Solstice Heartlight Angel

The winter solstice symbolizes coming out of the darkness and into the light as the darkest day of the year passes. This angel is meant to celebrate the change and the coming of brighter days. She holds a seed representing a time for new beginnings.

Inspiration for this angel came from many people and ideas. My friend, Millie, made a store display using pine needles for the skirt and I loved it! I borrowed this idea for this angel’s skirt, inspired by Millie, nature, and Christmas trees. The angel’s skin was painted several times using every paint color I could find that might be a skin tone, from a very dark brown to a very pale pink and cream and everything in between. I wanted her to embody all the beauty of diversity. She has kaleidoscope eyes, also to represent the beauty of diversity, as well as a nod to favorite lyrics! The setting is meant to be at night since this was painted specifically for winter solstice, the darkest/longest night of the year. I didn’t think to check the moon phase before painting it! The snow also represents winter in the northern hemisphere, where I live, and the change of seasons. She is also a tribute/dedication to mother nature and the natural cycles of life on Earth.  Her necklace is an infinity sign and reminds me of a necklace I used to have from going to New Zealand with my family (that was stolen when our home was broken into).  Infinity representing the mysterious and eternal aspects of life, love, and creation.

The message “Joy to the World. Joy to you and me.” comes from a favorite song and heartfelt prayer for our world.  My family didn’t go to church much when I was a young child, aside from visits to my grandparents and the catholic church where they lived (and I was baptized as a baby) that was 6 hours from my childhood home.  Hence, I didn’t know very many traditional hymns.  I can recall when I started going to church with a friend of mine (whose Dad was the reverend), I was excited when they said we were going to sing “joy to the world” because I thought I knew that one!  I was surprised to learn that it was a much different version than the song of that name that I listened to with my parents.  This is the most recent angel in the heartlight series of angels I’ve been working on these past few months. If you’d like to read more about the others, please check out the older heartlight angels blog post.

As the new year approaches, I’ve been thinking about what word will be my focus for 2015. The word “thrive” presented itself immediately! Yet, as with this past year, I could not choose just one. For 2014, I chose “connect” and “sacred” and both seemed to keep coming in my life in big ways throughout the year. I am extremely grateful for the many connections made with other people, new friends, online artists, myself and nature, as well as a deep feeling of being touched by the sacred in my own soul, home, and family. Now, the word “harmony” wants to join the word “thrive” for 2015… these 2 words have really already been showing up in my life and heart as 2014 comes to an end so they were the obvious choice for the New Year’s ritual of choosing a word to focus on for 2015 (this is the first time it’s been so obvious and easy for me to select words). While this is a personal focus for the coming year, my hope and prayer is that we will all be blessed to thrive and live in harmony with each other and all of creation.

May we emerge from the darkness and thrive in the light.

Joy to the World! Joy to you and me. <3 🙂

PS – For the Documented Life Project Week 53 – Draw or collage something that begins with the first letter of your first name – I immediately thought “Joy” and then realized that this angel fits the challenge. 🙂  This is the 4th or 5th time this kind of serendipity or synchronicity has happened with one of the DLP challenges recently. 🙂  Love this for the closing week/challenge/page of 2014 !