Chants for Winter Solstice rituals

Winter solstice certainly gives us something to sing about! In this post, I’ll share several of my favorite chants for Winter Solstice rituals. Some of these songs help us appreciate the beauty of the darkness, on this night when the dark is at its height of power. Others celebrate the joy of the sun’s rebirth on Winter Solstice morning. Whether your ritual lasts an hour or the whole night through, these chants for Winter Solstice rituals will help all those present to bond together through the magic of singing.

Begin your journey with Solstice Chant

I like to use a meditative song early in ritual to help everyone drop into sacred space. People may be standing or seated, or movement may be part of this transition. For example, if you begin your journey with a processional, people can literally move into sacred space. If people are singing and walking, the song must be simple enough to learn quickly, and easy enough that people can sing and walk at the same time. I like Solstice Chant for this. I learned this song from the book A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual by Julie Forest Middleton & Stasa Morgan-Appel. The book provides a complete Yule ritual, including narration and songs, and even sheet music! The book comes with a CD of all the songs. The more difficult ones are broken down so that you can learn each vocal part separately. Here are the lyrics for Solstice Chant:

Deep, deep, deep into the heart of the winter
Deep, deep, deep into the womb of the Mother
Deep, deep, deep where there is no other
song but the song of my soul

(c) 1990 by Anne Bearheart

Solstice Chant has three vocal parts, each with its own track on the CD. You can buy the book with its CD of practice tracks from Amazon. I really recommend doing this, so singers can learn each of the three parts (melody, plus two lower harmony parts). The harmonies are truly beautiful. The Crow Women have used Solstice Chant many times in our Yule rituals over the years.

As I was searching around for a recording of Solstice Chant, I ran across a YouTube video of Irene of the Frederick CUUPS chapter singing all the songs they included in their 2018 Yule ritual. Solstice Chant is at 3:49 in the video. The whole video is worth watching for ideas for your own solstice rituals.

Use Long, Long Night throughout your solstice night journey

I wrote the song Long, Long Night for the Crow Women’s most recent album, Seasons–A Pagan Journey Around the Wheel. Here are the words:

It’s a long, long night
It’s a long, long night
We journey through the darkness,
it brings us insight in the long, long night.

music & lyrics © Alane Susan Brown (ASCAP) 2017

You can hear it in this YouTube video:

For many years, I have celebrated Winter Solstice with a group of friends in a ceremony we call The Long Dance. We begin drumming as we watch the sun setting on the longest night of the year, and keep vigil all through the night until we drum up the sun at dawn. During this long, long night we remain in sacred space, keeping the sound field alive by chanting and drumming. There are periods of ritual interspersed throughout the night.

As the night goes along, some people depart, others drop off to sleep, until just a few of us remain, awake into the deepest part of the night, singing, drumming and dancing. My arrangement of this piece of music echoes that experience, with many drums and voices at the beginning, then gradually becoming simpler and simpler until a single voice remains. I have found insight in keeping the vigil all night, on that longest of nights. There are lessons in the darkness. There are insights that come from bearing witness to the turning of the year and the rebirth of the sun.

Through the Darkness provides encouragement on the longest night

As we share the spiritual journey of solstice night, I always lead the gathered people in the song Through the Darkness, written by Starhawk. Beverly Frederick recorded it as the title track of her 1998 album Through the Darkness, available on her website, here. The lyrics are as follows:

Hold on, hold on through the darkness until the dawn

(c) 1996 by Starhawk

Here’s an audio snippet of the song. I love the way the two vocal parts create a cascading effect. The chant is simple and easy to remember, even for sleep-deprived brains. At the same time, it really lends itself to harmony and improvization, so it’s great to jam on.

Light Is Returning celebrates the approaching dawn

One of my favorite chants for Winter Solstice rituals is Light is Returning, by Charlie Murphy. It’s available on Amazon, on the album Canticles of Light. I love the jazzy style of Charlie Murphy, Jami Sieber and the Total Experience Gospel Choir. The whole album is a delight to listen to. In our all-night Winter Solstice ritual, we sing this song periodically throughout the night to infuse our tiring bodies with hopeful and revitalizing energy. This song is spiritual caffeine!

Light is returning
Even though this is the darkest hour
No one can hold back the dawn

Let us keep it burning
Let us keep the light of hope alive
Make safe our journey through the storm

One planet is turning
Circle on her path around the sun
Earth mother is calling her children home

by Charlie Murphy, (c) 1984

This song has been covered by a variety of artists. I also highly recommend the version by the EarthSpirit Community’s performance group: Mothertongue, on their album This Winter’s Night. In fact, I recommend the entire album. It’s one of the best pagan albums for Yuletide, devoted entirely to pagan songs for the season. You’ll find other musical gems for your winter rituals if you buy this album, including the lovely Winter Solstice Sunrise. Here’s what their version of Light is Returning sounds like:

Light is Returning is very upbeat, and is a wonderful song for raising energy in any Yule ritual. By the way, Kate Marks offers circle dance moves for this song on page 48-49 of her songbook Circle of Song: Songs, Chants and Dances for Ritual and Celebration.

We Are the Rising Sun welcomes the sunrise

At last–sunrise! As you greet the solstice dawn, We Are the Rising Sun is a very fitting chant. Perhaps you have stayed awake through the long night, or perhaps you have gathered in the pre-dawn darkness to greet the reborn sun. I have heard this chant by Rayyn Stanfield sung at many pagan circles throughout the year, too. A very fun recording of it can be found on Campfire Chants; Songs for the Earth. There is a companion book with information about the songs, and lyrics with guitar/ukulele chords. I’m getting a copy for Yule, and you can order the book from Amazon, too. You can learn more about Reclaiming on their website www.reclaiming.org

We are the rising sun
We are the change
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
and we are dawning

by Ravyn Stanfield, recorded on Campfire Chants, (c) 2016

Winter Solstice has inspired many wonderful songs. On our Seasons album, we have two, A Long, Long Night, decribed above, and also Darkness Holy Be by another of our songwriters, Marilyn Leftwich. For ideas for pagan carols, be sure to read Carole’s blog post on how to “filk” a carol for Yule. Our Yule page on our website gathers together more of our suggestions for how to made your Winter Solstice enjoyable. If you have other suggestions for chants for Winter Solstice rituals, please let us know about them in the comments section below.

Wishing you a very happy Winter Solstice, with love from the Crow Women!

For more information about the Crow Women pagan choir, and access to all the blog posts by Alane and the other 9 crowsingers who have written for Pagan Song, you can visit the Crow Women author page here on Pagan Song.

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