Solstice Omen

I get up quietly, pull on sweats and tip-toe downstairs.  It's only 6:30 but the sunlight has been filtering through the leafy canopy out back for awhile, casting lacy shadows, inviting me to wake up.

I slide open the back door, careful not to stir the wind chimes, and toss my cushions out onto the porch. It's refreshingly cool. On the  porch rail some crystals are infused with sun and starlight.

It's almost the exact moment of alignment -- 6:51 -- when I sit down, facing east, arranging myself cross-legged on the cushions.  I imagine the gentle rays of the rising sun christening my brow on this, the longest day of the year -- the Summer Solstice.

Despite the fresh new day, troubling realities distract like cawing crows.  Chaos in the Middle East. Legislative battles just to get GMOs labeled. Corporations usurping the people's power. Heart-breaking gun violence. Weather anomalies. Streets are flooded, forests aflame and homes left in twisted piles of lumber in the wake of another tornado. They're blowing the tops off the Smokey Mountains to extract coal.

What!?

Obviously I'm having trouble  settling into meditation.

I turn my attention to beacons of hope:  strong voices calling for a radical shift in the thinking that got us here. Gregg Braden, in The Turning Point: Creating Resilience in Times of Extremes, says an evolutionary leap in awareness is the only practical way to meet current challenges.  Marianne Williamson is shaping a new paradigm that combines the power of prayer with sustainable solutions as a way toward peace. Leaders in the New Consciousness movement urge us to snap out of the malaise that makes us want to opt-out of the mess we've made (or has been made right under our noses). They urge us to take up a cause we feel passionate about and not let up until it's fixed.  Like the fact that special interests are a malignant cancer destroying the ideal of public service from the inside out.

OK, breathe.  Connect to earth and sky.  Let all this percolate into perspective.

On this day the solstice sunrise is framed by ancient structures around the globe built to honor it's life-giving light.  Pyramids and megalithic ring stones reflect the wisdom of our ancestors, who blended science and spirituality for a wholeness -- holiness -- that we are on the verge of re-discovering.   These exact alignments serve to bring us into alignment with the great rhythms and cycles of the earth and sky.

Now I'm breathing softly.  The cardinal whistles. Squirrels rustle in upper branches.   Illumination comes.

May I come into alignment with my deepest truth.

May  humanity come into alignment with its deepest truths.

May we find ways to co-exist with each others' truths.

May we honor the truth that Nature teaches.

Later, on my walk, a gift from Hawk -- messenger of portents and omens.  I take this as a good one.

On this day of light, may we  be the bringers of light.

Sound Healing for Heart Opening: Hu Knew?

Last evening our moon goddesses gathered under the nearly full moon for meditation.

After a few minutes of socializing, we settle into our places, making the transition from busy outer world to quiet inner world.  We place our feet on the ground, drop our shoulders, slow our breathing.

I read from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening. 

Surrender Like a Duck

I was walking along the shore of a lake in the middle of the day, and there in the sun, a good ten yards out, was a duck curled into itself, asleep.  With its slick tufted head tucked into its body, it bobbed peacefully in the lapping water.

This little scene undid me, for here was an ultimate lesson in trust.

We take in the peacefulness of this image.

Now we go around the circle, each one volunteering a glimpse into their lives:  snippets of Mother's Day humor, on-going family tension, an innovative project to clear negative energies from one's home, a new art class, fatigue, small successes and set-backs.

For tonight's meditation we'll be chanting the mantra Hu. I recently learned, in a workshop with Drunvalo Melchizedek -- Awakening the Illuminated Heart -- that this sacred sound, pronounced who, opens the heart chakra.

On the first day of this live-streamed event, the hundred or so attendees, along with the rest of us around the world, entered into meditation while chanting Hu.  Our ultimate goal was to enter the Sacred Space of the Heart; but first we were warming up by activating our heart centers with this mystical sound.  In Sedona, attendees were scattered around on the floor; I sat on my cushions in Connecticut with a steaming cup of tea, looking out on my rainy back yard.

It took me a few minutes to synchronize breath and sound, toning Hu on the out-breath.   The rhythmic chanting stirs the center of my chest with subtle vibration. Eventually I feel myself merging with the group on my screen and across the globe -- all of us toning together.  Resonance builds until  the vibration is tangible -- it hovers in the air, but also hums within.  My heart feels like a buzzing hive of bees.

