Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00506)

Last night I was talking to my friend Martha about seasonal
matters, and we started to compare notes on how we feel at this
time of year.  I had observed, over the last eight years or so,
a very particular thing that happens at the solstice.  Late
November and early December are always my low point of the year
in terms of energy, enthusiasm, creativity.  Something inside
just sorta shrivels up, and I go into "just get through it
somehow" mode.  Like a mini- version of Seasonal Affective
Depression.  But when that shortest day comes and goes, there's
a tremendous turnabout within.  Something awakens, and from
late December through the spring equinox I'm in an intense,
almost manic creative phase.  Have written all my books that
way-- totally focused through the winter, ready to go out and
play when spring comes.  Then, through spring, summer and into
fall, I'm much more extraverted, wanting to be outdoors and
with people, less able to concentrate on literary work.  Those
times are good for editing, indexing, minor revisions, but not
real creativity of the winter kind.

Martha, who is an artist rather than a writer, surprised me by
saying this was a totally familiar pattern to her, one that she
observes in her own life but moreover one she thinks is rooted
in universals.  She's an anthroposophist, and apparently Rudolf
Steiner talks about the inner meaning of the solstice at some
length.  She felt that what I observed within myself was in
fact not an individual thing at all but something anyone
sensitive to spiritual influences would notice.  I know that
Theosophy emphasizes the four sacred seasons, but don't recall
any details that specifically relate to the experience I'm
describing.  Don't recall seeing anything about it in the Cayce
readings, or world religions.  But of course for Christians
this time of year is experienced as a time of birth, which fits
the inner archetypal pattern.

So, some questions to people on the lists I'm addressing:
1.  Does this ring a bell with you?  How?
2.  Do those of you down under have the same thing in June?
3.  Any literary references that address this phenomenon come
to mind?

Thanks,
Paul