Trans Spirituality – Light up the Nights – Special Edition

Most of the major known religions in the world are northern hemisphere based, due to a few factors, including the location of the cradle of civilization and the spread of people, as well as imperialism and colonization. This leads to Holiday calendars that are northern centric. So we have the major winter holidays centered around the northern winter solstice, which comes 5:30 a.m., Monday December 21 this year in the northern hemisphere.

Most common symbology is based on secular Yule customs, including the Yule log, the “Christmas Tree”, the lights, etc, because of the deep darkness of the Scandinavian winter. Christmas falls on December 25, even though Jesus was not in fact born then. Hanukkah falls on the Hebrew date Kislev 25, which falls some time in this period. This year it begins at sunset, Thursday December 10.

The new moon comes on Monday December 14, the fourth day of Hanukkah, and a week before the Solstice. So we can see that we have the darkest lunar day and solar day within a few days of each other. This makes the entire time extremely dark. The new moon always falls during Hanukkah, so this always happens.

Thus, it is no coincidence that these many different traditions, old and new associate lights with their winter solstice holidays. Whether Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or other choices, candles, fires, strings of lights, cooking fires, you name it, we light up the night. In fact, even though Hanukkah is post-biblical and therefore there are not truly any commandments associated with it, we say the blessing:

Blessed are you Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments and commanded us to light the Hanukkah lights.

This was a rabbinic order in the Talmud but it has the force of a divine commandment, because the nights are so dark. In fact we are told these lights are so holy we cannot use them for any practical work, but simply to see them and remember that these are a symbol of redemption.

This gets into a challenging issue however. Far too many of our trans siblings do not have family or friends to spend the holidays with, and don’t have housing, food and employment security, to be able to enjoy the holidays safely. They are struggling just to get by. For them, redemption looks like just coming out of the cold for the night, or not getting killed tonight.

So if you, like me are one of the privileged siblings, please remember those of us for whom redemption has not yet come, and donate to the trans centered funds that help bring redemption to our siblings.

And if you are in crisis, there are many hotlines available to help. Please go to the PFLAG website for the best available list.  Remember that national hotlines are anonymous, so they cannot call 911 for assistance. If you need local help such as a medic, call 911, but do so judiciously as the cops will also come, and they may not be your friends. So be sure you have someone with you if you’re in crisis and you need to call for help. Otherwise, get to an emergency room, COVID or not. Believe it or not, the ER is a safe place, and they have to treat you, whether or not you have insurance. If you or someone around you has overdosed, and you do not have Narcan/Nalaxone at hand, of course, you MUST call 911, even though the cops will come, because the cops and medics have the Narcan to reverse the opiates, and if they got a hot dose with fentanyl or carfentanyl, it will take many doses of Narcan to reverse it.

So light up your nights safely, take care of yourselves and your siblings and I pray we all have a better 2021.

Peace out,

Rona

Tags: addiction, featured, Transgender

Category: Transgender Body & Soul