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? READ MORE

Beltane: Light Night of the Soul

We're all familiar with the classic "dark night of the soul", even if we don't know the terminology: the last few years, especially these past few weeks, everyone's felt the energies ramped up to gale force as lunar/solar eclipses, meteor showers and a Cardinal Grand Cross (the 5^th of 7 Uranus/Pluto squares plus) buffet the planet and liberate us from old beliefs and behaviors. We're being cleaned out and burnished to roar our "YES!"

May 1^st ushers in Beltane, one of eight Shabbats on the Nature-based Wheel of the Year. [The others are the Solstices and Equinoxes, Lammas (August 1st), Samhain (October 31st), and Imbolc (February 2nd).] Beltane breathes renewal into our cells as we acknowledge the elemental world and the advent of summer. For our Southern Hemisphere allies, the Wheel of the Year is reversed: they now celebrate Samhain. 

As Stargazer Li reminds us, May 1^st also commences the time cycle known as the Night, "to source what is from our own deep dreaming depths... which carries us the following day into the Moon of Liberation, to release the old stories and live at the next level...

As Samhain honors the power of death, so Beltane honors the cycles of life and rebirth. Beltane takes place in Taurus, the zodiac's earthiest, sensual sign, and focuses on exuberant sexuality: the pollinating of flowers, the lush cornucopia of fruit-bearing plants and trees, the reproductive cycle of the entire natural world, from birds and bees to people and trees. It's a fire festival of fertility in all its forms — and thus we dance in homage to Aphrodite, the Goddess Herself.

Are you ready to dive into a Light Night of the Soul, a sacred reUnion of our masculine and feminine selves? The temperatures are soaring into the 90s this week, welcoming the solar eclipse and activating our solar/cellular recognition of the Light we are.

Ignite your Light, and let it shine. As Pharrell sings, clap along if you feel like a room without a roof…

Ley Down Fear, Lift the Light!

February 2^nd is Imbolc (literally, "in the belly"), a sacred moment when the Light returns. Imbolc is a powerful portal: the exact midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. As the first "cross-quarter day" on the Wheel of the Year, it heralds the Equinoxes and Solstices, as well as Beltane (May 1st), Lammas (August 1st), and Samhain (October 31^st).

This year, February 2^nd is also an auspicious moment to connect, clear and heal the ley lines of the planet. You're invited to join with your galactic brothers and sisters at the time and place you choose (sunrise or sunset are optimum, but your heart focus is what matters most). The Ley Lines Project says, "It is as if Gaia appears to be especially invigorated by a low elevation Sun. Her ley lines appear to dilate and increase both in their energetic and information carrying capacities during this twice-daily solar aspect. So, with the pathways enlarging to at least double their capacity, is this not an opportune time to purge them of unwanted energies and replace them with the light of compassion?"

Mystic Ariel Spilsbury writes, "This year, Imbolc is presenting us with a 'gateway', indicating work to be done inside and outside ourselves. Let us use this sacred time to reflect and confront what is hidden in ourselves, what must be exposed and examined before action is undertaken at Spring Equinox.

"Imbolc is a 'fire festival'. Imbolc marks the transition and transformation from death to rebirth, as the light of day grows significantly longer and you can be assured that Spring is right around the corner. At this time the animal world comes out of hibernation, the birds fly north again. This is a very holy day for initiations and a day to devote yourself to the God/dess and your own spiritual path. This is also a powerful time for intuitive and visionary work and to seek inspiration. At this time if you really tune in, you can just begin to feel and sense the 'inner stirrings', the seeds beginning to stir, and the inner light growing stronger.

"It is time to let go of the past and look to the future, clearing out the old, making both outer and inner space for new beginnings. This can be done in numerous ways, from spring-cleaning your home to clearing the mind and heart to allow inspiration to enter for the new cycle. What was born at the Solstice begins to manifest, and this is the time for individuation, as we each light our own light, and set ourselves tasks and challenges. We nurture and kindle our resolutions and begin to look outwards again, do outer activity, although first we look deep within to discover what potential lies there waiting to be fulfilled." 