It's this  I want to re-create for our circle tonight.

Jonathan Goldman, an expert in sound healing, says:

Mantras are words of power....a means of achieving different states of consciousness....

Hu is considered to be the highest vibratory mantra that can be sounded.  Chanting Hu is said to lead one to transcendence -- to God realization and enlightenment.

Hu creates extraordinary energy for balancing and clearing.  Many believe it activates both the heart and crown chakras.  When sounded together in a large group, it is extremely powerful and transformative.*

To support our practice, I play a sustained intonation of Hu, a backdrop of sound for us to blend our voices with.*

At first, I can't tell how it's going. Is everyone too self-conscious to chant aloud, even softly?  But as I move around the circle, placing my hand on each heart, I feel the thrumming.

Soon we're buoyant on undulating waves of sound.

Adrift, unbounded by time.

Floating in an inlet of  safety.

Resting in the tender territory of the heart.

Willing to trust like Nepo's napping duck.




There are four evenings left in the Moon Goddess Meditation Circle until we break for the summer. All are welcome.  Details can be found under Meditation Workshops above.

*Planetary Healing Sounds, online article.
*The Hu Song by Lennie Ann Alzate, Youtube

Spring Equinox Traditions

Yesterday, I pulled The Mists of Avalon from my shelf, with a little thrill of excitement -- time to re-read!

For some reason, I'm drawn to this epic story time and time again, usually in the spring.  Maybe it's because the first time I read it, I had never heard of Beltane, the cross-quarter day between the spring equinox and the summer solstice -- more familiarly known as May Day. As kids, we brought lilacs to school, twiggy stems carefully wrapped in tin foil, to place at the feet of the Blessed Mother for a little outdoor ceremony at Our Lady of Lourdes.

Beltane, as observed in the Avalon story, is a far cry from that.

So last night at dusk, the first day of this long-awaited spring, I hurried to clear everything up and settle down with my book.  I lit the fire and there were my runes, scattered on the hearth, left over from the Moon Goddess Meditation Circle.  I had shared with the group how I often pick a rune on the high holy days of the wheel of the year, the solstices and equinoxes. The moon goddesses chose either oracle cards or runes, marveling at the accuracy of the guidance offered. I waited until yesterday, the equinox itself, to pick mine.

I rested my hands on the warm, smooth  stones, all face-down.  One of my fingers felt the magnetic pull of one of the stones, so I drew that one.

Breakthrough!   Transformation Day -- the final rune of the cycle of initiation.  It calls for radical trust.  In keeping with what the goddess circle had just discussed as the winter waned, The darkness is behind you, daylight has come.

Now I open my worn book.  The very first paragraph refers to the spring equinox:

Even in high summer, Tintagel was a haunted place; Igraine, Lady of Duke Gorlois, looked out over the sea from the headland.  As she stared into the fogs and mists, she wondered how she would ever know when the day and night were of equal length, so that she could keep the Feast of the New Year.  This year the spring storms had been unusually violent; night and day the crash of the sea had resounded over the castle until no man or woman within could sleep, and even the hounds whimpered mournfully.

I had never noticed this before, but I can imagine how the author, Marion Zimmer Bradley, smiled to herself as she composed these first sentences of this, her master work, by noting the very day that marks new beginnings.

Prayer for Second Chakra Radiance

Grateful that we are able to meet and meditate between winter storms, I await our moon goddesses.

For the meditation, I invite the circle to imagine themselves seated on the shoreline, with gentle warm waves rolling up around their waists, then receding. We imagine the second chakra -- the realm of motion and emotion -- as an  orange bowl nestled in our low bellies.  Each wave loosens emotional debris that had accumulated within like so much sediment.  We attend to our bowls until they glow.

We close with the following prayer:

Now that we have cleansed this pristine container within -- this radiant orange bowl -- let us always maintain its beauty.  Let it hold our emotions, that we may bear witness to them in a new way.  Divine Creator, help us to lovingly accept our authentic feelings as they arise within us, to honor the messages they bear, and to allow them to flow through us like ocean tides.  Let the sea, ceaselessly rolling upon the shore, teach us to accept what comes, and to release what's no longer needed.

