Solstice Seeds

Dark Skies and Wide Horizons

A dark sky dispatch from the Dark Sky Community of Norwood, Colorado

By Ellen Metrick

President, Norwood (Colorado) Dark Sky Advocates

Dec. 21, 2024

It’s not snow that flies through the morning blue skies, it’s cattail fluff, breeze-borne seeds on this bright winter solstice morning. Yesterday, honey bees searched green garlands for food. The only snow visible from my home at 7,000’ in Southwest Colorado, at the edge of Norwood’s Dark Sky Community, is on the peaks and in small patches and runs along the shady edges of pasture grasses. 

While the ground is dry, much drier than we like it, the skies have been clear. We’ve seen the space station pass over this month, Jupiter and the moon setting together, Mercury just before sunrise, Mars at sunset, and the green dashes of meteor showers punctuating early morning hours. 

It’s a good day to meditate on what we’re letting go and what we’re embracing in the coming season. We’ve been cocooned in darkness, and slowly, now, the light returns, and like any good worthy work, it takes time. It’s not sudden like a meteor streak; it’s work that lasts. 

We have a few sky events to look forward to this month. The second new moon of December is on the 30th. It’s rare to have two new moons in a month, and some call this the dark moon, as opposed to the blue moon of two full moons in a month. 

A black moon is as rare as a blue moon, happening about every 33 months. The next black moon will be August 23, 2025, in most of the world. We’ll have to wait longer for a blue moon — May 31, 2026. 

Black moon isn’t an official term, and there are other definitions for it. It can also mean a third  new moon in an astronomical season which has four new moons — that’s in  the weeks between solstice and equinox, equinox and solstice. Solstice and equinox vary between the 20th and 22nd days of Dec., March, June and Sept. 

As the moon wanes towards darkness this season, it’s a good time to continue inner discovery  and reflection, and prepare the seeds for the coming year, whether you celebrate the new year on solstice or Dec. 31. This new year, the moon will be returning on Jan. 1, 2025, beginning its first day of waxing, a strong day for new year’s intentions.