Ecstatic Disharmony

"The longest night

The wheel is turning

What will we give to the night?"

This is the sacred Winter Solstice chant Caroline Casey included in her mythological trickster-redeemer  sharing on Tuesday night at Earthrise Retreat Center in Petaluma, CA. Situated in verdant silence far above the freeway, with a full Gemini moon casting a luminous spell, we drank deeply of the darkness with a fervent urgency. 

"Ecstatic," Caroline reminds us, literally means, to stand outside ("ex" + "stasis") — which is what those of us called to midwife this transitional time on the planet feel, to the marrow. Embodying the sacred means returning from the Otherworld with wisdom gained. "To love disharmony back into harmony creates a greater harmony than existed before," according to author Michael Gruber.

What will YOU give to the night? The old way (but not the Old Ways!), the one right answer, outmoded beliefs and behaviors, fear of the unknown? Whatever it is, toss it into the cauldron and affirm, "xxxx is gone with the night!"

~ Blessed Be ~

Lammas: Playing With Fire

New Moon in Leo. The start of the Fifth Day of the 9th (and final) wave of the Mayan Calendar. The U.S. debt deadline. Mercury retrograde (until August 26th). And oh, yes, Lammas, the potent cross-quarter gateway that heralds the Harvest.

Any way you slice it, this weekend lobs us an energetic fireball. Yet fire, like all elements, both creates and destroys. As someone who's been intimate with Kali, I understand what it's like to sit in the cauldron as it bubbles, feeling your old skin burn away. Not necessarily pleasant, but … a grand opportunity to restore balance, further along life's spiral.

Astrologer Allison Rae suggests we take "Big Baby Steps," because (I love this): "Evolution is not a spectator sport." Mercury Rx invites us to release/reimagine/recreate, before moving into the new in September.

So invoke Kali (or the destroyer/creator God/Goddess/energy of your choice), welcome the discomfort, let the worn-out ways burn clean in the crucible of truth and possibility, and prepare to start anew from pure marrow.

That's playing with fire!