The Winter Spiral: Our Prayer for the Children's Successful Journey Through Life

As the air becomes colder and the sun seems dimmer and far away, we approach the darkest time of the year. People bear their own loneliness, sadness, disappointment, and longing for the warm, bright world where everyone is loved, connected and understood.

Where is the light?

The Winter Spiral is a festival for meeting one’s personal destiny.

Each year, teachers build a large spiral path made of evergreen branches. Alongside the green and fragrant path there are representatives of the three kingdoms of minerals, plants, and animals. At the center, a large beeswax candle, a symbol of the destiny light awaits life’s travelers in darkness.

Each child traverses this path alone with a red apple, which holds an unlit candle. The apple is a representation of the body, while the candle is a symbol of the soul. It is a solo journey of the soul in search of spiritual enlightenment.

Can they trust themselves, overcoming fear and doubt? Will they be able to find their way? Can their hear and receive quiet guidance from nature?

On their way back out, they find a destined point within the spiral and place their candle, thereby offering their light to the world. One by one, as the small light of each person is offered, gathered together as a community, we create a starry heaven on earth.

Why was I born? What is my true mission on earth? We seek the answer and traverse the darkness of the unknown, where we find something that enkindles our selfless love and desire to care for so deeply that we will even place ourselves in danger to support and protect it. That is a glow from the light of our destiny, permeated with the warmth of our unconditional love.

Each year during this dark time we offer this symbolic experience to the children. This festival is also an annual practice for teachers and parents as preparation for our upcoming challenges as the guardians of the children. When the time comes in our precious children’s development we must learn how to let go of our control and send them off further into the unknown with faith, hope, and love.

This festival is our prayer for the children’s successful journey through life.

Destiny seekers are often presented as “fools” in fairytales, as well as in various folk tales from different cultures. They are people of the “heart” rather than the “head.” They are free from doubt, fear, hatred, and greed for personal gain. Rather, they are filled with love, courage, faith, and hope, selflessly listening into the world. Because of their purity and open hearts, the world reveals its wisdom to them. It does so through minerals, plants, animals, wise hermits, and spiritual entities whose guidance will enable them to liberate others. They bring ultimate healing to the world. Archetypally, they are beings of the “Sun,” a boundless source of light, warmth, and lifeforce.

Every evening, through these stories, children will listen and learn how to travel through each kingdom. Our prayer is that these stories will nurture your children’s imagination in such a way as to call forth courage in traversing their own life journey.

Chiaki Uchiyama was Cedarwood’s Pedagogical Director, and taught the Japanese language program to our middle school students. Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Uchiyama Sensei moved to the United States in 1997 and taught Japanese language at Cedarwood for 20 years before becoming the Pedagogical Director in 2018. Although she missed the fun of teaching Japanese language to the children, she found infinite satisfaction and fulfillment in supporting our students, teachers, administration, parents, and the whole school community.