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 ~

Imbolc: Return of the Light

In mid-winter, we celebrate the return of the Light, in every sense. In my We'Moon Daybook, Marian Spadone writes of Imbolc, "All is contained within us — all future possibilities, all growth, all knowing. This is the time after the Great Dark but before the Bursting Forth. This is the time for dreaming and for knowing our dreams. This is the time of illumination…Resting still in the cauldron of birth, we close two eyes and open our third. We have enough light to see now. Use the light! Brighten the light of your Inner Knowing." My February What Shines newsletter will explore many ways to do this, playfully.

This cross-quarter moment (February 1-2) wears many guises. In the U.S., it's popularly celebrated as Groundhog Day, when a small furry rodent either sees his shadow or doesn't, and the result determines whether we experience six more weeks of winter. The day has far deeper meanings than this, as Spadone intimates — and yes, it is a potent moment to observe your shadow!

Celebrated globally, Imbolc is both a Christian and Pagan holiday, known by various names: Imbolc, St. Brigid's Day (Bride's Day), and Candlemas ("mass of the candles", which in the Catholic religion marks the end of the Yule season).

In Celtic and Earth-based traditions, Imbolc ("in the belly") is one of the most powerful portals on the Wheel of the Year: the exact midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. A harbinger of Spring, Imbolc celebrates the return of the Light in a profound sense. As the first "cross-quarter day" on the Wheel of the Year, it heralds the Equinoxes and Solstices, as well as Beltane (May 1st), Lammas (August 1st), and Samhain (October 31^st).

At Imbolc, the energies begin to pulse with renewed life and hope. Fire festivals are common. Vicki Noble, co-creator of the Motherpeace Tarot and author of Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World, which affected me profoundly during my own awakening, writes, "Traditionally a time of transformation and initiation, Imbolc brings 'big dreams' and a raised vibration …

"With powerful Pluto in the physical sign of Capricorn (until 2024), we look forward to momentous planetary and personal change. As old structures crumble, inside and all around us, imagine yourself sitting safely inside of Kali's dance of liberation."

What most astonished me was discovering that St. Brigid (in the Irish tradition) is the Patroness of Midwives. Since my birthday is February 4th and I've long referred to myself as a midwife for our global rebirth, it was a clarifying reminder of "what we know, before we know that we know!"

Winter Solstice 2012: Why It's Not the End of the World

 The Solstice-to-End-All-Solstices is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one, fueled by Hollywood hoo-ha and our love of fear. In truth, it's another turning of the Great Wheel, as one cosmic cycle concludes and another begins. Mayan scholar Mark Van Stone dives deep into the nuances behind the hysteria. And this piece I wrote several years ago explains why it's not the end of the world, but the end of a World Age: The Sky Is Falling — NOT! The Truth About 2012.

At this stillpoint, the longest night, take a moment to breathe out all that no longer serves who you're becoming, and breathe in the light and Love of Oneness. Like its companion astronomical event in summer, Winter Solstice is a grand opportunity to burn away old patterns in order to become more whole. Whole, holy and heal originate from the same root word, hale. When we are hale we are robust, renewed, invigorated, fully alive. This is what such a quantum moment heralds for all humanity: an alivening, a once-in-a-precessional-cycle zone of opportunity to align ourselves with the galactic source of life.

How will you create a worthy life in 2013? Becoming creageous — creatively courageous — is a worthy start. Blessed Be!

Solstice: A Sensuous Bonfire Initiation into Love

The Zombies once sang, "It's the start of the season for loving." Of course their name was a bit of an oxymoron. Today there is no way to both awaken and remain a zombie! It is, with bells on, the season for Loving.

Stargazer Li says the burst of Gemini activity, beginning with the May 20th Solar Eclipse and June 5th Venus Transit, followed by a second New Moon in Gemini leading into the Summer Solstice, "brings much learning and an expansion of communications through words and stories that become integrated into our approaches to living our journey. What we think and say has the power to create, to crystallize something new. Being effortless and magical in our approach, relaxing into the experience of living our amazingness is the gift being offered. Let's be willing to receive it."

