A ritual in the changing seasons – Let there be light!

We still vaguely remember the fire wheel rituals during the Rauhnächte (rough nights) in the high and low mountain ranges, i.e. wherever it was possible to roll a wooden wheel set alight down a mountainside. Here and there, such rituals may still take place, accompanied by many spectators who are no longer familiar with the traditional rites of this event, or only vaguely so.

The ritual symbolically represents the fiery, divine energy of the sun brought down from the heights, which, in the rhythm of the seasons, is supposed to bring the land, people, and wildlife back to life after the silence of winter.

The ritualized use of the fire wheel had both a destructive and a constructive effect: the wheel rolling down the mountain symbolically burned or purified old soil so that new things could grow and flourish on it; on a human level, the rotation of the fiery energy contained in the flames purified negativity, pent-up emotions, and burdens on the soul.

The Rauhnacht light ritual

Nowadays, it is hardly possible to perform a fire wheel ritual. ‘Modernity’ restricts or prevents this time-honored ritual based on tradition. We know well who they work for and against, in a spiritual sense.

We can counteract these limitations by using a candle ritual to transform the (now demonized!) cleansing, healing, and creative energy of the sun into our spiritual and material space for our own benefit.

The sun – a spiritual reference

Before we turn to the light or candle ritual, let us take a closer look at the subject of the ritual, the sun, and shed light on some aspects of this celestial body, which has been associated with spiritual aspects since ancient times:

Firstly, the sun’s halo is directly associated with the precious metal gold, so that the material aspect derived from this is self-evident. Therefore, the most important aspect of gold at present is its representation of (almost) unlimited power and wealth, which is displayed in government, private, and church palaces.

Surrounding oneself with gold is nevertheless a common phenomenon, because (almost) everyone (women in particular), often unaware of the spiritual meaning, wants to bring a spark of the splendor of materialized gold into their immediate surroundings, or accumulate it as a safeguard for economically difficult times.

However, the history of humanity as we know it shows that nothing, not even accumulated physical gold, has lasting permanence. —

Sun and gold combined to build empires, reminding us of France’s Sun King Louis XIV or the empire of Akhenaten, in which the sun god Ra, traveling across the sky in a barque, ruled the spiritual Egyptian empire. In the case of Louis XIV (with clear parallels to the present day), the nobility and court, thirsting for gold, money, and power, brought about the downfall of the empire; in the case of Akhenaten, it was an overly one-sided spiritual orientation. Both remind us of the fall of Icarus, who came too close to the sun—the gold in his spiritual existence—in his flight based on material foundations and had to crash. —

If we consider the value or radiance of the sun spiritually, we recognize that the aspects attributed to solar energy, such as:

– radiating joy and humanity
– shining inwardly and outwardly
– possessing charisma
– transmitting healing energy
– having a heart of gold
– being a generous, empathetic person
etc.

in the history of the world and interpersonal relationships, these are rather rare qualities. The possession of real gold, or material goods in general, carries more weight. —

Gold in its material form, used in the ritual sense of sun worship, had its raison d’être among the Incas, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, the indigenous peoples, and the Nordic peoples. Physical gold, symbolizing the divine radiance and power of the sun, served as a reminder of the ever-recurring cycle of death and rebirth in fertility and funeral rituals.

Considering the context of the previous paragraph, the theft of gold and other valuables from the burial chambers and dolmens of our ancestors by grave robbers of old, but also by modern explorers of our time, we see an irreparable desecration of the ritual burial rites of the dead, which were intended to guarantee their spiritual reawakening. The journey of the dead to the next incarnation, defined by the burial ritual, which was disturbed by the desecration of the graves, did not and does not go unpunished: whether they reject or deny it, humans act in a space animated by spiritual laws. —

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In the second part of this blog post, we describe how to perform a light ritual.

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