May we be guided to respond to our emotions with quiet wisdom.  May we express our feelings with ease and clarity, gently or firmly as required by circumstances, hurting no one and bringing truth to bear at all times.  May we provide loving space for others as they experience their emotions.

May all communication take place in a field of grace. Strengthen our resolve to be emotionally honest with ourselves and others.  Let us know our feelings and yet not be ruled by them.

Bless the movement of emotion through our bodies. Allow nothing to accumulate -- anger, grief, sadness. Allow these to come and go, like clouds across the open sky, leaving their gifts and lessons for our contemplation.  May we accept and release the contents of our shining bowls with patience and perspective.

In this may we each find our unique power.


All are welcome to join our meditation circle.  Please click on the Workshops tab for details.

Give Yourself Permission!

Here's the altar awaiting our next circle.  Sea shells, beach stones, sea glass and oceanic calcite scattered around an orange bowl-- objects to honor our second chakra right to feel -- to let our emotions flow through us like waves upon the shore.

For many of us this natural impulse was thwarted in childhood.  Certain emotions earned us the disapproval of parents and other authorities (in my case, nuns!)  Our spiritual task is to give ourselves permission to allow our feelings to move through us.

As adults, we have the power to choose how to respond to our emotions.  When they're troubling  we engage our inner witness, viewing our unrest with compassion.  When they're joyful, we share with loved ones.

To have permission to feel our feelings!  Even those that were once forbidden!  Have you given yourself permission?

At our next gathering we'll settle into the low belly with the intention of releasing stuck emotions that may be locked in there like energetic sediment.  Plan to leave feeling lighter, liberated.

In the meantime, enjoy our altar in your sacred heart space.


All are welcome to join our circle.  Please click on the Workshops tab on our home page for details.

Moon Goddess Meditations

Join us!

Our meditation circle will resume on Monday evenings, January 27, 2014.  Click on Meditation Workshops above for details.

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Power of the Pause

On this high point of the wheel of the year, I feel connected to the ancients.  They built sacred sites all over the world -- stone circles and pyramids -- that frame the sunrise on this day that celebrates the return of the light.      

                                           

The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, honors the incremental return of light as the days begin to lengthen. Solstice derives from Latin, sol (sun) and sistere (stand still).  Ancient star gazers studied the movement of heavenly bodies in relation to one another and knew that every year, on or around the 21st of December, the path of the sun (as it appears to us on Earth) stops before reversing direction.  The sun stands still.

Not only are we ending a seasonal cycle and welcoming winter, we're also ending an annual cycle and ushering in what I'm calling the Celestial New Year.  In my practice, in keeping with the rhythms of nature, the new year begins today.

Last year's winter solstice  marked the end of a 5, 125 year cycle -- the end of a world age, according to the Mayans.  AND (stay with me!) 12.21.12 also marked the end of a 26,000 year cycle called the precession of the equinoxes.  The Mayan calendar reflects these epochal cycles within cycles and makes us wonder how our ancestors tracked this knowledge over countless generations of sky watching.

What does all this mean to us?  Only five generations in the last 26,000 years have experienced the shift of world ages. We [are] the sixth!* 

Gives you pause, right?

Solstices have been ritually celebrated since time out of mind because we intuitively appreciate their potent energy. We feel the power of the pause. The choices we make when one cycle ends and another is poised to begin are charged with the momentum of the universe!

So on this sacred day let's follow the teaching of the sun.  Be still and reflect on your intentions for the coming year. Write them down, stating them clearly for all the forces at work today.  Why not infuse your dreams and desires with the sweeping momentum of the grand design unfolding around us?

• Where in your life do you wish to change direction? 
• What can you allow to go dormant? 
• What's germinating deep within? 
• What dark aspect of your life are you willing to let go? 
• What do you want to shine more light on? Devote more energy to? 

Attune to the tides of time -- the ebb of darkness and the flow of light.  When we do this, we slip into the wisdom-ways of our ancient ancestors. We encircle an inner fire, gaze at the stars, honor the waxing and waning of the moon.

We behold one another, and our place in the whole of Creation, in a new light.

Such is the power of the pause.


*spiritlibrary.com/greggbraden/what-does-2012-mean-for-us-today