Winter Solstice Gathering
Free Community Event
Sunday, December 21, 2025
REGISTER NOW

The Winter Solstice marks a powerful turning point. It is a pause, a threshold, and an invitation to reflect before moving forward.

This free gathering offers space and support to look back at what you said yes to in 2025. Alongside moments of growth and joy, the year may have carried disappointment, loss, grief, or physical and emotional challenges. All of it belongs.

Together, we will acknowledge the full story of the year and release what no longer needs to be carried. Through a fire ceremony soul journey guided meditation, heavy energy is transformed to make room for new possibilities.

Release what weighs you down
Honor the lessons learned
Celebrate your courage to say yes

Participants will receive a printable handout and a Seed of Life mandala. During the event, you will fill the mandala with colors, words, patterns, or symbols that reflect what you are releasing and what you are honoring from 2025.

At the Solstice, you’ll also hear about an exciting way to carry this energy forward into 2026—a special invitation and early bird offer will be shared during the event.

Register for the 2025 Winter Solstice Gathering

A Closer Look: My Seed of Life Mandala for 2025

I printed a few copies of the Seed of Life mandala template included in the Winter Solstice Gathering handout. You will receive this handout when you register for the event.

I used several of these mandalas as working pages to take notes, doodle ideas, and explore possibilities before committing to the final design. They became a kind of visual journal, helping me think through the year I was closing and the one I am stepping into.

Year of the Snake

New this year, I decided to use stickers to embellish my mandala. As we move through the Year of the Snake, the symbolism felt unavoidable. Over the past several months, I have been shedding skin in a very real way. Old limiting beliefs, long held wounds, disappointments, and layers of shame have been falling away. With so much release and renewal, it felt only fitting to include a snake as part of the design.

Virgo – Traveling by Moonlight

At the top of the mandala is a woman soaking up the energy of a crescent moon. The golden plant beside her hints at Virgo, and perhaps even the Greek goddess Demeter. While my sun sign is Leo, I have a Virgo stellium with four planets in that sign, and I feel this imagery deeply.

She also brings to mind my Traveling by Moonlight blog series. I am genuinely proud that I made it through the year with a post for every new moon and full moon. Each stop along this moonwalk deepened my understanding of the featured zodiac sign and my relationship to lunar cycles. As I look ahead to 2026, I am already curious about what I will weave into the next round of posts.

Butterflies & Lunar Moths

Two lunar moths found their way onto my mandala. This year, lunar moths felt more fitting than butterflies. Much like the snake symbolism, my transformation has not been loud or visible. I have been doing deep shadow work, tending to what lives beneath the surface rather than what is ready to be displayed.

Butterflies represent conscious transformation. Their metamorphosis is visible and celebrated, unfolding in the light. Symbolically, they speak to change that is chosen, recognized, and integrated. Butterfly energy is about emergence, rebirth, joy, and allowing growth to be seen. They often appear when someone is stepping into a new identity and sharing that transformation openly.

Butterflies are also associated with the soul in many traditions, but in a light, airy, outward facing way. They suggest freedom after struggle and the beauty of becoming.

Lunar moths, on the other hand, symbolize unconscious transformation. Their change happens quietly, in darkness and instinct. They are guided not by visibility, but by inner knowing and subtle pull. Moth symbolism is tied to shadow work, intuition, mystery, and devotion to an inner light that others may not see.

Lunar moths speak to cycles, liminal spaces, and the womb like darkness of creation. Where butterflies emerge in daylight, moths navigate thresholds and unseen realms. Their attraction to light is not about display, but about longing, guidance, and surrender.

Who Supported Me

One of the Winter Solstice handout prompts asked, Who supported me this year. I spent time reflecting on that question and added zodiac images for each person who played a meaningful role.

Capricorn represents my brother Karl. Pisces is my sister in law Tania. Scorpio honors my dear friend Bobbi, and Sagittarius represents my dear friend Claudia. Above each symbol, I added a small sticker that nods to my deep dive into Tarot study this year, weaving another layer of meaning into the mandala.

This final section became a quiet acknowledgment of gratitude, reminding me that even in years of shedding and transformation, support is always present.

The Star

At the center of the mandala, and repeated in a few sections, are stars representing my word and guiding theme for 2025, The Star. Pictured alongside my mandala is The Star Tarot card from The Light Seer’s Deck. In the card, a woman holds a string that is connected to a bright star, symbolizing alignment with our True North and the choice to live from that place of inner guidance.

This image feels especially meaningful to me. After a five year pause, my creativity reawakened this year. Rather than pushing my work outward or forcing it into the world, I focused on letting it be a light. I shared my gifts in a way that felt natural, invitational, and rooted in trust.

For me, The Star reflects creative purpose and healing through art. It is a reminder that when we stay aligned with what is true and authentic, our work can illuminate the path without needing to persuade or perform.

You are Invited!

I’d love to meet up with you at the upcoming Winter Solstice Gathering that I’m hosting on Sunday, December 21, 2025 from 3 to 5 pm, EST. It’s free!

When you register, you’ll get more specific details and a handout with the Seed of Life template to print and bring with you. There will be a brief presentation followed by a guided meditation, time to create and time for sharing (always optional.)

Register for the 2025 Winter Solstice Gathering

(((soul hugs)))
Kathryn Costa
Instigator of Soulful & Creative Living