Happy Summer Solstice!

Hi World,



I want to send love and light to all my witches, wizards, pagans, and nature worshippers during this Summer Solstice!



Have a blessed one!




Love,
Ten

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(Written by Ariel Spilsbury- Sanctuary of the Open Heart)

Dear Loved ones,

"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 the seeds of our o

wn changes and we must accept even the passing of the sun. We honor the Lord of Death, who is the Lord of Life; and the Triple Goddess who is the circle of rebirth." Evocation by Starhawk

I

don't know about you, but the speed at which my journey is unfolding is truly dizzying! I feel certain that I was just play

ing at Spring Equinox.. yet here we are at the next Turn of Her Wheel at Summer Solstice. How can that be?  Even I, who lives in Timelessness.. fe

els a little jarred by what feels like the "fast forward" button being hit.    

If we are indeed becoming light, we are certainly picking up speed on the path!  Each of the four Turns of the Wheel symbolically represents resolution of duality in one moment when Time"stops" and all is in perfect balance. 

That is why celebrating on these Holy days of Solstices and Equinoxes is so powerful. They act as acupuncture points where we can honor and evoke planetary balance in our Mother Gaia. (We all know we can use more of that!)  These Turn of the Wheel celebrations also bring our attention to the continuously changing natural cycles in which we are organically and fractally embedded.

While meditating  for inspiration for this Turn of the Wheel, a poem I wrote recently seemed to echo Starahawk's evocation for Summer Solstice so perfectly, that I felt to share it with you. 

Death of a Rose

through ariel

Have you ever been fully present with a rose

from the light bedazzled maiden bud

to a lusciously ripe red full bloom, wantonly opening her petals

to receive the ecstastic bliss

bees and butterflies offer?

Present, all the way through to her waters

clouding with putrid, rotting stems

some petals falling gracefully,

petal by petal

while others are falling off all at once,

leaving naked the exposed pip of the rose hip

maybe even before she feels through giving her gift..

night just falls finally anyway

and sends us tripping through

the Bardo Thodrol

trying to remember our P'Howa Practice

of transferring consciousness

at the moment of death..

because we know we are never finished..

....through.. complete.. done...

And there are those disgruntling words again..

Infinity..Eternity

the same words that hounded and disturbed

me at thirteen years of age

luring me into a darkly black mood that

didn't end exactly,

but I finally came to peace with years later..

Infinity.. Eternity

never over, never complete, never finished?

Are you reaching for the comfort food or drink as yet,.

the refuge from the ache of the yawning maw of emptiness

that you distract yourself from?

What I would take comfort in knowing about now, is this:

From what does the rose take her sustaining nourishment

as she makes peace with Infinity

and thus with death?

So how do we reconcile and come to peace with death being an integral part of life itself? 

Our culture politely averts its eyes every time the word death is mentioned, just wanting to change the station or turn death over to the mortician and be done with it. Or we demonstrate our terror of death by legally legislating  keeping someone alive artificially on tubes for years, whose spirit has already vacated the shell of their body. Again the answer to this inquiry came in the form of poetry, this time from the Persian mystic poet Hafiz

Wow!

Where does the real poetry come from?

From the amorous sighs

In this moist dark when making love

With form or Spirit.

Where does poetry live?

In the eye that says, "Wow-whee"

In the overpoweringly felt splendor

Every sane mind knows

When it realizes.. our life dance

Is only for a few magic seconds,

One bloom of a rose,

From the heart saying,

No Shouting..
"I am so damn

ALIVE!"

For me this poem responds directly to the inquiry: "From what does the rose take her sustaining nourishment as she makes peace with Infinity and thus with death?"

Paradoxically, only utterly and gratefully living in the present moment can assist us in making peace with death by truly inhabiting this moment such that its vivid vibrancy underscores our ecstatic aliveness, our "realness"  in this evanescent moment of eternity. 

Our culture does everything that it can to distract us from being in the present moment.. presenting constant over stimulation and distractions at every turn.. (ie the constant demand to keep up and get more "done", the incessant tug of cell phones, texts, emails, tweets, toots, sirens, TV's.. endless distractions from getting still and quiet enough to squarely face off with our fear of death. 

Clearly as a culture we have not come to terms with death. But the choice is there for each of us to awaken and get off the squirrel wheel to look at death so that in the genuine acceptance and embrace of it, we can more fully enjoy life and perhaps even make new choices about how we spend this precious "one bloom of the rose!"  

And to that end, is this offering dedicated! 

If you live in the San Francisco bay area, please consider joining us on June 18th for a joyful community celebration of this precious life at our Summer Solstice ceremony!  Details are below as well as easy registration! 

If you live elsewhere, it is my prayer that you gather with other beings to empower these potent points of balance for supporting our Mother Gaia's health and well being. Happy Summer Solstice!!   

In Delight and Devotion,

ariel