Photo by Anna Sofaer

Dear Friends,

On December 22, as the longest night of the year settles around us, I invite you to pause—just as our ancestors once did—to honor the turning of the light. The Winter Solstice marks a threshold, when darkness loosens and the first spark of renewal returns. It reminds us that cycles guide us, shape us, and connect us across time, land, and memory.

This year, the Solstice arrives just weeks after a breathtakingly large, “super” full-moon on December 4. My filming team and I had the extraordinary opportunity to greet and film the moon from Palenque, Mexico, where Maya architects aligned pyramids and temples to lunar rhythms so precisely that the moon seems to move with intention through the city. As the moon set over the elegant Temple of the Sun, knowing it had reached its extreme northern position on the jungled mountain slope was a thrilling experience for our team. We felt the same awe that animates all our work: a recognition that ancient peoples encoded deep knowledge about the cosmos into the very landscapes they built.

This recognition lies at the heart of our new film, From the Mind’s Eye, now nearing completion. Please join the Solstice Project community in making sure that these important ways of looking at the world are shared widely! Only in this way can we protect these special places and the perspectives they incite.

Palenque, Mexico December 4, 2025. Photo by Anna Sofaer

Palenque, Mexico December 4, 2025. Photo by Anna Sofaer

In this short trailer below that we’re excited to share with you, you will see how this fourth film expands our groundbreaking research in Chaco Canyon to a global scale, exploring how ancient civilizations used architecture, geometry, and celestial alignments to unify sky and earth—creating monumental forms visible only from above or within the mind’s inner vision.

The journey spans Chaco’s great houses, where alignments track solstices and lunar standstills; the Octagon and Serpent Mound in Ohio; the Maya world of Mexico and Guatemala, where temples mirror celestial cycles; and the ancient monument of Stonehenge, whose 3,000-year evolution reflects humanity’s devotion to light and rebirth.

Across continents, a single idea emerges: ancient peoples understood that we belong to the cosmos—that our lives, our calendars, our cultures, and our stories are written in the movements of sun and moon.

From the Mind’s Eye is both a celebration and a call to attention: what we build and what we remember shape how we live.

Will you join us in taking these important messages to a broader audience?

Listening to the Sky, Remembering the Earth

As modern society accelerates—toward faster technology, distant planets, and increasing disconnection the film asks a simple question:

What wisdom have we lost by forgetting how to look up, and how to look within?

Ancient peoples built in concert with the rhythms of the natural world, creating structures that encouraged reverence, unity, and long-term stewardship. Their architectures—circles, octagons, spirals, serpents—were not merely engineering feats; they were philosophies made visible, guiding communities to live in harmony with cycles of renewal.

In this Solstice season, as we reflect on the year behind us and turn toward the light ahead, the film invites us to rediscover a way of seeing with the mind’s eye: one that honors connection over conquest, memory over forgetting, and reciprocity over extraction.

At this moment of turning, we are also at a crucial stage in completing From the Mind’s Eye for its projected Summer Solstice 2027 release. To finish the film, we must now raise the remaining funds for:

• travel and filming at one last site – Guatemala in February to visit with a midwife practicing the ancient traditions
• completion of score and sound design specialized post-production work to visualize celestial geometries
• licensing, archival materials, and final finishing

We Need You!
This film is a culmination of more than four decades of research, collaboration, and deep listening. With your support, we can bring its message—of cosmic connection, ancient ingenuity, and enduring cultural wisdom—to audiences around the world.

If the work of The Solstice Project has moved you, inspired you, or opened your imagination, we invite you to make a tax-deductible year-end contribution to help us complete this landmark film.

Together, we can ensure that the voices of ancient architects, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and the living earth itself continue to guide us toward a more connected future.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

Why Your Support Matters
Your gift to The Solstice Project and From the Mind’s Eye helps protect sacred places, elevate ancient wisdom, and bring forward a much-needed message of connection. This film keeps global attention on Chaco Canyon at a moment when protections are under threat. It affirms kinship across cultures and with the natural world in a time of deep division. It restores the moon—and the women’s knowledge linked to it—to its rightful place in scientific and cultural understanding. And it invites audiences to rediscover another way of knowing—one rooted in land, sky, and awe rather than utility alone.

If these values resonate with you, we invite you to help us complete this landmark film and carry its wisdom into the world.

With Greatest Thanks for your Support! Please share widely.

Thank you,

Anna Sofaer
President

To make a donation by check, please mail it to:
Solstice Project 222 East Marcy Street #19 Santa Fe, NM 87501

If you prefer, please mail your donation to the Solstice Project address above. Please note that the Solstice Project is a 501c3 non-profit organization and your contributions are tax deductible to the extent that the law allows.