Earth-based spirituality pioneer and prolific author Starhawk writes, "This is the time of the rose, blossom and thorn, fragrance and blood. Now on this longest day, light triumphs, and yet begins the decline into the dark. The Sun King grown, embraces the Queen of Summer in a love that is death because it is so complete that all dissolves into the single song of ecstasy that moves the worlds. So the Lord of light dies to himself, and sets sail across the dark seas of time, searching for the Isle of Light that is rebirth. We turn the wheel and share his fate, for we have planted seeds of our own changes and to grow we must accept even the passing of the sun."

And planetary priestess Ariel Spilsbury, co-creator of my much-beloved Mayan Oracle book and card set, writes, "As a collective we now find ourselves perfectly poised and balanced, like a tightrope walker over the Abyss of the Unknown. We have practiced for lifetimes not going into fear, staying centered no matter what appearance arises, so that we can face this initiation of stepping through those appearances into freedom, not in some other lifetime, but in THIS one! Each of us is now facing our personal piece of shadow that is being vibrationally activated and amplified with the intention of clearing it for ourselves AND the collective mindfield of Earth, that we may transition personally and as a species, from the sleepy caterpillar into our awakened, soul butterfly selves. THIS IS NOT JUST A METAPHOR! 



This is actually happening alchemically now on Earth. Within the chrysalis, we are being re-tuned and rewired from the inside out, as a natural part of the vibrational process of evolution, which is dissolving in Solutio, the fractally repeating, shadow material that has dogged us over lifetimes, as a gift of Grace! That isn't to say that we aren't taking radical responsibility and supporting that process with our personal choices for freedom. If we are intending to become the freed butterfly, we are doing just that, through our vigilance in embracing IN LOVE the persistently attached shadow when it arises, rather than denying, judging and rejecting it! (I embrace my shadow, as I embrace my light!) In Alchemy this process is called Umbra-solis...the sun AND its shadow complete the Great Work. Please deeply consider that it isn't the 'getting rid of' or healing shadow, rather the full, loving embrace of it that will complete the Great Work we are engaged in personally and as a species at this time! This is the final clearing of the patterns that are no longer serving our LIBERATION! In this process, Light Itself Can Be Seen as the Final Veil! 



Feel the sensuous, energetic ripple from inside your personal chrysalis that is now inviting you to begin to birth your transmuting self into a new world! That evolutionary potential is being offered through the Divine Feminine portal that opened on the Venus Transit on June 5th 2012 that will be complimented by the male portal completion on Dec 21, 2012. What this open window of evolutionary potential represents, is the unprecedented opportunity to clear, forgive and embrace shadow and simultaneously birth ourselves into a new and expanded frequency of soul expression on Earth, entering the Mystery of the birth of the Blue Sun within our own hearts. 



The result of the birth of that inner blue fire will be the transmutation of our DNA and thus our blood into Sangreal, holy blood, literally changing the valence structure of our blood, so as to sing a Love Song to the Divine One! (If you wish to accelerate this process, watch the following video Solfeggio Harmonics - 528 Love hz). Remember that the heat and passion of Shakti, kundalini, the activation of the blue and gold dragon fire current of life force that moves up the spine, is that which is igniting the collective bonfire for the transmutation of fear into love on this planet. As we practice and embrace this transmutation, it will literally change the way we see reality, as the ecstatically flowing river of light that it actually is. In this moment, I invite you to stop and breathe in the alchemical, golden ecstatic, blue fire, dragon current, this river of light, to ride your blood into pure alchemical gold. Breathe that possibility in! Open to the golden alchemical frequency that is now available, whose intention is the loving release of whatever may still be residual in your being, that cannot stand in or contain this much light. Allow it to be lovingly consumed in the light of Divine Love! These are not just beautiful concepts or words. I encourage you to meditate to experience their truth directly and to personally experience and feel the frequency of alchemical gold light that is now available to transmute anything less than the vibration of unconditional love! 

