Solstice comes from two Latin words ‘Sol’ meaning the Sun, and ‘sistere’ meaning to stand still.
Here in the dead of Winter or the height of Summer, depending on which hemisphere you live the 22nd of December is the true end to the year, the way we once reckoned as a people. We forgot.
—It is time to remember again.
Many will not remember, being too caught up in the vigilance and the pettiness and the busyness and the sloth and the drama of their own small moments. But many are beginning to remember again, like waking up from an uncomfortable dream to a concerning moment.
As the sun stands still, from our perspective at least, at the Nadir of its winter sojourn—the brief hanging moment—the moment of precarious inertia the stillness between pendulum swings, right before the ratchet clicks one year forward and we step forward again into a tomorrow we have no map for, we get to pause in our busyness, to stop our noise, and to consider how we would like to take those first steps. In that stillness, the tiniest window of free will opens like a shy dawn, and we get to put down our the weight of expectations and ask ourselves how much of the shadow of our old selves, our old moods and the thinking of our smaller, lesser selves we really want to cast forward through that narrow gate.
Step forward.
Make a map that others might follow.
Kronos and Kairos
The ancient Greeks lived with two notions of time:
Kronos the Titan, the source of the depiction of Father Time; the overbearing father who devoured his children, the representation of chronological, quantitative time, the source of our sense of urgency. How we measure time on clocks and watches, and tides and seasons.
Kairos the playful, youthful, young man, lithe and fleet of foot, depicted with wings and winged feet, and shown tugging on the scales of balance.
Where Kronos is measured and counted and the inevitable symbol of decline, Kairos is lived and experienced and the symbol of youthful vitality.
In the Solstice, in this hanging moment, we are so incredibly empowered right now. Kairos is a byword for “the perfect moment”. (See the article on my sister-substack A Right Time.)
Tugging on the scales of balance is at the heart of the symbolism and profound meaning of Kairos. All of the Kosmos is driven by Cause and Effect—this is immutable, and is the real (mystical) meaning of Law and Justice, meaning that the laws of nature and physics, of which our laws of thermodynamics, gravity and relativity govern everything and everyone uniformly: For every action there is a relative reaction. In this way, the scales of balance are maintained.
Playful Kairos tugging on the scales represents the power of perfect timing. Where our old mindset is ruled by a sense of urgency, which is itself a belief in the scarcity of time, we live our entire lives under the premise that doggedness, determination, repetition, discipline, endurance and slogging are the only way to make meaningful progress. As anyone who bought Bitcoin at the right time, or has watched Comedic Genius or A Dancer in Flow will know, there is a way to transcend the orders of accomplishment and return of steady progress and chipping away, by simply being present and open to the buoyancy and favourable currents of making a move at the perfect moment.
This interplay between the disciplined, steady progress under Kronos and the inspired, perfectly timed actions in the spirit of Kairos presents a dynamic and multifaceted approach to life and accomplishment.
Below our Newtonian understanding of the laws of the universe, we discovered the curious and unpredictable laws of Quantum mechanics that defy our understanding of time. These are the mysterious laws that govern possibility, probability and potential.
Here in our brief hanging moment of the Solstice, a great invitation beckons anew—one where we get to change our relationship to the draconian, rigid and linear notion of time and all the scarcity of possibility this implies. We don’t run out of time, there is enough time, always. But we do run out of cycles, the invitations stop coming, and sometimes the ship to tomorrow stops mooring in our harbour. Regret is the greatest teacher, but the lesson always lands hardest when it’s too late. Regret is the sounding of the horn of the last ship leaving and realising too late you didn’t want to be left behind, forever.
We can miss the moment.
The key to better understanding is better language. We cannot integrate new ideas until we have good language for them. As Wittgenstein said, “The limits of language are the limits of my world.”
Something David Whyte mentioned that touches on the same notion is, “Our language is too small for the territory we have already entered.”
Now you have the words: Kronos and Kairos. Kairos is the right time—about synchronicity and beneficial timing that can enhance intentionality and outcome, so much more than urgency.
Icons of Kairos can be found in many of the heritage sites of ancient Greece. The most famous statue bears the following epigram:
Who are you? Time who subdues all things. Why do you stand on tip-toe? I am ever running. And why do you have a pair of wings on your feet? I fly with the wind. And why do you hold a razor in your right hand? As a sign to all men that I am sharper than any blade's edge. And why does your hair hang over your face? For him who meets me to grip me by the forelock. And why, in Heaven’s name, is the back of your head bald? Because none whom I have once raced by on my winged feet will now, though he wishes it sorely, arrest me from behind. Why did the artist fashion you? For your sake, stranger, and he set me up here as a lesson.
Kairos is mentioned 86 times in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, and refers to an opportune time, a "moment" or a "season" such as "harvest time", whereas Chronos is referenced 54 times and refers to a specific amount of time, such as a day or an hour.
The most notable depiction of this sense of timing, however, that never fails to move me, is from the Old Testament or more accurately the Torah: Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
You can find the most beautiful rendition here courtesy of The Voice.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Letting Go of Yesterday.
The Solstice is a moment when new light dawns into the world and into our lives.
There was a day that happened that you called your worst. There were days where you were brought so low, you could not imagine a time when your life would be graced again by sunshine and there was that one time, a moment so dark you even reached for prayer.
But the wheel turned.
Yesterday you broke your promise. Yesterday you were not the best version of yourself. Yesterday you worked too hard on this, not hard enough on that. Yesterday you ate what you ought not to have, and you didn’t drink enough water. Yesterday you forgot your gratitudes and you rushed through moments that asked you to be present. Yesterday you fretted over things beyond your control and you spoke when you should have listened. Yesterday you hardened in your heart when you should have made space for Forgiveness. Yesterday you were wrapped up in your bullshit and the smallness of life and you missed the opportunity to be kind.
We are not stranded and adrift in the river of time. We are right here, in this impossible bright moment we call Now.
Today is brand new. And everyone who wronged you also had a Yesterday. We get to make amends today; we get to be more present, more patient, more grateful. Today, we get to Forgive, we get to be Vulnerable, we get to Choose. We get to connect with Meaning. Today, we get to Understand.
Today you can be brand new; a new Choice, a new Stance.
We are after all, who we repeatedly choose to be.
Make today count.
How little yesterday matters today.
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.” —Rumi
Wishing you all a happy solstice and a prosperous year.
Rocco
Great writing, Sir. You cut to the core.