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At the Summer Solstice, as the Sun dominates the hours of its last day in Gemini, just before entering Cancer, is when the Mother’s gentle darkness will begin to grow. In some ancient cultures the Summer Solstice is actually the most important time of the year: yin goes to yang and not the other way; in Islam, the new day begins at nightfall, because the dark from which it emerges is the true beginning. This year, the Solstice Sun at zero degrees Cancer fills out a Grand Cross in mainly cardinal signs. Esoterically speaking, the cardinal cross, like the sign of Cancer, is related to incarnation, including the materialization of that which we chosen to bring into our lives as co-creators. Like the cross of Jesus and of the initiate to which it is symbolically related, the resulting manifestation involves sacrifice. We choose the form that sacrifice will take: we may use this portal to get an edge on the lower self as we share generously with the earth, the Higher Power and/or other people. Otherwise, we may find that something is taken away. Considering the heavy nature of the planets involved in this configuration (discussed in our last two articles in Daykeeper), its worth the effort to make a voluntary sacrifice in conscious alignment with this portal. Not only will it bring us personal benefits of positive manifestation, it will help protect the planet from less fortunate results as we contribute to a more constructive paradigm of the sacrifice archetype. On and around June 21, the prevailing energies in the native Mexican calendar include Wind, which multiplies our creative capacities, as well as the enchanted wave of Reed, related to directionality and focus. Both of these currents can be used to connect with the Sun, which reaches its Solstice splendor as an eagle, imbuing us with the full force of will power and purpose that characterize our local star. The first harvests have begun, and their fruits are blessed with reverence for the Spirit of corn and seeds. Mexican neopagans believe that if this practice were restored to its ancestral prevalence, present and future world sustenance would be protected from the threats posed by technological and corporate intervention in food development, distribution and processing. For personal and collective purposes such as these, we have adapted the following solar charge and seed blessing ceremony from the Mexica tradition. It’s best done by the light of day, on or around the Solstice. Ingredients(Makes enough for 10 people or more, and can be reduced proportionately by half or more according to the number of people who participate in your ceremony) 1/2 lb. Amaranth, sunflower or sesame seeds Ritual1. Begin to play drum music. 2. Bless the corn flour, by holding the bag, bowl or other container in your hands as you speak the following words to the sacred being of corn, whose name is Seven Flower: Seven Flower, Spirit of Corn, you that have the essence of seven lives, seven hearts, seven flowers, of our physical and spiritual sustenance. You and your sister grains and channels of sustenance around the planet. We bless you and thank you for the offering you share each day, each moment for someone somewhere. We seal you with the awareness of Spirit’s omnipresent good, that assures that nothing unlike good can enter you or limit your transmission of divine sustenance to all areas and beings you are designed to reach, preserving you from invasion by genetic engineering, toxic chemicals and processing and human greed, insuring multiplication and distribution so that all can receive sustenance. 3. Place all the ingredients on the ground, and stand in a circle around them. 4. Call on the Summer Sun: Venerable Father-Mother Eagle, we love you and thank you for the love and radiance you continually share with us, that becomes life and sustenance through the world’s foliage, seeds and grain. The drum beats like your Solar Heart in us, beating throughout the earth. We ask that you send stamina, will-power and purposefulness to us now. 5. All present stretch out their arms, while opening fingers wide to receive the solar charge, feeling how the light goes into your blood and rushes through your entire being. 6. Each person can take a moment to sit on the ground, hands on heart, feeling the Sun’s pulse in the drum beat and planting an intention of how to apply this Solar Surge to a daily discipline of kindness. 7. Call on Wind: We bless Wind, you who stir and blow from the Four Cardinal Points, with the Four Cosmic Forces and their corresponding archangels that together create the world of manifestation. Blow through our beings and stir our consciousness so that we too can create with the power of our intention a new and better era for ourselves and for this planet. 8. Either the facilitator or all present can consecrate the amaranth, sesame or sunflower seeds by holding them as you say: You, venerable Amaranth (or Sunflower or Sesame), you that are our light, our Sun, provide the strength, the power to be in a state of communication with nature and the essences of life. 9. Visualize that the seeds absorb the strength and will power from the sun. 10. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. 11. Add honey and tequila and mix until a thick paste is formed. 12. All present wash their hands and make balls, about the size of a large chocolate truffle, in multiples of 13. 13. As you play music, beat a drum, and/or sing and dance, form a sun with the balls of mixture on a tray. 14. Light copal or incense and, as it smokes, pass it over and under the tray of sweets. 15. All present partake in eating the sweets, knowing that the force of the sun and its nahual, or hidden power, of the male-female Eagle, and of the solar angels, is flowing into you to connect you with the holy essence of divinity and of nature. You will feel the heat in your veins. 16. Welcome the Mother, whose energy will now begin to prevail for the next six months: Most dear and blessed One, We thank you for your love from which our life has sprung and in which it grows. We ask that you show us who and what to share our time, love and sustenance with, as You share it with us, so that our days can be as offerings to You and your children of every species. 17. Each participant can offer a prayer –in her or his own words– for reconciliation of humankind to nature and to our own divine essence. 18. Seal the prayers by saying: The solar radiance and love that shines our hearts connects us with the solar radiance and love in hearts everywhere, and we surround the entire planet with victorious solar radiance and love now. We did this ceremony with a joyous, good-sized group in the glorious Botanical Gardens of Xalapa, Veracruz yesterday. When we called on Wind, a breeze stirred in the otherwise still air and blew around the group. When we called on Eagle, a falcon flew overhead. After the ceremony, a large rainbow halo was encircling the Sun. After the ceremony we shared some reflections that you may also enjoy to seal your Solstice offering. There is an ancient harvest tradition called, “Giving the hand to your parcel," by which people take turns helping each other with their harvest, to reconcile with one another and with the earth. Although few of us have a literal parcel these days, the practice confirms the need suggested in the Solstice Cross configuration, inviting us to step through this doorway to a new level of active kindness, finding ways to daily help others through sharing our time, talents and/or resources. Love shines in all hearts, yet Her dominion in our awareness requires discipline. The alchemy of Summer Solstice is precisely the mix of solar strength and lunar gentleness which, purposefully combined, can move us and our planet through a doorway to enchanted manifestation. May the magic happen through us as we direct our intention to living our most noble intents, and make this an eagle sort of summer.
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2001-2009 Maya del Mar, Daykeeper Journal,
Crystal Pomeroy. |
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