Let us use the energy of the perfect balance of Summer Solstice as a powerful, planetary acupuncture point, to offer re-balancing to ourselves and Gaia. Celebrate together the powerful window of opportunity that the time we are alive in right now represents. We are entering a new world together ... As the star Maya say, together let us walk the Road of Awe, Xi balba beh into a new world!!

The Mother of All Releasings Ceremony, Winter Solstice 2011

Pixie Campbell has created a simple, sacred ceremony for December 22, 2011, the final Solstice before we enter the year that's been the subject of endless prophecy (and paranoia!). Since she asks this information be disseminated widely, I'm honored to share her elegant ritual offering:



Who: YOU, and if you wish, your circle, tribe, family, or village.

What: A fire ceremony, to release the old year and shift up into the new.

Where: In your backyard firepit, on a beach bonfire, around your fireplace, (even in your kitchen sink if you can make it scout-safe with a fireproof container).

When: Winter Solstice, December 22nd, 2011.

Why: We release what no longer serves us on the Winter Solstice, because it is the darkest day of the year. We let go so that we can step freely into what is waiting for us, as the light begins to grow brighter with each day. We're doing it as an extended community to raise the energy level of letting go, together!

How: Make a releasing bundle. Gather friends and family around a hearth (or do this in sacred solitary), set the bundle safely aflame, and let the alchemical element of fire transform the old, as it knows how to do so well. Feast on Solstice treats and celebrate the return of the light. View the video created around my tribe's ceremony:

Mother of All Releasings Ceremony: Winter Solstice, 2012 from Pixie Campbell on Vimeo.

2012 is a powerful year to let the old ways go and step fully into creative self-expression and abundant support for our dreams from All That Is. It is a time for visionaries to create reality.

Thank you, sisters. I'm so grateful that you and your energy is rippling out into the world!

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 21st marks the longest day and shortest night of the year, in the northern hemisphere. (Winter Solstice for our southern hemisphere allies). 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. 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 ourselves. This is a radical idea, and challenging to hold. It turns everything we believe about romantic love on its head.

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?

This Summer Solstice, I invite you to sound the clarion call for your own companions of destiny — those who can see and honor your authentic self. The Mayan Oracle (a book and card deck based on the Mayan sacred calendar) says, "When you have been truly seen, you feel empowered, and remembrance of a shared sacred trust is ignited."

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.

Timeshifting as the New Earth Rises

Celia Fenn offers an extraordinary discourse on what's happening now, beginning with the total lunar eclipse of June 15th, through Solstice on June 21st and through our November Stargate and into 2012. I highly recommend digesting her entire entry: New Earth Rising: Mastering Time and Embracing the Energy of Love and Support. Here's a summary:

Time in 3rd dimensional reality is only one measurement, and not the most effective, for accelerating consciousness. Celia introduces us to Astronomology, an amalgam of astronomy and astrology that combines the best of both worlds to enhance our perspective.


She writes, "the New Reality Science of Astronomology (is) a new way of viewing the evolution of the Earth and of humanity through the stellar charts of the Heavens, and one that incorporates thirteen houses instead of the twelve of conventional astrology.

"The thirteenth house is called Ophiuchus, and it falls in that area between the end of Scorpio and the beginning of Sagittarius. The name "Ophiucus" simply means "Serpent Holder" and this constellation is identified with healing and the Master Healing Energies, and the Archetypal energies of Aesclepius, Imhotep and the Snake Goddesses!

"Primarily, Ophiuchus is an energy that supports and nourishes and heals. But, it is also interesting that Imhotep was known as a 'Master Builder' and Architect, and in some accounts is credited with the design and building of the Great Pyramid. This is of interest because the Total Lunar Eclipse and the Solstice Alignments will be activating the Stonehenge SuperGalactic Portal, or 'resetting' the clock on the Stonehenge sacred site to align the Earth with the Galactic Center, and this resetting wil be transmitted to all those sacred sites that function as the 'nodes' of the Planetary Supercomputer, including the Pyramid Complex at Giza, and that will ensure that Planet Earth is perfectly aligned on her trajectory towards the 2012 alignment with the New Age of Light, which is also called Ascension.

