Solstice Song Circle and Other Spirituality Matters

Local community song leaders Heather Stevenson, Alison Zuber, and Amisha Sera Luna are coming together for a special winter solstice song celebration December 19, collaborating to teach and lead participatory call-and-response songs meant to invoke a sense of community and joy. Winter solstice is a time of honoring the darkness and welcoming the slow return of the light, symbolizes rest, renewal, and reflection. Fittingly, Amisha – who will host at her regular space of Studio 209 (Anacapa Street), adjacent to Yoga Soup – has offered a few questions for journal-keepers and everyone else. The theme? Contemplation in advance of the special event. Where and when this past year did you bring yourself joy or surprise yourself? What ignites the spark of new beginnings? Of what are you prepared to unburden yourself as this year comes to a close? What are you calling in for this new year? These energetic inquiries are what one might expect from Stevenson who, when not pondering the starriest night of the year, runs weekly community singing events in her space.  

As always, all are welcome at the 6:30-8:15 pm gathering, with no experience necessary. Be assured that the quality of your singing voice isn’t as important as your openness and willingness to participate. Suggested donation is $10-$30. Email [email protected].

Last Land Listening Circle of 2025

Alexis Slutzky hosts a Winter Solstice circle as this month’s entry, once again offering a practice that has as its centerpiece listening and attunement to the land as a gift, and to receive the gift of that listening in reciprocity. The practice is an opportunity to open oneself to guidance and shift orientation away from human supremacy towards all the beings in creation. The event is held in a coterie of community that begins with a circle for grounding, orientation, embodiment and context setting, followed by a self-guided encounter with the elements in their natural milieu, before closing with a council circle to share and listen to stories from fellow participants. In recognition of solstice, attention will be focused on pausing to listen into what is gestating within, and to court the courage to embrace the dark and surrender to the season of quiet depths where the energies are underground in the roots. Registration and details about the free event (donations accepted) at www.alexisslutzky.com/land-listening-circles. 

Soup for Solstice 

Join Luca Cupery and the Sacred Sisters, aka Emily and Polly Carey, for a magical evening of celebration and ritual honoring the longest night of the year in Yoga Soup’s Winter Solstice Celebration, 6:30 pm on Saturday, December 20. Rooted in ancient traditions, the solstice celebration invites participants to step away from the holiday rush, slow down, reflect and recharge, embrace the stillness and tap into contemplation and restoration. The practice is curated to reset the nervous system with movement, a creative process of beauty and intention, breathwork and meditation, and closes with Cupery’s heart-opening cacao ritual. Visit www.yogasoup.com/events. 

Unity’s Early New Year’s Eve Event

The Burning Bowl ceremony was a perennially popular pair of gatherings at Unity of Santa Barbara taking place on New Year’s Eve and repeated on January 1. Following words of wisdom and inspiration, and musical performances, participants wrote what they wanted to let go of the current year, imbuing it on pieces of flash paper and then filing up to watch them vaporize in the bowl-contained fire. Everyone then had the opportunity to write a love letter to themselves, which would be mailed to them six months later. 

The ceremonies have changed or been discontinued over the last few years, but are back as part of the regular Sunday Service on December 28, now titled as Sacred Bowl Ceremony, where we can let go of what no longer serves us, and open our hearts to divine guidance. The former White Stone Ceremony is also a part of the event, a transformative opportunity to listen in stillness, receive a new word or intention from spirit, and claim a fresh spiritual identity rooted in clarity and purpose. Visit https://unitysb.org/upcoming-events. 

Sayonara to 2025, Say Hello to 2026

The popular yoga studio/event space hosts a pair of events spanning December 31-January 1, continuing one of its perennial traditions. The five-hour New Year’s Eve offering boasts four different experiences to close out the year, starting with one of founder Eddie Ellner’s Ecstatic Breathing workshops, in which the studio owner guides participants into a revitalizing and liberating practice, opening and clearing your mind and awakeniung your inner spark for the rest of the night, and into the new year. 

An all-levels contact improv jam with Damian Gallagher is next, an opportunity to explore and meet others through movement, with a gentle guided warm-up and a playful, connection-focused jam. Ecstatic Dance SB and Dance Hive come together to host a two-hour ecstatic dance with Ean Golden, an award-winning DJ/sound creator whose sense of rhythm and creativity support the dancers to move with no choreography and no judgment of self or others in an invitation to pure and simple expression and celebration. As the clock strikes midnight, people will gather in a momentary sacred pause to honor what was, release what’s ready to go, and welcome what’s coming with open hearts.

Woven throughout the evening: an Elixir Bar with uplifting potions, Tarot Readings with Mitra Cline & LaDonna, and a Love Letter & Intention Station where you compose a letter to your future self, committing your dreams to paper.

Less than 12 hours later, Yoga Soup begins its annual 108 Sun Salutations on New Year’s Day at 12 noon on January 1. The powerful community practice of 108 Sun Salutations – co-led by Ellner, Luca Cupery, Linda Baffa, and Kelly Heath – works to welcome 2026 with a ritual of purification, clarity, devotion and intention. Participants will perform the salutations together for two hours with very short pauses every 27 rounds, for those who want to come and go as needed, performing as many or as few as you choose. The power of this practice is enhanced by moving with intention in community. Admission is by donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. 

Yoga Soup also hosts its annual New Year’s Vision Board Party on Saturday afternoon, January 3, when Amber Goodenough will employ creativity, magic, and play to help participants clarify their vision and set intentions for the coming year. Tea, meditation, and reflective journaling open the mind before inspiration turns to action in fashioning a personal vision board crowded with the words, images, and feelings that inspire and ignite the year ahead. No artistic experience necessary. 

Visit www.yogasoup.com/events.