Summer Solstice: An Opportunity to Become More Whole

Summer Solstice celebrates the sun at the peak of its power. Both the sun (male energy) and the moon (female energy) are waxing, or increasing, now. June 21^st marks the longest day and shortest night of the year, in the Northern hemisphere (for our friends Down Under, it's the reverse). It's a stillpoint. A time to reflect. A potent moment to set your intention, because the manifestation momentum is strong.

The day goes by many names: All-Couples Day, Feast of Epona, Gathering Day, Midsummer, Litha, Vestalia. In ancient times, June was a popular marriage month, since summer offered a window between the sowing and reaping seasons. The June full moon was considered the best time to harvest honey from the hives, and newlyweds were fed honey during the wedding feast to encourage love and fertility. The tradition lives on in our modern post-nuptial getaway, the honeymoon.

How might we translate our ancestors' emphasis on love and union at Solstice to our lives today? In other words, how can we best live this light?

It's a grand opportunity to burn away old patterns that no longer serve our highest good, in order to become more whole. Whole, holy and heal originate from the same root, hale. We can use the power of Solstice to assist us in integrating the masculine and feminine energies inside ourselves. The moment is ripe for sacred reunion. What do I mean by this?

Most books, films and songs that speak of love refer to romantic love between two people. We've been taught to look outside ourselves for completion: to seek the Other and to rejoice when we connect, or to keep searching.

What we're really seeking is a part of ourselves, which is why we often feel incomplete when we hook up with someone whom we hope will fill the empty place inside us. The wedding of the light and the dark, of the magnetic, receptive, lunar, "feminine" self and the dynamic, assertive, solar, "masculine" self, has to take place first within our own being. And yet — it's through relationship that we get there!

The beloved is a catalyst to help us merge the complementary aspects of our being. This is a radical idea, and challenging to hold. It turns everything we believe about romantic love on its head. I'll illustrate this apparent paradox with a personal story.

At the turn of the millennium, I forged a profound heart connection with what The Mayan Oracle (a book and card set based on the Mayan Tzol'kin, or sacred calendar) calls a "companion of destiny." We unfolded deep layers of love within ourselves through the conscious soul work we did together. Then he was gone, and as much as I know we are all One, as much as I began expanding into a greater knowing and loving because of the place he awakened in me, still there was a poignancy, a longing that lingered.

I began stretching to allow this love to be a lens I looked through all the time, not pegged to an individual. The gift of my companion's essence, what we shared, lives on in me, so in a sense I felt like I was missing myself. It was a strange sensation — like seeing my reflection from an internal mirror.

The way out is always through, and the way through lies in joining with other companions on the path. When I find and connect with my "spiritual siblings," my sense of fullness grows. From this strength, the familiar heartache we all know transmutes into a sort of laughing pain; it doesn't really hurt, because my high self knows the truth.

I invite you to sound the clarion call for your companions of destiny this Solstice — those who see and honor your authentic self. The Mayan Oracle says, "When you have been truly seen, you feel empowered, and remembrance of a shared sacred trust is ignited."

One of the ways to shine your own light more brightly is to celebrate yourself and each other, through whatever art forms call to you: music, dance, poetry, painting, comedy improvisation, theatre, ritual, chanting/singing, multimedia…and silence. Enlarge the lens you look through by asking, how can I expand this experience, become inclusive rather than exclusive?

Acknowledge your connection with all life, and allow the simple to nourish you. Sitting beneath a tree, enjoying the sun on your feet and the wind in your hair, being thankful for life itself, is wholeness exemplified. The romance of living — and the wedding — begins first within you.

© 2007-2013 Amara Rose

           

Ariel Spilsbury is a mystic, an embodiment of the Divine Feminine and co-creator of The Mayan Oracle, a divination tool that assisted me tremendously on my awakening journey. Her Turning of the Wheel transmission reminds us that in emptying ourselves, we receive the gifts. As I've long envisioned my vessel as a chalice, hers is a potent blessing for this auspicious moment in our evolution. I couldn't have said it better:

The Turn of the Wheel Winter Solstice - Dec 21-23, 2012 "Empty your chalice to receive My feast." The Mother