"What is most important is that Ophiuchus is the energy of healing and support, and the energy of aligning with the Galactic Frequencies. So many people complain of feeling lack of support on so many levels. Yes, probably because you have been living according to one singular calendar or time cycle technology that completely misses out this energy of healing and support. As we shift into an awareness of the Zodiacal Healer and how these energies work with us, we can channel these energies into our lives in ways that are healing and supportive of our changes.

"On the 15th of June 2011, the Full Moon will rise over Stonehenge in Total Lunar Eclipse. The Moon will also be just 3 degrees from the Galactic Center, that is, almost in conjunction. At that moment, powerful Lunar and Galactic Light Codes will recalibrate the Divine Feminine energies of the Snake Goddesses and the Platinum Ray energies of the Shekinah into the Stonehenge Time Code Frequency Cycles. The Energy of the Great Cosmic Mother, Ma'at, will bring the entire Henge back into Cosmic Balance..."

The Mother of All Winter Solstices

Visionary activist astrologer Caroline Casey has been calling it, "The Mother of all Winter Solstices". This December 21st heralds a full moon / total lunar eclipse, making our inner darkness visible. What has been concealed is now revealed, and ready to be healed.

It's a galactic Dark Night of the Soul as we surge down the 2012 corridor into a brand new world, eclipsing millennia of spiritual darkness, says astrologer Allison Rae. She offers one of the more eloquent and inclusive depictions of now, and what it means for each of us. READ MORE

Two no-cost events I'm participating in that are sure to provide groundbreaking guidance and information:

Celia Fenn with Archangel Michael in conversation with Jim Self, Solstice eve webinar from 4-5:30 pm PST

And immediately following, human capacities pioneer / social architect Jean Houston, offering her signature Mystery School as a teleclass.

Join me, and invoke the 2011 you deeply desire and envision.

Beltane Benevolence

Today my favorite bank teller said, "Oh, it's the first of May ~ that's called May Day, isn't it?" And I had a perfect opening in which to explain to two intrigued bank employees (the teller next to him was all ears, too!) that the secular version of these holy days leaves a lot out.

May 1st is Beltane: a time for celebrating the beauty and sanctity of all life. No matter how challenging your life may be now, today is a moment for reclaiming your power, balance, and inner strength.

Beltane is one of eight Shabbats on the Wheel of the Year. The others include the Solstices and Equinoxes, Lammas (August 1st), Samhain (October 31st), and Imbolc (February 2nd). Beltane breathes renewal into our cells as we acknowledge the Nature Kingdom and the advent of summer. For our Southern Hemisphere allies, the Wheel of the Year is reversed: Myth*ing Links offers a fine page on the Southern Year.

Although traditionally observed on May 1st, astronomical Beltane arrives on the 5th, a nice sync-up with Cinco de Mayo, so we actually have an entire week in which to renew, dance the fire back into our beings, and open once again to a sacred reUnion of our masculine and feminine selves. Mythologist Kathleen Jenks provides a page rich in Beltane lore from around the globe.

2 Scorpio Full Moons: Redefine Your Reality

We're approaching a rare and potent transformational gateway: a pair of full moons, both occurring in the sign of Scorpio. The first full moon, on Sunday, April 20th, ushers in both the Jewish holy week of Passover, commemorating the Israelites' liberation from slavery, and Wesak, celebrating the Buddha's birthday and enlightenment. The second full moon occurs Monday, May 19th.

In between, we also celebrate Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22nd, and the joyous cross-quarter Celtic holiday Beltane, known secularly as May Day, on May 1st. Beltane marks the mid-point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, and is traditionally a time of renewal, fertility, sensual expression and infinite blessings.

The co-creative energy is exponential now. The first full moon is an ideal time to clear our space, release what needs to die, till the Earth and plant the seeds for what we wish to manifest. During the second Scorpio full moon, we draw our new desire in. It's a magical, miraculous 6-week portal, a shamanic dance of death and rebirth.

Honor yourself and Mama Gaia in this amazing dance. Blessed Be!