I have been writing about the meaning behind my solstice decorations, but more importantly for me, the meaning of this time of year is about sacrifice. This is a time of year when I take a pause from making drums and doing Journey Oracle readings, and so have been reading an illustrated history of the Aztec and Maya civilizations. I came to this beautiful passage about why make a sacrifice to the gods during this yearly celebration of transition from the dark to the light.At the start of the fifth or current world age, the existing race of humankind was made from the bones of the men and women who had lived in the fourth world age. These bones had been languishing in the underworld, but the Feathered Serpent god Quetzalcoatl ventured into that dark realm to rescue them. However, the Feathered Serpent was tricked during his escape from the underworld and dropped the bones, which broke into many pieces. He carried the remains to the home of the gods, where all the divine lords and ladies agreed that the bones should be ground to a powder, then moistened with the gods' blood and mixed into a paste. From this paste the first people of the fifth world age were made. People suffered illness, old age and death because they were originally made from broken bones. However, they had a special calling to serve the gods because they were fashioned from the gods' blood.
This story has important teachings for me that I translate into gifts of sacrifice on Winter Solstice. My human fragility, illness and death is not something I have earned as punishment because of bad behavior--it is the core condition of being human. I translate this teaching by spending Solstice day in the woods, eating over an open fire without the comfort of a warm house or the convenience of a plate and fork. I sacrifice my warmth to honor my origin as broken bones. Before I begin my Solstice feast I make sacrifices of hand made beads and shavings of copal to the fire, in honor of remembering that all the gods agreed that the alchemy of transformation was required to create new life. I conclude my sacrifices on winter solstice by pricking my finger and offering my blood on a braid of sweetgrass that is laid on the coals, so that my life force will rise on the smokey breath of this blessing plant to honor the gods' blood that gives me life force.
