Our First Advent Spiral at Hundred Hills School

Last week, Hundred Hills School celebrated its very first Advent Spiral festival and gathered together at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum under December 3rd’s full moon. We walked the spiral together as a school and with friends from the surrounding community, creating a time and place to cultivate and deepen connection. Prior to the Advent Spiral, the faculty of Hundred Hills participated in purposeful preparation to inwardly create the landscape for our souls returning from Summer’s out-breath and inwards towards Winter’s cozy in-breath. A kind of returning home to ourselves. With the children, we prepared our very own classroom spiral from rocks and Willow tree branches during our outside play time. 

In the Steiner philosophy, and many other cultures and belief systems, human beings practice a living connection to the earth’s eternal seasonal rhythms. If we so choose, we can foster connection with our earth, bringing the outer notions of the season within which supports us through the seasonal in-breaths and out-breaths. This practice gives us time and space to focus our energy and efforts outward while also harnessing and hibernating our forces within. This practice is a vessel for rejuvenation and connection to something beyond us, all within our own individual belief system. 

The Advent spiral itself calls us to take pause from this moment in time and to turn our gaze towards what’s to come as the light around us slowly returns. Oftentimes, our popular culture encourages us to become frenzied with materialism during this time leading up to the holiday season. The Advent Spiral can provide respite from the harried pace of consumption, allowing us the novel opportunity to slow down, take a deep breath, and bask in the gratitude of all that was and all that lies ahead.

By Lauren Wheeler
Preschool Lead