to write about it while the memory is still fresh.

The Winter Solstice happened at 9 PM or so last night, local time. This marks the true "new year," the rebirth of the sun, whom we perceive in her numinous aspect as the Goddess, Sunna. Today's dawn was the first rising of the new-born sun, and I intended to ceremonially greet it as it rose over the horizon.

I had spent the pre-dawn hours doing my various spiritual exercises, loading the dishwasher, checking the news online, and the other typical activities that fill my time after awakening. When the moment of sunrise came, Sheila and I were on the deck, facing eastward, a horn of mead in hand. As the first rays shot over the horizon, unrehearsed words poured from me. They went something like this: "Hail, Sunna! Hail the new year! You are reborn from the depths of winter, and so are we reborn! We are new, limitless, full of potential! You, who penetrated the chamber at Newgrange a few hours ago*, give your rebirth and renewal to us!"

I was instantly in an altered state. The light of the rising sun on the wall of the house seemed to have a special quality to it, and I had the overwhelming feeling that the sun's rays were re-making everything on which they fell, creating them anew. I walked inside, and paused in awe at a wall flooded with light. I stood in the light, and slowly turned, irradiated with a feeling of power, wholeness, newness. I sat quietly for a few moments as the feeling faded.

That's it. The simplicity of my description cannot begin to communicate its power or its impact on me, personally.

Yule can be a time of transformation. I had consciously told myself that I wanted it to be so - that I wanted to burn away the fatigue, the stress, the disappointments, the weakness, that congeals about us as we move though our days. I wanted rebirth.

On some level, I got it.

Asatru must not be just about wearing a hammer or saying the right words. We must seek inner spiritual experience, as well. Only in this way will we change our lives, empower our faith, and awaken the Folk of Northern Europe to their spiritual inheritance.

*This is a reference to the ancient tomb at Newgrange, part of the religious complex overlooking the valley of the River Boyne in Ireland. Every year, at sunrise on the morning of the Winter Solstice, a beam of light enters the inner chamber and lights up the interior for seventeen minutes. The rest of the time, it is in deep darkness.

Steve McNallen

Asatru Folk Assembly
http://runestone.org