An Invitation from Unity Consciousness for the Wedding Feast: Your participation with the Creation is cordially requested in "the Milky Way Rift", from Dec. 21st to Dec 23rd 2012  to Walk the Road of Awe Xibalba Bey, in Ecstatic Emergence together! Kindly RSVP to the Divine One   Dearest Ones, What if YOU were actually "enough" in this moment just being empty, totally lovable with NOTHING ADDED, NOTHING SUBTRACTED? Just FEEL that possibility in this moment! How many lifetimes will it take to recognize yourself without judgment, as already whole, perfectly lovable as you are in this moment? Imagine right now, who you would be with nothing left to do, strive for, or become. Oh, your mind can come up with a million reasons why that just isn't possible, but at some point in the soul journey through lifetimes, you WILL recognize that you are enough just being an open, empty vessel for the Divine currency of Love to be poured into. Could this Solstice be that moment? Could all of our striving, driving, craving, doing, grasping, have finally led us to realize the truth that lies behind all the changing appearances? What if all this hoopla and mental conjecturing leading up to the Dec. 21st 2012 date has all been merely pointing us to this ultra simple recognition? What if for this short time in human history, in the Solstice somewhere in the window between Dec. 21st and Dec 23rd you were actually to RECOGNIZE IN A LIVING TANGIBLE WAY what the Buddha's Heart Sutra states: WHAT IS REAL IS EMPTY AND WHAT IS EMPTY IS REAL? Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Folks, these are not just words. This is NOT just another spiritual concept. Most have not experienced this state in a direct enough way to take it out of being a concept... but what I am going to witness with you here, is that we will have an unprecedented opportunity to have a REAL experience of this state, this Winter Solstice 2012. While many will be called into various forms of "doingness", I am here to hold a strong voice for EMPTINESS during this precious opportunity and window... for being simply Empty Vessels for Divine frequency to uplift and recalibrate, through Grace, the vibration of the whole planet, the whole human race. And all that is required is that we are in Emptiness, to receive this Divine gift of frequency that will allow us to have a direct experience of Unity consciousness! Our purpose is to simply be human tube torus electro-magnetic oscillators. (I highly recommend seeing this beautiful video link for a visual of this.) Or more simply put, we are simply resonant tuning forks that will, through our coherence* in Emptiness, ground, transmit, amplify, stabilize and resonate what is being Divinely poured into our planetary Chalice.  The pyramids around the globe are the hardware that we are analogously the software to, in this process of transmission, stabilization and amplification. It is time now to demonstrate our ability to simply BE empty, coherent, resonators! (*Coherence is ordered, focused energy, the difference in effectiveness, between a flash light and a laser beam.) What has been demonstrated to me, over and over as a vessel for the Sacred Feminine in  the  space of my long life, is that if it is simple, it is more likely to be true. What could be MORE simple than this? The mind says, "Ah, it just couldn't be that easy." I have witnessed Her grace personally too many times not to strongly counter that perception. It IS just that easy, as we open to receive the Divine gift of Grace! As Osho so eloquently puts it: "Emptiness is the means, the destination and the attainment!" I have endeavored to live my life from this place of Emptiness being what is REAL, and I am overjoyed to see it coming to bloom in the planetary collective. We are all now powerfully, mythically called to be resonant capacitors, frequency holders, in this emergent, planetary field, in Emptiness! We are also at the same time called to be sacred Witnesses to the holy alchemical marriage of male and female within each of us, the Heiros Gamos, that is now astrologically playing out in the larger field of the Milky Way Rift at Winter Solstice 2012, where Cosmic Mother and Cosmic Father, Christ and the Magdelane, Thoth and Seshat, Isis and Osirus, Venus and Mars are joining to celebrate with us, the Wedding Feast of the release of a new cosmological template of balanced human evolution. Let us celebrate entering into Unity Consciousness, in the freedom of Emptiness! Will things look like we have entered a new world? Yes, if you are looking from the inside out. To some it will appear as if nothing has happened. As the alchemists say: "As viewed. So appears." This is just the way awareness works my beloved dears, since, as you well know, we are the movie directors of the outpicturing of our own consciousness.  In this process, remember, the nature of the Chalice is to be empty in order to contain. We ARE each a chalice. By simply being empty, we are creating a clear station on which the Divine can transmit pure vibrational frequency. Mother's response to me, in all simplicity, in answer to how to prepare for this time was, "Empty your chalice to receive my feast!" We have been doing that over the last months/years with clearing our bodies, our psyches, our shadow material, emptying out, in preparation for this "once in many lifetimes" opportunity. For many, this stripping down to Essence has been perceived as a painful process of shedding, houses, jobs, relationships, but take heart, it was all necessary to "empty your chalice to receive the feast!" During this potent time, continue to be aware personally and collectively, owning, shedding and releasing whatever shadow material still appears to stand between you and embodying Divine Love! It all comes down to a very simple choice, in each moment, each interaction, to choose love rather than to separate from self or the appearance of "other". Is this the lifetime to MAKE THAT CHOICE?    On the other end of the spectrum, as you approach this potent window of opportunity, remember that being in the open eyed meditation that Emptiness represents, engaging in the expanded states implied in open heartedness, joy, unconditional love, gratitude, awe, celebration, (ecstatic process of all sorts), all lift our frequencies to resonate with the expanded frequencies that will be available for us to resonate with during this time. Now, did I catch you off guard? Were you holding a belief/perception that you had to be sitting still in closed eyed meditation, in order to be empty? As Adyashanti says: "If Emptiness isn't dancing, it isn't Emptiness." Emptiness cannot actually be defined, rather can only be pointed to in the description of being a mind without thought to clutter it, a spaciousness, a sense of profound peace and resting in joyful non-doing. And in a culture that does everything in its power to keep us asleep and distracted from embodying that awareness, it is wise to remember that Emptiness flourishes in conscious cultivation. The good news is that in the Sacred Feminine, ecstatic process is what empties us, whether that is dancing, singing, love making, eating with full ecstatic awareness, getting a massage, being in awe in nature etc. Doesn't sound like difficult preparation, right? Easy. Ecstatic. Graceful. Joyful. Praise be, that is Her way. And so, I lovingly leave you with this: STOP STRUGGLING, TRYING, DOING! FINALLY fully RECOGNIZE THAT YOUR ECSTATIC EMPTINESS AND LOVING BEING ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH!! Wherever you find yourself this Winter Solstice 2012, please BE EMPTY, being there! And may you have a direct experience of the truth of the Buddha's Heart Sutra: What is real is empty and what is empty is real and thus ecstatically embrace the wisdom of Emptiness in your daily life! And with Grace may you truly emerge in the ecstatic freedom of the Nada and Her holy Temple of I am Not, Essence as Unity Consciousness! I end this simple Solstice offering with a quote from my Beloved, Rumi: Nothing. We are Emptiness. When you are with everyone but me, You are with no one. When you are with no one but me, You're with everyone., Instead of being so bound up with everyone, Be everyone. When you become that many, you're nothing. Empty.    I celebrate each one of us finding and dancing in Ecstatic Emergence, in the freedom of Emptiness!  And to that end, do I dedicate this offering.       In Devotion to the One Heart, In lakech, Your Sister, Ariel