Long, long, long ago, in time’s deepest night, there lived a mighty grandmother star. Her heart burned bright with all the elements of creation – the iron in our red blood, the gold of our gleaming treasures, the calcium of our bones, and more. When, as with all things, her time grew near, she performed a final, magnificent mambo – a blazing burst that scattered her essence across the cosmos like seeds in a celestial garden.
From these precious star-seeds, a new light was born – our mother star, Sol. As Sol grew strong and bright, she gathered around her swirling clouds of detritus and stardust, the remnants of her own mother’s gift… the solar afterbirth, if you will. This twirling cosmic dance slowly gave birth to Sol’s children – the planets – each one unique and precious.
Baby Earth was one of these children, already wrapped in a delicate veil of gases and beginning its never-ending journey around mother Sol. In those early days, when Earth was but a few breaths old (though a single breath would last millions of years), another astral child wandered into Baby Earth’s path ’round Sol… its celestial cradle. This was little Theia, namesake of an ancient goddess of heavenly light.
Excitedly scampering about their mother, Theia and Earth drew closer and closer until, in a TITANIC CRASH, they collided! While that titanic impact was utterly destructive, flinging pieces of Sol’s children far and wide, part of our solar sibling Theia became forever part of Earth. One great piece – which we now call “Moon” – was cast up and up until it found its own stately path around its new mother Earth.
The great collision changed Earth forever. Not only did baby Earth lose a lump, but like a child learning to pirouette, Earth now twirled at a tilt, forever leaning 23° in its oval dance around mother Sol. Deep within Earth’s heart, wise stone-readers have found pieces of Theia still nestled there, like memories of that ancient cosmic embrace.
This divine tilt made all the difference to Earth’s story. Now, as Earth dances its great oval around Sol, it leans closer to its mother’s warmth for part of its journey and further away in others. So while one part of Earth basks in warmth, its opposite cools, and then they trade places as the dance continues.
Later, after baby Earth settled down, life arose and fit itself to this endless cycle of change. Eventually, some life that walked upon Earth’s skin came to know these times of warm and cold as seasons, adapting their own small dances to this greater cosmic waltz.
Among all the points in Earth’s yearly dance, there is one special moment when Earth’s top tilts furthest from Sol’s embrace. The wise ones call this the winter solstice – the longest night – when darkness wraps the world in its longest embrace before light begins to grow again. For those creatures that would gaze upward and wonder, Sol’s place in the sky became a beacon of deep meaning.
Throughout time, the human children of our now much older Earth have marked this special moment with festivals and ceremonies celebrating the eternal dance of darkness and light, the symbolic death and rebirth of their mother star Sol.
Even today, when the winter solstice nears, many still celebrate this celestial ballet, though they may call it by different names. All are celebrating that same eternal story – the story of our cosmic lineage, as it has been since long, long before the time of our grandmother star. The newest celebration of light born from darkness, of death leading to rebirth, is now known as Christmas.
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