This Trip Around The Sun
On of my best friends in the universe got to visit me over the Winter Solstice weekend. It was wild to have a whole weekend with her without her kids. But the timing worked out and they were old enough and my offer enticing enough so we made it happen. It was awesome. We walked among the orange groves and among the dead. We frolicked on the beach and pretended to be dolphins.
Here are some pictures.
One highlight that I don't have many pictures of is the evening of winter solstice. (I do have video but Lani hasn't approved it yet.) We went to a festival of lights at the Ojai Foundation and joined a group of random people from all paths to celebrate the solstice and watch the sunset.
Then we lit a fire (with sticks, the old fashioned way) while chanting and singing and banging on drums, and carried it to a fire pit that a Chumash medicine man would keep watch over all night to make sure it kept burning through the longest night of the year. Then we took the flame to the council house--a round wooden building and set it in the center of a spiral made of pine branches and wooden stumps. We each go a candle and walked into the spiral in silence to the central flame and lit our small candles and then spiraled out and set them somewhere along the spiral on one of the wooded stumps. It was a deeply beautiful and spiritual experience. There seemed to be choirs of angels singing.
It was a great way to start a new year. Winter solstice is the actual new year, in case you didn't know. New Years Day is nothing special, although this year it is, because it is also a new moon. Winter solstice is kind of like a new moon (only way more powerful), because it is the beginning and there is that same inward quietness with little interference, so it is a great day to do deep inner work. And we did, as we walked and as we shed our old skins and later, as we did our own work.
I have a feeling this trip around the sun is going to be best one yet. Also, I had been pondering my word for this new year and I finally got it that night. Also got a few other things.
My special selections/intentions for this trip around the sun:
Word: Wah! (This is like joy, but better. It is the first part of Wahe Guru. It means the totally ecstasy and bliss of God.)
Element: Fire -Think flaming swords and wheels (chakras) afire (Daniel 7:9)
Virtue: Meekness
Mantra: Ung Sung Wahe Guru (Means: Every cell in my body has been changed and is now resonating in the total bliss of praising and loving God. )
Scripture Mantra: Praise to the Lord whose mercy endureth forever. (2 Chronicles)
Meditation: Still working toward 1000 days of my current meditations.
Go-To Pranayams: Alternate Nostril Breathing, Breath of Fire
Here are some pictures.
Then we lit a fire (with sticks, the old fashioned way) while chanting and singing and banging on drums, and carried it to a fire pit that a Chumash medicine man would keep watch over all night to make sure it kept burning through the longest night of the year. Then we took the flame to the council house--a round wooden building and set it in the center of a spiral made of pine branches and wooden stumps. We each go a candle and walked into the spiral in silence to the central flame and lit our small candles and then spiraled out and set them somewhere along the spiral on one of the wooded stumps. It was a deeply beautiful and spiritual experience. There seemed to be choirs of angels singing.
It was a great way to start a new year. Winter solstice is the actual new year, in case you didn't know. New Years Day is nothing special, although this year it is, because it is also a new moon. Winter solstice is kind of like a new moon (only way more powerful), because it is the beginning and there is that same inward quietness with little interference, so it is a great day to do deep inner work. And we did, as we walked and as we shed our old skins and later, as we did our own work.
I have a feeling this trip around the sun is going to be best one yet. Also, I had been pondering my word for this new year and I finally got it that night. Also got a few other things.
My special selections/intentions for this trip around the sun:
Word: Wah! (This is like joy, but better. It is the first part of Wahe Guru. It means the totally ecstasy and bliss of God.)
Element: Fire -Think flaming swords and wheels (chakras) afire (Daniel 7:9)
Virtue: Meekness
Mantra: Ung Sung Wahe Guru (Means: Every cell in my body has been changed and is now resonating in the total bliss of praising and loving God. )
Scripture Mantra: Praise to the Lord whose mercy endureth forever. (2 Chronicles)
Meditation: Still working toward 1000 days of my current meditations.
Go-To Pranayams: Alternate Nostril Breathing, Breath of Fire
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