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

           

Earning an Easy "A"

A few days ago I wrote about why dropping out is a good idea — not from work or from school per se, but from the programmed life you're leading in a mind-numbing haze of "more". Now I'd like to flip this equation. Here's how to earn an easy "A".

 

I'm speaking about the School of Life, of course. You needn't endure the School of Hard Knocks if you have a "trust fund" — a frequency you can bank on. Consciousness is its own currency, and upgrading yours will make you a straight-A student, say Connie Baxter Marlow and Andrew Cameron Bailey, authors of The Trust Frequency: Ten Assumptions for a New Paradigm.

As Bailey and Baxter explain, these Seven A's collectively catalyze a higher state of being. They don't necessarily occur in any linear fashion; when we start to wake up, it's more of a mindshift, where you look around at the landscape of your life and notice it has irrevocably altered. The 7 A's are:

• Awareness. As you awaken (another A!), you become more attuned (yet another A) to your inner and outer surroundings in ways you weren't before. For instance, I noticed that when I said a blessing before meals, the colors of my food became brighter.
• Assumption. You know how the 60s rallying cry, "Question Authority!" morphed into, "Question Reality"? That's an excellent description of the second A.
• Attitude. As what you previously believed (assumed) about something changes, so does the attitude you hold about it. It's like those visual puzzles that delight us by shifting our perception: fish or birds? Or both?
• Attention. Your intention affects where you place your attention. As you raise your awareness, you attend to purpose, people, places and circumstances that were invisible to you before.
• Alignment. One of the most enjoyable aspects of awakening is watching how synchronicity explodes in your life once you're living consciously. That's what it means to be in alignment.
• Action. Following your inner guidance allows you to act in alignment with your purpose, vision and values.
• Allowing. And yes, trust means knowing that because you're in tune and on track, you can surrender your will to the grander design. As a card-carrying member of the Universe (One Song) you're always part of All-That-Is.

See how easy it is to earn an A when you travel The High Road to Happiness? Graduate into The Trust Frequency and you'll be an A student forever…

Why You Should Drop Out

Are you bone-tired? Have you been climbing mental mountains for so long your metaphysical metatarsals simply can't take another step? It's time to drop out.

While books such as Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In implore and inspire women to reach for the pinnacle of professional achievement, sometimes — especially now, as the planet awakens en masse and all systems wobble and shift as we do — the best move isn't up, or even lateral, but out. Into the green pastures of the unknown, to follow the still, small voice growing louder each day that you stuff it into practical have-to's and won't-waits. You don't, and it can. It's amazing how little the titles and trophies matter, once you remember and reconnect with your essence self.

As I just posted to Healing Journeys, a LinkedIn group in which a member asked whether listening to heart or mind is more important, "My mind ruled my being for the first third of my life. I think much of this is cultural; such mental, control-oriented focus is a Western construct. Then a protracted health crisis catapulted me out of my mind (literally, out of my linear perception) and onto my path of awakening. I began to heal/whole (from the same root, hale) as I opened to my connection with All-That-Is and remembered the truth of who and what I am: spirit, embodied. On the far side of my dark night of the soul I created LiveYourLight.com to 'midwife' others on their transformational journey. 



"Now the entire planet is waking up, and it's one wild ride. The greatest gift we can give one another is compassion and Love, holding the space for each other's process and offering resources and support where practical."

Downtime is essential for this to happen; you must allow yourself the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical space to marinate in deep soul memory, free from the distractions and constraints of the mundane. Some of those who have been wayshowers for decades are turning inward now to replenish their own wells, to serve the whole not from constant travel and teaching but by restoring their chi, so that what they radiate nourishes the collective, allowing others to witness their example and use it as a touchstone for their own journey.

Jasmuheen, one of the spiritual leaders who has been invited by Divine guidance to withdraw for the next several years, writes in her last global message: "This is not a time of fear or uncertainty regarding the current changes in our world, for all of this has been long predicted and will be rewoven for the good of all in the fullness of time. It is our time now to nurture ourselves, to feel other rhythms that are also here for us, of great peace and contentment, and to gather together if and when we are called there to share in heartfelt ways."

Remember, too, that difficult or strange emotions you're feeling are not necessarily yours; this mass awakening is throwing a huge amount of toxic residue into the atmosphere to be transmuted. To ground and clear, plant your feet on grass, drink lots of pure water, spend time in Nature, celebrate yourself, and LOVE with every fiber of your being. You are one with the All, and this is a magnificent time to be alive on Earth!

So if you're feeling overwhelmed, and the idea of sitting on a Bored of Directors is as appealing as a marathon flossing session, I invite you to allow yourself to drop out. Relinquish your grip on the big E (expectation, from self or others) and lean in to Life with a capital L. You are never alone, even if choose to spend extended time with your own company in order to rest and renew. The world (and all our technology and social media) will be here when you e/merge (energy and emotion merge). As one of my favorite poets, David Whyte, writes: Everything Is Waiting for You.